The Carter Show
As an American of Cuban descent, I appreciated Jimmy Carter’s recent
excursion the same way Leno and Letterman appreciated Monica Lewinsky
keeping the dress. Our ex-president’s travels to the land of Castro, and
the requisite media coverage, have been an endless source of guilty
pleasure.
Look, Jimmy Carter needed a vacation. Ghostwriting Arafat’s memoirs must
have been hell these past few months.
But even though this was to be a “historic,” “unprecedented”
ex-presidential field trip, it pretty much went by the numbers:
– Castro’s pre-visit release of token political prisoners (who had risen too
high on Amnesty International’s watchlist to be quietly “disappeared”)?
Check.
– CNN’s “man on the street” interviews with “regular Cubans” who happen to be
better dressed, fed and employed than most U.S. investment bankers?
Check.
– Castro’s assurance to [insert visitor’s name] of his/her liberty to go
wherever he/she wants and speak to whomever he/she likes?
Check.
– [Insert visitor’s name] somehow missing the opportunity to chat-up any of
the 12-year-old prostitutes that crowd Havana’s tourist areas?
Check.
– [Insert visitor’s name] speaking with Cuban dissidents who all happen to
mention the great education and healthcare Castro has given them, especially
when CNN is watching?
Check.
– Eight-hour champagne and lobster feast for [insert guest of honor’s name]
during which Castro bemoans the deprivation of his people because of the
U.S. embargo?
Check.
There were many other by-the-numbers “foreign policy” moments, but these
weren’t where the real fun was. For that, you had to go to the specific
words and actions of Carter and CNN, which the Media Research Center
recently called “the dictator’s megaphone.”
Here’s a gem from the ex-peanut-farmer-in-chief: “Our people are completely
free to form our own businesses, to hire other people to work and make a
profit. On the other hand, the Cuban government is dedicated to providing
superb education, health care and equal opportunities to all the people.”
Evidently, Mr. Carter needs to ask himself a few simple questions. How much good does a “superb education” do if doctors and engineers choose to abandon their training and fix bicycle tires because the
pay is better? What good is an increased life expectancy if that life is spent
imprisoned on an island? What good is equality if it only means that
everyone shares the same lack of opportunity?
CNN, as usual, allowed the fantasy of Cuba to subsume the reality. In a
location shot between segments, the cable news network trained its cameras
on one of the most contrived images I have ever seen: A shining ’57 Chevy
parked on an empty boulevard, ringed by beautifully-lit buildings. It was a
postcard from the 1950s.
So what?
So it’s 2002.
So, most Cubans are too busy making due with their one government-allotted
bar of soap per month to be renovating vintage automobiles.
So, I’ve never seen a recent image of Havana’s streets that showed anything
other than dozens of poorly-fed Cubans peddling by building after
dilapidated building.
Undoubtedly, some bright-light from CNN was kindly “guided” to this
ready-made shot. How lucky for him, and how unlucky for Cubans, that it’s
still 1959 in Havana.
Of course, this con is nothing compared to what Castro has done to Carter.
The Mariel boatlift, when Castro sent the contents of Cuba’s insane asylums
and prisons floating toward Miami, wasn’t the final nail in Carter’s
political coffin, but it was certainly in the final handful.
Now, Carter has heeded Castro’s request for a visit and been rewarded with a
20-minute unedited speech on Cuban television. There is probably no greater
insult to a self-proclaimed “human rights crusader” than to be permitted to
broadcast live on Cuban television.
After all has been said and done, Carter’s trip to Cuba will have amounted
to little more than another Democrat ex-president’s ham-fisted attempt at
legacy building. Too bad it had to come at the price of real dialogue with
one of the world’s most evil dictators. But then, if that had ever been a
possibility, Carter would never have even gotten near Havana.
Fidel Castro has forgotten more about power politics than Jimmy Carter will
ever know.