Though I haven't seen the program, I am familiar with the editorial approach of the MIAMI HERALD, and this article is completely typical. It's infused with the idea that NOTHING which Cuba does can ever be presented or viewed favorably. This is what's known in journalism as a hatchet-job. It feeds on all of the prejudices which have been built up in half a century of malignant writing to send you one basic message: DO NOT WATCH THIS PROGRAM. It's sort of like the intellectual-moral equivalent of the US government's ban on travel to Cuba. Well, I've been to Cuba many times. I can tell you that Cuba has many, many problems, and by no means are all of them caused by US policy.">Though I haven't seen the program, I am familiar with the editorial approach of the MIAMI HERALD, and this article is completely typical. It's infused with the idea that NOTHING which Cuba does can ever be presented or viewed favorably. This is what's known in journalism as a hatchet-job. It feeds on all of the prejudices which have been built up in half a century of malignant writing to send you one basic message: DO NOT WATCH THIS PROGRAM. It's sort of like the intellectual-moral equivalent of the US government's ban on travel to Cuba. Well, I've been to Cuba many times. I can tell you that Cuba has many, many problems, and by no means are all of them caused by US policy.">

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MH: Review | 'Nature -- Cuba: The Accidental Eden'

  Though I haven't seen the program, I am familiar with the editorial approach of the MIAMI HERALD, and this article is completely typical. It's infused with the idea that NOTHING which Cuba does can ever be presented or viewed favorably.

This is what's known in journalism as a hatchet-job. It feeds on all of the prejudices which have been built up in half a century of malignant writing to send you one basic message: DO NOT WATCH THIS PROGRAM.

It's sort of like the intellectual-moral equivalent of the US government's ban on travel to Cuba. Well, I've been to Cuba many times. I can tell you that Cuba has many, many problems, and by no means are all of them caused by US policy.

But virtually every one of Cuba's problems is exacerbated (made much worse), by the entire complex of US policies which are designed to isolate the country, to strangle its economy, and to pressure the Cuban people into rising up to overthrow the revolutionary government.

Failing that, US law and policy aims to make Cuba as unattractive an example of human social engineering which can be held up to ridicule by hacks like Glenn Garvin. Pitiful.

I've not seen the program yet, but I am very familiar with the MIAMI HERALD and its standards of journalism.

Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
========================================


Review | 'Nature -- Cuba: The Accidental Eden': Cuba is heaven on Earth -- who
knew?

MIAMI HERALD. Posted on Sun, Sep. 26, 2010. Figuring out how to characterize Cuba: The Accidental Eden is one of those quandaries that can reduce a TV critic to tears. Truly, defining this episode of the PBS show Nature is an epic question over which reasonable men can differ.

• Is it hilarious? That's what I thought when one of the U.S.environmentalists featured in the show criticized Cuba's government for supposedly allowing ``some of that Florida-style development from the '60s that we would prefer never to see again anywhere in the world.'' Yes, professor, the residents of the dank, stifling hellholes of Havana Vieja surely share your horror of Kendall and Coral Gables.

• Is it befuddling? I was certainly mystified when Accidental Eden's narrator said that public outrage over a new highway through a wetland area had forced the Cuban government to enact tough new environmental laws.

• Is it grotesque? That was the first word that came to mind when another U.S.environmentalist approvingly noted that Cuba's comparatively sparse population -- the island is the size of Florida but has 8 million fewer residents -- has kept its swamps pristine.

In the end, the best word for Accidental Eden is probably corroborative. This shallow, shameful documentary strongly suggests that some of our worst stereotypes -- of environmentalists as frigid misanthropes who regard humanity as a pestilence, of PBS programmers as simpering parlor-pink dilettantes -- are less caricatures than horrifying truths.

The premise of Accidental Eden -- that a unique oceanographic location coupled with economic and political isolation make Cuba a fascinating case study in biodiversity -- seems fair enough. But the documentary's blundering forays into politics and economics turn it into silly agitprop, festooned with maddening Stalinist doublespeak.

Accidental Eden's most dishonest moments come not during its interviews with Cuban scientists but from retrograde Americans from such outfits as the Environmental Defense Fund and The Ocean Foundation. One of them blandly characterizes the catastrophic policies that have sent the island's economy reeling back into the 19th century as ``Cuba picked the perfect time not to follow the leader in terms of development.'' Another actually praises the old Soviet Union as a model of environmentalism that was ruined ``when the forces of capitalism kicked it.''

The sad thing is that the nature-travelogue elements of Accidental Eden are fascinating and lovely, particularly a segment on so-called painted snails, tiny mollusks with rainbow-hued shells and long, graceful eyestalks that quiver as they search for boinkable partners.

Since each painted snail has dual gender characteristics, liaisons are frequent and productive. ``Cuba is known as the paradise of snails,'' boasts one local biologist proudly.

BY GLENN GARVIN
ggarvin@...

Source: //www.miamiherald.com/2010/

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