Saturday, November 5, 2011

Media Saturation / Rebeca Monzo

Media Saturation / Rebeca Monzo
Rebeca Monzo, Translator: BW

On my planet more than fifteen days ago the media was bombarding you at
all hours and at every moment with The Five Heros, The Criminal
Blockade, and the battle-hardened and invincible people who are our
athletes. From all this this, of course, the most refreshing thing is to
spend time watching the Pan American games, but pushing the mute button
on the television, because ladies and gentlemen, to listen to our
sportscasters, is like reading the newspaper Granma, holding your breath.

In every moment, still on the sports news, they obligatorily introduce
the same old topics, or make reference to them. In truth, nobody can
stand it, We could say that the indoctrination is "up until the soup"*,
if it wasn't that this tasty dish disappeared a long time ago from our
tables. Our sportscasters are better known as political commissioners.
That entails a visible lack of seriousness and professionalism: they are
simply intolerable.

With each change of program, they introduce the subject of the great
triumph of Cuba in the United Nations. What they don't clarify is that
certainly no country agrees with imposing a commercial embargo against
another, simply they manipulate it as if those 186 countries that voted
in favor of the lifting of the blockade, were in agreement with our
domestic politics.

Likewise, all of the mutilated news that they offer us is, moreover,
manipulated, leaving an information limbo for all who follow it and
don't have access to other media. They stress the cultural embargo that
the U.S. imposes on us and I ask myself, then how is that La Colmenita,
Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Los Van Van, La Aragón and other
artists and groups of the island, constantly visit that country.

Nevertheless, why don't so many Cuban musicians of a high caliber come
over from there, musicians who moreover are very well-known here in
spite of the censorship,who not only are denied entry, but they also
prohibit the popularization of their music on our radio and television,
depriving us during more than a half century of following them and
enjoying them publicly and freely, without being forced to obtain their
recordings clandestinely. We are truly, more than saturated from so much
media propaganda.

Translated by: BW

* Translator's note: "Up until the soup" means that something is seen
everywhere.

October 27 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=12477

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