Saturday, December 18, 2010

Wikileaks: Cuba Banned Michael Moore's Film on Their Socialized Health-Care System Because it Had No Basis in Reality, Painted a "Mythical" Picture



Though I do not agree with Julian Assange, you gotta admit, Wikileaks is the gift that keeps on giving.

From Weasel Snippers:
(Guardian) — Cuba banned Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted such a “mythically” favourable picture of Cuba’s healthcare system that the authorities feared it could lead to a “popular backlash”, according to US diplomats in Havana.
The revelation, contained in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks, is surprising, given that the film attempted to discredit the US healthcare system by highlighting what it claimed was the excellence of the Cuban system.
But the memo reveals that when the film was shown to a group of Cuban doctors, some became so “disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba that they left the room”.
Castro’s government apparently went on to ban the film because, the leaked cable claims, it “knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.”
Sicko investigated healthcare in the US by comparing the for-profit, non-universal US system with the non-profit universal health care systems of other countries, including Cuba, France and the UK.
It was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary feature but was also castigated for being naive and tendentious.

1 comment:

Damien said...

Pastorius,

Obviously the Cuban government doesn't want their people to understand how hypocritical they are. I wonder how Micheal Moore feels about this.