"Cuba...what a wonderful country it must be..."

That's what my friend Paul says as he points out this Reuters article:

The 12 Cubans who tried to sail a 1951 Chevy truck from the communist-ruled island to the United States got no marks from U.S. authorities for their creativity.

The would-be emigrants were sent back home.

Since Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s 1959 revolution, Cubans have tried to leave the Caribbean island on rudimentary rafts, on giant truck inner tubes, in stolen boats and planes, even by windsurfer.

But no one remembers anyone attempting the 90-mile (145-km) crossing of the Florida Straits in a floating flatbed truck with 55-gallon (250-litre) drums strapped to its sides, tires still in place, a propeller attached to its drive shaft and a driver behind the wheel.

"We've seen surfboards, pieces of Styrofoam, bathtubs, refrigerators. But never an automobile," Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss said on Thursday....

Note the glib tone of the article: Ain't it cute, how many ways people will risk their health, limbs, and life to get the hell out of Cuba? Let's see what else we can giggle at, shall we?

Would the journalists involved in publishing this article write it in the same tone if it were a story about, say, inner-city American poverty? Ha!

I think the most instructive and constructive thing mainstream media could do would be to conduct a wide-ranging, long-range examination of why people all around the world try with all their might to flee penury and oppression by going to America — and next to nobody really wants to leave the USA. That will never happen: they would then have to change completely their editorial positions and news viewpoints. Indeed, they might balk at the mere notion of learning anything.

See also Dear Stoopid Haitians: An open letter to the current boatload of Haitian "immigrants".

P.S. Paul backs me up:

To further support your point, notice that Reuters put the article in its News section under a sub-category entitled "Oddly Enough", which is apparently their "News of the Weird" ... they have articles there about the death of a dog-eating catfish and a guy who left his fortune to his dogs...

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 07/25/03 10:15:36 AM
Categorized as International.