Normal life in Cuba

My time in Cuba was enjoyable after the first week of interviews.  There was no daily harassment, no conditioned terrorism and no threats or suggestions of impending doom.  Everything was normal for the first time in 10 years.   The change in my environment was amazing. - I could watch TV with others, eat meals with other people, and participate in activities like the nightly games of dominoes or cards.  I was living a normal life again.

Watching TV provided a lot of information that I never had access to in the US.  For instance, I learned that Cuban sports teams had come to the US and played US teams in baseball.  The only time I had heard of a Cuban team playing in the US was if the ruling fascists had been able to bribe some "star" into defecting to the US.  There was never any reports of cooperative programs with the US/Cuban teams.  It was surprising to learn that such playing tours had taken place.

Perhaps the most interesting show I saw was about the See ah -- The CIA.   The program was a documentary about how the US through personnel stationed at the US embassy, carried out clandestine operations to undermine and destabilize  Cuban currency.  The program was presented much like the amerikan program "America's Most Wanted".  The Cuban program showed how US embassy workers under the cloak of darkness would make drops of counterfeit Cuban paper currency which would then be picked  up at a later time by Cuban traitors who would then spread the counterfeit money though out the Cuban economy.  The actions of the amerikan saboteurs shown were the actually clandestine films of the money drops taken by the Cuban government.  After identifying the date and place of the money drop, they would then show mug-shot like photos of the american embassy employee who was responsible for the money drop.  While the american embassy employee(read CIA agent) might enjoy diplomatic immunity, I doubt if they were in any hurry to show the faces in Cuban society after their activities and faces had been shown on TV to the Cuban nation.  And I'll bet no one outside of amerikan gestapo agency knew about that show in the US.

The rest of the TV shows were very much like US television.  There were some very popular soap operas that were on most evenings, regular news shows and several different types of talent/musical entertainment shows.  One documentary on apartheid in South Africa which was produced by famous americans showed how blacks in SA were kept in ghettos and kept poor.  The only out of the ghetto for a black man was to join the military or police force and help the government maintain the status quo.  While this film was made and produced by amerikans, I'll guarantee that you never saw or never will see the film in amerika.