Is Jaled 'newsier' than Gustav?, Fidel asks

Nobody worried about Cuba's exposure to Hurricane Gustav, Fidel Castro complains in his latest "reflection," published Monday in the official daily Granma. "Two days ago [...] out of 11 international press reports devoted to Cuba, none told about the hurricane that moved toward our island and the feverish efforts of our Civil Defense," Castro writes. Instead, the news services, "echoing a Yankee press organization dedicated to the media war and campaigns against Cuba," reported about the defection of TV actor Yamil Jaled. (The "Yankee press organization" appears to be an allusion to El Nuevo Herald, which broke the news of Jaled's arrival in Miami.) "What a patriot! What a democrat! What a brilliant example," sneers Castro. "This way, the world is informed about a character a lot less known and important than Hurricane Gustav. They want to make a sacred cow out of him."
Whether more ink was spent by the world's media reporting on Jaled than on Gustav is debatable -- a nonstarter, some might say -- but Castro seems upset by the defector's renown. "I don't hate other human beings," he says, "but I do hate vanity, egocentricity, egoism, pedantry, self-sufficiency, the lack of ethics and other tendencies" of mankind. People need to think "about the need for modesty." Jaled has much to reflect on.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Comments

[Jerome Melgar]

Please guys. All this does is give leftists reasons to still believe this moron. Since Granma has him on the back burner you guys should do the same!

[Walter Lippmann]

Here's exactly what Fidel said, in English:

One of the cables published by the German news agency DPA read:

“Popular Cuban Actor Arrives in Miami: ‘I left because I grew tired.’”

Then it adds that a well-known Cuban television actor, Yamil Jaled, had left Cuba for Miami to reunite with his Cuban American wife, according to a local newspaper.

It also adds that Jaled featured in very popular TV series, theatre plays and movies, including some blockbusters produced in France and Italy. Jaled graduated as a performing actor at the Highest Art Institute (ISA) in 1997 and started to work as a professional actor in the Rita Montaner theatre group, but one year later he started to work in television.

Afterwards the cable goes on to explain that he is 31 years old and profusely describes his artistic qualities and his triumphant journey through television, thus echoing a Yankee newspaper destined to launch a media warfare and campaigns against Cuba. We, Cubans, could add: What patriot! What democratic! What brilliant example is this prototype that they presenting to us! This is the way in which they disseminate throughout the world information about a guy far less known and important than hurricane Gustav.

They want to turn him into a sacred cow. The deepest convictions, which have successfully resisted the trials of time and the upheavals of life, can not be acquired on a single day. Before that, it is necessary to surmount many trends that we all bear in our inner self.

I do not hate other human beings, but I hate vanity, egocentricity, selfishness, arrogance, smugness, the absence of ethics and other tendencies human beings are born with. Only education and the example set by those who excel in their battle to be better, will succeed and influence all of us. It is necessary to make a minimal philosophical approach on the need to be modest.

There are sacred cows who intend to put our Five Heroes, who were brutally separated from their homeland and their closest relatives, on a level with the mercenaries who have been justly punished for committing treachery and were never submitted to personal and inhuman outrage.

What I explain in this reflection reaffirms one conviction that I would like to convey to my compatriots, that only the just ideas defended with courage, dignity and firmness will prevail.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 31, 2008

7:32 p.m.

FULL:
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2008/ing/f310808i.html

[Jennifer Burns]

Castro is absolutely right. I searched for days for news of Cuba when Gustav hit and found nothing but some bling about this actor!