NYC Letter: Passé, Democracy In Cuba

Day 189 of CHOPE

US SWITCHES OFF PRO-DEMOCRACY BILLBOARD IN CUBA
The Obama Administration Has Turned Off An Electronic Billboard
At The US Diplomatic Mission In Havana, Cuba, Which Displayed
Pro-Democracy And Human Rights Messages.

July 28, 2009 (Telegraph) - The State Department said the sign on the fifth floor of the American Interest Section in the Cuban capital, was shut down amid the administration's efforts to engage with Cuba's leadership that has already seen some US sanctions eased.

Since the sign was first erected in 2006, the Cuban government had taken steps to obscure it from view and questioned whether it was serving its original purpose. Ian Kelly, spokesman:

We believe that the billboard was really not effective as a means of delivering information to the Cuban people. It was evident that the Cuban people weren't even able to read the billboard because of some obstructions that were put in front of it.

He said President Obama's decision in April to allow US telecommunications companies to do business with Cuba would do more to boost the flow of information to the island.

DISPARAGING
New Smart Power Approach: Lights Out

The sign, which frequently displayed quotes from leading human rights activists and pro-democracy supporters, outraged Cuban authorities who had in 2005 erected billboards outside the mission emblazoned with photographs of US. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners and a huge swastika overlaid with a "Made in the USA" stamp. Mr. Kelly:

And we just felt that these duelling, disparaging - well, disparaging is the wrong word - but these duelling billboards, if you will, were not serving the interests of promoting a more productive relationship.

Mr. Obama -- in addition to being the post-racial, post-free-market president -- is now the first post-democracy American President.

CHOPE.

No more disparaging Communisim.