Big Don
Sr. Grandmaster
WikiLeaks: Cuba banned Sicko for depicting 'mythical' healthcare system
Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore's Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash
Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore's Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash
- Amelia Hill
- guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 December 2010 21.30 GMT EXCERPT: A WikiLeaks cable reveals that when Michael Moore's film was shown to Cuban doctors, they were 'disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba'. Photograph: Max Whittaker/Reuters 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.
The cable comes from the United States Interests Section in Havana (USINT) – staffed by US foreign service personnel and local staff employed by the department of state, the unit is formally a section of the Embassy of Switzerland, although it operates independently of the Swiss in virtually all but protocol respects.
END EXCERPT
What?! You mean Moore's "documentary" had less to do with facts and more to do with bashing America? You're joking...
Gee, I bet he's really happy he helped bail out Assange now.