Also, there is none of the road-side advertising which Americans would recognize as the glossy scenery of almost any major highway system. Or perhaps that is the only possible connotation it can have, for there is almost no propaganda in Cuba, except that of the government. Even with a good understanding of who is behind these messages and exactly what they are designed to do, I find myself falling prey to their carefully chosen rhetoric. If you read enough of them, and don't scrutinize what's going on in the streets, it's hard not to feel like what is behind the revolution is beautiful, noble, and true. Then again, it may really be.
Truth is, a lot of the time, propaganda is just mind-numbingly boring.
When I first got to Cuba, I had big plans to watch the national television station in order to get a handle on the accent and also a taste of the culture. The program manages to be a bigger snore than The Today Show itself. And it's not only that the weather man is not jolly and jiggly, but also because, apparently, nothing bad or even moderately interesting happens in Cuba. The first time I turned on Buenos D'as, the top news story was that Cuban children were heading to school. And Cuban children were all so smart and the schools were quite prepared and the curriculum was very challenging and rich.