I have already expressed my surprise about how lightly Cuba gets off in international public opinion. But recently, I have been shocked again by how many people can travel to Cuba for a week or two and describe everything as beautiful, nice, funny, friendly and so on. Are they blind? What’s worse, I think many of these visitors want to be blind. They don’t want to know about censorship, they don’t want to find out about political prisoners, they don’t want to ask why Cubans are fleeing the country.

I am tired of yet more superficial reports and photos of vintage cars (you think people want to hold on to uneconomical gas-guzzlers?), cigars (any cigar smoker can tell you that Cuban cigars are overrated), colorful architecture (beautiful for a film set, but not safe to live in) and all the smiles (Cubans know what tourists want and you don’t want to talk to the families of imprisoned dissidents or people who have to prostitute themselves to survive, who might not smile, do you?).

I’ll rather watch documentaries like this:

Here is an interview with the filmmakers:

(Thanks to Edward Allen for the pointer.)