Web posted at: 2/14/2007 3:32:59
Source ::: AFP
HAVANA • It may be educational, but Cuban state television is
unbearable, if you ask Ivette, a homemaker hooked on soap operas she
watches on an illegal cable signal offering home delivery of a
capitalist fantasy world.
"I love to see those fancy women, all done up in hairdos and makeup, and
those studs," said the 35-year-old, who asked not to be identified,
confessing to her television set close to eight hours a day. Her daily
fare of pirated programs include an assortment of Latin American soap
operas and variety shows.
If the programming runs to the banal, she has no complaints.
"I spend the whole day watching how the rich marry the poor," she added,
complaining, however, that legal cable TV in Cuba is only for
foreigners, pumped into hotels, tourist resorts and some government-run
facilities.
Communist Cuban authorities last week launched a new crackdown on
television "pirates" who offer illegal cable TV service, carrying what
is officially considered subversive programming.
It is a huge luxury that not everyone can afford. But Cubans still pay
up to $12 per month, nearly half the average monthly salary.
Many, like economy graduate Concepcion Sanchez, 44, reject the pirate
programming for its poor quality. She tunes in to official Cubavision or
Telerebelde with their educational programs she wants her 17-year-old
son to watch.
Some of the officially approved shows such as "The Critical Spectator"
and "The Seventh Door," provide classic movies. On Thursday Cubans were
treated to former US vice president Al Gore's acclaimed documentary on
global warming.
But for all the government's concern over subversive US-sponsored
programs transmitted from Miami by Radio and Television Marti, many
Cubans say they are not in the least interested in politics when they
tune in their illegal programming. They just want to escape from
everyday worries, and tune out.
And those who are interested in foreign news are often not as gullible
as their government might assume.
Another homemaker who openly admits to only stepping away from her
television to eat and sleep, said that mixed in with her soap operas she
also likes to watch news programs from Miami that often focus on Cuba.
"I like to watch it all, but I don't believe everything they say," she
said privately.
Behind the pirate cable service industry looms a business structure that
usually includes the owner of the illegal satellite dish; a technician
in charge of the initial customer installation and of collecting weekly
fees, and somebody who chooses which of pirated programs the
neighborhood gets to see.
A couple who owns a satellite dish they said was "well hidden" in the
rooftops, said they have about 100 customers providing them with a
handsome monthly income of $1,000.
Of course, the system has its glitches. During a recent poignant moment
in the popular soap opera "La Fea Mas Bella" (The Ugliest Beauty), the
signal in some houses suddenly switched to official programing as
authorities were in the neighborhood hunting for pirate dishes.
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