The Havana billboard: It's a good start (EU should follow example)by Andres Oppenheimer
Considering the Bush administration's poor handling of Latin American affairs in recent years, and its rusty Cuba policy in particular, U.S. officials deserve credit for an unusually imaginative idea -- counterattacking Cuban dictator Fidel Castro with humor. Last week, when the Castro regime shepherded nearly one million government employees, workers and students to a ''March of the People'' against Uncle Sam in front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the U.S. diplomatic mission responded by displaying an electronic billboard reading, ``To those who wanted to be here, we respect your protest. To those who didn't want to be here, we're sorry for the inconvenience.''The electronic billboard, a five-foot-tall sign that stretches across the U.S. Interests Section building, had been inaugurated Jan. 16, on the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Since then, it has been lit several times, broadcasting news headlines from international wire agencies -- including stories critical of U.S. policies, in an effort to show that Americans can read bad news about their government -- and quotes from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, or world figures such as Winston Churchill, Indira Gandhi and Lech Walesa.
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