Spreading the Word

First, there's a story of Fidel Castro throwing a fit because the US has a large ticker running news stories and information about world events from the 25-story US Mission in Havana. Castro doesn't much like that since he can't control the flow of information:

The U.S. electronic message board, with 9-foot-high crimson letters running through 25 windows on the building's fifth floor, can be seen kilometers away.

Even as Castro spoke, the ticker sprang to life with news interspersed between messages such as, "only in totalitarian societies do governments talk at their people and never listen."

Bonus points to those who were involved in posting that as Castro spoke.

Meanwhile, Ace picks up a Washington Post story finding that 2005 was a pretty good year for spreading freedom.

The glass is a quarter full, but we need more of it," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, a group that promotes democracy. "The administration deserves credit, but it's just a start."

In its annual survey ranking nations as free, partly free or not free, the group upgraded nine nations or territories in 2005 and downgraded four. Among those deemed freer were Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, where peaceful revolutions overthrew entrenched governments; Lebanon, where Syrian occupation troops were pressured to withdraw; and Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, where trailblazing elections were held. Overall, Freedom House concluded, "the past year was one of the most successful for freedom" since the survey began in 1972.

The article goes on to talk about how the mission to spread democracy has been mixed due to competing interests. Well, for the first time in generations, the US is putting democracy ahead of propping up totalitarian dictators. That's not to say that we're still coddling some - like Pakistan - but that's because the alternatives may be far worse (in Pakistan's case, we could face Islamists who already have nuclear weapons capabilities and wouldn't be afraid of renewing conflict with India).

"They come into conflict every day," a senior official said of rival priorities inside the administration. "The question becomes the weight given to the intangible interest in freedom versus the tangible interest in having a base in Uzbekistan, for instance."

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity citing administration rules, called Bush's speech "a weapon in the hands of everyone in the administration who is pushing for a stronger and stronger democracy agenda."

But as Brothers Judd says, there's no such thing as mixed progress. There either is progress, or there isn't. In this instance, there's been serious progress that can't be denied.

Matthew Harwood has a pretty good take on the whole enterprise of spreading democracy.

UPDATE:
Babalau Blog has been at the forefront of dealing with Cuban human rights and their posting on the banner smackdown is worth checking out.

UPDATE:
Val, who runs Babalu Blog has noted in the comments that there's more to the story. Castro and his cronies have decided that the only way to fight the information war is to put up a wall -a wall blocking the US Mission's electronic ticker from being seen is in the process of being constructed. We'll see who has the last laugh on that one.

I figure that Havana Wall trinkets will be quite valuable some day when Castro's gone and the socialists who run the country are deposed. You could put it on your mantle, to go alongside the Berlin Wall.