By Lagan Sebert

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/4/07 — Michael Moore may still be in hot water with U.S. officials for filming in Cuba, but things are changing quickly. Matt Lauer hosted the leading morning news show in Havana this morning, further embracing U.S. ties with the nation after decades of estrangement.

Lauer spoke to members of the Cuban music sensation, Buena Vista Social Club and visited Hospitals, Oil Refineries and schools in an in depth expose of the aging “pearl of the Caribbean”.

This kind of high profile traveling to and publicizing of Cuba is something that the U.S. Government has made virtually illegal through the U.S. Trade Embargo with Cuba. Even today others such as Michael Moore are being prosecuted for filming in the country.
Cuba has increasingly made its way into popular media over the years bringing the U.S. Embargo with Cuba closer and closer under an inspection. And with each look the Embargo seems to have more holes and makes even less sense.

For instance, rice farmers can sell some rice to Cuba, but not enough to satisfy the countries demand. Cuba however cannot sell the U.S. sugar, which it can produce under cost for what the U.S. pays for it in other areas. Cuban singers can sell their music internationally, but they have trouble collecting a Grammy, after they have won them. Havana Nights and the Today Show are allowed to film in the country where others such as Michael Moore are persecuted for doing the same. It is certainly a land on paradoxes and juxtaposition.

Moore has been under sharp criticism for his trip to Cuba where he brought ailing 9/11 victims to get Health Care that they were denied in the U.S. Moore’s actions were certainly contentious and critical of the Bush administration, and there is debate on weather Moore had properly applied for a Journalist’s visa to travel to Cuba, however his condemnation has brought to light another highly debatable U.S. policy in the Embargo itself.