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Children's
book on Cuba kicks up a storm in Miami
MIAMI, 7 (AFP) - A children's book on Cuba
has raised the hackles of Miami parents
for allegedly glossing over the harsh reality
of communism, and prompted a court battle
between rights groups and a school board
seeking to ban it from classrooms.
The controversy over "A Visit to Cuba"
has already spilled over to two other books,
"Cuban Kids," and "Discovering
Cultures, Cuba," that were recently
snatched from the shelves of school libraries
by angry parents.
"We're protecting the children and
grandchildren of the Cuban exile from the
lies ... (Cuban President Fidel) Castro
is telling Cuban kids and now wants to spread
to the school system here," said Emilio
Izquierdo, spokesman for the protesting
parents, told AFP.
He said the books lifted from the schools
have since been returned, but that pressure
to have the school board remove them legally
has not let up.
Most of the angry parents belong to the
Cuban community in exile, relentless in
their drive against Cuban President Fidel
Castro and anything in US policy or culture
they consider whitewashes his 48-year-old
communist regime.
The book fight began in April 2006, when
a parent got hold of a copy of "A Visit
to Cuba" and found to his dismay no
mention that in Cuba food is rationed, everybody
works for the government, and children are
"indoctrinated."
The book, instead, has color photos of
Cuban monuments, building and landscapes,
with simple captions about life on the island,
all aimed at the five-to-seven age group.
The Miami-Dade school board quickly removed
all 49 copies of the book from its libraries,
but later put them back after a Miami judge
ruled the board had abused its power by
eliminating thoughts and ideas it did not
like.
The school board took its fight to the
11th District Court of Appeals, where three
judges took up the case Wednesday, with
a hearing on whether the alleged omissions
about daily life in Cuba warranted the book's
removal from the school curriculum's supplementary
reading list.
Judge Ed Carnes asked American Civil Liberties
Union lawyer JoNel Newman if she would allow
in schools a book on Germany extolling Hitler's
efforts to boost the economy without mentioning
the Holocaust.
What about a book on North Korea that said
"nothing about the totalitarian regimen,
nothing about starvation, nothing about
executions?" the judge also asked.
Newman turned the argument around, saying
"A Visit to Cuba" was simply a
geography book.
"The political reality in Cuba is
not part of what this book is all about,"
she told the judge. "Is a book about
the Chinese Wall inaccurate because it fails
to mention Mao Tse Tung?
"The School Board can't remove a book
because of a political viewpoint. Books
for a four-year-old, your honor, don't have
to tell it all," Newman said.
The Miami-Dade school board's lawyer Ricard
Ovelman said books like "A Visit to
Cuba "are rife with fact omissions,
errors and inaccuracies that render them
unsuitable" for education purposes.
"The basic fact that there is a dictatorship
(in Cuba) ... is not mentioned. It treats
Cubans as if they were in any other country,"
he added.
The appeals court is expected to take months
before issuing its ruling.
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