cuba screws itself both ways with "porno para ricardo"

The Cuban government have really screwed themselves by arresting Gorki Aguila (third from left), the lead singer of "Porno para Ricardo", a Cuban punk band who call themselves 'Analchists'.

With just one arrest warrant the Cuban government managed to screw themselves in a number of different positions:

• the arrest gave instant international fame to a band which previously was such a nonentity that it's wikipedia page was deleted because they were not 'notable' enough. To make matters worse the government even tried to close down the Porno Para Ricardo web site.

• the arrest allows the CIA and CNN and the BBC to add 'Cuban Oppression' to their 'Cold War Two' soap news opera script, which could easily include a 'Cuba Crisis Two' story line. All they require is a press release from Moscow offering Cuba some Russian missiles to protect against the Islamic threat from the East (coast).

• the arrest also demeans the many brilliant achievements of the Cuban Revolution by indulging in the exactly the same kind of oppression as used in the past against hippie, punk and rave musicians by successive governments in the US, Britain and most of the planet.

Cuba should learn how to use the potent forces of culture at their disposal, especially musical. After all why is the CIA the biggest rock concert promoter in Eastern Europe, especially the Ukraine?

A few ideas for the Cuban government: have 'porno para ricardo' played incessantly on the Cuban equivalent of BBC Radio One etc plus in super markets and hotel lifts. Soon everyone will be sick of them, or they could be as big as Abba, boosting the Cuban economy by millions. Pillage any useful bits of their material and use in sound tracks for government adverts or TV cop programs a few years later. If they really are as talentless as they seem, use session musicians and make them mime at live concerts and TV shows. Arrange a huge Havana Woodstock as close to Guantanamo Bay as you can get. Start a pro government chain of music stores called Virgin. Rake in huge extra revenues for your centralised ecomony through worldwide royalties on Cuban music, making far more than you do selling big Cuban cigars to capitalists and the likes of George Galloway.

Meanwhile the Cuban government should get back to operating the best National Health Service in the world, with Cuban government sponsored doctors currently working in 40 other countries.