(Havana) -- Sometimes you just have to lighten up this US-Cuba thing. And for me, Saturday's Granma newspaper did the trick. The official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba carried in its cultural pages a review of an interesting interactive debate among Latin American, US and European intellectuals about the commercialization of culture, and the imperial reign of US cultural values and their "thingamatization" of just about every ‘thing'. The Cuban Minister of Culture was among the more eloquent. All true, I thought, especially when it comes to the US megaindustries of movies, music and consumer festishism in general.

Then my eyes panned down to the weekend's TV guide. Cuba has four national TV networks, all government-owned, but serving up different programming profiles from news, sports and drama, to comedy and soaps, and even lessons in French and geography. But come the weekend, they all scramble to please a viewer passion second only to baseball: the movies, the more action the better. And on this weekend in Havana, Cuban television carried no less than 17 Hollywood films (out of 21 total) -- including a couple of premieres which I couldn't figure out from the translated titles, plus re-runs of Die Hard 4, Return of the Jedi, Gigli, and The World According to Garp. In fact, Die Hard 4 was listed in the coveted nightowl spot reserved for the film most in demand over the week.

Havana's Hollywood weekend went on to sport at least three children's films, Disney cartoons, and episodes of The X Files, Law & Order, and CSI. We get Dr. House another day, and for years have been treated to Murder She Wrote, Degrassi Junior High and other US TV favorites. And these are the best of the lot -- some Saturday nights, there's not a recognizable name in the credits of the worst US flicks in the business, direct-to-video, made-for-TV, all beaming their way into homes from Pinar del Rio to Bayamo.

Now, I hope Cuban television doesn't get me wrong -- I'm the first one to want to hold on to my better hometown shows (especially Law & Order, please) -- but with such freewheeling, non-discriminating shoppers at the helm, I see us sliding down the slippery slope towards daytime soaps, sob-confessions, and do-or-die reality shows.

The more macho guys on my block are probably groaning at this critique, but believe me, even the most addicted Cuban households are beginning to clamor for better US TV. All the more because they know Cuba's government-run stations have decided for years that the US embargo removes any obligation they might have to pay licensing fees -- so they have a totally free hand to pick and choose, and swipe as they like.

But if they don't do a better job now, I shudder to think what will happen when the embargo is lifted, and the media moguls begin the hard sell (planning a fair share of revenues to their writers by then?).

On a related topic: In this culture war, I've always wondered why Cuba's burger joints (El Rapido's) are painted the same garrish yellow and red as McDonald's. Is it because they serve the same awful burgers? Copycat marketing? Both?

In conclusion, before there's even a whif of change in the air for US policy towards the island, my advice to Cubans -- on the shows, the hamburgers and the whole megillah --is the same my grandmother once gave me: never swallow anything whole.

-- Gail Reed