Stung by the Police

Surfing through the channels tonight, I come upon the cause du jour concerts going on today. None other than the Police are playing. I find that I can't bear to watch Sting. My feelings are mixed: betrayal, anger, hurt.

I still can't understand. They are supposedly playing Havana. I saw that personally on their tour website a while back. It's a concert for their Cuban fans, they said. And while I understand that could be a good thing. Remember the Beatles in the USSR? I have to question it when I see the "Fidel" caps for sale on that same website. I remember Trudy Styler and her nightspot "Socialista." And I ask my self, "Why are Cubans less?" Sting could condemn apartheid in South Africa, publicize the plight of the desaparecidos in Chile with his "They Dance Alone," but somehow what has happened to the Cuban people is okay. It is also okay to ignore or mock the sensibilities of Cubans who have had to flee the country in pursuit of freedom.

It comes to me that perhaps Castro achieved his only triumph in his propaganda, which coupled with the inherent bias of people in the US and Western Europe, has held off world condemnation. As I read the comments section under articles about Cuba and the embargo, I am overwhelmed by the ignorance and stupidity of the posters. For it is stupidity to make sweeping pronouncements about Cuba when you haven't a clue.

Because they cannot conceive that a hispanic country south of Key West could possibly be developed and prosperous, they swallow the Communist line about how terrible things were before Castro, and what progress the regime has made in literacy and healthcare. So what if they get meager rations to eat? At least they're eating. One genius said, "They're still better off than in Haiti." Hello, dope, they were light years ahead of Haiti in 1958. While preCastro Cuba had its problems, it was a developing country. It had one of the hightest literacy rates in Latin America. Oh, and there was food to be had. The present Cuban ration is less than that which was given to slaves in Cuba in the 17th century.

Then there is the embargo which should be lifted according to these luminaries. They seem to forget, or they don't know that Castro seized over 850 million dollars in American- not Cuban American- American assets. I guess we should tell the individuals and companies involved to just forget it, like Spielberg told Cuban Americans to do about their losses. I still want to appropriate his assets and see how he feels about it fifty years later. All those farmers and grain belt politicians clamoring to trade with Cuba should know that the American government is actually protecting them by requiring cash transactions. Cuba doesn't pay its bills, stupid! Just ask Mexico or India. Yeah, by the way, isn't it arrogant to presume that the Cuban economy is in the pits because we don't trade with them? Isn't there enough of a market in the rest of the world to compensate? Gimme a break!

And political prisoners, the ones the Castro regime says they don't have, they are truly the invisible ones. Oh, that's right, they're arrested for things like "pre-criminal dangerousness." Gee, is that like the Tom Cruise movie? Stopping a "crime" before it's committed? Nary a single post mentions them.

Sad thoughts for 2am.