Another Failed Tool in the Anti-Cuba Arsenal
Alberto N. Jones
July 24, 2007

Every four years and as a prelude of the Olympic games, amateur sports fans on our continent celebrate with great enthusiasm the Pan American games which is hosted in different countries of our region.
It provides each of our nations the pride and glory of seeing the best and brightest of their athletes, competing fairly and honestly in the selection process of the stars which will represent them two years later, in that magnificent world sports gathering which was born in Olympia, Greece, 776 BC

Cuba, a very poor, underdeveloped country in our hemisphere, which has had to live under siege for half a century, has since 1959 devoted a substantial amount of its GNP to education, health, culture, sports and other fields of human development.

Each of these fields has yielded incredible results, which has placed this small island of less than 12 million inhabitants on the world map and has earned it the respect, love and admiration of millions of people around the world.

Still, this unparalleled human achievement, an example and guiding light for all other poor and underdeveloped nations in the world, has not been greeted and celebrated by some rich and powerful nations. Instead, they have dedicated substantial human and financial resources, to trying to undermine and disrupt the fruits of these efforts.

To fulfill their reprehensible tasks, hundreds of modern pirates, corsairs and buccaneers, are once again sailing the waters of the Caribbean, assaulting, slaughtering and destroying everything in their path, just as Henry Morgan, Francis Drake, Blackbeard and other well known murderers, terrorized defenseless ships, crews and those living on the shoreline of their respective countries.

Contrary to those easily identifiable pirates brandishing their swords, one eyed and dirty bearded faces, today’s buccaneers looks like respectable CEO’s, cruising in expensive sports cars, don only designer garments and live in secluded, gated communities, without ever having to hold up a schooner at gunpoint.

Instead, like hyenas, vipers and most other animals of prey, they lurk in the dark, cowardly waiting to strike by surprise, with their bulging bags of ill-gotten money, ready to buy the conscience of a Cuban Doctor, Musician or Sportsman.

Ironically, these are the same monsters that have spent a lifetime belittling everyone living in Cuba, who have encouraged the US administration to impose greater draconian measures on their country of birth. They rejoiced during the special period when Cubans were literally starving, have openly questioned the Bush administration about, why Iraq and not Cuba and they proudly exhibit as victories of their making, the Torricelli Bill, the Helms-Burton Act and the abominable 500 pages of the Commission For a Transition to a Free Cuba, which have had a devastating effect on the Cuban family.

Instead of working with and salvaging millions of school children in the United States that are threatened by a sea of drugs, relentless violence, early pregnancy, producing high school graduates who are incapable of filling out a job application, their focus is an every outstanding individual that Cuba has educated or trained in each of life’s endeavors.

This monstrosity of depriving the poor of their best minds and abilities is nothing new. Millions of the best and brightest from around the world, fill every vacancies in the United States and the rest of the developed world, at the expense of their own nations.

There are far more physicians from Pakistan and India working in the England, Australia, United States and Canada, than in their countries of birth. Thousands of Filipino nurses constitute the backbone of most medical centers in the US. Professional baseball teams in the US, look more like what one would see at a Latin American match.

The outrageous commercialization of sports, boasting salaries in the millions, has become an overwhelming magnet which has replaced all sense of community or nationhood, for the millions contained in each individual contract.

This environment, with its strong dose of anti-Cuba politics, have hatched a formidable flock of birds of prey, which can be found marauding around every event where Cubans sports, cultural or medical professionals are participating.

So far, these human excreta must feel rewarded, after luring away Rigondeaux and Lara, two of Cuba’s top boxers and sure medalists at the Pan American games in Brazil.

This repugnant behavior may be news for others, not so for Cubans. It is just more of the same! These criminal actions were instituted during the Central American Games in Jamaica in 1962. Cuba’s only hope for a medal, was a potential Silver medal, ironically in the arms of another boxer, whom they enticed to defect.

Tens of others have since followed a similar path in search of wealth. Since the year 2000, these pirates have centered their attention on the Cuban National Baseball team, from where they successfully pried away, the best and most promising players.

Blinded by money and devoid of all moral principles, these pirates have failed to reflect on a striking, irrefutable fact. No matter how many sportsmen or physicians they lure away, the larger the number of graduates in their respective fields will be, the better the Cuban team will become and the greater the amount of medals they will continue to win.

A case in point has been the longstanding duel between the United States and the Cuban National Baseball teams. After suffering its greatest loss of its most promising players at the hands of the Morgan’s and Drake’s of our times, most assumed that the Cuban-US match at the Pan American games in Brazil, was a sure win for the US. Surprise, surprise, the US team ended up with a consolation Silver medal!

A quick review of the most outstanding and best-known players, musicians, physicians and others (myself included) who have abandoned our country, some of whom have found material goods or achieved wealth, are all acutely aware that you will never be a master in another person’s home.

Cuba will continue to develop, advance and share its programs with the rest of humanity. We selfishly will continue on the sidelines, trying to enjoy those rewarding but unsatisfying material goods, that will always be incapable of filling the moral vacuum that will live within us forever. May all the newcomers be prepared for the longing, bitterness and tons of tears that lies ahead, incapable of forgetting the land that we so desperately wanted to leave behind, which cruelly reminds us of the green lawn of our neighbors.