More “Defections”

It’s deja vu all over again…
Well, let’s hope not.
Just like the two boxers from the Pan American Games, three Cuban musicians have gone missing in Brazil and are presumed to have “defected.” They are Miguel Angel Costafreda, Arodis Verdecia Pompa and Juan Alcides Díaz from a group called “Los Galanes”
There’s a lot of that going around-defections.
I don’t know why they call them defections. These guys, well, let’s be honest, they escaped. They gave their handlers the slip and escaped to freedom. That’s what happened- They freed themselves. If they called it what it is, an escape, then they would be telling the truth and that’s always a bad thing for fidel so they call a defection.
When John Lennon moved to New York from England, he moved. When Johnny Depp moved to Paris, he went to live in Paris. The same with Maddona when she moved to London or with John Beckham and his Spicy wife when they moved to LA. Maybe I missed something, but I never saw a headline announcing their “defections” or headlines in newspapers denouncing them as traitors for leaving their respective countries.
But if a Cuban athlete or entertainer decides to leave Cuba, it’s a “defection”.
They rest of the world can pack up and go live wherever the hell they please, but not Cubans. Cubans are special. They (we) “belong” to fidel. His property. His chattel. Hopefully the Brazilians won’t be so eager to return castro’s property to him like they did last time. Only when other governments accept that Cubans are castro’s property, does he get his way.
To add insult to this painful injury, there’s this petition, that I’m sure you’ve heard about, where 500 American Entertainers and Intellectuals are asking President Bush to change his Cuba policy so there can be more cultural exchanges. That’s their right as free citizens. But, I suggest to them that a more efficient and honorable way to ensure cultural exchanges and societal contacts would be to work towards a free Cuba instead. This way, cultural exchanges can happen naturally and when Cuban artists, athletes, intellectuals, doctors, chefs, shoeshine boys or what have you, travel outside of Cuba, they do so as free men and not as slaves on a chain that have to escape , I mean, “defect”.
H/T PorCuba y ParaCuba