Sympathy for the Devil – UPDATED

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Not to beat a dead horse or kick an already deflated soccer ball, but as I have learned to expect, some in the media are predictably taking the regime’s side on the soccer defections saga.
Some writer on ESPN is feeling sorry for the Cuban soccer team who had to valiantly play with the same players the whole game because of the selfish actions of the newest Cuban exiles. That’s something else they’re going to have to get used to: getting blamed for wanting to be free.
The author, one Andrew Hush, is “concerned” about the lax security that allowed the Cuban athletes, “free men after all”, as he calls them, to abandon and betray their teammates and coaches and squash the Cuban team’s chances to qualify for the Beijing Olympics with the aid and encouragement of that scourge of Florida-Cuban Exiles.
Get a load of this:

The events of the past few days have raised a number of questions. The most obvious one concerns security around the Cuban team. Of course, 24-hour surveillance is neither possible nor preferred – these are free men after all – but their escape seems to have been accomplished with minimum effort. The team bus was given a police escort to and from the stadium for the match against the USA, but it is believed that little extra security was in place at the hotel.
Furthermore, the decision to place Cuba in Florida for its qualifying group matches is also, in hindsight, questionable. Although the examples of Martinez, Delgado and Galindo suggest that defection is possible wherever you may be in the USA, these are a young group of men that may have had second thoughts about the choice they made had they been in a less familiar environment. It is no surprise that their rumoured destination while they seek to establish themselves is Miami, a city whose population is one third Cuban.
Consideration must also be given to the players and coaches left behind. The fact is that Cuba’s draw with the USA was a result that greatly enhanced the nation’s chance of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. Though the defectors have their reasons for doing what they did, the fact is that they have betrayed the players with whom they boarded the plane to America.
It was a sad sight to behold as those Cuban players that remained with the team took the field for their second match against Honduras. In addition to those that had left them, suspension robbed Gonzalez of another player, meaning that he had only ten players at his disposal. To their credit, Cuba fought hard before ultimately losing, 2-0 and tired legs meant that several of the Cuban side left the field barely able to walk.

What really is sad is that Cuban athletes are treated like property, chattel, (c)astro’s slaves, and the rest of the world not only accepts it as normal but begrudges them when they make a run to freedom. What’s really sad is that the sympathy lies with the captors and the victimizers and not with the enslaved and exploited victims. I think I better stop before I unleash my first ever blog F-bomb. Sorry.
UPDATE – From Henry
I received a couple of emails from the author of the article. Here’s the latest one:

Dear Henry,
Having read the comments regarding my article on a number of the links which were posted underneath your signature, it is my wish to apologize for any offense caused.
Please understand, I am a soccer writer with no political drum to beat. My original (and perhaps naive) intention was simply to bring to the attention of a wider audience the events of the past few days.
In hindsight, I admit that my knowledge of the subject is not such that I am in a position to comment on the situation in Cuba. Please understand that this was not my intent. This was intended to be a soccer article written for a soccer website.
Please be advised that I have asked for the article to be removed from Soccernet.
Again, I apologize for any offense caused and pledge to stick to soccer-only articles in the future!
Best wishes,
Andrew

I think we can accept the apology and move on. It’s clear that he hadn’t thought through the implications of what he was writing. As always this is a testament to the fact that people just don’t know enough about the Cuban reality.

23 thoughts on “Sympathy for the Devil – UPDATED”

  1. It sounds like Mr. Hush is working for the regime in Havana. Is he actually saying that citizens of countries should be followed around by security details to prevent their defections when visiting other countries?
    Does Mr. Hush travel with a phalanx of armed guards “escorting” HIM around?
    I doubt it.
    ASSHOLE.
    Sorry for the language. I want to meet this guy on a street corner and beat the living shit out of him. I’m serious. Think I’ll fire him an email and challenge the little prick. One moment please – I’ll let you know if he responds.
    Anyone else want in on this.
    RRRRRRRR

  2. Yes what’s the vermin’s email address. What the hell is wrong with people, as if team castro were a sports team and not just a part of the slave masters franchise. F-bomb doesn’t come close.

  3. I’ve seen insults hurled at us for years, but this guy takes the cake. He’s actually upset that Castro’s goons were unable to stop the defections of these athletes. Is this guy for real? This is akin to a journalist in the 1960’s ranting because an East German is able to climb over the Berlin Wall, or some years earlier, a Russian escaping Siberia to freedom.
    Has Castro and his incessant propaganda describing us as rightwinged goons and Cuba as a victim of the “Miami Mafia” and a paradise for medical care and education eroded the sound thinking of Americans so much? Is this guy an anomoly or is he just part of a growing pattern of thinking that has evolved to the next step?
    What’s next? Advocating for the arrest of dissidents inside Cuba because they are traitors to the glorious revolution?

  4. Sent to Andrew Hush
    newsdesk@soccernet.com
    Dear “Mr.” Hush,
    Regarding your latest piece on ESPNsoccernet titled “Cuba’s Defection Dilemma:”
    The article mentioned above seriously puts into question just whose payroll you’re on. It would appear that you are in fact, working for the Cuban government.
    What kind of an individual takes issue with the lax Cuban security around the players which allowed them to defect? That lax security allowed them to escape a reviled regime. You seem ready to endorse the idea that travelers from any oppressive country should be escorted by “security” personnel whose job it is to ensure their perpetual enslavement. That, sir, is – in a word – “disgusting.”
    “It was a sad sight to behold as those Cuban players that remained with the team took the field for their second match against Honduras?”
    Are you kidding me?!
    Instead of feeling joy for these seven young men who managed to escape the clutches of the Cuban dictatorship and who are now able to CHOOSE the course of their lives (as opposed to Fidel Castro choosing it for them), you have the audacity to lament their new-found freedom?
    Sir, you are a sick, twisted little man.
    Do you by chance work out of ESPN’s New York desk? I’d be more than happy to make the drive to the Big Apple to personally beat the living snot out of you.
    Your support of the security agents that typically are charged with preventing defections (much like government kidnappers) is perverse. So perverse in fact, that my manners have gone out the window.
    Two words:
    FUCK YOU!
    Six more words:
    WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET?
    No doubt you’ll fail to rise to the occasion, but still, it was fun belittling you.
    Anatasio

  5. Just took a screenshot of the article. I have a sneaking suspicion that ESPN will opt to take the article down. The type of bad press they’re gonna get from this is gonna sting.

  6. One of the better lines in the article is:
    ” One thing is for sure, the remaining Cuban players will have no better chance to defect. Should they do so, it will be yet another body blow to the world game in one of its most unique nations. ”
    Better yet:
    “Though the defectors have their reasons for doing what they did, the fact is that they have betrayed the players with whom they boarded the plane to America. ”
    This guy puts Land of the free in quotes and seems to question why there was no added security??? Why??? Because we ARE in the land of the free…NO NEED FOR QUOTATIONS!!!!

  8. “Does Mr. Hush travel with a phalanx of armed guards “escorting” HIM around?”

    That is an excellent point. Mr Hush advocates that Cubans be treated in a way that he would undoubtedly find intolerable if done to him.

  10. Actually, you failed to note the funniest line in the article:
    “Of course, 24-hour surveillance is neither possible nor preferred – these are free men after all – but their escape seems to have been accomplished with minimum effort.”
    Free men? Well NOW they are.

  11. Sent the following letter:
    Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:07:57 -0700 (PDT)
    From: daleyl@peak.org
    To: newsdesk@soccernet.com
    Cc: daleyl@peak.org
    Subject: Cuba’s defection dilemma Atten. Andrew Hush
    Dear Andrew Hush:
    Reading Andrew Hush’s March 14, 2008 article “Cuba’s defection dilemma” it
    seems that little consideration was given to the personal lives of
    defecting Cuban players who chose freedom.
    Obviously, just by judging by common reactions of soccer audiences,
    football is not cricket. However, please do not make it worse by
    advocating continued slavery for Cuban football players.
    It has been some time since armed guards took gladiators into the arena in
    England, it seems unwise to revive this custom.
    Sincerely
    Larry Daley

  12. Correct me if I am wrong, but is it not the sworn duty of someone in the military to attempt escape if he is a POW?
    So if he is on the pow camp ball team he should stay for the sake of the score?
    These people are plain ignorant. It does show us to what extent sports dominates our lives.

  13. WTF??? He is ok with security men employed to prevent the defection of “free men”? Does this make sense to anyone but this shithead??

  15. I have three words regarding this guy and his article:
    UN – FREAKIN’ – BELIEVABLE!
    Actually, I have a few more words:
    Did Cuba send “humans” over here or did they send circus animals? It sounds as if this guy is lamenting the lax security around a cage full of wild animals that can only act out of instinct and are unable to reason. Then again, that is the problem the Cuba issue has had all along with people such as Mr. Hush; as far as they are concerned, Cubans are not worthy of the same rights and privileges they are because they are not 100% human. They look human, they talk like humans, they walk like humans, they bleed like humans, and they cry like humans, but in the end, as far as these bigoted cretins are concerned, they are just Cubans. They would much rather prefer they do their little jig and entertain them.

  18. Echale!! WHAT have we got here?? Sports journodude with an open mind!!!?
    Should be writing for the Herald.

  20. I agree with Henry, accept the apology and move on. There are bigger issues than one clown reporter. The subject of “getting the message out” always pops up here and on other Free Cuban site. All I can say is keep working on it.
    Some of you may want to look at this site. You will find a lot of support there. Although it is very anti illegal immigrant it is also very supportive of Free Cubans. Plus it has a HUGE membership. Let me know what you think.
    http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm

  22. I aplologize for the lack of real world insight demonstrated by this Andrew Hush. It seems that his residency in the northeast has so entrenched his liberal bias that he can not comprehend the history of the regime in Cuba. Below is the email that I sent to soccernet.com
    I was perplexed after reading the article penned by Andrew Hush concerning the defection of the Cuban under 23 team members. At first I assumed that Mr. Hush was a non American and as such had no knowledge of the risk and struggles undertaken by many Cuban Nationals to live in our Country. I was disheartened to learn that he seems to simply be someone that has lives in the insulated prosperity of the New England Region and has had little or no contact with the courageous Cubans that were neither Baseball or Soccer players that have Immigrated to our shores and overcome language and economic barriers to become some of Florida’s leading Citizens and I do mean Citizens
    While I am a fan of the World Game I am a bigger fan of the freedoms afforded those of us fortunate enough to have been born in a free society. To moan the sporting implications and wonder aloud if these young men will be able to achieve the sporting dreams is a gross over-simplification of the quest for freedom.
    I grew up in Florida and being born in 1956 I was witness to the first Cuban Immigration. I saw hard working people that risked everything to escape the Communist regime. I have several friends from that time whose mothers were missing the ring finger of their left hand because they would not give up the Wedding rings to the “Keepers of the new Cuban Society” that were on the Docks ensuring nothing of value left Cuba.
    Below is an email that I sent to Soccernet.com concerning the article. I regret that there are still such ingnorant people within this country. I can only suggest that his residence in the cradle of Liberalism has precluded him from gaining any real insight.
    These young men may never rise through the professional ranks of football but they will have the opportunity to become free and productive members of our Country. I applaud them for their courage and I am sure that like those that have come before them to our shores they will work and strive to achieve the American Dream.

  23. My email response to ESPN is as follows:
    Right. Perhaps in his next article Mr Hush would like to explain why Dred Scott should have been returned to his owners.
    Danged ingrate.

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