Caption for pic above left taken Dec. 2013 from one of the airline industry’s top publications:
“JetBlue’s inaugural to Santa Clara, in Cuba, was CELEBRATED (caps by hard-liner, reactionary poster) with a “Cuban” cake, featuring the country’s famous symbols, namely coffee, cigars and CHE GUEVARA.”
The advertisement above was posted on JetBlue’s blog just last week.
Whoops!..YIKES!?….But perhaps JetBlue’s ultra-hip publicity people are unaware of exactly what those “exploits” consisted of?
Well, in keeping with Babalu Blog’s decade-long and highly-acclaimed educational mission we offer this lesson–completely free of charge!–to JetBlue’s ultra-hip publicity department. Here’s are some of Che Guevara’s “exploits:”
(Cornelio Rojas murdered by firing squad in Santa Clara, Cuba on the orders of Che Guevara’s on Jan. 19, 1959.) “Over the next few years an estimated 16,000 Cubans were murdered exactly like Cornelio Rojas. The murder tally comes from “The Black Book of Communism,” written by French scholars and published in English by Harvard University Press, (neither exactly an outpost of “EMBITTERED RIGHT-WING!-MIAMI-CUBANS!”) “The facts and figures are irrefutable. No one will any longer be able to claim ignorance or uncertainty about the criminal nature of Communism,” wrote the New York Times (no less!) about “The Black Book of Communism.”
* “My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood!” (Che Guevara.)
* “Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any surrendered enemy that falls in my hands! With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!” (Che Guevara.)
*“I’d like to confess, papa, at that moment I discovered that I really like killing.” (Che Guevara.)
*“Hatred is the central element of our struggle!… Hatred that is intransigent…Hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him violent and cold- blooded killing machine…We reject any peaceful approach. Violence is inevitable. To establish Socialism rivers of blood must flow. The victory of Socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims!” (Che Guevara.)
“The U.S. is the great enemy of mankind!…“Against those hyenas (Americans) there is no option but extermination!” (Che Guevara, 1962.)
“If the nuclear missiles had remained (in Cuba) we would have fired them against the heart of the U.S. including New York City. The victory of socialism is well worth millions of Atomic victims.”(Che Guevara, 1962.)
Everything above thoroughly-documented in these internationally-acclaimed books.
“A great service for human freedom. Deservedly puts Che Guevara in the trash-can of history. Every American should read Humberto Fontova’s book.” (David Horowitz on Exposing the Real Che Guevara.)
“Le RRRONCA!!!
“Humberto’s book is a very valuable book-a book badly needed around the world.” (Former Chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations Ileana Ros-Lehtinen R.Fl)
Even appearing to imply that odious Argentine killer Che Guevara is a symbol of Cuba (WTF?) and using him in connection with promoting tourism to the island he helped enslave and ruin is essentially the same as doing that with any major Nazi figure and Germany, which of course would not fly. If JetBlue doesn’t “get” that, it’s either amazingly ignorant (not to say cretinous) or extremely careless, presumably because it figures it can get away with it (and those who would let it get away with it are part of the problem).
This situation, of course, is only one more instance of a very old, common and widespread phenomenon, since Cuba and Cubans “don’t get no respect” and haven’t since at least 1959. One major reason for that is the negligible cost of such disrespect, so it behooves Cubans to make it as expensive and/or unprofitable as possible for the perpetrators. Sadly, that is the only thing likely to get them to do the right thing, even if only grudgingly and insincerely.
Lame attempts to deflect responsibility (as in “somebody gave us the cake; we just stood behind it and smiled”) or facile insults to even a middling intelligence (as in “nobody meant to make a political statement with a Che image”) should be rejected outright and treated as aggravations of the initial offense. Remember, the game is rigged against us and predisposed to treat us like shit, and the more we tolerate that, the more we will get dumped on. If we do not respect ourselves, you’d better believe others won’t.
Well, I think I’ve identified one of the people in the cake photo. The guy at far left in the yellow tie looks like Christopher Minner, Vice President of Marketing at Tampa International Airport. Here’s my source:
http://www.tampaairport.com/executive-team
That’s indeed him, Asombra. Our friend Patsy Sanchez brought the issue to his attention and he apologized….nothing heard for JetBlue however…https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=dear%20friends%3A%20this%20morning%20i%20had%20a%20phone%20conversation%20with%20mr.%20christopher%20minner%20(pictured%20on%20the%20left)%2C%20vice%20president%20of%20marketing%2C%20tampa%20international%20airport%20and%20others%20on%20his%20team%20to%20discuss
I expect JetBlue has “apologized” as much as it means to by implying (certainly to me) that the Tampa airport people were solely responsible for the Che cake and that his visage on it was nothing political anyway (just a cute decorative touch, I suppose). Besides, everyone knows Che is a symbol of Cuba, right? Just like the Havana mammies with their slave-era costumes and bat-sized cigars. This whole thing just boils down to “those people” in South Florida having “hate fantasies” again (you know how they are, or at least the New York Times does–and JetBlue is a New York-based company).
So, I wouldn’t expect JetBlue to offer any further, uh, satisfaction on this thing unless it were to lose sufficient business over the matter. It remains to be seen if enough Cuban-Americans will put their dignity and Cuba’s honor above more “pragmatic” considerations.
Humberto, the link in your comment doesn’t work (unless one has to be on Facebook to see it).
To be fair, the problem we’re having with JetBlue and any business that seeks to profit off a situation like Cuba’s is not primarily their fault. They’re simply opportunists taking advantage of the fact that there’s a market for what they’re selling, regardless of morality or ethics. Even now, after being continually screwed by practically everybody for over half a century, we’re still expecting to get blood from turnips. We’re still assuming that since truth and justice are on our side, people will do right by us. It does not work that way. Truth and justice mean far less than the prevailing fashion and the vested interests of those who either set or follow it, and this is painfully evident everywhere one looks. I’m not just talking about Cuba, obviously; this is a generalized phenomenon.
We should also be clear about the fact that, when it comes to Cuba, many Cubans are part of the problem, and they are much more culpable than the non-Cubans. For one thing, the usual suspects, whether it be the political left, academia, the news media or the entertainment complex, can always find suitable Cubanoids to play their game. This naturally confuses the issue, trivializes the problem and undermines our position. The Cubanoids play along because they are what they are and because there are rewards for doing so, and there are always takers for rewards.
Don’t expect JetBlue to change its tune as long as it can get away with it and profit from it. That’s how it is.