After hailing Sting as the world's moral conscience whose mere condemnation would topple Castro as decades ago, they fancied, it had "brought down" Botha and Pinochet (both, of course, actually stepped down peacefully and patriotically), the Babalunians, unable to court the English rocker on bended knee or with the banner "Excelsior," have turned on their erstwhile hero and would-be liberator, as they had done earlier to the Estefans, because they failed to honor their commitments to Val, as if the rich and famous felt honor bound by their word, especially when given to someone whom they consider beneath them (perhaps because that's exactly where Val had placed himself by his obsequiousness and shameless pandering).
Val has now embarked on a campaign to expose Sting — or "Mr. Human Rights, as he now sarcastically calls him — as the fellow traveller and hypocrite he has always been and which only Val & Henry could convince themselves he was not in the first place.
It seems that it has been brought to Val's attention that Sting is an investor in a New York theme-bar and restaurant called "Socialista," whose purpose is to introduce Cuban-style apartheid to the Big Apple. The bar consists of two tiers. The hoi polloi are limited to the first tier; the rich and beautiful may aspire to bathe in the rarified atmosphere of the 2nd tier, which is adorned with photographs of Fidel Castro and other Communist icons. Of course, prices are the same on both tiers and it is more likely that the waiters will annoint with their proletarian spit the $16.00 drinks of the customers in the 2nd tier.
I do not know if this campaign against Sting is sanctioned by, or a continuation of, BUCL's failed efforts to "conquer" Sting, or just another of Val's temper tantrums when he is snubbed by the rich and clueless. However, there is an uncanny similarity between the treatment Sting accords to customers in the first-tier and that which he dealt Henry & Val. Obviously Val believes that he belongs in the elite fraternity and it pains him sorely to have his application blackballed. This would be his business — and a pitiful one at that — if he did not insist on covering his posterior with the Cuban flag.
If Emilio had offered to make Henry his publicist, or Sting had contacted Val to remodel the 27 bathrooms of his mansion, would our intrepid defenders have been placated and convinced that the Cuban cause had been well-served? I think so. Sucking at the tits of the rich is almost as good as being rich to the mammonist.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Babalú has little or nothing to do with Cuba and less to do with Cubans on the island unless they happen to be in prison. Everyone else cannot be trusted and should not be helped. At best, Babalú is a diversion from the real issues confronting Cubans. It was never as bad as now or as shameless in exposing its real ends. I am only sorry for Babalú's latest contributors who have been pressed into its service under false pretenses; but some day they will awaken to the truth, the smart ones, anyway.
Manuel,
ReplyDeleteI remember commenting here that Sting could not care less about the fate of the Cuban people because he is a leftist socialist whose interest lies with criticizing the right wing dictaorships but coveniently ignoring the leftist tyrannies. Now he has been outed as communist sympathizer, and Babalu just discovered this? What, they discovered hot water? What did they expect from Sting? I am sure Andy Summers was laughing his ass off at Versailles when he was approached a member of Babalu's team to pass the message to Sting. Well, Sting and his fellow travellers could not give two shits about Cuba or the plight of its people. They fall into the same category as Belafonte, Glover, Spielberg et al. Their ideolical blinders would not let them see anything that does not conform to their beliefs. But the BUCL guys tried. I even read that some of them went to the concert in Miami and paid through the nose for the tickets, no less.
Of course, they did not know about that certain socialist bar in New York City at the time, but still.... What next at Babalu? A bonfire for the Sting records?
Manuel;
ReplyDeleteAh so Sting has a stake at the Socialista bar in NYC, what I don't get and least of all understand, is why all these rich and famous that live like kings and queens support socialism, is beyond me, my how dissapointed Val and Henry must be, their idol turned out to be a commy after all, and yes Agustin I remember your remarks, you called it, they are commies who admire the BEAST.
Manuel,
ReplyDeleteread the last two postings of our "dear friend" Pancho at Mambo Watch. They are real jewels. And this guy has the audacity to call himself an objective observer of the Cuban scene? Take a good reading at the Mission Acomplished posting. It could have been lifted straight out of Granma. To think that these people actually live in the USA makes one wonder how many castro agents of influence are living among us.
Agustín:
ReplyDeleteI have answered Pancho's post at Mambo Watch on the "Pastors' for Peace" recent "successful mission" to Communist Cuba:
Wow! 90 tons of food and other necessities! Couldn't the good pastors have dug into garbage bins and harvested the local dumps to procure an additional 10 tons of "aid" to make it an even 100 tons? Maybe next time, God willing.
Of course, if Castro were to permit Cubans to receive humanitarian aid from abroad in the form of care packages mailed from the U.S., the Cuban people would receive ten times that amount of food every single day. But, of course, that would sabotage his own monopoly. Castro prefers exiles to send cash remittances so that he can get his own cut from Western Union, further enhanced by a bogus exchange rate, and, finally, so that he can force them to spend the money in his company stores whence, inevitably, it winds up in his pocket.
Fidel Castro is a robber baron, the worst kind of mercenary capitalist; and you, Pancho, defend his right to exploit the hapless Cuban people. What does that make you, Pancho? The willing tool of Castro's corporate-state. Or, in other words, a fascist.