In a statement written for broadcast in Wednesday's Round Table TV
program, Fidel Castro shut the nation's door on any Cuban athlete who
defects while representing the island abroad. "Let us never permit the
traitors to later visit the country to display the luxuries obtained
through infamy," Castro wrote. And "let us also blame ourselves" for
their defection. His brief note appeared to be in response to the Cuban
fans' displeasure over the national baseball team's loss to the United
States, 4-1, during the championship game of the 24th Haarlem Baseball
Week in Holland, on Saturday. "It is not [the players], in any case, who
should deserve the worst criticism if something didn't turn out all
right," Castro continued. "They are going to Olympic Games that will
take place on the other side of the world, where the hours of sleep and
the rhythm of life are different." Alluding to the exclusion of baseball
from future Olympic Games, Castro said the Cuban baseball players "have
an intense program of physical preparation, entirely directed toward
their last participation in that sport in the Olympiads, because that's
what was determined by the rich and powerful masters of the Olympic
sports. [Our players] have not been defeated. Let us not discourage
them. Let us send them a message of encouragement. Why don't we wait for
the end of the Olympiads to discuss in depth, and in truly democratic
form, the responsibility of all those who are involved in Cuban sports?
We dazzle our people with sports successes and promises, but later we
don't dare to even publish the names of those who betray their country,
selling themselves to the enemy." Apparently complaining that ideology
is not sufficiently stressed in the training of athletes, Castro said
that "much science and little conscience appears to be our bureaucratic
motto in the formation of athletes."
However, Castro said, "despite adverse circumstances, our athletes shine
by their human and patriotic quality. Not even one in every ten morally
succumbs to the flood of offers in a world plagued with hucksterism,
vices, drugs, doping and consumerism, where our homeland shines like an
example that is hard to imitate." For more on this story, read The Miami
Herald.
July 17, 2008
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2008/07/fidel-would-ban.html
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