Cuban defection
This is certainly not a Charlotte story you read every day. A Cuban soccer player, Yosniel Mesa, defected after a Gold Cup game downtown (or, as it is called here, uptown). He said he was defecting for economic reasons (i.e. the ability to play professionally) rather than political. There is also a very sad side to the story:
Mesa left his young daughter and her mother behind in Cuba, he said. He didn't tell them he hoped not to return. "She's five years old. She wouldn't have understood," Mesa said of his daughter.
In all, it is unfortunate that in the 21st century there is still such a thing as defection.
5 comments:
He said he was defecting for economic reasons (i.e. the ability to play professionally) rather than political.
If that's the case, how does this really meet the definition of a "defection"? When millions upon millions of Mexicans come to the United States for economic reasons, nobody speaks of mass "defections" from Mexico. So how is it that, when a Cuban leaves his country for avowedly economic reasons, the term "defection" suddenly applies?
Because Cuba, unlike Mexico, makes it illegal to leave (or at least requires permission that is extremely difficult to obtain). Along similar lines, I would guess that if a U.S. citizen went to Cuba against the wishes of the US govt and wanted to stay there, it would be a defection whereas moving to Mexico would not.
Okay, so, by your logic, a Mexican who leaves his/her country and enters the United States without documents would not be a "defector" because he/she would not be in violation of Mexican law. Is that really true, though? Is it true that there's no Mexican law against crossing the border without documents?
I doubt it.
I suspect that, if your so-called standard is that the Cuban soccer player is a "defector" because he left Cuba illegally, logical consistency would require that you apply the same term to Mexicans who leave their country without a passport.
Moreover, when a Cuban man is separated from his daughter because he comes to the United States, there's no logical basis for suggesting that this is any more (or less) lamentable than when any other immigrant to the United States is separated from close family members.
It's important for any person to consider whether he or she is using selective standards that are rooted in ideological bias rather than sound logic.
Defenders of the Cuban regime like to say that Cuba is poor and like many Latin American countries, Mexico is often cited, would naturally have citizens attracted to emigration to the US. Undoubtedly there is some truth to the notion and this example may very well illustrate it. Cuban emigration can however be distinguished from other countries by the fact that it is an island, the country's severe laws and punishments surrounding emigration and the conflict with the US which is going on year 53. The Mexican or Honduran emigrant does not surrender the right of return nor their citizenship rights. They do not lose property nor do their family members suffer any political consequences. While the US has a policy that seemingly encourages all immigrants from Cuba as a part of the ongoing conflict, it remains appropriate to use defection as a term. The two countries are still engaged in a Cold War.
Ok, Justin go look up what a defector is. It means that it is someone who leaves their country without the permission of their government. It isn't a documents thing, it's they weren't ever allowed to leave in the first place thing. Also, defectors are typically ONLY associated with Communist regimes (The Former USSR, North Korea, and Cuba) because part of the reason they can't leave is the ideological framework of Communist regimes. There cannot be any hint that their regime is wrong or that the communist way is wrong. Let alone that the communist regime is failing, especially because there is a prophetic element to it (go look up Marx which guess what: that's economically related). People who leave from Mexico and return often don't face punishment from their government for leaving in the first place, unlike Cubans. Many who return are imprisoned and tortured, a good number of the cases who are caught or returned are executed. When they defect they are labeled enemies of the state by their state. They are associated with selling out their country. In Mexico, it isn't the same story at all. Economic reasons or no.
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