All together now. . . INHALE . . . (gasp). . . (gasp) . . . hold breath.

Their hearts are, first, with The Police and its career and financial interests. After that, their hearts are quite possibly of the "anything-leftist-must-be-good" persuasion. Fashion and political correctness must, after all, be followed, certainly by those in the entertainment industry. Even the Estefans...well, you all know that little story.

If these people are playing in Cuba, you'd better believe their, uh, "contract" with their gracious totalitarian hosts is QUITE clear as to what is and is not expected. Just like the NBC-Matt Lauer deal. Exactly like that. The Police is NOT going to Cuba to defy or confront the dictatorship. They will, however, dutifully condemn the embargo. Count on it.

My point is: if Sting really is the man he presents himself as being - he would agree with any rules dictated to him by the regime and proceed to ignore them once on stage. The worst thing that could possibly happen to him is getting tossed off the island - and if we want to get into what's financially the best move for the band (although I could give a shit) - that would go a long way for drumming up a great deal of positive publicity - hell, all publicity is good publicity.

-Anatasio

Guys I am sorry but I think this a waste of time, these losers only speak up when is against a right wing goverment. We just have to know who our enemies and its admirers are so when Cuba is free they can pay for their silence

Vedado,

You may very well be right however, if it does turn out to be the case that Sting is no champion of human rights, he should be exposed for the hypocrite he increasingly seems to be. We shall say how this all turns out.

CubaWatch I do understand your point, but like I said before this people only care when the crimes are committed by the right, like PINOCHET or others like him, but are quiet when the left kills millions and enslaves many more, these are people that either grew up having money or did not have to work hard for it, so in their sick heads they hate the system that feeds them. Sorry but ultimately they are just a band, nothing more, I can care less for the opinion or political inclination, In Cuba the only thing that is going to bring down the system is military action.

Vedado, let's be clear. The Police is our vehicle to get a message out there. Whether they change their tune (pardon the pun) or not, doesn't really matter. If they are exposed as hypocrites, it doesn't matter. What matters is that for once someone else (other than Castro, inc.) is driving the news about Cuba, even if it's for a minute. That's what this is all about.

Henry,

You are correct. What is important is the exposure for the political prisoners and the human rights violations in Cuba. If Sting and Co. should suddenly awaken to a new world view, and discover that dictators of the left are as objectionable as dictators of the right, all the better.

But I would not hold my breath.

Ditto what Henry said, plus it was the best $60.00
bucks I've ever spent. I feel like I made a big hit at the stock market. Wow, what a return on my investment!

Sting, Andy Summers and the Police are middle-aged men void of morals, dignity, and ideology. The only thing the know how to do is be entertainers. You can't expect pears from an elm tree. I'm surprised that they did not wear a Che t-shirt during their Miami concert. I am not a gambling man, but I bet these fools will go to Cuba in spite of their noncommittal statements.

The day Sting or The Police stand up for human rights in Cuba I will be eating chicharron de ala de puerco (flying-pig wing pork rinds). The point of the campaign, for me, was to raise awareness for Cuba's political prisoners first and foremost, to throw a hail-mary pass at The Police and Sting and failing their taking up the opportunity, to expose their hypocrisy, and, lastly, as Henry mentions, to drive the news about Cuba, with a positive message.

What I mean that we are preaching to the wrong choir, nobody cares about what happens in Cuba but us and the people with an ounce of moral, you see everywhere artists, musicians, writers all are i awe with el coma andante and the fucking revolution, I said lets spend our energy in something productive like somehow help the dissidents in the island, create some kind of campaign that gets to the Cuban in the island, because in reality change will have to come from inside since our hands are tie up here.

Henry I am not saying that your campaign is not worthy, all I am saying is that something more drastic needs to take place so we are taken seriously

To measure our success based on what Sting says or doesn't say, betrays a lack of understanding of what we were trying to accomplish.

None of us naive are about Sting and the rest of the band. At least for me, I wished, but never expected that they would join us in our campaign. If The Police somehow surprise us and publicly denounce castro and declare their solidarity with the prisoners, the PR splash will be substantial. But even without it, BUCL already has achieved a great victory, by delivering a positive message and, as Jluix said, raising awareness about Cuba's political prisoners.

Every ounce of attention they get, they deserve.

So yes, the Police concert was only a vehicle, a vehicle to which we attached the plight of Cuba's prisoners of conscience, each of whom is a hero for all of us.

BUCL did good. God knows it meant well. I applaud the creative imagination and dedicated energy behind the campaign, which HAS to do some good, somehow, somewhere. Every bit helps, and it's extremely clear that if we don't help ourselves, nobody else will--they've only had half a century to do it, yet glorified clowns (and worse) like Insulza of the OAS and Zapatero are STILL the order of the day.

I'm just tired of the endless variations of what amounts to throwing pearls after swine. I know that may be necessary, up to a point, but let's keep it to a minimum. It bothers me that someone like Henry, full of enthusiasm and good faith, would, in a sense, demean himself by trying to recruit the help of somebody who reportedly was breathless with excitement over getting a book signed by fidel castro. Summers doesn't deserve to be in the same building with Henry.

No, this is not about The Police per se. They're just a symptom or an instance of the much wider problem. I guess I'm trying to say that, given how crystal clear things really are when it comes to Cuba, we shouldn't have to be trying so hard. The fact that we're forced to do so is a scathing indictment against all manner of miserable human beings, many of whom presume to be righteousness incarnate. It just sickens me, that's all.

I want everyone to understand something. The idea behind BUCL is stop playing checkers while the enemy is playing chess. Why does castro spend so much time and energy propagandizing the regime and its "accomplishments"? Because it's his lifeline. There is no organized effort to counter that propaganda. BUCL is an attempt to do just that. We're small and we're outnumbered but that's OK. It forces us to be creative.

We can sit here and lament the fact that the media doesn't report the truth and that they are too lazy to go out and find all day long and it won't do a lick of good.

So if we are playing chess, we have to look at the board and see what pieces are in play and find opportunities to exploit. I see the Sting chess piece on the board and I see a vulnerability that I want to exploit. I want to call him a hypocrite, but I also see the other pieces on the chess board that can help me: the media. So rather than calling him a hypocrite, we make the appeal. His refusal to condemn Cuba leaves the media and the critics to draw their own conclusions, but we're connecting the dots for them.

The only thing a public relations campaign can achieve is media coverage. The reason we want media coverage is to fulfill the larger strategic goal of raising awareness of the Cuban reality.

We weren't in a million years going to get Zapatero to change the official policy toward Cuba and its just as unlikely that we'll change Sting's mind about Cuba. But we put some heat on both of these guys. The conservative Spanish bloggers got their panties in a wad because we hurt their pride. But we got picked up by several Spanish newspapers and the Spanish news service, EFE.

With the police, they know the deal. They know a Cuba concert date without a condemnation of the regime will tarnish their reputation. Their publicist has already been grilled by SoFla media on the subject, largely because we made it an issue.

I suspect we're going to get a one line announcement saying there will be no concert in Cuba because of scheduling problems.

Nobody demeaned himself. It's called camouflage, it's easier to hunt with it than without it.

If we are using The Police as a vehicle to get our message across, we better get off that vehicle real fast because it is going nowhere friends. Sting and his band could care as much about our plight as Michael Moore can.
If this was about Chile's Pinochet regime or South Africa apartheid regime, you will find them giving the concert for free and donating any money made to that cause. But this is Cuba and castro and they don't give a rat's ass simple because they are leftists and our cause is anathema to them. If Andy Summers was waiting in line as someone said here, for an autographed copy of the Invisible Blogger's book, you should know where his heart is at. And is not with us.
Any talk of human rights violations in Cuba will simply fall on deaf ears. Why can we open our eyes and see them for what they are? They are leftists and castro sympathizers and I don't care how many human rights organizations Sting belongs to, to this guy we don't exist because we are not on the left. Is that simple.

Cubamoto -

I certainly do see your point. Bottom line is - if Sting fails to support human rights in Cuba, he will have been unmasked for what he is: a campaigner for repression. That simple.

You can't have your cake and eat it too - if you're against oppressive governments, you're against ALL oppressive governments - be they leftist, rightwing, upwing, downwing - -whatever!

Best,

-Anatasio

One recalls that Stewart's father was the CIA man; responsible for working with Nasser; setting up their secret police; The Mukharabat, and not having learned his lesson; recruited Saddam and the other exiled Baathists in Cairo.