A column I didn't like

For quite a few days now I haven’t been able to dissipate the rage I felt after reading Armengol’s column in El Nuevo Herald “El exilio del despilfarro”.

I don’t know him –and certainly now I am not even interested in reading him again, but I wonder where did he attend J-school and whether he flunked his ethics class. If he ever had any ethics at all… well, I guess then que era verde y se la comió un chivo.

My rage comes not only from the vulgar and tres-por-kilo style he uses to attack the Cuban exile, but from the lousy and poorly supported arguments he uses (or misuses) to try to support his point. (From where is this guy anyway?)

Even if he has a point at some issues –like that the Elián saga ended up benefiting the dictatorship more than anything, again, the means used by him completely disqualifies his views, at least for me.

The thing here, you see, is that even if you don’t agree with something or want to criticize someone, the least that you can do is do it respectfully.

Respect for the elders –whether they are right or wrong, according to your views, is the least an honorable man should do. Even more, what someone who calls himself a journalist is bound to do, to honor the ethics of the profession.

Who the hell told him Cubans do not rely on Radio Marti to know the reality of the world that exists out of castro’s tropical gulag? He obviously does not have the slightest idea of what he is talking about. He doesn't know that countless Cubans and Cuban families –like my own, rely on Radio Martí to have at least the feeling they are humans living on Earth in the 21st century.

However, my biggest (WTF??) moment came when he talked about Cuban independent journalists; those that are reporting from the island.

What the hell does he know about them, their daily lives, the risks they face to send out to the world the realities of Cuba?

What the hell do you know, Armengol, sitting in your comfy chair in downtown Miami about them? Who on earth gave you the right to humiliate and refer to them in such a despicable manner?

O sea, pero que c..... qué le pasa a este tipo?!

The coup de grace, however, does not come from my writing. It comes from one of those journalists whose image Armengol tried to damage. Very well written (no matter if he has a journalist diploma or not) from Ciego de Ávila, by José Manuel Caraballo Bravo.