A woman greets a relative during a visit from Miami to Havana, Cuba.(April 16, 2009, from "On Point"--NPR Radio)
One of the smartest things I think the Obama Administration has done in this "First 100 Days" of running the Executive Branch has been lifting the stringent travel and remittance regulations against the hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans who either left the Island decades ago, more recently got out in some way, or those who have never been to Cuba but have close relatives there.
It's a start.
For nearly five decades, The Cuban Embargo Act has been in place as a way to end the Castro government on that island. Ironically, while even the USSR is out of business, Cuba remains under the authority of Fidel and his brother Raoul. I believe it is now time to declare the CEA a relic and a crashing failure that may have kept a tighter reign on the Cuban people from its government than would have if some past Administration had jettisoned it after the end of the Cold War Era in the early 1990's.
American foreign policy has been hostage for along time to the political clout of not only anti-Castro conservatives like the late "Senator No", Jesse Helms of North Carolina, but also the hard-core anti-Castro exiles living in Miami and New York. No Republican or Democratic Presidential candidate over the years could afford to tick off the Cuban-American community, who wanted Castro gone like yesterday and would punish a politician who might say that geography and history (not all of it nice) make normal relations between Washington and Havana long overdue.
To be clear, I do not support human right violations by governments from my own country to any torture and political re-education programs in the Caribbean. Castro should be given credit for resisting American business interests--some of it Mafia-based--but it is clear some of his promises to promote elections for his countrymen were fatuous gambits to raise money in the early days of this revolution. Many people were lined up and shot, many had their lives destroyed in prison under his government and so on. That said, the USA enjoys good relations with nations like China, Saudi Arabia, and, in the past, Haiti's tyrant regime and Mubuto's Zaire and Franco's Spain and Somoza's Nicaragua and so on.
I don't pretend to know how responsive the Castro government will be to normalizing relations with the Americans--relations that Cuba already has with the rest of the world--but it is time to turn the page and, barring some backlash against Americans travelling inside Cuba, its high time ALL Americans should be able to travel in that country and see for themselves the good and the bad. (and vice versa to Cubans.) It's the only way to cut through the propaganda and learn from each others systems and, in some synthesis, perhaps improve both nations in a peaceful manner.
An example of the conflicting American attitudes toward Castro in 1959:
A bit of a primer on the 1961 US-launched "Bay of Pigs" Invasion of Cuba, which was as John Kennedy later put it, "a perfect failure". This consolidated Castro's power and insured massive Russian presence and economic and military support there for decades.
I agree and I don't agree, Doug. It's a pretty big subject. Although the government of Cuba is a dictatorship, the country is socialist. My fear is that opening up the barriers will result in an American form of democracy and capital exploitation. If they can manage a form of democratic socialism, which I believe can work, they would be fine and the Cuban people would benefit. I remember that after the last hurricane that pummeled them, Raoul asked the US to open the embargo for six months so that Cuba could rebuild. I was there in February. The country took a big hit. The US refused. There is a lot of history and a lot of bad feelings. In respect of that, small changes are the way to go. The last thing I would want to see is another coup that would make way for the US to move in and buy up anything of value in Cuba, like their magnificent ocean fronts. It would rip the people who are already suffering, apart becaue they'd lose their sense of ownership in their land. People in Cuba don't actually own anything.
ReplyDeleteI, too, believe its a very big subject, Wren. And thanks for adding that part about preserving the social system from real estate sharks. I believe this process is going to have to evolve over years. If anybody should own property in Cuba it should be people who have lived there and own their own homes and small businesses. The days of Cuba as a big economic playground for American business and Mafia sorts is a state of affairs I do not want to see either.
ReplyDeleteWren, you don't have to worry. We were beaten to the punch several years ago.
ReplyDeleteIn '98, I went to Cuba on a journalist's visa -- and I learned a lot about the nation which I didn't know before, but guessed.
First, the nonsense about starving Cubans is just that -- while I didn't see any fat people, I didn't see any starving ones, either. There are no rich Cubans - and everyday life is an adventure, where the government owns everything and it's nigh-unto-impossible to obtain 'luxuries' (like cars).
However, the government did deliver on four things which were promised as a result of the revolution: (1) Housing, (2) Food; (3) Education; and (4) Adequate medical care.
(Anecdotally, I came down with an upper-respiratory infection [URI] while I was there. I went to a Cuban clinic, where the doctor examined me most cordially, then told a nurse to do something. She came back with a large syringe of antibiotics, which wound up stuck in my backside. Cost? Nothing. In Cuba, medical care is free, even for visitors).
While the government does, indeed, own everything, transportation is free, and while the 'camels' (their name for buses) are always packed, everyone seems to get where they are going.
As to 'protecting them from real-estate sharks' -- the big American interests lost out on that one, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Cuban development has been responsible, if slow; most of the cruise ships on the Malecon in Habana are Italian; most of the resorts are owned by Italian, British and Canadian interests.
Outfits like Marriott, Hilton, and the like could only stand by and cry in their beer from '91 to now, when Cuba opened up.
Remember -- we're the only country which has a 'beef' with Cuba.
Everyone else is fine.
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In conclusion, something tells me that the Cubans are going to do just fine without us. It's only American arrogance which promotes a direct cause-and-effect between the embargo and perceived Cuban 'suffering'. That is an invention of the Cuban exile community and the Neocons, who can't stand that the Cuban government produces world-class coffee, rum, and cigars, plus features the best beaches in the Caribbean - and thumbs their nose at us.
Will, the Cubans have already been doing pretty good without you all lol, for at least twenty years now.
ReplyDeleteIri, that was my point....
ReplyDeleteIt is an odd thing to speak of human rights issues within Cuba when a stones throw away at Guantanamo people have been held without charge or trial for years.
ReplyDeleteThat said Cuba's socialist regime appears to have been remarkably successful at keeping all of their people fed and in work and pulling together. We could all learn from them.
lol ok
ReplyDeleteSince both Astra and Wren have actually been to Cuba, I feel a little bit out of my depth in my own blog ;-)
ReplyDeleteI have read other journalist accounts of life in Cuba, and Astra's account squares with what I've read from sources which don't have an ax to grind. I was hoping the people-to-people exchange between our two nations would ease tensions. Except for the big fat farm lobby--which rammed open the embargo act to alllow exports of grain and such--Cuba has been closed to American business and as you point out we have literally missed the boat. But a normal trading situation would still benefit both countries. The best-case scenario I'd say, long term, is more freedom of speech in Cuba and better medical care for more Americans by the example of our southern neighbors. (It would also give the NeoCons one less country to demonize.)
More like forty five years, Iri Ani. A lot of people in the States predicted Castro's government would tumble over after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Astra said, it has its lack of consumer goods, but has a stable economy and is in better economic shape than some of its Caribbean neighbors. (I'm sure its not as pretty as NewZealand, though :- )
ReplyDeleteThe Guantanamo situation does rather undercut America's moral authority more than a tad I'll grant you. I don't think I'd want to live in a one-party state like Cuba, but I wouldn't want to be in the hands of the CIA with a bag over my head either.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you and Wren for sharing your first-hand observations.
ReplyDeleteJust a tad Doug, lol.
ReplyDeleteI prefer a multi party state myself, even a two party state sends shivers up my spine now.
If you go to my home page, you can access my 'tourist' experiences in Cuba - 2008 and 2009 and there are photos in the photo section. I hope I get to go again except I was written up when I left for having a pair of tweezers in my on board bag. I knew better but it somehow slipped by me when I was packing. Gee, maybe they won't let me back in. *L* When it comes to tourism, Cubans are very enterprising. Those who work in the tourist industry top off their government income with tips and there is a gigantic black market. They don't take toothpaste for granted and most tourists bring in with them all kinds of 'stuff' to give away - make-up, shoes, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes, clothes, salt and pepper, chocolate, pens and pencils, writing paper and other school supplies, etc. We were lighter going home, that's for sure, even though we stocked up on rum and cigars. They are poor, but they all smile and are very layed back. Raoul has made some changes like allowing cell phones in, increasing pay and allowing some farmers to take possession of land. There is a new resort opening now where outsiders can actually purchase property. I believe Thailand is sponsering it.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear! But don't you have a sneaking suspicion that this has been encouraged by the American government all along with them being so close to the American border? In other words, it was just such a convenient way to keep the Communists at bay.
ReplyDeleteI've not been to Cuba myself (it was on my list this year but the recession put paid to that), but most of my friends locally go there for their winter hols, and the report I get is that the average Cuban is content and doing OK thank you very much. If you compare one individual's or one society's "lot" to anothers, you can always find those doing better, of course. But if you look at a human being's basic needs of life, the Cubans are doing OK, and there are plenty of Americans FAR WORSE OFF.
ReplyDeleteI missed this when I looked in early.
ReplyDeleteI do think Cuba has been getting along quite nicely without a few of the countries who feel they are rather important and have something to offer. On the other hand it's a global world and the Cuban situation is ripe for change. Castro has been worshiped by his people for many years. He had two unsucessfuls coups against the right wing Bastista regime and led the revolution that that overthrew the dictator, in 1959, or was it 60's? He did raise the standard of living for most Cubans.
As with many people in power, he dealt harshly with dissenters and had little regard for a precious life. If we were to sum up his shooting of people who didn't agree with him, the toll would be sickening.
I don't think Cuba is to be feared, for there's no chance of other countries selling their soul to the devil and we are all watchful of each other. Americia may want closer relations with Cuba, but will Cuba want that?
I suppose it is a move that should be cautiously welcomed Doug that the United States is slowly opening up to Cuba and risking exposing America to that greatest threat of all.... the threat of a good example.
ReplyDeletePutting the ongoing torture history of the US foothole in Cuba to one side for the purposes of sanity is I think a courageous and benevolent act of forgiveness by the Cuban government
It is of course my hope that this will be a 2-way street and that Cuba will eventually act as a conduit for the Bolivarian Revolution currently taking place across Latin America and introduce it's ideas and methods to poor and hungry US citizens, dispossessed of the American Dream.
While it is too early to predict whether this will eventually bring democracy to America cultural exchanges of these kinds can open the eyes a those disillusioned with the false promises of capitalism.
Now thanks to Raoul Castro and his elected ministers (with an electoral mandate to die for)..... this essential work can begin in earnest.
In my view it is probably just about the only way to save the world from extinction.
I think "Cuba bashing" has been a big political sport in conservative sections of America for a long time (since i was a kid actually), Red. There's been kind of a weird symbiotic relationship between Castro and, Kennedy or Reagan or Bush I or Bush II. It's time to stop it.
ReplyDeleteI will do just that, Wren. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes, you need a myriad of choices to have a real democracy.
ReplyDeleteYes, Cuba and America developed very differently, Melanie, which might go a long way to explain how each country ultimately developed its respective political system.
ReplyDeleteJose Marti, the famous Cuban diplomat, journalist, and revolutionary nationalist from the 1890's, called his life in America as being "inside the monster". He had history on his side: American southern politicians had wanted to buy Cuba from the Spanish repressors as far back as the 1820's--to turn it into a pro-slavery American territory. The USA loomed as a big beast to many Cubans even before America was a world power. I think Castro tapped into that fear very well.
The opportunities for average Americans to get achieve middle-class prosperity was something much harder than in Cuba after World War II. It was that lack of general prosperity outside Havana--and Batista's repression--that made Castro coming to power possible.
That's an good question, Cassandra. If Obama stops the pariah status of the Castro government, will Cuba respond in kind or not? I can't tell.
ReplyDeleteThe USA probably will never have warm relations with Havana, but we can share travel and trade and things like cooperation with hurricane relief efforts in the future which we don't have now.
It's true I think that Castro raised the standard of living in Cuba (outside Havana certainly) and I wonder how both the Cuban-American community and Cubans themselves will react to one another now that travel restrictions are off. Anything is better than being stuck forever in a policy that was so hostile and counter-productive to both nations. But will Cubans see it that way? Again, good question.
My hope is that whatever can work to help alleviate poverty--by some civil liberties and small domestic private ownership of business, exemplified by foreign models (not just American) can raise the standards of living in Cuba. As I understand it, small restaurants are starting to open in Havana and other cities in Cuba where only state-run facilities existed. This may be part of a Cuban version of the New Economic Policy Lenin used to help his nation out of dire straits after the civil war in 1920's Russia.
ReplyDeleteAnd,also, that the socialist example of Cuba can educate Americans to better the standards of our own poor--especially in medical care and decent public housing. We shall see, AA, if the past can be put past as it has with other feuding nations.
I always think education helps. If students from all nations study and socialize together at university, it gives a greater understanding of the individual and how they see the growth of their country. That student will want more freedom because they will see how it works for other people. Freedom to move between other countries should be a basic right. The thing is, if Cuba sees itself as having coped without America for so, they may think why change now. Obviously we see that healing of relations as a huge step forward. If Obama comes across as less of a threat than other presidents, maybe there is a chance that things will change between Cuba and America, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteAgreed Cassandra. It's the old question: "If not now, when?"
ReplyDeleteI think that times change and from hearing a several stories a couple years back with regards to the missile crisis back - I think that Cuba does not threaten United States at all. What I would see is that Chavez would be communicating with Cuba, but the one thing is now the finger can't be pointed at America. Obama did the smartest political thing in meeting with these leaders and placing some tact with all of this as to open the door in no manner would be harming America.
ReplyDeleteTrade takes place and has with China for how long? Which is a little of a different avenue.
Here in Canada we are able to visit Cuba without any problems I am not sure if we do much trade with them, my feel is that opening that door could something that gives allowance for families to reconnect.
But yet again I come back to the one thing is that America has now given an open dialogue with Cuba, and I think he is doing something that is very intelligent when you look at it from all aspects.
I guess I am looking at your write as more of a global view.
I agree Jack. Hopefully we'll get more progress, so America can join the rest of the hemisphere in regard to Cuba, soon.
ReplyDeleteI really don't see why not Doug. When you take everything into consideration.
ReplyDelete