Steve Rose
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What should we do with Cuba?
By: Steve Rose
(Last in a three-part series)
What should the United States do about Cuba, with our policies of no travel and no trade?
Ten days and 600 miles touring the island, as well as speaking openly with dozens of Cubans, make me no expert. But I have formed a personal opinion or two.
First, let’s explode a myth. I, probably like you, was under the impression that Cubans are isolated, have little or no idea about American life, and depend on government propaganda for perceptions of our country.
That’s a complete joke.
As many as 20 American programs are dubbed into Spanish and shown weekly on Cuban TV, including “Desperate Housewives.” In addition, every movie theater I saw had at least one American film, including a recent release with Nicolas Cage.
And if that is not enough to make the case, let me tell you about my 60th birthday party, at which I hosted my guide, driver, and my guide’s 15-year-old daughter and 11-year-old nephew. They told me that each week a young entrepreneur rides his bicycle to their home with a large stack of American films on DVD. He rents them for 25 cents a night. They have a DVD player, which is technically illegal to have, as well as a computer, which is also technically illegal to own. Both are commonplace and are bought on the very open black market.
I asked the daughter who her favorite actors are and she told me Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. The nephew prefers Mel Gibson. So much for Cuban isolation. Cubans know what they are missing in terms of lifestyle.
But when it comes to news about America and around the world, tyrant Castro has got it all locked up. No one can access the Internet, even if they have a computer, except, of course, guests at hotels or those few Cubans who can afford to go to the rare Internet cafes. And television news is strictly censored.
I would strike a deal with Castro. Right now, they have 2 million non-American visitors a year. I would tell him we would open the floodgates for Americans to travel to Cuba, raising that number over time to probably 10 million. All he would have to do in return is to allow computers to be sold at all the government-owned stores at reasonable prices; allow the Internet in all Cuban homes; and he must allow CNN on one of his channels. That offer alone would put Castro on the hot seat.
The trade embargo, however, should be lifted with no strings attached.
The embargo may be one of the most counter-productive aspects of American foreign policy. It gives Castro the perfect excuse for covering up the failure of socialism. Virtually everyone I talked to believes it is the embargo that is keeping their island impoverished. Without the embargo, Castro’s failed socialist experiment is revealed for all to see.
The counter-argument is that, by squeezing the Cuban people, they will rise up and overthrow Castro. This, in my opinion, is absurd. Castro is not hated, like a Saddam Hussein or a Joseph Stalin. That is quite clear.
You can bet that, at his funeral, there will be millions of grieving mourners. Castro is seen as the benevolent dictator.
Add to this our sheer hypocrisy. We trade with Communist China, which has a horrible human rights record. We buy oil from Venezuela, whose leader, Hugo Chavez, has all but declared war on the United States.
The list of dictator-run countries we deal with, including now Pakistan, just makes the embargo with an island of 11 million off our coast seem ridiculous.
Given the extremely high literacy rate, the free health care, and a pretty open culture, all just 90 miles from Florida, Cuba is ready to explode into a thriving capitalist Communist nation, much like so-called Communist China. We have a future Hong Kong off our coast.
The Wall Street Journal has been calling for an end to the embargo for years. Add this one small voice in a Johnson County newspaper to theirs.
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What should the United States do about Cuba, with our policies of no travel and no trade?
Ten days and 600 miles touring the island, as well as speaking openly with dozens of Cubans, make me no expert. But I have formed a personal opinion or two.
First, let’s explode a myth. I, probably like you, was under the impression that Cubans are isolated, have little or no idea about American life, and depend on government propaganda for perceptions of our country.
That’s a complete joke.
As many as 20 American programs are dubbed into Spanish and shown weekly on Cuban TV, including “Desperate Housewives.” In addition, every movie theater I saw had at least one American film, including a recent release with Nicolas Cage.
And if that is not enough to make the case, let me tell you about my 60th birthday party, at which I hosted my guide, driver, and my guide’s 15-year-old daughter and 11-year-old nephew. They told me that each week a young entrepreneur rides his bicycle to their home with a large stack of American films on DVD. He rents them for 25 cents a night. They have a DVD player, which is technically illegal to have, as well as a computer, which is also technically illegal to own. Both are commonplace and are bought on the very open black market.
I asked the daughter who her favorite actors are and she told me Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. The nephew prefers Mel Gibson. So much for Cuban isolation. Cubans know what they are missing in terms of lifestyle.
But when it comes to news about America and around the world, tyrant Castro has got it all locked up. No one can access the Internet, even if they have a computer, except, of course, guests at hotels or those few Cubans who can afford to go to the rare Internet cafes. And television news is strictly censored.
I would strike a deal with Castro. Right now, they have 2 million non-American visitors a year. I would tell him we would open the floodgates for Americans to travel to Cuba, raising that number over time to probably 10 million. All he would have to do in return is to allow computers to be sold at all the government-owned stores at reasonable prices; allow the Internet in all Cuban homes; and he must allow CNN on one of his channels. That offer alone would put Castro on the hot seat.
The trade embargo, however, should be lifted with no strings attached.
The embargo may be one of the most counter-productive aspects of American foreign policy. It gives Castro the perfect excuse for covering up the failure of socialism. Virtually everyone I talked to believes it is the embargo that is keeping their island impoverished. Without the embargo, Castro’s failed socialist experiment is revealed for all to see.
The counter-argument is that, by squeezing the Cuban people, they will rise up and overthrow Castro. This, in my opinion, is absurd. Castro is not hated, like a Saddam Hussein or a Joseph Stalin. That is quite clear.
You can bet that, at his funeral, there will be millions of grieving mourners. Castro is seen as the benevolent dictator.
Add to this our sheer hypocrisy. We trade with Communist China, which has a horrible human rights record. We buy oil from Venezuela, whose leader, Hugo Chavez, has all but declared war on the United States.
The list of dictator-run countries we deal with, including now Pakistan, just makes the embargo with an island of 11 million off our coast seem ridiculous.
Given the extremely high literacy rate, the free health care, and a pretty open culture, all just 90 miles from Florida, Cuba is ready to explode into a thriving capitalist Communist nation, much like so-called Communist China. We have a future Hong Kong off our coast.
The Wall Street Journal has been calling for an end to the embargo for years. Add this one small voice in a Johnson County newspaper to theirs.