Hurricane Ike has moved off the Cuban coast, and now those poor folks can start trying to get their island back in order before the next storm. It's a shame they won't get much help from the US, but the reactionaries in Washington, at the behest of the US sugar industry, are still fighting the cold war against our closest southern neighbors.
The Cubans are stricken with the same international disease as the Haitians: no oil, and nothing to offer rich people. True, there are some large corporations that would like to move some manufacturing to Cuba, where there is a large, well-educated, trainable and willing work force, but generally speaking trade with Cuba, from the standpoint of the politicians, has more liabilities than advantages. Thus, they are stuck in the same position as their close neighbors to the east. Relative poverty, an economy that badly needs a shot in the arm, and little in the way of making it happen.
The situation underlying The Cuban Issue goes back to the revolution in the late '50's. When it became clear that the Batista (and American) island empire was collapsing, a lot of rich folks in the Cuban sugar industry packed up their tents and moved to South Florida, where there was already a thriving community of expats. Looking to the west, at the peat muck of Palm Beach County and the rest of the area immediately south of Lake Okeechobee, they realized that the small holdings of US Sugar in that area were nothing compared to what could be wrung from what was perhaps the largest area of ultra-rich soil in the world.
Thus were born the Cuban Sugar Kings of South Florida. They prospered during the post-revolution years, and have continued to do so by insuring that the much cheaper high grade sugar produced by their former homeland does not reach our shores. They accomplished this by funding the anti-Castro groups in Dade (now Miami-Dade) County, and insuring that every time it looked as though things might be cooling off between the two countries, something happened to provoke hostilities and give an excuse for anti-Castro rhetoric that was lapped up like cafecito by the refugees.
The Sugar cartel also made a point of laying large quantities of cash in the path of various politicians, who were thereby swayed in the direction of their cause: to keep Cuban sugar out of the US until every possible carbohydrate dollar had been wrung from the soil of South Florida. In this way, and by keeping the Cuban population of South Florida convinced that the only way to get Castro out of Cuba was to punish their less fortunate aunts, uncles and cousins, they managed to control a large voting bloc and enough politicians to keep the fantasy going.
And that, my friends, is why we still have no diplomatic relations with a country full of potentially friendly folks, who would love to see their relatives again, host Americans in their resorts, get some money to repair their infrastructure, and generally become part of the Second, if not the First World.
Our politicians, of course, hold to the Sugar Party line that Castro is a dictator, and we don't deal with dictators (unless, of course, they happen to be our dictators -- think Somoza, the Shah, Pinochet, etc., etc.).
The logic is bogus, of course, and only a concerted effort over the years has kept the wool pulled over the eyes of enough people to keep the myth alive. The myth: Castro (now Raul, following Fidel) is an evil dictator; we must starve him out by making sure that no money enters his country from the United States.
Think about it. You want to remove a dictator. He is willing to talk, to compromise. How do you do it?
You normalize relations, let people invest in his country, and really export democracy. When his people find out that it's possible to live a decent life and make a decent living by doing things our way, in a few years the dictator will be history -- and in the meantime everyone (except the sugar kings) will prosper. And besides, if the people are happy and prosperous, what business is it of the US Government who runs the country?
Why hasn't this simple, logical solution been applied? See above.
So the Cubans remain poor. We continue to try to impose our will on the world. Unsuccessfully. And the same bullshit continues. The same. More of the same.
McSame.
The Cubans are stricken with the same international disease as the Haitians: no oil, and nothing to offer rich people. True, there are some large corporations that would like to move some manufacturing to Cuba, where there is a large, well-educated, trainable and willing work force, but generally speaking trade with Cuba, from the standpoint of the politicians, has more liabilities than advantages. Thus, they are stuck in the same position as their close neighbors to the east. Relative poverty, an economy that badly needs a shot in the arm, and little in the way of making it happen.
The situation underlying The Cuban Issue goes back to the revolution in the late '50's. When it became clear that the Batista (and American) island empire was collapsing, a lot of rich folks in the Cuban sugar industry packed up their tents and moved to South Florida, where there was already a thriving community of expats. Looking to the west, at the peat muck of Palm Beach County and the rest of the area immediately south of Lake Okeechobee, they realized that the small holdings of US Sugar in that area were nothing compared to what could be wrung from what was perhaps the largest area of ultra-rich soil in the world.
Thus were born the Cuban Sugar Kings of South Florida. They prospered during the post-revolution years, and have continued to do so by insuring that the much cheaper high grade sugar produced by their former homeland does not reach our shores. They accomplished this by funding the anti-Castro groups in Dade (now Miami-Dade) County, and insuring that every time it looked as though things might be cooling off between the two countries, something happened to provoke hostilities and give an excuse for anti-Castro rhetoric that was lapped up like cafecito by the refugees.
The Sugar cartel also made a point of laying large quantities of cash in the path of various politicians, who were thereby swayed in the direction of their cause: to keep Cuban sugar out of the US until every possible carbohydrate dollar had been wrung from the soil of South Florida. In this way, and by keeping the Cuban population of South Florida convinced that the only way to get Castro out of Cuba was to punish their less fortunate aunts, uncles and cousins, they managed to control a large voting bloc and enough politicians to keep the fantasy going.
And that, my friends, is why we still have no diplomatic relations with a country full of potentially friendly folks, who would love to see their relatives again, host Americans in their resorts, get some money to repair their infrastructure, and generally become part of the Second, if not the First World.
Our politicians, of course, hold to the Sugar Party line that Castro is a dictator, and we don't deal with dictators (unless, of course, they happen to be our dictators -- think Somoza, the Shah, Pinochet, etc., etc.).
The logic is bogus, of course, and only a concerted effort over the years has kept the wool pulled over the eyes of enough people to keep the myth alive. The myth: Castro (now Raul, following Fidel) is an evil dictator; we must starve him out by making sure that no money enters his country from the United States.
Think about it. You want to remove a dictator. He is willing to talk, to compromise. How do you do it?
You normalize relations, let people invest in his country, and really export democracy. When his people find out that it's possible to live a decent life and make a decent living by doing things our way, in a few years the dictator will be history -- and in the meantime everyone (except the sugar kings) will prosper. And besides, if the people are happy and prosperous, what business is it of the US Government who runs the country?
Why hasn't this simple, logical solution been applied? See above.
So the Cubans remain poor. We continue to try to impose our will on the world. Unsuccessfully. And the same bullshit continues. The same. More of the same.
McSame.
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