Ideology…
I have always found Cuba to be fascinating, alluring. The spirited combinations it brings to my senses entrance me. Of all the Caribbean and Latin music, Cuba’s fusion of sounds blows me away. Of all the wonderful lime, salt and spice that has burned my lips south of the United States, the simplicity of Cuban food sets me right. And of course, there is the rum and cigars.
The island country has been consistently on my “Top Five Places to Visit” list for years and yet, I have still not set foot on its shores. The reasons are obvious and nearly fifty years old. Thus, I find the United States newly solidified position of continuing the embargo against Cuba annoying (White House Fact Sheet here). However, my personal desire to dance, drink, eat and smoke are ridiculously asinine in comparison to the real repercussions the embargo has on the Cuban people.
Despite recent developments which has allowed more aid, trade and currency exchange to take place from the United States and other countries, the residual effects of a past reliance on one cash crop (sugar cane, supported mainly by the USSR until the 1980′s) in conjunction with a strict, controlled economy with little cash flow has left the Cuban people with very little in terms of economic stability or a high standard of living. In many ways, Cuba seems stuck somewhere between 1950 and now. Yet, “good medical care is freely available for all, there is 98% literacy, and Cuba’s infant mortality rates compare favourably with western nations” (BBC article here) leaving one to believe that Cuba, like most countries, exists contradictory and complexly in the modern world.
Thus, in this light, the continual blockade seems ludicrous. Cuba displays itself with little economic difference to other countries who the U.S. readily and freely shares its economic fruits. Given Cuba’s geographical location, its continual allowance of a U.S. presence in Guantanamo Bay, its economic need and, of course, its ever-present familial connections, new economic dealings with the country seem perfectly inline with a U.S. ambition of providing choice, information and freedom to otherwise closed societies. Of course, any notion of trade with Cuba has little to do with “economic necessity,” “economic need” or even a beneficial recipricocity within the economic or humanitarian realm. Instead, as with the Cold War, the dichotomous economic and political pairing of the United States and Cuba resides solely in ideology. And I must say, I find nothing more insulting.
That is, until, my President utilizes this ideology to mock and degrade the country’s leader. In multiple statements (June 2007, October 2007), President Bush has shamelessly presented his desire for the death of Fidel Castro. Regardless of one’s opinion of the aging leader, the blatant disregard for Castro as not only a leader but as a human strikes me as low. Obviously, this is the President who felt it decent to place the words “fair” and “justice” in reference to the execution of another leader (Statement on the Execution of Saddam Hussein here), but I continue to expect more from my country and those who represent it. The world is not one-dimensional. In personifying it as such, Bush and those who support such sentiments fail the world in so many regards.
Tags: Bush, Politics, Cuba, Castro, Embargo
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