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Cuba embargo only hurts US interests
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/community/x1664565681/Cuba-embargo-only-hurts-US-interests
I have been bothered by one aspect of President Obama's Jan. 27 State of the Union address: the part where he talks about foreign threats, national security and America's need to stand against oppression. "America must always stand on the side of freedom and human dignity," Obama said. "... Abroad, America's greatest source of strength has always been our ideals." He referenced Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, but his words made me think of that other great "threat" to the south -- Cuba.
I would really like to see Americans become more aware of the extreme hardships of the Cuban people, much of it created by the oppression of the United States government.
The Republic of Cuba is not asking for the U.S. to give it anything. Cuba is not even asking for the money that the U.S. seized from it. Cuba is only asking that the U.S. lift its near-50-year embargo, so that other countries will feel free to trade with the Caribbean nation.
It costs our government nothing to lift the embargo. Of course the politicians who benefit from pro-embargo lobbyist money will no longer get those funds. Former President Clinton received a lot of support from those lobbyists when he was running for president. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, received support for her campaign debt from pro-embargo lobbyists, as did various others. Whether the U.S. likes the Cuban government or not it is not for us to say. It is for the people currently living in Cuba to say. We say they don't like or trust their government. How many Americans do we hear daily say the same thing about our government?
If the supposed reason is that we are not done punishing Cuba for not allowing the U.S. to successfully invade their country, we need to realize we just make ourselves look ridiculous. Americans need to understand that the United States government is the sole oppressor of the Cuban people, and the media can help by covering it, along with other issues important to Cuban-Americans. Consider:
Last October, the United Nations condemned the U.S. embargo of Cuba for the 18th year in a row.
In 1975, both U.S. neighbors -- Mexico and Canada -- broke ranks with the U.S. by developing closer relations with Cuba.
Fidel Castro could not have come into power without the backing of the majority of Cubans, nor could he have stayed in power without their support.
Since Obama has been in office, there have been only two changes in regard to Cuba: some minor changes in restrictions on travel and sending remittances to family; and shutting down a ticker atop a U.S. interest section in Havana that has, since 2006, scrolled anti-Cuba/Castro slogans in 5-foot-high crimson red letters.
The crushing poverty Cuba has had to endure for so many years is a direct effect of the U.S. embargo. Even if Cubans had the money, there were no goods to buy. It has only been since Cuba has been named the safest tourist destination in the Western Hemisphere every year since 2002, that tourism has steadily increased. This has increased income to the country, thereby relieving some poverty.
The women of Cuba are more liberated than in any other Latin American country.
Cuba is tied for the highest literacy rate in the world (higher than the U.S.) at 99.8 percent.
The U.S. openly trades with communist China, but the Cuban embargo stands.
Cuba has nationalized health care, with great doctors, but there are no vitamins, aspirin, antibacterial cream or drug store items, due to the embargo.
Last June 3, the Organization of American States adopted a contentious resolution to end the exclusion of Cuba, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked out in protest as the resolution was being drafted.
As pundit Wei Hongxia writes, political realists in the U.S., such as Henry Kissinger, have argued for years that the embargo policy undercuts U.S. diplomatic efforts on a host of fronts because it is so widely disliked by other countries, especially in the Western Hemisphere.
As Hongxia also notes, human rights groups like Amnesty International have long pointed out that the U.S. embargo policy is only an obstacle to improving human conditions, not an aid.
I understand that the large majority of Americans do not know or care about the U.S. embargo against Cuba. I also know that until Cuban-Americans start speaking out against the embargo, it will not end. We need to stop accepting the sadness that our older people have to deal with as "part of being Cuban." Every Cuban has older family members who get to "that age" when they start to cry for their paradise (Cuba) -- the beauty, the people, the music, the smells, the island in general.
I have seen so many of my older family members cry for Cuba and for the chance to see it again before they die. Now it's my 80-year-old father's turn, and I no longer feel like accepting sadness as part of being Cuban.
Amanda Nobregas of Bakersfield is a first-generation American (Brooklyn-born) who served in the U.S. Army. She is a county employee.
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