The rabid dislike of the Cuban government by Cuban-Americans in Miami, as the comments to the following Huffington Post photo article attest to, appears to be intractable.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/28/vintage-photos-from-rober_n_788633.html#postComment
Their attitude gets on my very last nerve, and I try to bring in a fresh perspective when I can. I prefer to focus on Cuba as a model sustainable nation, but there is no escaping the political conundrum in which the island finds itself. Cuba is beset by problems that stem from the US embargo against it. At the same time, were it not for the embargo, Cuba would be overrun by power madness, greed, and profligacy coming from the imposition on it of the American way of life.
One comment went as follows: "People live in very cramped quarters, can't afford new clothes or interesting and varied diets, and are often unable to put their excellent educations to use - all the result of restrictions on entrepreneurial activity and free market enterprise. Cuba provides exhibit A for why democratic socialism - the free market tempered by an active welfare state - is the best system."
But Cuba is also very verdant, as anyone flying over it can clearly see. Is Cuba so beautiful and "green" (it has a very small carbon footprint) because it has not been contaminated by advanced capitalism? One writer stated, as though I would be sure to get the point, that several families share a 40-year-old car. Well? Is that a bad thing?
Both the US and Cuba could benefit by a rapprochement, but that is harder to come by from the US side than from Cuba's. Cuba's ingenuity and adherence to core principles are nothing short of miraculous in the world we have today. It is an educated country (97% literacy) with universal health care, and yet it is dirt poor. This is a miracle. We could learn so much from this small nation. It is one of the world's tragedies that we can't come together and take the best that each has to offer.
It would be nice if the embargo were lifted in so thoughtful a way that Cuba wouldn't be consequently overrun by capitalism gone mad. There is the (unavoidable?) danger that the American way could destroy the resourcefulness, the conservation ethic, the egalitarianism, and other positive attributes of the Cuban system, even as it provides the missing qualities of entrepreneurial enterprise and freedom of speech. But we can't control everything. The choice has to be Cuba’s.
I don't wish to live in Cuba. I'm too much of a rebel and individualist to fit in there. I don't wish to live in Iraq either, despite the US presence there. The cards I have been dealt have not relegated me to those places, but I try to be as understanding as possible about those who live there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/28/vintage-photos-from-rober_n_788633.html#postComment
Their attitude gets on my very last nerve, and I try to bring in a fresh perspective when I can. I prefer to focus on Cuba as a model sustainable nation, but there is no escaping the political conundrum in which the island finds itself. Cuba is beset by problems that stem from the US embargo against it. At the same time, were it not for the embargo, Cuba would be overrun by power madness, greed, and profligacy coming from the imposition on it of the American way of life.
One comment went as follows: "People live in very cramped quarters, can't afford new clothes or interesting and varied diets, and are often unable to put their excellent educations to use - all the result of restrictions on entrepreneurial activity and free market enterprise. Cuba provides exhibit A for why democratic socialism - the free market tempered by an active welfare state - is the best system."
But Cuba is also very verdant, as anyone flying over it can clearly see. Is Cuba so beautiful and "green" (it has a very small carbon footprint) because it has not been contaminated by advanced capitalism? One writer stated, as though I would be sure to get the point, that several families share a 40-year-old car. Well? Is that a bad thing?
Both the US and Cuba could benefit by a rapprochement, but that is harder to come by from the US side than from Cuba's. Cuba's ingenuity and adherence to core principles are nothing short of miraculous in the world we have today. It is an educated country (97% literacy) with universal health care, and yet it is dirt poor. This is a miracle. We could learn so much from this small nation. It is one of the world's tragedies that we can't come together and take the best that each has to offer.
It would be nice if the embargo were lifted in so thoughtful a way that Cuba wouldn't be consequently overrun by capitalism gone mad. There is the (unavoidable?) danger that the American way could destroy the resourcefulness, the conservation ethic, the egalitarianism, and other positive attributes of the Cuban system, even as it provides the missing qualities of entrepreneurial enterprise and freedom of speech. But we can't control everything. The choice has to be Cuba’s.
I don't wish to live in Cuba. I'm too much of a rebel and individualist to fit in there. I don't wish to live in Iraq either, despite the US presence there. The cards I have been dealt have not relegated me to those places, but I try to be as understanding as possible about those who live there.
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