The Obama We Are Creating
Illustration by Yasser Castellanos
HAVANA TIMES — The historic trip of US president Barack Obama to Cuba is right around the corner (March 21-22). Beyond the fixing up of building facades and filling pot holes to present the best of the capital to the illustrious guest and his delegation, many Cubans have their individual and collective expectations fixed on the possible tangible effects of the visit.
Just to point out Lou B that the car producing Korea you refer to is the democratic South Korea with a GDP per capita of $25,980 compared with North Korea where the Kim family communist dictatorship represented currently with the dangerously infantile Kim Jung Un who likes playing with nuclear toys and has succeeded even more effectively than the Castros in Cuba, in keeping his subjects in penury with a GDP per capita of $621.
I agree with Moses’ comments. While the U.S. embargo has existed for 58 years I can tell you there has been foreign trade with Cuba. Today, in Cuba, you’ll see cars from Japan, Korea, France, Spain and China.
The lifting of the embargo will help the Cubans and they do welcome the coming change. It will take some time for the embargo to benefit the people. After all, the populace can’t afford to purchase anything.
Although the Castros have already announced a successor, real change is not likely to happen until the Castros are gone.
Thrive? Probably not. Beyond the propaganda, the embargo has had very little direct effect on the Cuban economy. The Castros are free to do business with every country in the world save one. Tourists from every country except the US have unrestricted access. You have been drinking the Castro kool-aid too long. There is very little preventing the Castro economy from thriving now, except of course, the Castros themselves.
You are wrong Moses. The pride of the Castros did not allow them to beg the USA for nearly six decades. However, the USA suddenly need Cuba because of the Russia tension…
Get rid of the embargo and watch Cuba THRIVE! It’s not rocket science.
Oh right, that’s the goal of every country. To survive. How about beginning to THRIVE? It would likely cut down on the tens of thousands who risk their lives escaping Cuba. The US does not need Cuba. This is far from flattering. Cuba is a small poor country. The obvious is never flattering.
Moses, you flatter not only yourself but your entire nation too with your ongoing pipe-dream about who needs who. The Cuban government along with the Cuban people have made that abundantly clear by surviving more than 5 decades of your government’s continued tyranny. Begging for help? More ice for your Kool-Aid, Moses?
I say leave the potholes, the shabby buildings. Let them see what their blockade has done to this beautiful country and its people
Have you been asleep the last year and a half? Nearly every Cuban in Cuba is praying that US bail out the regime.
Begging for help ? What in the world are you referring to ?
On the way from the airport towards Central Havana and in a a few other prominent locations in the city there are huge billboards that numbers the amount of various items lost every day that the embargo is in place. I wonder if the Castros will leave that propaganda in place? It seems sort of disingenuous to be critical of US policy and beg for US help at the same time.