Since protesters typically aren’t very effective bitching about 5 different issues,
I decided that I could only pick one. Having an interest in traveling to remote
tropical areas, I have had this fascination with seeing Cuba. I want to sample
the foods, tread the beaches, meet the people and enjoy the nightlife of Havana.
The Cuban fascination started when I was about 7 years old. Ricky Ricardo
was such a nice guy, that even Fred Mertz who would seem to be the typical Immigrant
basher, never seemed to have a bad word about the Conga showman.
It
appears though that this fascination will be put on hold for awhile longer,
at least until the pothole hater Bush is still in power. Just last month
Bush’s treasury secretary John Snow announced that “We’re cutting off
American dollars headed to Castro, period. We’re cracking down. We mean business!”
The Bush administration went on to announce that 10 different companies were
identified as having direct links to the Cuban government. These companies
provided tours to Cuba under the allowed guidelines of being an educational
journey. I had read about these tours while I was in Jamaica a few years
back. You go over from Montego Bay and spend a night or two. You are escorted
by a guide who does all the money exchange for your lodging, meals and entertainment.
It stated you were not allowed to spend your own money while also noting
what you could bring back as being extremely limited. The tour usually included
some type of theater performance which I assume was the educational part. The
advertising pamphlet also noted that Cuban Immigration officials do not stamp
the American passports which gives you more peace of mind when returning to the
typically stone faced U.S. Customs inspectors.
These now tightening
restrictions appear to be another personal vendetta waged by Bush, and completely
in the opposite direction from the thinking of the Republican-led House
and Senate which have been trying for the last three years to ease the travel restrictions.
President Kennedy first placed economic sanctions on Cuba in
1963 during the Cold War. This was supposed to put an end to the chummy relationship
Cuba had with our old sinister enemy Russia. The Cold War eventually melted
but the U.S. still maintained a hate/hate relationship with the Caribbean’s
largest island. Forty years later this embargo appears to be a flop. U.S. rules
currently state that an American citizen can only visit the island if they are
a working journalist, have relatives which are Cuban citizens, providers of Humanitarian
aid or finally for educational purposes. American currency is
widely transferred and uniformly accepted throughout Cuba.
Are our
constitutional rights to travel to wherever we please, being suffocated by a power
monger? Varying reports speculate that over 100,000 U.S. citizens traveled
to Cuba legally last year. Reports also speculate that a similar number had landed
in Havana illegally. To arrive the illegal way, they would have to had made
the trip from a number of places including Montego Bay, Cancun, Mexico City or
many of the large Canadian cities. As mentioned previously in this article, the
Cuban government works like a secret club that wants you to come in, but will
never tell anyone you have been there. If someone was caught upon returning to
the States, the fines can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars not
including your legal fees. Is a good Cuban worth the risk? I wonder how
many times the smoky haze of a Cuban has graced the hallways of the Capitol building
now that cigar chomping Arnie is in power?
I have talked to
a number of people to hear their views about traveling to Cuba and most have came
up with a blanket response that Fidel Castro was once a bad man. Well maybe
he was, but so was Mohmar Khadafi. And I would have to assume the atrocities Khadafi
were responsible for would make Castro’s reign of terror appear more like
a Sunday school gathering. The thing is that Khadafi is now playing ass kisser
to Uncle Sam while Castro still blurts out the Anti-American one liners that Jay
Leno would be envious of. Recently Castro was quoted as saying “Bush couldn’t
debate a Cuban ninth grader”, while also claiming that if Cuba was so bad
then why does the island have no illiteracy rate, a higher student/teacher rate,
and free health care for all citizens. Castro also pissed off the White
House by saying the U.S. was a banana republic with an over $520 billion debt.
Castro can put away his cowboy boots because obviously these type of comments
won’t get him an invitation to the Bush ranch anytime soon. Signs of paranoia
have even began to fester as Castro was recently quoted as saying “the CIA has
tried to kill me over 600 times, each one unsuccessful”.
If I had
it my way, Bush and Castro would meet in a Fox Network reality show where they
would engage in various competitions including a chili cook-off, cigar rolling
contest, and a donkey versus mule race. In the background would be a slew of scantly
clad Flamenco dancers and Raider cheerleaders. The winner would decide the
final fate of the imposing restrictions.
Finally before you start
thinking I am some type of Uncle Sam basher, please understand where I am coming
from. By allowing a flow of American tourism back into the country, our personal
one on one cultural situations with the every day Cubans will only increase
the likely hood of a Democratic transition once the old guy is gone. U.S. currency
is already widely accepted and traded throughout the island. Just because
Cuba now appears to be the grumpy old uncle who never has anything good to say,
shouldn’t be reason enough to be blackballed.
Since it doesn’t appear that anyone is going to budge on this issue, maybe I will
have to set my sights on a visit to Libya while the window of opportunity is open,
since they have now chosen to play by all of our rules. Anyone wonder why
the world seems to have a diminishing respect for good ole’ America? Have we become
the neighborhood bully who will blacken your eyes if you choose to cross
its mighty path? I often wonder if we are slowly becoming what we have been
so frightened of, for so long.
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