Well, hello and welcome back. (That welcome was directed at me, not you.) It's been several months since I've had the pleasure of writing a useless blog post. This is mostly because I decided that the tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debts that I've acquired need not be used for me to spend my time playing pretend-journalist. But, here I am on winter break, and I'm certain that there's nothing that Jesus would rather me do than spend his birthday writing an article.
The hard part - as always - is deciding on which topic to write. The nationalization of Christmas in a so-called secular country? Nah. The unfortunate but imminent passing of George H.W. Bush that is likely to soon occur as he spends this holiday in the hospital? No thanks. The Interview, Sony, and current U.S. relations with North Korea? Good Lord, no.
Instead, I'd prefer to write about something that has me incredibly excited: the normalization of relations with Cuba. "But Steve, why are you excited to reestablish ties with a communist nation?" you ask, idiotically. Because I like cigars—that's why. Well, that's partially true, but the full answer goes much deeper than that.
Let's first take a look at some brief Cuban history to better understand why we cut ties with the nation in the first place. For those of you who slept through 11th grade history, the Spanish-American War (fought in 1898) was the result of American attempts at gaining control in Cuba despite Spanish ownership of the island. The United States emerged victorious, and while we never gained formal control or ownership of Cuba, a sufficient military presence allowed American rule of the nation until 1902 when it was granted full independence.
Fast forward to 1959. The Cuban Revolution takes place and a man named Fidel Castro, a staunch communist, finds himself as the Prime Minister of Cuba. The United States, at the time, is facing an escalating Cold War with the Soviet Union and fears that Soviet influence in Cuba could result in the hands of communism stretching eerily close to the shores of America. So what do we do? What America does best: Stage an attempted coup to overthrow Fidel's regime in Cuba. This is what's known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and - once again, for those of you who slept through history class - it failed miserably. Now I'm not going to criticize the United States for attempting to overthrow the Castro regime; after all, at the time, staging various coup d'états around the world was kind of our "thing". It was a stupid plan, however.
But why did we feel such an obligation to attempt a coup in Cuba? Well partly because, as I mentioned, we wanted to remain as distant as possible from the Soviet sphere of influence. The other main reason was that Cuba was restricting American industries inside their borders. This, needless to say, pissed off the U.S. because, well, how dare another nation prevent us from economically exploiting the hell out of them - right?
So how do we respond to this failed overthrow and economic strife? We heavily strengthen the preexisting embargo in an attempt to strong arm Cuba into doing what we want. Because if there's one thing that will convince communist Cuba to cut their ties with the communist Soviet Union, it's bullying them. Again, I believe wholeheartedly that it was within our best judgment to attempt to dissuade Cuba from a close relationship with the USSR, but our tactics were incredibly flawed.
Over the years since, the embargo has been tightened to prevent any trade, travel, or exchange of capital with Cubans except for limited and specific reasons. Yet, Fidel Castro, the man behind the communist movement in Cuba and the driving factor behind the American embargo exited his position of leadership in Cuba in 2011. Subsequently, his brother, Raúl, took over, and while there is no question that Raúl Castro is a dedicated communist, he has proven to be more pragmatic and levelheaded than his brother.
So now that the USSR has been disbanded for 23 years, Fidel Castro is out of power, and the U.S. has no existing economic interests in Cuba, this begs a very serious question: Why is the embargo being maintained? Well the answer, hopefully, is that it will not be continued much longer. Although I am often a large critic of the Obama administration, this is one of the President's smartest moves since entering office. This has not prevented him from receiving a great deal of flack over the situation, however.
It seems to me as though many Americans - particularly conservatives - enjoy hating Cuba for the sake of hating someone. Sure we can hate Iran or Yemen, but they're so far away! Cuba is so close to American shores that the radiative hate that we direct towards the island nation basically bounces off and warms our faces like a UV reflecting board used for tanning (something that John Boehner appears to be all too familiar with). The Cold War is long completed, but Cuba is the one foe that we can still hold onto, because what's the United States without a communist counterpart? If we ever want Red Dawn to take place, we're going to have to continue to ostracize Cuba.
Cuba is like the kid on the playground that we used to bully, and while all the other kids grew up and got bigger, Cuba stayed the same size, so we stroke our playground ego and feed our unwarranted superiority complex by pushing him around. What we've yet to realize, however, is that this animosity toward Cuba doesn't hurt just Cuba—it hurts the United States too.
Not only does Cuba represent a potential trade partner, but the costs of exporting to Cuba and importing from Cuba due to their geographic proximity are nearly negligible. But let's also consider the nations around the world with whom we have formal diplomatic relations: Afghanistan, Yemen, Qatar, South Sudan and Iran (though no operational embassies), Somalia, Turkmenistan, and so on and so forth. And even though we lack formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, we do communicate with them and allow American citizens to travel there. Right now it's easier for an American to travel to North Korea or go join ISIS than it is to go vacation on a Caribbean Island 90 miles from U.S. land. Am I really the only one that finds this absurd?
Under the President's new plan - which is very similar to the action taken by Nixon to normalize relations with China, for which he was applauded - American and Cuban citizens would be afforded normalized trade, travel, and diplomatic relations. This means that you can buy and sell with Cuba; you can vacation in Cuba; and, ideally, each country will establish an embassy in the respective nation. Exactly what part of vacationing in Cuba doesn't sound nice?
Let's think about what we have to gain. We can improve our relationship with a nation that we have unreasonably resented for decades while improving economic gain and the basic pillars of free enterprise. Most importantly, however, we can help to improve Cuba. While their cigars may be fantastic, their living conditions are not. Between subpar medical facilities, shortages of doctors, a lack of medicine, poor water quality, and frequent malnourishment, there are a lot of problems in Cuba that could easily be remedied by normalized relations with the United States. Not only does this allow us to save lives and promote goodwill, it also provides great financial benefits for American industries and charities that choose to setup shop in Cuba.
The fact of the matter is, Cuba poses no real economic or militaristic threat; Fidel Castro, while still alive, possesses no real power in Cuba; there is basically no chance that communism will leak into the American political system more than it already has (I'm looking at you, Bernie Sanders); the Soviet Union is long and gone; and most importantly, we have nothing to lose but everything to gain from reviving relations with Cuba. So with that being said, ¡Feliz Navidad!, and if you need to find me, I'll be vacationing in Paradisus Varadero.
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