Let me preface this post with the admission regarding Cuban politics; I know only what I read and what I have, personally, observed since 1995 and our first visit to the country. Conversations with Cubans must be handled with absolute diplomacy. You are warned not to discuss politics. There are ways around this but it isn’t a wise conversational choice.
I love Cuba; I love the people. The dignity, the pride…it is unmatched. In the face of over 50 years of an American Imperialist embargo, they continue to stand up in the face of a most criminal action. Cuba is a sovereign nation, drives American oligarchs crazy. It isn’t that there are tremendous natural resources, it isn’t that it is a country rich in, well…anything really; it is that they have stood up to the U.S.
Cuba is not a terrorist state, it never has been. They haven’t invaded or bombed other sovereign nations, something the U.S. cannot claim. Is it a perfect nation? Hell no. There is poverty, there are stunning shortages, electricity is cut off for the vast majority of the day, for most Cubans but they go on. They survive when they should be entitled to thrive.
Cuba is an example for Canadians. They have stood strong against the embargo at tremendous socio-economic cost. While Cuba has no real natural resource stockpiles, they are still managing. Canada, on the other hand, has untold wealth in natural resources. We are in a far better position to stand against American expansionism.
The hypocrisy of the U.S. is absolutely stunning; the world has been told they cannot trade/import with Cuba because the U.S. says so….meanwhile? Russia is trading and importing although amounts are down due to Russia’s own socio-economic position. Funny how nothing is said to Russia about the defying of the American embargo.
In all fairness, it is difficult to trade with Cuba as they do have a cashflow problem, payment for goods is unreasonably slow, if at all. This starts to head into a topic that I would be best served avoiding.
Canadians are at the top of the tourist food chain in Cuba; we love the country. Absolutely, the weather and the beauty of the beaches are one reason, the people and the history are another but for many, a bonus is this is a way to quietly send a big old F.U. to the United States.
Bottomline, fellow Canadians, if a tiny nation, 90 miles from the U.S. can stand up to the bully, so can we, with our resources, our reputation and our allies. It won’t be easy but we are more than capable of establishing trade relations across the globe and diversifying reliance on the global bully, a bully who has managed to, in just a few weeks, become a global pariah, a joke and the object of increasingly mistrust. The American reputation as a global leader has sunk, time to set a new global leader afloat. We are not spoiled for choice; there are many global leaders more worthy of our allegiance.
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