Elian's Fate

That poor kid got shipped back to Cuba and none of us know what happened to him. Most of us stopped caring. Because of the current administration's policy regarding sanctions on that nation, not even a humanitarian minded organization with unlimited resources would be permitted to assist Elian Gonzales. Back in the day we placed santions on trade and travel with Cuba because of their "evil communist regime." During the Clinton administration however, much of those sanctions were reformed through such policies as the Trade and Sanction Reform and Enhancement Act. This allowed the U.S. to export food items such as poultry and corn (items that can not easily be sustained within the borders of an island). Exports scaled enormously until Bush reversed the policy despite overwhelming encouragement from the entire EU, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to open the borders. Why is it exactly, that we continue to punish them? Castro is not a very nice man, I'll admit, but why punish the helpless victims of his regime? What if we had the same policy with China....another nasty regime? Certainly the trade restrictions would greatly hurt American economy!

This further feeds into my theory of the current administration's foriegn policy of "interfere only when it benifits us." While I refuse to buy into that form of selfishness, it seems to be the only level of reasoning that Bush understands so it is for this reason, that I will make the claim that lifting trade and travel embargoes on Cuba could, in fact, benifit the United States. First of all, while the exports to Cuba during the Clinton administration increased, imports remained nil. Our economy could possibly benifit from an increase in trade with such an accessible country. Second, travel restrictions could greatly benifit both parties concerned. As a native Coloradoan, I certainly know how crucial travel and tourism is to a thriving economy. Lastly, maybe with improved relations, we could futher monitor human rights within Cuba. It is illegal to own a vcr or have access to the internet, so many people imprisoned within the legal system in Cuba are being unjustly punished for simply trying to keep up with modern technology.

So far, all that we seem to be doing is waiting for Castro to croak. Soon enough he will die and some other dictator will use force and fire power to rise to power. Nothing will improve! Maybe a better policy to adopt as the U.S. should be to start a healthy relationship now. Not the kind of storm in and overthrow relationship we have with Iraq (for of course crude oil is limited in Cuba), but the kind of relationship that can aide humanitarian efforts to watch out for Elian and his little friends. At the very least, we should do it for the beaches. I'm always interested in visiting a new beach.

Adventure On The High Seas

I went on a cruise with my family over Thanksgiving, (c.f. The problem with us.) and I have an interesting story from the second day. Around 9am the second morning of the cruise, my brother and dad came knocking on the door of my mom and my room to alert us of a couple of guys floating out in the middle of the ocean on a couple of two-by-fours. We ran up to the top deck (along with every one else on the cruise) and watched as the massive ship, able to carry over 3,000 people, floated up to a couple of stranded men and plucked them out of the water. There was no land to be seen, but apparently their boat had sunk at some point during the night and Carnival Cruiseline had received the distress signal and come to the rescue. They didn't look like they were in great shape, but who would be doing well after spending the night stranded in the middle of the ocean? According to the annoucements over the p.a. system, they were given the proper medical attention and survived. I'm assuming that we dropped them off at the next port (Grand Caymon). Word on the street (or should I say deck?) was that they were errant Cubans trying to flee to the states, and it is for that reason that my next blog, after extensive and overwhelmingly biased research, will address why the U.S. should lift embargoes on that country. These guys brought my worse nightmare to life!