It looks like the policy of engagement with the Cuban dictatorship is beginning to bear fruit. Since (as we have been told time and time again) isolation of a murderous, totalitarian regime that has enslaved an entire nation of 11+ million people will achieve nothing, the EU, Canada, and most recently, the Obama administration, has decided to do the opposite. I imagine, then, that none of us should be surprised to find out that this new policy of engagement is starting to pay off.

On October 18th, Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos is arriving in Cuba to make, as this Latin American Herald Tribune article states, "further progress in Spain’s political dialogue with the communist regime, which will include the state of human rights on the island."

To achieve the goal of this visit--the discussion of human rights--will be quite a feat since Moratinos has already announced that he has no intentions whatsoever to meet with the Cubans whose human rights are being violated. Instead, in order to maintain the spirit of engagement and dialogue, Moratinos will meet only with officials of the regime. The visit, the Spanish government tells us, is of an "institutional nature," so I am sure that the tens of thousands of Cubans being beaten, oppressed, threatened, jailed, and kept as slaves will surely understand. It is all in the name of progress.

Another ripened fruit that just appeared hanging low on the vine is the just announced deal for a new fiber optic cable between the US and Cuba. A small, never-heard-of-before Miami company, TeleCuba Communications, Inc., just received authorization from Obama's State Department to lay a fiber optic cable between Key West and Cojimar, Cuba.

It is amazing that in a world filled with huge, well-connected and ridiculously well-funded telecommunications companies, a tiny Miami company that has done nothing else in the past becomes the first company to win the right to do the project. Who would have ever thought that a small company would beat out the big boys to collect the immense profits that will surely be realized once the connection is actualized. It turns out that the big telecommunications company do not seem to worry TeleCuba CEO Luis Coello; his only concern is if his company will be able to beat the Venezuelans to connect Cuba via fiber optic cables. Just like Obama, a relatively unknown entity pops up out of nowhere to realize incredible success. Is this a great country or what?

Yes, the tree of hope and change, watered with engagement and dialogue, is beginning to bear fruit. And plenty of people are lining up to pick that fruit and feast on it. This fruit, however, is beyond the reach of Oscar Elias Biscet, and Darsi Ferrer, and Antunez, and the thousands of other dissidents on the island. And the millions of enslaved Cubans will have to wait because as everyone knows, someone has to provide the cheap labor and honestly, there just isn't enough fruit to go around.

I am sure that it must be purely coincidence that this policy of engagement is working out exactly as we intransigent hardliners said it was going to work out.