An editorial today by Eric Margolis in the Canadian paper Edmonton Sun broaches the subject of change in Cuba since the crowning of the new king last week. Mr. Margolis, correctly I should add, surmises that as long as the inner circle of castro, Inc. remains in power, any change will be small and slow to come.
So what’s next for 11 million long-suffering Cubans? Slow speed ahead, for the present, with modest reforms. The army has assumed more power. The economy will remain on life support, kept going by free oil from Venezuela and tourism. Cuba will remain a tropical police state with a clapped out Marxist economy.
Mr. Margolis—who apparently has been around and has some very deep connections—even goes further and shares with his readers some inside information he has received from French Intelligence sources:
French intelligence sources tell me there is a growing risk of major street violence by poor blacks, who make up 60% of the population and live in slums ringing Havana. Army units have been deployed around the capitol.
The first half of Mr. Margolis’ editorial appears to be a logical and informed opinion of how all is not well on the Cuban island, despite of what the castro regime sycophants would like us all to believe. It is not until the second half of the editorial where he returns to the usual myopic view that the cure for Cuba’s totalitarian disease is the lifting of the US embargo. A view, which Mr. Margolis clearly illustrates by his choice of words, that is based more on hatred of the US and the Cuban exile community than any logic or history.
The nearly half-century U.S. blockade of Cuba is incredibly stupid and must be ended. It probably will be if the Democrats win the White House, in spite of right wing Cuban exile voters in south Florida who keep the embargo alive.
If Americans really want to help long-suffering Cubans, they must engage politically and economically with Havana and end the embargo.
While Mr. Margolis blasts the US and Cuban exiles for being the only thing standing in the way of freedom for the Cuban people, he fails to explain to his readers how he came to the logical conclusion that “…to help long-suffering Cubans, they [Americans] must engage politically and economically with Havana and end the embargo.” This would be quite a feat when you consider that by his own admission in the first half of the editorial, after billions of dollars in trade from Canada and millions of Canadian tourists flooding the island, Cuba remains a “a tropical police state with a clapped out Marxist economy.”
At the risk of sounding facetious I have to ask Mr. Margolis just what is so much better about American tourists and American businesses that he feels they can accomplish what the millions of Canadian tourists and the billions of dollars in Canadian trade have not been able to? Are Americans that much better than Canadians when it comes to being envoys of freedom and liberty?
Could it be that subconsciously Mr. Margolis feels Canadians are inferior to Americans? Or, does he just ignore logic when it comes to anything that has to do with American foreign policy?
My guess? It is a little of both.
Alberto –
Just figure that Margolis trying to maintain his “journalistic street cred” after writing some anti-fifo stuff. What would be nice, JUST ONCE, would be for some newspaper guy to tell the truth about “el bloqueo”, insofar as all that is left on a practical basis is the requirement of PAY CASH – something most merchants would require of someone with Bad Credit.
-S-
Alberto –
Thinking about it, I’ll take it a step further.
With the US as the merchant, and willing to sell on a Cash Basis. Think of the Castro Regime as the guy who robbed the store. Not a person I would want to do business with on a Credit Basis.
-S-
Well not much help from US capitalists on that quarter: Just watched Fox Business (foxnews.com) where both Embassy Suites and Trump Jr. do not foresee their companies running in desperation to Cuba to sink investments there, per little Trump: “first you have to remove all the nuisance”, meaning 50 years of neglect in order for his company doing business there. Don’t look like a lot of expectations from the hotel U.S industry.
-S-
It makes a lot of sense what you say that Margolis is only trying to keep his “street cred” with the second half of his editorial. Even if he has to compromise his own journalistic integrity by writing an editorial that contradicts itself so blatantly.
But I would go further to say that he himself does not see the contradiction because he cannot see past his hatred for the US and Cuban exiles. To him, and the many like him, once the subject of Cuba turns to the US and Cuban exiles, their hatred takes over and all logic is thrown out the window.
To me this is just another shining example of their bias. They have been the accomplices to a brutal and murderous regime for almost five decades, but they could never reconcile that in their minds. So, they have to have a bogeyman to blame: enter the US and Cuban exiles.
Doorgunner, the only way US businesses will extend credit to the Cuban dictatorship will be if that debt is guaranteed by the US government, some other foreign country, or a world bank. US corporations may be greedy and immoral, but they’re not stupid.