The Embargo

The Embargo

In southwest Florida we are blessed with a few stations of National Public Radio. The Naples station, WGCU, which I can receive, has a show called “Sound off with Sasha” every Friday at noon. Sasha is the genial hostess of the show which presents interviews with public figures including telephone caller participation. Topics cover a wide range, but politics and public policy are the most common.

Sasha is very well informed on the topics she covers, and her accent tells us she is from Eastern Europe, but her English is as good as any American’s, and her shows are always interesting and educational. My wife, Charlene, told me in advance Sasha was going to have a former State Department employee talk about US policy toward Cuba and suggested I be one of the callers because of my interest in Cuba.

The appointed Friday arrived, and I called in. I waited through the questions and answers of a couple of callers ahead of me while listening to the show on the Internet. When my turn came I described my being in Cuba on the night Barack Obama won the Presidency. There had been a huge interest in our election among the Cubans, and many of them asked me if I was as happy with the result as they were. (I was.) As my brief time with the guest grew short, I asked this challenging question, “What benefits does US policy toward Cuba (the embargo and the travel restrictions) offer to US citizens?”

Perhaps there had once been reasons for those sanctions, but clearly none can be found today. The guest, somewhat surprised, basically just said my question was rhetorical and didn’t answer it. That’s a cheap cop-out, I thought, but I was already off the air. Everything else the guest had said that day was supportive of US policy toward Cuba, but after his having presented so much in that vein, I was surprised he had ducked my question.

But, on further thought, the reason is easy to understand—the embargo and the travel restrictions do nothing for US citizens and our citizenry is beginning to understand that. These policies, which help us not one bit, can’t possibly do the man on the street in Cuba any good either. Meanwhile, over the last fifty years Cuban leaders have seemed to thrive, so our policies only punish the average Cuban. Governments are often irrational. This one (ours) is keeping in place an embargo and travel restrictions that serve only as historic relics of the Cold War. All those who set this policy in place are long since dead, as is the Cold War, but the insanity goes on. In an age when we need exports, we turn our back on 11 million close neighbors who all would love to have access to American products.

These posts are usually about animals in Cuba, so let me ask, how do you suppose the animals fare when life is made more difficult for their human guardians who can’t get parts for their cars and many other necessities? Of course, the animals in a household rank even lower that the poor people who are oppressed by our policy. It’s not a good thing when a 50 year old flap for nearly forgotten reasons makes things tough for an entire country and its cats and dogs.

Les Inglis