Cuba: time to change course

Our Best Wishes for 2007 : a New Congress with more maturity, responsibility, awareness about the real world, and the urgent need to be Smarter with Latin America, as advocated by The Liaison, for the last three months.

In a few years, a billion people will be living in the Americas, more than half in Latin American countries. We can not afford to ignore, and/or disregard the importance of establishing a smarter liaison with 700 million consumers, outside our borders.

For doing so, we must learn to be less ignorant, less arrogant, and more vigilant about our budget, more conscious about our spending. The members of the Congress should be aware of the consequences of their decisions, and become accountable for.

Because of our failed Foreign Policy, and poor selection of ambassadors, our children will pay a heavy price. We already have lost the trust and credibility from an alarming number of countries, including previous close friends. US companies will be affected by losing contracts and/or existing customers and/or not being able to compete for foreign projects.

We will become more isolated at the United Nations, and other International Forums. The New Congress should immediately realize our present alarming financial situation:

i- the value of our US dollar has sharply declined in the last five years

ii- for the first time, we are giving more money to foreigners than we receive from them (interest paid to them versus their investment)

iii- in the next budget, almost $300 billion will be paid in interest only (about 45% going abroad, mostly to China, South Korea and Japan)

iv- in the last few years, we have been giving more and more money abroad, and receiving less and less investment.

Both, our budget deficit, and our trade deficit, have reached disastrous levels. In addition, our healthcare service is deteriorating, and our education system not competing with Canada, Asia and Europe. Great heritage to our future generations !

A survey made by Commonwealth Fund (more than 6,000 doctors in seven countries), gave United States poor marks (the worst) on several aspects of patient care : wait times for test ; use of electronic medical records ; doctors available after hours ; multi-discipline teams to treat chronic illness ; financial incentives for improving quality of care.

The survey suggested that we have a long way to go, on many fronts, to catch up with the other countries, which included Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany.

One instance :95% of doctors in the Netherlands have arrangements for after-hours care, so people can avoid going to an emergency room. The US is the lowest at 40%

We, naively and stubbornly, believe that we can force other nations to kneel to our desires, via embargo, trade blockade, pressure, etc.

We applause the initiative of two Congressmen, Bill Delahunt (D., Massachusetts) and Jeffrey Flake (R., Arizona), to launch an investigation of various US programs to promote democracy in Cuba.

In spite of severe, and unfair barriers imposed to Cuba, by outsiders (an alliance of United States with itself), Cuban Authorities have succeeded to establish a great education system, and healthcare service. Not everything is perfect in Cuba (are we?), but, as a Caribbean Island, Cuba did "a heck of job".

We must remember that Cuba is not an industrialized country. Instead of wasting a few hundreds $ million to create enemies in Cuba and Latin America, we should have taken care of Puerto Rico, in a distress situation, with 35% unemployment, and a per capita income, much, much lower than our poorest State, according to a Puerto Rican research group, Center for the the New Economy.

As we have suggested, in a previous article, with much less money, we would be more than pleased to elaborate a few serious projects in Cuba, and establish a willing long lasting relationship, in the mutual benefit of our both countries.

Cuba does not need us anymore. They are welcoming more than 2 million happy tourists per year who can walk anywhere, feel secure, and do not have to cross check points (contrary to a certain propaganda). This is a $1.8 billion industry.

In addition, with the assistance of China and Germany, the biotechnology will provide an interesting source of foreign capital ($300 million, last year).

As any reformers, Fidel Castro succeeded in certain areas, but failed in others, so, other leaders of democratic countries. His brother, Raul, is a more pragmatic stateman, and a better administrator.

Castro has not been worse than other leaders. He did eliminate enemies of his regime or those who were trying to kill him. Are we not putting in jail the authors of tentatives to assasinate our Presidents? Did we tolerate slavery in the past? Did we incarcerate Japanese residents? Did we consider black people as a second class? Did we (or do we still) treat women fairly?

The real assistance we can provide to real Cubans, will be to lift the embargo, and show the World that we are really a free country, with freedom of speech, travel and trade. May be, we could then regain some respect, and credibility.

Let's hope the New Congress see the light, on behalf of 99.5% of the real Americans, and change the course with Cuba and Latin America.

"We will bring some civility in Washington" dixit Nancy Pelosi. How about becoming civilized with real Cubans? Once more, our population as a whole is more mature, and more clairvoyant, than our elected representatives. Our children will be ashamed of us, and they will be reminded so, as soon as they travel abroad, if they feel secure to do so.

A great, great majority of Americans do not approve our behaviour with Cuba. We are missing the boat, by governing for the few, not for the many. It's more than time to change the course with Cuba. In our next article: more than 90% of Americans are against our policy with Cuba.

The Facilitator