Rediscovering Cuba

Thanks, Mr. Obama 
Saturday, April 30th, 2016 

        On the heels of five decades of the U. S. and Cuban exiles targeting Cuba with cruel embargoes as well as both cold and hot wars, the world, including the U. S., is again opening up to the tropical island thanks to the startling effects of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with nearby Cuba. The photo above shows American superstar actor Vin Diesel in Havana with his mammoth Hollywood crew to film the latest movie -- entitled FAST 8 -- in the wildly successful Fast and Furious series. The prodigious entourage includes other superstar actors such as Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson, Kurt Russell, Eva Mendes, etc. Charlize Theron and Scott Eastwood have also been added to this gigantic movie.

         On an Instagram video you can see and hear Vin Diesel's euphoria about shooting his movie in Cuba. He says, "You can see how beautiful Cuba is with all the beautiful people! We are so proud to be here, man!"

         On Sunday, May 1st in the year of 2016 the Adonia -- the Pride of Cardinal Cruise Lines -- will set sail from Miami to Cuba!! It will drop anchor in Havana Harbor Sunday afternoon, becoming the first cruise ship from the U. S. to Cuba in over half-a-century. There will be 700 passengers on board the Adonia, mocking the U. S. embargo, in place since 1962, that still prohibits "American tourists" from visiting Cuba. But bold and brilliant Executive Actions courtesy of President Obama narrowly defines 12 excuses for Americans to visit the nearby island, as all other citizens of the world have the freedom to do. Thus, the 700 passengers will likely not be arrested when they get off the Adonia in Cuba nor even when they return to the USA.

       This map shows the 750-mile coasts of the main island of Cuba. After docking in Havana Sunday, the Adonia's 7-day visit will circle the island and dock in two other ports in the cities of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba before returning to Miami. You can note the capital of Havana on the western end, Cienfuegos on the southern coast and the former capital of Santiago de Cuba on the far southeastern tip.

         Philip Hammond is also in Havana this week. That, too, is really big news! Mr. Hammond is the first British Foreign Minister to visit Cuba since 1959, the year the Cuban Revolution stunned the world by overthrowing the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. He said, "As Cuba enters a period of significant social and economic change, I am looking forward to demonstrating to the Cuban government and people that the UK is keen to forge new links across the Atlantic." The UK is currently Cuba's 11th largest trade partner. In the 28-nation EU, Spain and the Netherlands are by far the top two Cuban trade partners. In Havana Mr. Hammond was forced to admit that the UK "fears" the gutless U. S. embargo against Cuba. It has been in effect since 1962 and Mr. Hammond says it will continue to scare off British companies seeking to do business in Cuba. He pointed out that this year a British architectural firm -- Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo -- was fined $284,000 by the United States for doing some minor work in Cuba while other companies have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars for doing the same, money supposedly used to enrich and empower hard-line Cuban exiles in Miami, New Jersey and the U. S. Congress to continue their assaults on the Cuban people by still enforcing an embargo inflicted on Cuba in 1962 for the stated purpose of starving and depriving Cubans on the island for the purpose of enticing them to overthrow their revolutionary government so the U.S.-based Batistianos could march back across the Florida Straits. The embargo hasn't starved Cubans on the island but it has severely deprived them; one company in Jamaica was fined for sending a box of baby aspirin to Cuba and the American people were supposed to meekly mumble, "God! If baby aspirin gets to Cuba, it will only benefit Castro and insult those nice Miami Cubans!" WOW!! Wow.

        While President Obama has done all he can to combat the gutless U.S. Congress-sanctioned embargo, it remains in place because two successive generations of Americans are simply too gutless or too ignorant or too unpatriotic to demand its removal. All nations of the world, including America's best friends such as the UK, are appalled that the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to follow Mr. Obama's lead in trying to rein in a second generation of a handful of rich and powerful Batistianos-Mafiosi using a bought-and-paid-for and dysfunctional U. S. Congress to continually punish not only innocent Cubans but America's best friends around the world, infringing on their sovereign rights to trade with Cuba. Meanwhile, the U. S. taxpayers and voters are too scared or too stupid to object even as, each October, the 191-to-2 UN vote denouncing the embargo is headlined around the world, with only Israel -- the yearly recipient of billions of easy dollars in U. S. aid -- joining the U. S. in supporting the insidious embargo.

        Cuba has no enemies in the Caribbean or in Latin America or around the world, except for its massive northern neighbor, the United States. For decades, Americans have been told...warned, actually...not to question America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy. They have meekly heeded that advice, or warning.

Cuba, the Pearl of the Caribbean!

&*************************&