cubaninsider: Cuba Is Trying

30.7.16

Cuba Is Trying

But So Are Its Enemies
{Updated: Sunday, July 31st, 2016}

This weekend a major article in the London Daily Mail used the above photo to illustrate a topical revelation that "Cuba and Bulgaria are the two top hotspots for tourists trying to avoid terror attacks." It's okay for Brits to know such things although propagandized Americans are not supposed to comprehend Cuban positives. But, yes, Cuba is one of the safest spots on a troubled planet. The article also revealed a Catch-22 situation: Since President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island, Cuba's economy and infrastructure -- severely weakened by the massive, malicious, and ongoing U. S. embargo since 1962 -- is being overwhelmed by a fresh burst of tourism.

Royal Caribbean has just spent $50 million refurbishing this magnificent ship, Empress of the Seas, with plans to begin regular cruises to Cuba. The itinerary included 4-and-5-night trips from Miami. But those plans are on hold because Cuba has so far refused permission to allow the 1,840-passenger ship to visit.

Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President Vicki Freed worked hard arranging the expected cruises to Cuba and is disappointed with Cuba's refusal. She says, "The Empress of the Seas is the right sized vessel for Cuba and our intention is still that someday we will be going there. We're just waiting for the nod from Cuba."

On the surface, Cuba's refusal to allow 1800 well-heeled visitors to the island aboard Empress of the Seas is hard to fathom. It affords its enemies in the United States more anti-Cuban fodder to further their long-standing agendas, which are to destroy Revolutionary Cuba. Sovereign since 1959 but shackled since then by military attacks, assassination attempts, terrorist acts, and history's all-time longest and cruelest embargo, Cuba is having trouble adjusting to President Obama's efforts to challenge a second generation of revengeful Batistianos by trying to normalize relations with the neighboring island. Cuba is effectively blocked from routine international financial operations because nations and banks are afraid of being sanctioned or fined by the superpower U. S. if they deal with Cuba. That infringement on the island's hard-earned sovereignty would have long ago doomed much larger nations and may finally doom little, pugnacious Cuba. Meanwhile, Cuba's frayed infrastructure has already been overly taxed by the Obama-orchestrated increase in tourism. It is using its limited resources to increase and improve its hotel accommodations, for example, but also is direly worried about having enough energy to avoid power outages and blackouts that have been forecast for the second half of this year. Those tourists expect hotel rooms with electricity and air conditioners, expectations that Cuba may not be able to provide. Back in June Cuba allowed Carnival Cruise Lines to begin regular trips to the island, but the excited influx of visitors strained Cuba's capacity to accommodate them. The much larger Empress of the Seas would do the same. By refusing or delaying Vicki Freed's plans at Royal Caribbean, Cuba is not shooting itself in the foot. The island is still being shot in the back by forces hiding behind the skirts of the world superpower.

Yes, Cuba is trying but so are Cuba's congressional enemies.

Posada in Miami, now 88, still fervently hates Fidel.

Fidel in Havana, 90 in a few days, still fervently hates Posada.

While good Cubans {and Americans} can't end the feuds.

In January of 1959 Cuban children wore fake beards to honor the island's new bearded leader, Fidel Castro. His revolution had just done, in the eyes of the world, the impossible by overthrowing a U.S.-backed dictatorship. But the leaders of the ousted Batista-Mafia regime, including Rafael Diaz-Balart and Santo Trafficante, and the most visceral anti-Castro Cubans, such as Jorge Mas Canosa and Luis Posada Carriles, quickly regrouped on U. S. soil, mostly Miami, before extending their power to the halls of Congress in Washington and to the White House, especially when it was occupied by the Bush dynasty. But since 1959, in the eyes of the world, the Cuban Revolution has pulled off another impossible feat -- by merely surviving for over five decades. Fidel Castro's beard, so black in the above 1959 photo, is now very white just a few days from his 90th birthday. But he and his beard are still intact. And that too seems utterly impossible.