Cuba: My Brain Tells Me One Thing, My Gut Another
Adrian Gonzalez
President, Adelante SCM (Talking Logistics, Indago, & LL4T1DCure Team)
Yesterday, the White House announced that President Obama plans to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. According to Reuters, “Congress has 45 days to consider Obama’s decision before it takes effect, but lawmakers cannot stop it unless both chambers approve a joint resolution, a move that is highly unlikely.” This announcement follows a meeting between President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro this past weekend at the Summit of the Americas, the first meeting between the leaders of both countries in almost 60 years.
Being the son of Cuban immigrants, people keep asking me what I think about the move by President Obama to normalize relations with Cuba. I really don’t know what to think. My brain tells me one thing, my gut another. Which do I trust?
The author behind the wheel of an old car in Cuba, February 2004
When I visited Cuba with my father in 2004, we drove several hours from Cienfuegos to Camaguey to visit my aunt Z and her family. We had lunch at her house, and after we ate, I found myself alone in the kitchen with my cousin’s wife R, helping her clear the dishes. My cousin O, in his late twenties at the time, suffered from kidney failure, and he and R would get up at dawn multiple times a week and hitchhike to the dialysis clinic several towns away (despite what you might read elsewhere, the healthcare system in Cuba is miserable). While O underwent dialysis, R would stand outside the clinic and sell pasteles or whatever else she managed to cook the night before with whatever meager ingredients she could find. Then they would hitchhike back home, the sun setting on their backs, exhausted.
We cleared the plates in silence, but I could tell that R wanted to say something to me, and then she did, turning around to face me: “I hope you thank God every day that you were born where you are.” Time stopped for a moment and we just looked at each other, long enough for me to see the sadness in her eyes, or maybe it was hurt or disappointment, and long enough for her to see the truth in mine, and then she walked away before I could say anything, and what could I say anyway? We didn’t speak again that day, or ever again.
My cousin O died a few years ago, on a summer afternoon while sitting in the dialysis chair at the clinic. “I feel cold,” he told his his mother, and by the time she came running back with the doctor, he was gone. Not long after, my uncle died from prostate cancer, although everyone says it was really from a broken heart. And last year my aunt Z died after a short battle with breast cancer. On that side of my family, only R remains in Cuba, along with my cousin Zu and her son.
It doesn’t really matter what I think about this change in U.S.-Cuba relations. For ten years now, I’ve been going back to that kitchen with R and what she said to me. It’s the voice in my gut. May R and all Cubans get to the point where they can thank God every day that they were born where they are.
For related commentary, see Where Does Cuba Rank in Logistics?
Aerial Filming and International Travel Logistics at Aerial CameraWorks
9 年On its face I find it a hard pill to swallow. Its true that the embargo, in my opinion, was used by the dictatorship of Cuba very well ,as a reason for their failures. Its also true that that same dictatorship took what was not theirs and claimed it as such. Thousands if not millions of lives were negatively effected by their policies. Many were summarily picked up on trumped up charges if any, Unfairly tried and summarily executed. Their bodies hung in public parks as a warning to those who would think to live as free men and women. For many years now, Cuba has historically been a state sponsor of terrorism as well as sheltered and protected those who committed crimes in other countries including the USA. The president of the United States is now attempting to open more normal relations with a country. who not only does not feel badly or apologetic for what it has done but now finds justification in it actions. Our president is wanting to take Cuba off the list of states that sponsor terrorism. His reasoning and explanation for this is under the idea that the dictatorship of Cuba has not done anything too blatantly supportive of terrorist in the last six months. I don't think I find that very comforting.
Turn Key Properties
9 年Well written - my heart goes out to all people living under dictators and hostel leaders. I wish we could all live in freedom. I count my blessings everyday.
Exploration Geologist , Silvaculture
9 年...having relaxed in the outskirts of cienfuegos...enjoyed cayo sant maria...walked the streets shops beaches of veradero ...it was noticed many other nations trade with cuba...buses from china...cars of peugeot...brand new parts on elvis style cadillacs and other american cars of vintage...to name a few...
Recruiter
9 年I am a Canadian so I don't have emotional ties to Cuba, or a stake in US/Cuban relations. I was in Cuba in the early 1990's and I can completely relate to the author's point of view. It was a police state 30 years ago and I have no reason to think it has changed significantly. The police would arrest anyone who struck up a prolonged conversation with me along the Malecon then book and release them with the threat of loss of employment and being relocated away from Havana. At the time being forced to live in rural Cuba was considered severe punishment by urban Cubans. The US embargo was used by the Cuban state to rationalize the dire state of medical and economic reality. Vegetables were available by prescription. I met one person being treated for lupus by being given a prescription for garlic. Nutritional diseases like yaws were more widespread than the government was prepared to admit. The fact that they were free to trade with the rest of the world, and the economic collapse was because of Russian changes were never explained by the Cuban government to it's people. The only well fed Cubans I ran across were the politbureau, Fidel and his brother. Even low ranking party members were feeling the pinch. Personally I don't think the embargo is an intelligent way to change Cuban conditions going forward and I am glad to see it's sunset. The reality is that exposure to western capital and encouraging entrepreneurial growth in last years has been responsible for all the progress in Cuba, almost in spite of the government. Hopefully the effects of normalized relations will accelerate the economic progress. The downside will be a perpetuation of a political entity that has long ago became the primary burden of it's citizens.