Saturday, April 12, 2008
Our recent three-part series on Cuba by Our (temporary) Man in Havana,
Brian Hicks, captured the mystique of the island that ordinary American
are forbidden to visit. The articles, reporting on a visit organized by
the South Carolina Press Association, also conveyed the menace that is
behind the facade that tourists see.
Reporter Hicks describes a man who tells him that he cannot afford to
buy tennis shoes for his son's birthday because they are only sold in
tourist shops and cost more than the average wage, which is roughly $20
a month. The man curses his government, but our reporter notes that
money is a secondary concern for him. He quotes the man as saying, "We
have no freedom, we have nothing."
He also quotes state Rep Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, who went to Cuba
with a South Carolina trade delegation in 2004. Rep. Limehouse told our
reporter, "Cuba should be one of our top trading partners," and says he
hopes U.S. policy will change: "Stopping food from going there only
hurts the oppressed people of Cuba, not the government. Aren't we
supposed to be a superpower that helps others, our people and theirs?"
Mr. Hicks made the same discovery as many other American visitors,
reporting that "most Cubans have a real affection for Americans." He
says that they don't take U.S. policy, which restricts contacts and
trade, personally. He found that Cubans "don't think the actions of the
U.S. government speak for its people any more than theirs does for
them." He reports a pearl of street wisdom from Havana: "We know your
government is stupid. Ours is stupid, too."
Reporter Hicks notes that the mystique of Cuba, heightened by the ban on
travel to the island, "will keep Americans coming here illegally until
U.S. law changes. And when that law is repealed, Cuba changes."
The retirement of the aged and ailing dictator Fidel Castro and his
replacement by his 76-year-old brother Raul, his junior by five years,
may bring some minor changes, like the recently granted permission to
own a cell phone.
But any major change that would offer Cubans the hope of being freed
from living in a police state is unlikely to come until the U.S. policy
of isolating the Cuban people is scrapped and Americans are free to
travel there and trade freely.
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/12/changing_castros_cuba36977/
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