The Remake

The Remake / Fernando Damaso
Posted on October 29, 2015

Fernando Damaso, 28 October 2015 — The Cuban authorities applaud the
"victory" obtained in the vote for the lifting of the blockade-embargo
at the United Nations. It's actually their twenty-fourth Pyrrhic victory
since 1992, when they lost the substantial Soviet economic subsidies,
and began to be bothered by the blockade-embargo, which they previously
didn't care about and treated as a joke.

These 24 Pyrrhic victories have not advanced one iota the cause of
ending the blockade-embargo because the resolution that was approved is
not binding, that is, there is no mandatory compliance; the countries
vote according to their current interests, so a vote in favor of ending
it does not affect its relations with the United States, and a vote in
favor of keeping it would affect their relations with the Cuban
government. It's all nothing more than sheer political opportunism,
without much real significance.

Submitting the measure one more time as a remake, in a time when
meetings and talks are being held between the two countries, with the
aim of solving this and other ongoing problems, constitutes an error of
Cuban diplomacy. Progress in the lifting of the blockade-embargo and the
solution of other problems can only be achieved at the negotiating
table, where give and take is required. What happens at the UN every
year is pure comic theater: it only causes laughter.

But with this remake one wonders whether the Cuban authorities really
want to put an end to the blockade-embargo, or if they are doing
everything possible to see that it is maintained, so they can continue
using it as a smokescreen to hide their demonstrated ineptitude and
incompetence.

In this country of magical realism, everything is possible.

Translated by Tomás A.

Source: The Remake / Fernando Damaso | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-remake-fernando-damaso/