Wait! Before You Get Your Passport To Invade Cuba, Think Again!

President Barack Obama has eased restrictions on money transfers and travel to Cuba by Americans with relatives on the island. The move, which fulfilled one of Obama's campaign promises, was a path to promoting personal freedom and a freer flow of information in one of the few remaining Communist nations.

But Obama should go much further and lift all travel restrictions on Cuba, and lift the trade embargo as well. Isolating Cuba has failed catastrophically — it has simply impoverished ordinary Cubans and prevented the normal processes that erode dictatorship.

We’ve also given the Castro brothers a nationalist excuse for their own repression and economic incompetence. Isn’t it past time to lift all travel and trade restrictions - if the USA can preferentially trade with China, a far more restrictive Communist regime than Cuba, so what’s the problem?

I’m not going to deny it I’ve always wanted to visit Cuba for a very long time now and once I heard that the US government was allowing less restrictive travel to Cuba, I'm ready to go. Those of you who are reading this can call me what ever you wish to, personally I don’t give a you know what!

Bills in the U.S. House and Senate would allow all Americans to visit Cuba. Trips for U.S. citizens with relatives already there became even easier last month. Cuban-Americans can now come annually instead of every three years. Not so fast for the rest of us, Cuba is not ready for the stampede of Americans who want to visit the country and it‘s up to the country if they will allow an influx of people at one time.

There’s not that many hotels available to hold us, plus the Canadians and the European travelers who have been visiting the island nation for years have got a solid lock on accommodations. For some of you who have never been out of the country and are so accustomed to better hotel accommodations, you’ll be in for some serious culture shock because luxury and comfort are out of the question.

As with anything once the American tourist shows up everything will go up because demand for limited tourist accommodations could drive up prices that already have been high since 2004, when the Cuban government banned the U.S. dollar in official transactions and imposed a 20 percent tax on exchanging it.

Cuba began encouraging international tourism after the fall of the Soviet Union, and its top feeder countries are Canada, Britain, Italy, Spain and France. Foreign tourist visits jumped 9.3 percent last year to a record 2.35 million, generating $2.7 billion or 11 percent more than 2007, the government says.

They forgot to add Germany, because I remember seeing many German Reisebüro signs indicating tours to Cuba when I lived there and I know that they‘ve been visiting the country. The Cuban government has kept for the most part, tourist and the majority of the locals separated. I’ve read several blogs from Cuba where the people say they can not even enter into certain hotels unless they work there.

Isn’t it past time to lift all travel and trade restrictions? Hmmm…let’s see, cars that are well over 40 years old, crumbling infrastructure? Way, way past overdue. I am very much in favor of more openness by the US govt to travel in both directions… but it would be good if the tourist invasion were truly for the benefit to the Cuban people and not exploit them like many people often do once they enter another country unlike their own, they begin to export their own version of racism, classicism and segregation which is often extreme.

Let’s start by returning even to the earlier policy of cultural exchange programs, when can learn a lot from the Cuban people and maybe they can learn something from us and it sure is not capitalism for now. We’ve gone too long without the opportunity to see the Castro regime’s “accomplishments.” Isolated Cuba has one of the best medical programs in the world, universal health care for all of it's citizens without being based upon greed like our own, a literate populace.

The Cuban people need more contact with the outside world, not less. They don't need their markets flooded with our ideology of excessive materialism. Before the revolution in the late 50’s, tourism industry in Cuba was indeed bombarded with American tourists, from which greater parity of classes and wealth resulted.

Which was one of the main reasons for socialism, those who are the majority are suppose to be in key public positions of power, not the one or two percent of the wealthy which dictate everything to keep money in their own pockets and keep it out of yours, hint...hint. There is no sense at all to the irrational fears of Cuban Communism. “Who created the situation that promoted the revolution?”

I believe that the new administration’s policy of easing curb on family travel and remittance is indeed the best option for now and yes, long overdue in easing tension and improving relations between Cuba and the US, and this will allow the citizens of Cuba to see and hear from their own people the change and the opportunities that can come about when people are able to self-determine the course of their own government and society.

Turning the lovely Cuban culture into the next Cancun, and Miami can wait. Cuba also does not need it’s biodiversity destroyed by greedy land developers in their quest for the next big Atlantis or big name resort… or strip all of it's remaining forest... resulting in the displacement of the people… just like their doing all over South and Central America.

Greedy people don’t care who’s uprooted just as long as they can see a dollar at the end of the transaction. Do we think that the influx of Americans will encourage sex tourism and related human trafficking? Cuba already has a significant and often overlooked problem of sex tourism because, lets face it, Cuba still has poverty and some people still use sex as a way to make a living and as long as there will be customers some people will always be in business.

The Cuban exile crowd in Miami has been calling the shots for way too long. They may have some legitimate gripes, but the boycott has been totally counterproductive resulting in nothing. Cuba is a lot like time forgot it because of the Blockade which by the way is still in place. When I go, I won’t be flying, I’ll be arriving by cruise ship and I'll still be able to visit Havana only if for a few hours, thus by passing the lack of hotels, restaurants and the hard-to-find taxis and rental cars. Get your Spanish lessons in order and come with an open mind.Sphere: Related Content