A Lot About Little

The news of the lifting of Cuba travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans is met with a sort of a shrug from me. Not a shrug of one who's been debunked or proven wrong, but a shrug of realization that this is "a lot to do about little". I am in favor of looser restrictions (not a total lifting) for Cuban-American travel, simply because it's the humanitarian thing to do, not because of any change it will have on the regime or on the lives of most Cubans - especially those who don't have immediate access to family in the United States. As Alberto accurately points out, as long as the regime is in control, we can blast all the satellite signals we want, we can text message our Tio Pepe in Marianao to our heart's content...what difference will it make when the boot is still firmly pressing against the neck?

It's that simple, and that tragic. Which leads to my next point. Many "pragmatists" will justify the reasoning for lifting of restrictions as eliminating one of the excuses Cuba uses for their problems. I just heard it on local Spanish radio a few minutes ago. It's the old "Cuba will have no one else to blame for their problems" argument. That's a bunch of baloney. Facts are facts, plain and simple. Those who fail to see this aren't pragmatic as much as they are deluded.

Cuba's problems begin and end with the regime, and many world leaders that prefer to point the finger at the United States, aside from being morally empty, are far from the ideal any reasonable person should follow. Does anyone think that Hugo Chavez will finally be convinced that it was Cuba's fault all along? Lula? Zapatero? These folks would much rather be against the United States than for the Cuban people.