Time to regain lost grounds or perish

Alberto N. Jones
January 13, 2009
For the past twenty years, I have spoken to and literally pleaded with every governmental, educational, religious, health, social or business leader in our region willing to listen, about the importance of developing a mutually beneficial working relation with Cuba, irrespective of the different socio-political arrangements of both countries.

Fearful of a potential backlash from the powerful right-wing Cuban-American lobby in south Florida, most, with the honorable exception of the healthcare community, kept my suggestions at arm length at best.

In the next few days, history will be made with the swearing-in of Barack Obama as president of the United States. If he keeps his campaign promises of abolishing president George W. Bush mean-spirited regulations, which excludes uncles and cousins as family members, allows Cuban-Americans to legally visit their families in Cuba only once every three years and are not allowed to send more than $100.00 per month to an approved household in Cuba; much will be done to reverse the pervasive image of a vicious and wicked Goliath expressing the last drop of oxygen out of David.

Additionally, if president Barack Obama would close the infamous torture center in Cuba and enter into serious negotiations with the Cuban government leading to the return of the 105 years illegal occupation of 45 square miles of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this would send a powerful signal to the world indicating, that a radical change in our past imperial impositions have ended, earning a massive respect and admiration for our nation across the globe.

Also, the downward economical spiral that threatens our fragile tourist-related economy, have come to highlight our lack of political/economical vision, as we witness states such as Iowa, South Dakota, New York, Vermont, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Washington State and many others with no geographical, ethnic, cultural or historical links to Cuba, selling millions of dollars in goods, as we stand on the sidelines reporting on business closings, job loss or budget cuts.

It is similarly painful to see hundreds of people afflicted with catastrophic health ailments dying without access to unique medications or vaccines developed a few hundreds miles from our communities, only because someone in authority decided we should not mitigate, prevent or cure pathologies, they disprove of their manufacturer.

And finally, after pumping millions of dollars in a irreversible failed effort to educate our minorities, improve their self esteem, reduce violence and drug addition, can only be solved in Cuba, where decades of discipline and expertise have enabled tens of thousands of minorities from across the world to be educated in every field of knowledge, turning them into respectable and productive members of society, working towards a better world.

After fifty years of destructive measures for both countries, the time have come for us to act as respectful adults, by searching for and implementing mutually beneficial development programs, that are capable of improving the wellbeing of our people and lay the basis for a more peaceful, friendlier and better world for all.