Wickham - Cuba economic reforms a signal for Obama

Wickham: Cuba economic reforms a signal for Obama

DeWayne Wickham, USATODAY 4:46 p.m. EDT March 31, 2014

With positive steps from Raul Castro, it's time for U.S. to warm relations.



You've got to wonder whether anyone in the Obama administration hears

the pinging of Cuba's economic reforms.



The most recent sound came on Saturday, when its national assembly

adopted a measure that moves the communist country closer to the

mainstream of international business. This new law offers major

financial incentives for foreign businesses to enter into joint ventures

with Cuban companies and, for the first time, permits foreign investors

to own up to 100% of a businesson the embattled Caribbean island. This

new law also exempts most investors from paying a tax on their profits

for eight years.



These pinging sounds started shortly after Raul Castro succeeded his

brother, Fidel, as president in 2008. Since taking office, Raul Castro

has overseen reforms that increased economic opportunities for Cubans by

expanding private ownership of businesses, permitting the sale of homes

and cars among Cubans, and by eliminating the need for Cubans who want

to travel abroad to get an exit visa. He has also made it easier (though

not less costly) for Cubans to own smartphones and access the Internet.



Sure, the big hurdle that many Cubans can't scale is the price tag of

these things. Their salaries still lag far behind the cost of the new

freedoms. The pessimist would say these reforms are the free-market

window dressing of an unyielding communist system. But the optimist

might argue that Cuba has started down a path from which there is no

retreat, forcing the government ultimately to boost the buying power of

its people.



I think the pinging sounds coming out of Havana these past few years

indicate that the communist state is undergoing a dramatic change – one

that the Obama administration ought to encourage. In fact, Cuba could

use a lot of encouragement. Too many of the country's aging leaders have

a bunker mentality. Their memories of the USA's many schemes to topple

Fidel Castro are vivid. Their confidence in this country's sincerity in

saying it wants to improve relations with is Cuba is awful low.



As the president of the protagonist nation in the long-running rift

between the U.S. and Cuba, Barack Obama inherits the responsibility to

initiate a sincere effort to bring this lingering standoff to an end.

Just as he ended U.S. involvement in Iraq and shut down America's

longest war in Afghanistan, Obama should be just as aggressive in

seeking to halt this nation's longest Cold War conflict.



Anyone who knows the bloody costs China made American forces pay in the

Korean War, or that the Vietnamese exacted from U.S. troops in the

Vietnam War, should understand this nation's ability to overcome the

divisions such warring among nations create.



If this nation could mend its wounds with Vietnam and China – two

communist countries with which the United States now has normal

diplomatic and economic relations – it ought to be able to make peace

with Cuba.



At stake here is not just the lives of 11 million Cubans, who are

hostages of the financial blockade that was imposed to undermine their

country's economy, but also the legitimacy of our nation's claim to

moral leadership.



The Obama administration can't expect to rally worldwide support for its

condemnation of Russia's intrusion into the affairs of Ukraine while it

continues this nation's effort to destroy Cuba's economy. It can argue

its reasons for doing so, but it will not escape the label of hypocrite.



Instead, President Obama should accept the pinging sounds of economic

reform coming out of Havana as the opening he needs to end this

country's attempt to topple Cuba's government.



DeWayne Wickham, dean of Morgan State University's School of Global

Journalism and Communication, writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.



In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions

from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more

columns like this, go to the opinion front page or follow us on twitter

@USATopinion or Facebook.



Source: Wickham: Cuba economic reforms a signal for Obama -

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/31/cuba-economic-reforms-obama-dewayne-wickham-column/7083343/