Again With the Blockade!

Again With the Blockade! / Fernando Damaso
Posted on September 23, 2015

Fernando Damaso, 22 September 2015 — The hackneyed topic of the blockade
or embargo continues to be among the priorities that the Cuban
government demands that the United States of America resolve, the
objective being to assure stable and mutually advantageous relations.

However, there is a matter that the American government should solve
unilaterally, without trying to achieve any type of accord with the
Cuban one, being that it was imposed on the latter. The argument turns
out to be rather puerile, if one takes into account that when it came
time to revoke the Platt Amendment (also imposed unilaterally by the
American government), many conversations and accords were mediated
between both parties. In politics, to dialogue and reach agreements is a
common practice, as seen throughout history. Pigheadedness has never led
to anything positive.

Maintaining this position would make it seem, as many believe, that the
Cuban government is not really interested in the end of the blockade,
because up to now it has served as a cover-up to hide the government's
grave errors and inefficiency in the economic arena.

Besides, the blockade is a subject that began being dusted off a little
more than 20 years ago, when the abundant subsidies received from the
now-extinct Soviet Union and other socialist countries ceased. While
these funds were flowing in–and even being squandered on foreign
adventures of all kinds, and in pharoah-like and absurd national
plans–nobody ever talked about the blockade. Moreover, if it was ever
mentioned, it was as an object of ridicule–even unto calling it "a
sieve," being that Cuba, despite the blockade, did business with most of
the countries of the world, with the exception of the United States.

It was as of then that the blockade started to be held responsible for
all the ills of the nation, principally the economic ones–a view that
continues to be maintained today, obviating the culpability of socialism
as a failed system incapable of producing wealth and wellbeing.

As long as the Cuban government continues blaming its problems on
others, and does not assume accountability as the primarily responsible
party, the Nation will not come out of its prolonged economic, political
and social crisis.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Source: Again With the Blockade! / Fernando Damaso | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/again-with-the-blockade-fernando-damaso/