Cuba Speech :: Lift the Embargo :: for Metrofinals 2008 @ Fredericksburg
“To survive in Cuba, you have to be a magician. Cubans want to be able to live off their wages, live freely and go wherever they want with their salary. Why do you think there are so many people on the beaches heading to Florida?” said Teresa, a teacher and illegal saleswoman, quotes a Miami Herald article. In a globalized world, every economy of every nation counts. Cuba needs to be integrated, and for that, we need to initiate diplomatic relations. Affirm this resolution for the following three reasons:
1. Cuban-Americans yearn for the family they left behind
2. Cubans are barely making a living off their wages
3. Raul Castro is interested in expanding the private sector.
Moving on to my first point of contention, Cuban Americans yearn for the family they left behind. According to the Economist of Feb 21st 2008, restricted family visits to one every three years to immediate relatives only upsets many Cuban families in Miami. They are not able to visit dying parents, or even to attend their funerals. I cannot imagine what that must be like, Senators. The current relation between Cuba and the US is cruel on the Cuban American community. The Queen of Salsa Celia Cruz’s autobiography titled “My life” relates the following “I left cuba many years ago to make enough money to send it back to Cuba so my dying mother could eat. That man, Fidel, did not allow me to return to my country when mother was dying, and I cannot bring myself to forgive him for that.” Senators, I was not born here myself. Let me tell you that the time from the moment of my arrival to the moment of my naturalization was the hardest.
Moving on to my second point, Cubans are barely making a living off their wages. With salaries typically ranging between $17-$30, many Cubans have found the solution to the food and other shortages on the black market. Employees with access to government supplies of any kind - food, clothes, cement, gasoline - swipe them and sell them so they can add to their meager salaries. The ministry of domestic trade recently reveled that during 2006, its budget deficit is attributed to theft and fraud largely by insiders, rose to nearly $17 million states the Miami Herald. I have trouble stomaching this thought… that an administration would have to resort to corruption in order to feed their families is wrong in all sense of the word. with this resolution, this madness can end. Cubans could be able to buy and sell items freely and live with dignity off their profit.
Finally, Raul Castro is interested in expanding the private sector. Whereas Fidel was the ever idealistic communist revolutionary whose ideas may only work in theory, raul is pragmatic and down to earth. According to a washington post article dated February 24, 2008, Economists have much hope in Raul as he may expand private business opportunities and perhaps even restore some of the vaunted mid-1990s reforms that his all-powerful brother dismantled. "I see it as a great possibility that Raul will make changes to Cuba's economy," Óscar Espinosa Chepe, a former Cuban government economist and diplomat. The biggest change Fidel let his brother talk him into was allowing more tourism. About 270,000 tourists went to Cuba in 1989. By 2006, that figure had jumped to 2.2 million, with nearly one in four tourists coming from Canada, according to the Cuban government.
Senators, the world is ambitious and is always seeking to be independent. Cubans want to pursue their careers, their business aspiration, and dreams. They are willing to risk their lives to get to Florida where the opportunity of our capitalist system allows everyone to be an achiever. The timing is just right. Let us pursue talks with a pragmatic leader so that Cubans, too, have a chance of being part of our global economy.
C
1. Cuban-Americans yearn for the family they left behind
2. Cubans are barely making a living off their wages
3. Raul Castro is interested in expanding the private sector.
Moving on to my first point of contention, Cuban Americans yearn for the family they left behind. According to the Economist of Feb 21st 2008, restricted family visits to one every three years to immediate relatives only upsets many Cuban families in Miami. They are not able to visit dying parents, or even to attend their funerals. I cannot imagine what that must be like, Senators. The current relation between Cuba and the US is cruel on the Cuban American community. The Queen of Salsa Celia Cruz’s autobiography titled “My life” relates the following “I left cuba many years ago to make enough money to send it back to Cuba so my dying mother could eat. That man, Fidel, did not allow me to return to my country when mother was dying, and I cannot bring myself to forgive him for that.” Senators, I was not born here myself. Let me tell you that the time from the moment of my arrival to the moment of my naturalization was the hardest.
Moving on to my second point, Cubans are barely making a living off their wages. With salaries typically ranging between $17-$30, many Cubans have found the solution to the food and other shortages on the black market. Employees with access to government supplies of any kind - food, clothes, cement, gasoline - swipe them and sell them so they can add to their meager salaries. The ministry of domestic trade recently reveled that during 2006, its budget deficit is attributed to theft and fraud largely by insiders, rose to nearly $17 million states the Miami Herald. I have trouble stomaching this thought… that an administration would have to resort to corruption in order to feed their families is wrong in all sense of the word. with this resolution, this madness can end. Cubans could be able to buy and sell items freely and live with dignity off their profit.
Finally, Raul Castro is interested in expanding the private sector. Whereas Fidel was the ever idealistic communist revolutionary whose ideas may only work in theory, raul is pragmatic and down to earth. According to a washington post article dated February 24, 2008, Economists have much hope in Raul as he may expand private business opportunities and perhaps even restore some of the vaunted mid-1990s reforms that his all-powerful brother dismantled. "I see it as a great possibility that Raul will make changes to Cuba's economy," Óscar Espinosa Chepe, a former Cuban government economist and diplomat. The biggest change Fidel let his brother talk him into was allowing more tourism. About 270,000 tourists went to Cuba in 1989. By 2006, that figure had jumped to 2.2 million, with nearly one in four tourists coming from Canada, according to the Cuban government.
Senators, the world is ambitious and is always seeking to be independent. Cubans want to pursue their careers, their business aspiration, and dreams. They are willing to risk their lives to get to Florida where the opportunity of our capitalist system allows everyone to be an achiever. The timing is just right. Let us pursue talks with a pragmatic leader so that Cubans, too, have a chance of being part of our global economy.
C