Free Cuba! Obama: “leave behind the legacy of both colonialism and communism"

[rick_day]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/17/us-cuba-diplomatic-relations-obama-raul-castro In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, President Obama announced that the United States will restore full diplomatic relations

Comments

[htpcl]

> coupled with a a tacit admission of "colonialism"

I'm just curious how you arrived at that conclusion. Perhaps there's some cultural peculiarity here that I'm unaware of.

[abomvubuso]

But what's your conclusion? Was he correct about colonialism regarding Cuba? And did he do the right thing by essentially admitting to it?

[rick_day]

Hell yes, and HELL yes.

Look. Kol wrong is wrong, no matter who does it. There is no one here admitting we have it politically better than everyone else thanks to the ruling duopoly.

I think you understand me enough to already know that question's answer, Icelander.

Fuck, Iceland in the winter. With family and mates (pals). Your life is an ongoing Hallmark Holiday.

[abomvubuso]

But (like you said) meanwhile in Havana...

[rick_day]

Yes I was about to edit that comment because I can see from my first sentence it would seem I disagreed as it not being my (ack!) POV.

Wait until the next big business expo in Cuba, you will be meanwhileing all the way to the bank.

[abomvubuso]

Can't wait for the next big business expo in Cuba, quite frankly.

[mikeyxw]

So, I'm not 100% sure about what this is referring to. Cuba was a Spanish colony for about 300 years, it was a US colony for about 3 years. During that time, most of the US actions were aimed at leaving; setting up a bunch of schools, holding elections, making sure we'd still own all the good stuff once we leave, etc... You can call this colonialism, but it's very different from what was practiced by the Germans, British, French, Italians, Dutch, and Japanese around this time, which was the conquering the natives and ruling them kind of colonialism.

If Mr. Obama wants to acknowledge our wrong-doings in Cuba, my take is there are other things that should be ahead of our brief colonial period.

[mahnmut]

Well, for what it's worth modern-day colonialism is not exactly like 19th century colonialism.

[mikeyxw]

Yeah, but Cuba was one of those places where the US has a 19th century colonial history. If this is being brought up, I'd expect this would be the subject. After all, with Cuba, we went through a short period of the kind of colonialism that actually included colonies, followed by some 20th century colonialism, then something that wasn't nice but certainly wasn't colonialism. Now of course we're embarking on a period of relations based on equality and mutual respect that will probably end up with Americans owning all the best stuff there once again.

[mahnmut]

we're embarking on a period of relations based on equality and mutual respect

You seriously do believe this, don't you.

[mikeyxw]

Not at all, but I will stand by the following part: "that will probably end up with Americans owning all the best stuff there once again." We are talking about neo-colonialism after all.