The picture above shows American singer/musicians Beyonce and Jay-Z on the balcony of their hotel room in Havana, Cuba. And it has some Republicans in Congress upset. They are demanding to know if the couple had U.S. government permission to visit that island nation.Beyonce and Jay-Z are not the first Americans to visit Cuba without government permission. Many Americans simply go to another nation first (like Mexico), and then travel to Cuba. And Cuban officials usually don't even stamp American passports (so their visitors won't get in trouble when they return home). But most of Cuba's American visitors are not as popular and well-known as Beyonce and Jay-Z, and that's the only reason a fuss is being made now -- because the right-wing thinks they can make some political capital out of this visit.
This once-again brings up the stupidity of the continued American embargo on Cuba. Even though the rest of the world long-ago ceased to honor any embargo on Cuba, the U.S. government continues it -- making it illegal to visit there without government permission, and then only for "educational" purposes. Tourism is strictly prohibited.
This embargo has never worked, even though it has been in effect for over 50 years now. It is time to end it, and normalize relations with Cuba. Cuba has never posed any real danger to the U.S., and the embargo is in effect simply for political reasons. The U.S. government was (and still is) mad because the Cubans chose to govern themselves and their economy differently that we would have wanted them to. But that shouldn't have come as any surprise to us, since we supported the dictator (Bautista) that kept far too many Cubans in poverty and with our any real rights.
Many in this country don't want to admit it, but most Cubans are better off now than they were under the American-supported dictator Bautista. Cuba has the highest literacy rate in the America's (rivaling or beating that of the U.S.), no one goes hungry there, and everyone is provided with decent and free medical care. Is the nation of Cuba perfect? Of course not, but then neither is the United States. But we wouldn't want them to intefere in our internal affairs, so we should stay out of theirs.
The embargo doesn't make any sense today. We allow Americans to vacation and trade with other nations that pose a far greater danger to this country -- and have more brutal dictators. And we don't demand those governments change (especially if they support American policies or corporations). We are angry with Cuba for the same reason we got mad at Hugo Chavez in Venezuela -- because they won't let the American government and American corporations exploit their resources and people for our own purposes and profit.
It is time for us to extend the same privileges to Cuba that we expect for ourselves -- the right to determine for themselves what kind of government and economy they will have. It is time to end this stupid embargo and normalize relations with Cuba.
