perfect time to try a diplomatic approach that could lead to lifting the embargo and establishing normal relations between both countries. The process should consist of several steps to allow the development of trust, trade and lead to the free movement of people between the US and Cuba.
An initial measure that should have widespread approval could be the creation of a commission of American and Cuban doctors who could analyse the specific health needs of the Cubans still hindered by the embargo and suggest measures to overcome these obstacles. In addition, there could be an intense exchange of medical professionals from both countries and the sharing of medical knowledge in areas where the Cubans have made great progress.
In 1991 I led a UN medical delegation to Cuba in charge of evaluating the progress of a project using interferon to treat inoperable lung cancer, an area of intense research then in Cuba. In addition, public health approaches taken by the Cuban doctors could be of interest to its American colleagues.
So far, those who stand to lose the most in this situation have been ordinary Cubans, who enjoy good health care and education but none of the advantages of living in an open society with access to goods that people in other countries take for granted.
All Cubans I spoke to on the island are eager for normal relations with the US. They feel emotionally closer to the Americans than they were to the Russians at the time they were receiving considerable help from the Russian government. One Cuban told me, half jokingly, “The Cuban regime will be more easily defeated by iPods and jeans than by an American army.”
Lifting the embargo on Cuba is a much less complex endeavour than ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or solving the Middle East nightmare. Ending this measure would create an atmosphere of goodwill worldwide of unpredictable, but certainly good consequences for world peace. Persisting in a course of action that has been proven to be wrong for almost half a century is to accept the tyranny of failed ideas.
Excerpted from: ‘How to Break the Embargo on Cuba’.
Courtesy: Counterpunch.org