Cubans and their predicament

Cubans and their predicament
By Mohammed A. R. Galadari
4 March 2006

FIDEL Castro's argument is that he is taking full care of his
people under his socialist system. If so, why are they leaving the
country in droves, staking their lives- in choppy seas and ending up in
what they call their dreamland?

Dear readers, the return of a group of Cuban refugees from the US
to their homeland recently has raised human rights concerns in the US,
and a judge has ruled the other day that the government should try to
bring them back. On the one side, it speaks highly of the importance
that the US gives to human rights. On the other, it raises question
marks over the state of affairs within Cuba.

Why do so many people want to quit Cuba and reach the shores of the
US? Castro is implementing his socialist policies with great vigour for
several decades, and never loses an opportunity to snipe at capitalism
and the US in particular. What explanation does he have for the mass
exoduses from Cuba, year after year?

Last year, for instance, the US Coast Guard intercepted thousands
of Cubans while on sea and looking for better opportunities abroad.
There were many who died on their dangerous journey in rickety boats.
Even through normal channels, thousands of Cubans are arriving in the US
every year, taking advantage of a humanitarian decision by Washington
that allowed grant of some 20,000 visas a year to Cubans. The idea was
that the emigration will be orderly and posed no risk to the country and
its systems.

However, what happened on the Florida bridge, where the group of
Cubans had landed, and the US response thereafter, should be educative
to Castro and his government, which is fighting Washington on many
fronts. Under US laws, and even British laws, anyone who lands on their
soil should be taken care of, and cannot be forced out of the country.
America's "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy in this respect is well-known.
Those with a wet foot, meaning those who have not touched down on the
soil, can be sent back; and those with dry foot, those who have landed,
should be taken care of. The group of Cubans had been sent back over
feelings that the bridge didn't fall the US territory. Which is what a
judge has intervened to correct.

By contrast, what is the rights scenario in Castro's Cuba? It will
not do if Castro and his men make a lot of noise over the drafting of a
new human rights council for the UN, as is happening now, or accuse
Washington of indulging in manipulations. What Castro must do is to set
his own record straight, and allow political dissent and freedom for his
people to air their views openly.

What Castro needs is simply to change with the times. He is barking
up the wrong tree for a long time. The decades of his experimentations
with the socialist policies have left Cubans high and dry. They are in
real hardship. He has not allowed industries to flourish, with the
result that joblessness is a major problem. He hasn't had the good sense
to tap the tourism potential of the island nation, which would otherwise
have been its single greatest strength. Instead, he drove away tourists
by closing down the money-spinning casinos.

Dear readers, Cuba has lost out largely in matters of development,
and the people deserve a better deal. Half-hearted measures will not
help Cuba regain its strengths or build itself anew. More freedom and
rapid economic development are the calling of the times. That will also
help stem the tide of Cubans seeking better pastures abroad.

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