Our 50 year economic embargo of Cuba may finally be ending. There are many reasons that experts have been encouraging normalization of relations, mainly that we are hurting ourselves, and our citizens as well as Cuba.
http://www.factsandarts.com/articles/cha...What makes this time different than all of the other times normalization has been recommended is that Cuba has discovered oil. Geologists estimate that between 5 billion and twenty billion barrels of oil can be found under the Gulf of Mexico in areas controlled by Cuba.
We have started wars and allied ourselves with some of the most oppressive cultures in the world (Saudi Arabia) to feed our addiction to oil. Does anyone doubt that we would put up with a couple of old Communists if we could get their oil? China and many other nations are vying for the drilling rights. Exxon Mobile and all of the other US companies want some of that action.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/...But there is a different perhaps more important reason too. Cuba has no experience with deep sea drilling. They have no safeguards, rules, or regulations. They will be drilling even deeper than the Macondo well that proved to be such a disaster last summer. As we found out, any oil in the Gulf can end up on our shores. Cuba is only 60 miles away. It would be good if they could learn from our mistakes. It would be good if they used blowout preventers that are better than the ones we use.
Currently if there is a Cuban oil spill, or a disaster like the one we just experienced, we are prevented from offering any aid in the clean up.
So what are the pros and cons of normalization? There is little danger from military attack and with the current right wing leaning of the country little chance of communist contamination. The main benefit would be tourism which would benefit Cuba, and normalization would allow people to visit their relatives.
Normalization would increase trade which would be good for both of our economies. There are a multitude of things that they need and our factories are eager to meet their demands. They are woefully behind technologically with only a few having access to the internet, and they are still making do with cars and all sorts of equipment that were made in the 50's. They are lacking in almost everything we take for granted.
http://www.jewishcuba.org/items.htmlNow with their oil, Cuba can actually pay for all of this stuff. Besides oil what can we gain from Cuba? For one thing Cuba is very advanced in organic farming since they suddenly found themselves without the oil based fertilizers and pesticides that we are so dependent on.
For another thing they have very good doctors and an excellent medical and free health care system. Cuba has the best life expectancy and health statistics in the area that are nearly as good as those of the US, but they provide this at a fraction of the cost of our system. Since health care is one of our greatest costs perhaps we can learn how to provide inexpensive yet quality care from Cuba.
http://www.socialmedicine.org/2008/05/18...