Adam Wall

The Embargo

                Cuba has had the odd distinction of not becoming Americanized.  They have no imports of American goods, no McDonalds, no ford F-150’s, no new technologies.  They are stuck in a world without all of these things. They do have one thing - Cuban cigars and that’s all they need.

                This week, after decades of giving the silent treatment to Cuba, Obama finally decided to reverse the embargo on Cuba. After years and years of zero trade with them, the United States has finally had enough, they want their cigars again. It’s odd, this whole change of heart seems so sudden, They is no recent evidence of cooperation between the two countries, no talks, it all just happened. This embargo has been in place for such a long time, I’m not really sure why Obama decided to remove the embargo. Obama just decided he wanted a smoke so he took that embargo away I guess.

                The controversy is pretty anticlimactic because it does not seem like it with have a big impact on anything.  If something like this happened 20 to 25 years ago then there would be serious outrage. Today, people realize that what Castro is doing is not good, communism isn’t good but the embargo really hasn’t done anything to either country other than a minor inconvenience. Neither countries economy was destroyed or affected that much. When I first read this, I’m pretty sure I had the same reaction as everyone else in the country, “heh, cool”. But of course this is politics so people always have to disagree and rage about it so you might hear about how we’re giving into Castro and all communisms. Really though, that embargo is probably what kept Cuba going for so long.  They are one of very few communist countries and the last one to be following the Marxist/ Soviet Union beliefs.   This ideology seems to have helped them more than its hurt them.  It also probably what made millions of Cubans cross the gulf to come to Florida, land of the fancy new cars, McDonalds, and great American products. Who wouldn’t want what we have here in beautiful, free, and amazing ‘murica.