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> let me congratulate you I don't follow - I've never been to Cuba. I assume this is an ad hominem or other irrelevant commentary? > "Foreign investment" You

by eesmith 7mo ago

> let me congratulate you I don't follow - I've never been to Cuba. I assume this is an ad hominem or other irrelevant commentary? > "Foreign investment" You must be quoting someone else, as I didn't bring it up. > Real, but irrelevant It was relevant evidence of your hyperbolic exaggeration. > totalitarianism that values tourist dollars over citizens Now tell me again that why the US doesn't have a similar economic embargo on communist Vietnam? The US bought the biggest share of Vietnam's exports - and Cuba is a lot closer. Vietnam does not have an extradition treaty with the US. "Vietnamese authorities severely restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion, and prohibit human rights organizations and independent labor unions, media, and political parties. Under the Communist Party-controlled judiciary, the courts routinely deny defendants their due process rights. Public Security agents patrol the internet and arrest critics they deem threatening to the Party’s monopoly on power." - https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/vietnam https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/vietn... > Sigh, poor Dutch! Sigh. You think that my illustrative example of how your listing of commodity and consumer goods missed the point of the embargo was instead meant as the totality of the issue. Okay, yes, it's horrible on Cuba. Now, how do you demonstrate that the primary issue for Cuba's situation is communism, and not a 60 year US embargo?

SilentM68 7mo ago
Yes, life is horrible in Cuba and will continue to be so unless market reforms are initiated by the current regime, which will never happen. There's been too much repression by the hardliners, including killings, imprisonment, torture, separation of family, expropriation (without compensation) of homes, land and personal property. No, the US embargo isn't the main cause—it's a contributing factor, but Cuba's ongoing economic mess, 2024–2025 protests (blackouts, food shortages), and repression come mostly from inside: decades of rigid central planning, slow/limited reforms, mismanagement (e.g., failed 2021 monetary overhaul causing hyperinflation), lost Venezuelan oil subsidies, COVID tourism collapse, and state inertia. Academic views (e.g., Ricardo Torres Pérez, Columbia/others) and reports agree internal structural flaws are primary, with sanctions aggravating but secondary. https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/economic-crisis-cuba-its-causes-and-migration https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/economic-crisi... https://www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-brink https://www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-brink https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/us-cuba-relations https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/us-cuba-relations https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jan/comment-economic-crisis-cuba-government-missteps-and-tightening-us-sanctions-are-blame https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jan/comment-economic-crisis-... Vietnam got normalized relations and embargo lifted in 1995 because it embraced deep market reforms (Doi Moi 1986, private sector now dominant), integrated globally, and became a strategic US partner against China. Cuba kept tight state control, resisted big liberalization, stayed aligned with US foes (Russia, Iran), and poses ongoing hemisphere issues—keeping the policy in place. https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/54364/if-vietnam-and-the-usa-have-normal-relations-why-doesnt-cuba-usa-relationship https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/54364/if-vietna... https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/22/cuba-and-vietnam-whats-the-difference/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/22/cuba-and-vietnam-wha... Unless deep market reforms are embraced and open and fair elections with a fair judicial system are implemented annexation remains the only viable option. You have access to a PC and the Internet in your air-conditioned compound, don't you? Try doing your own research. Maybe you'll learn something. The Wall Crawler FYI: Possible reason for the lack of meaningful change on the island. https://fb.watch/G1pb1cwZsM/ https://fb.watch/G1pb1cwZsM/
- eesmith 7mo ago
  > You have access to a PC and the Internet in your air-conditioned compound, don't you? Your personal insinuations are noted. Shall we also discuss near-slavery working conditions of the Filipino staff for your Dubai lifestyle? Or should we discuss the actual topic? > Vietnam .. embraced deep market reforms I see you agree that with me that the claim "communism entered and destroyed that island" is an overly reductive statement. > annexation remains the only viable option. I reject imperialism. You are a bad person. Go back to the 1800s and play the Great Game. I remind you that the US had none of these qualms when the dictator Batista was in charge of Cuba. I remind you that the terrorist activities against Cuba carried out by agents armed, organized and funded by the CIA were not the result of a fair judicial system. I remind you that the US has already occupied Cuba ... twice. No, it's fake tears to justify the actions of a bully government which has no problems with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a pointless war in Iran -- all the continuation of a centuries long national habit of using its military power primarily for its own economic interests, and not the spread of its vaunted "human rights".
  - SilentM68 7mo ago
    [dead]

by eesmith 7mo ago

SilentM68 7mo ago

Yes, life is horrible in Cuba and will continue to be so unless market reforms are initiated by the current regime, which will never happen. There's been too much repression by the hardliners, including killings, imprisonment, torture, separation of family, expropriation (without compensation) of homes, land and personal property. No, the US embargo isn't the main cause—it's a contributing factor, but Cuba's ongoing economic mess, 2024–2025 protests (blackouts, food shortages), and repression come mostly from inside: decades of rigid central planning, slow/limited reforms, mismanagement (e.g., failed 2021 monetary overhaul causing hyperinflation), lost Venezuelan oil subsidies, COVID tourism collapse, and state inertia. Academic views (e.g., Ricardo Torres Pérez, Columbia/others) and reports agree internal structural flaws are primary, with sanctions aggravating but secondary. https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/economic-crisis-cuba-its-causes-and-migration https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/economic-crisi... https://www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-brink https://www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-brink https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/us-cuba-relations https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/us-cuba-relations https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jan/comment-economic-crisis-cuba-government-missteps-and-tightening-us-sanctions-are-blame https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jan/comment-economic-crisis-... Vietnam got normalized relations and embargo lifted in 1995 because it embraced deep market reforms (Doi Moi 1986, private sector now dominant), integrated globally, and became a strategic US partner against China. Cuba kept tight state control, resisted big liberalization, stayed aligned with US foes (Russia, Iran), and poses ongoing hemisphere issues—keeping the policy in place. https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/54364/if-vietnam-and-the-usa-have-normal-relations-why-doesnt-cuba-usa-relationship https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/54364/if-vietna... https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/22/cuba-and-vietnam-whats-the-difference/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/22/cuba-and-vietnam-wha... Unless deep market reforms are embraced and open and fair elections with a fair judicial system are implemented annexation remains the only viable option. You have access to a PC and the Internet in your air-conditioned compound, don't you? Try doing your own research. Maybe you'll learn something. The Wall Crawler FYI: Possible reason for the lack of meaningful change on the island. https://fb.watch/G1pb1cwZsM/ https://fb.watch/G1pb1cwZsM/

eesmith 7mo ago
> You have access to a PC and the Internet in your air-conditioned compound, don't you? Your personal insinuations are noted. Shall we also discuss near-slavery working conditions of the Filipino staff for your Dubai lifestyle? Or should we discuss the actual topic? > Vietnam .. embraced deep market reforms I see you agree that with me that the claim "communism entered and destroyed that island" is an overly reductive statement. > annexation remains the only viable option. I reject imperialism. You are a bad person. Go back to the 1800s and play the Great Game. I remind you that the US had none of these qualms when the dictator Batista was in charge of Cuba. I remind you that the terrorist activities against Cuba carried out by agents armed, organized and funded by the CIA were not the result of a fair judicial system. I remind you that the US has already occupied Cuba ... twice. No, it's fake tears to justify the actions of a bully government which has no problems with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a pointless war in Iran -- all the continuation of a centuries long national habit of using its military power primarily for its own economic interests, and not the spread of its vaunted "human rights".
- SilentM68 7mo ago
  [dead]