Opinion: Few Cubans will benefit from U.S. trade

Trading for humanitarian reasons is not what is happening, and it is not why any of the American companies or the politically elected officials are visiting this island.

The fact that the average Cuban cannot afford American imported food products is a major problem. Selling American food products at U.S. prices is nothing more than the exploitation of a poor country. It is obvious that the rare few who can afford the U.S. prices are within the Cuban government and will be the only ones besides American food companies that will benefit from this kind of trade.

For a socialist country, this type of humanitarian trade is only a ploy for American carpetbaggers to take advantage of the poor people in Cuba with the Cuban government's support.

A better humanitarian trade program would be to supply the Cuban people with the technology and farming products that would allow the average Cuban citizen to produce the needed food to support his own country. The improved building products that are available in the United States can also be produced on the island for better construction for the common citizens. At this time, with the strong control of the Cuban government, the best thing the American business industry could do is to trade something that will help the overall population, and not just the rare few who can afford American products. Improving the economic living standards in Cuba, as well as human rights in the long term, will improve the popularity of the American government with the Cuban people. If the United States is going to change any nation, we will have to help the people support themselves, not profit from them.
-- Pete D. Johnson, Tampa

We shouldn't subsidize greed

U.S. food producers are clawing their way to reach the lowest levels of the greediest groups that capitalism can breed. The U.S. taxpayer heavily subsidizes these groups, and now they want us to guarantee their profits against uncollectable Cuban debts.

Before you eulogize Dick Greco and Jesse Ventura as first-class statesmen or fill your editorial columns with teary-eyed accounts of life in impoverished Cuba, consider the following:

Cuba used to be self-sufficient and even exported many of the food items that it now is forced to beg from trade show participants. The mismanagement and corruption of the Castro regime are to blame.

The socialists want us to believe that ugly American imperialists are to blame for all that ails Cuba. The reality is that Cuba is now poor because its inept state-controlled apparatus has squandered the reserves into armaments, ill-advised military expeditions into foreign countries to promote Castro's brand of political system and possibly squirreled into numbered accounts the golden parachutes for the Castro aristocracy. Cuban cities are falling apart after millions of cubic yards of cement were diverted to build a Chernobyl-type nuclear plant that fortunately sits idle.

Cuba under Castro has proved to be bad business for foreign lenders, defaulting in loan obligations and changing the rules of their business deals in midstream. But you do not hear much about Cuba's defaults. It is true that removing the restrictions to travel to Cuba may inject money into the Cuban economy after the Castro-commissaries have gorged on their new-found cash cow. This would also act as an opiate for any resistance movement. But financing the sales of American products to Cuba would be an even greater mistake. Castro and his socialist friends would love nothing more than to stick the Americans with uncollectable debt paper as he has done with European, Asian and Latin-American nations.

As a Cuban-born U.S. citizen I urge your newspaper to broaden the news coverage of Cuba, investigating the truthfulness of many of the so-called socialist achievements. Castro and his spin doctors neglect to mention that much of the infrastructure that remains was in place before they took power, that education and medical help was free or at very low cost even to college, that almost 80 percent of Cubans could read and write in the 1950s, that Cuba had one of the highest gross national products in the Americas, etc. These are verifiable statistics, not the ones printed in Castro's Cuba for consumption and distribution by ill-informed parrots.

In the spectrum of world events, the relations of the United States with Cuba, or lack of them, have been relegated to bylines or sporadic editorials. Most Americans like me would want to restore democracy to Cuba. I just don't believe the answer is in enriching the varmints that have destroyed the government of Cuba or indulging the self-serving interests of businesses that want the U.S. taxpayers to underwrite their greedy projects.
-- J.L. Coppen, Indian Rocks Beach

It's time to ease the embargo

Support for change in the United States' 40-year-old policy toward Cuba is growing rapidly.

On July 23, the House of Representatives voted on several amendments to the 2003 Treasury/Postal Appropriations bill that relax sanctions on Cuba. An amendment passed 262 to 167 to bar funding for the enforcement of restrictions on travel to Cuba. An amendment passed 251 to 177 to bar funding for enforcement of the cap on cash remittances sent to Cuba. An amendment to ban funding to enforce financing restrictions on food and medicine sales passed by a voice vote. This is the third year in a row the House has overwhelmingly approved amendments to a Treasury/Postal bill to ease the embargo against Cuba.

On Sept. 17 and 18 in Washington, D.C., business leaders, public officials and more than 200 Cuban-Americans participated in a national summit on Cuba and Cuban American Advocacy Day. The focus of the conference was to demonstrate to the members of Congress and the president the broad base of support that exists in this country for relaxing some provisions of the embargo on Cuba.

Travel restrictions to Cuba infringe on the rights of all Americans who enjoy a free society. They separate Cuban-Americans from their families on the island. They prevent exchange and understanding between the two nations. They limit economic opportunities available to ordinary Cuban people.

A cap on remittances reduces direct financial assistance to Cuban people. It is necessary to have U.S. dollars to buy goods that are not available in the Cuban peso stores or are otherwise unreachable on the $10-per-month average income of a Cuban.

Using food and medicine as a weapon is morally wrong. Congress must allow unrestricted sales of food and medicine between the United States and Cuba. Sanctions exacerbate food shortages caused by recent hurricanes and the weakness of the Cuban economy.

The House and Senate are not doing enough. Passing an appropriations bill that limits funding for enforcement of a law does not change the law. For example, a Cuban-American traveling to Cuba to attend a funeral may still be violating the law. Sending $10,000 to your family so they can improve their home and provide rental accommodations to foreign tourists, thus earning badly needed dollars, will still be illegal.

It is my hope that the president heeds the clear message sent by the 200-plus Cuban-American contingent attending the summit. Not all Cuban-Americans support the status quo on U.S. policy toward Cuba. The Cuban-American community is not a monolithic voice. Allow unrestricted travel, remittances, food and medicine sales to Cuba now.
-- Milton H. Corson, Jr., St. Petersburg

The dangers of prostitution

The execution of Aileen Wuornos brings us face-to-face with distressing issues: murder, the death penalty, prostitution. What can we learn from this tragedy? Nothing can bring back the men she murdered, and that pain is most certainly profound for their families.

The life of Aileen Wuornos has been lost, and although we may never know the full details of her life, we know she was a woman in prostitution and that life for women in prostitution is deeply traumatic. We know their day-to-day lives are filled with exploitation and danger, and we also know many women in prostitution were sexually assaulted in childhood.

We applaud the Florida Legislature's efforts to address the problem of prostitution and its effects on neighborhoods in Florida. Recognition that women in prostitution need treatment for substance abuse is an important step forward, as are efforts to hold accountable those who procure prostitution. The problem will be more fully addressed when the role of sexual violence in the lives of women in prostitution is recognized.

For the sake of all victims of crime and the safety of our communities, we must not turn away from the lessons of this tragedy.
-- Debbie Rogers and Terri Poore, Florida Council

Parenthood is a choice

Re: The chance to work at parenthood, by Ellen Goodman, Sept. 30.

After one gets past the feel-good portion of Goodman's column, reality sets in quickly. A 20-year-old girl with no education is being compensated by the state of Montana to stay at home and raise her baby.

Being a single parent, I readily agree that raising a child is work. However, I disagree with the statement that motherhood really is Amber Byrnes' job. Motherhood is a choice. And if you're only 20 years old, are unmarried, have not completed high school and earn only $6 an hour at the local Target, it is a very poor choice. Must taxpayers forever be saddled with the cost of other people's bad decisions?

Don't get me wrong, I'm the last person who wants to see a baby not get the care it deserves, but when we create programs such as this one, it only provides incentive for other young people to follow in Amber's footsteps. Where does the madness end?
-- Alan Bieling, Seminole

Are airport X-rays safe?

Re: New airside at TIA: Comfort, safety first, Oct. 6.

I have a great deal of concern about the new X-ray systems being used at Airside E. As someone who flies weekly and now will be subjected to X-ray scans of my complete body each time I fly, I ask the question: What is the cumulative effect? Nowhere have I seen anything on what is the long term effect of the low levels of radiation used by these machines.

I believe the manufacturers of these instruments will say that the levels are very low and you might get more exposure by walking out in the sun. Well, I know that once in a while a dose of sun will not kill me but, over time, continual exposure will, even in small doses. Is it so with these machines? What are the OSHA guidelines, if any? Or are we in a rush to provide quicker service to passengers at their long term expense?

The article states that there will be airside food. Well, what of the health of the employees of these establishments? An X-ray once a day five days a week for 50 weeks is 250 X-rays per year. As more airports move to this technology, passengers will be subjected to X-rays coming and going. Low level or not, this cannot be healthy.

I seem to remember a time when all schools and government buildings -- local, state and federal -- had asbestos insulation because it was thought to be okay. Time has proved that wrong. Are we making the same mistake now?
-- Bill Kozlow, Pinellas Park

Correction

A letter in Friday's Times asserted that Bayfront Medical Center is associated with BayCare. Bayfront severed its ties with BayCare on Dec. 31, 2000.
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