Obama 'seeks a new beginning' with Cuban relations; also meets Chavez

Saturday 18th April, 09:00 AM JST

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skipthesong at 12:05 PM JST - 18th April

This is for the future of Cuba and US relations"

I am down with that idea, but at the moment, who are we speaking to?
TheQuestion at 12:14 PM JST - 18th April

Cuba has called itself socialist, a lot of Cubans have left because the American dream seemed a lot sweeter sounding than Castro's promises of a greater community of South American nations sometime in the future. The fact that his people have had to endure decades of doing without and being told how to do without is also the reason so many Cubans have sought to escape, that and having their loved ones arrested for crimes against the state of a political kind...Meanwhile in Cuba, without a doubt since the 1990's there has emerged significant poverty in rural areas, people are largely healthy. Why? Because there is widespread access to vegetables and fruit, and a big one here, health care is for everybody and its free.

If you ever lived there you would hold your tongue. You don't know the price, if you did you would be less inclined to question my embracing the free market and you wouldn't dare attepmt to justify Castro's tyranny.
skipthesong at 12:40 PM JST - 18th April

When black Cubans gather, the topic of racism readily emerges. But the government does not permit clubs, associations or movements based on race; there is no NAACP in Cuba, nor would one be allowed."
skipthesong at 12:55 PM JST - 18th April

This is for the future of Cuba and US relations" So, our future must include hanging with leaders who would jail you for disagreeing with them? Isn't it bad enough we are friendly to Arabia, China, Russia?

This is not about whether you agree with communism or not, this is, at least for me, is helping a man who is responsible for so many deaths, so much pain which could have been avoided but his vengeance/macho ism took control.
buddha4brains at 06:18 PM JST - 18th April

Castro will be dead in a few years but Cuba will remain. It is time for America to look to the future and a new relationship with Cuba. This is not to ignore the painful past, but to reach toward a better future so that those who died can be openly remembered and mourned. Otherwise it will be more of the same until the end of time.

Castro is a mere mortal and will soon turn to dust. What happens then? Civil war? And then another generation of suffering and divided families?
space_monkey at 06:59 PM JST - 18th April

As long as there is more rum to drink and cigars to smoke I am all for it.
BuddhismTech at 07:25 PM JST - 18th April

“New beginning”? There is no beginning and no ending. The world is always changing since a very long time ago. This is a way of life. We all suffer every day.

We should not trust the mainstream main, puppets, bankers, central bankers, and elites. The world already has seen enough of the money-making parasites, such as global warming, bird disease, AIDS, bailouts, puppet installations, job outsourcing/dislocations, holocausts, wars, money laundering, off shoring banking, illegal drug smuggling, human smuggling, border opening without proper notification, imbalanced classes, overpriced products, expensive drugs, etc.

Flickr.com alone is more likely to unite countries than the combination of presidents, prime ministers, and dictators. Internet can do many useful things and change the global perception forever. Some governments, including the U.S. government, don't like it too much. They want some hatreds, controls, false-flag attacks, framings, and victimhood games to stay uninterrupted for profits and consumptions. Although some of politicians and bankers are supporting the one-world currency, that can't be done without ridding the problems in the Middle East, international bankers with particular goals, and global intelligence agents.

We need to stop paying attention at what the mainstream media say about the countries and parties. The 20th century political issues are already dead. We should be more concerned about Internet than political puppets, forms of governments, and political parties because it is making a bigger impact on the world society, propagandas, economies, cultures, and banking system.
Badsey at 07:55 PM JST - 18th April

Punatives can only go so far. Obama made the big first step by opening up travel visas with Cuba. Be patient, the will and determination of the Cuban people is strong.
Noliving at 12:12 AM JST - 19th April

taniwha, disagree that capitalism has failed and or broke. Recessions are suppose to happen in capitalism. Why is it that this recession means capitalism has failed but not the other recessions that have happend since the great depression? What evidence do you have that capitalism is permantely broke and that it has failed completely?
TexasAggie at 02:21 AM JST - 19th April

Now that a whimpering socialist is in charge of the U.S., time to see how long it takes before one of Obama's new best friends attacks us.
elbudamexicano at 04:52 AM JST - 19th April

Most Americans do not understand how much Latin Americans hate them nor why they are so hated from Cuba all the way down to Argentina. Obama is not white so he may understand the frustrations of Cubans, etc..better than Bush. Chavez may seem like some crazy South American Banana Republic dictator, but he is doing what the US should have been doing ages ago in Latin America. He is using the profits from his country's oil revenues to build roads and hospitals all over Latin America. What do Latin Americans see the US do? Ransak their oil,coal,gold etc..and they see the US government only supporting the ruling white class in Bolivia etc..so now Evo Morales has kicked the American DEA out of his country, with a lot of support from Chavez etc.. Most Americans working as so called "volunteers" in Colombia etc..are all suspected to be members of the CIA. So white Americans should be very happy to have a black man as president who may actually begin to understand those folk who are not just white and english speakers. If freedom can ever come to Cuba, Chavez and Obama are most likely to help bring positive changes about. Americans and others should also not forget, Venezuela is 1 of the most important exporters of oil to the USA, and last year, Chavez donated heating oil to many cold poor families in the USA!! When will we ever hear of American oil producers donating oil for anything to anybody???
JoeBigs at 09:17 AM JST - 19th April

This is good that President Obama has opened a discussion with Chavez. I understand that many in the far right camp still want to alienate Chavez and Cuba. But that camp forgets that under the Bush administration we lost allot of respect and allies in all of Latin America. If we get Chavez to warm up to us that will make it easier for us to step into Latin America.

I just hope we can keep this going and really make a dent in the image the last Administration left. We have to stop looking like the thugs and thieves of the world. We need to change minds and hearts back to our way.

We can no longer change regimes in Latin America like we used to. Now we have to change minds and the rest of the body will follow.
taniwha at 02:23 PM JST - 19th April

Okay, lets talk about 'the new beginning for Cuba'. What would that entail? Oh forgot, number one Cuba becomes capitalist. Prez Obama went to Trinidad to talk a new face onto US imperialism. The US has always had strategic interests in Latin America, and there was a time when it exerted hegemony over the region. But not so to the same extent any longer.

Obama went there to repair the damage done by years of aggressive US unilateral policies particularly those that directly affected the region over two terms of the Bush administration. Prez Bush's regime asserted a series of bilateral trade agreements, or at least attempted to do so, while pursuing its War on Terror along with the War on Drugs, both as the means to militarily dominate Latin America. All the time the US maintained its embargo on trade with Cuba, and sought to destabilize Latin left leaning nationalist governments.

While Prez Obama 'listens' to Latin America there is little tangible evidence the policies of his administration will be little different to those of the previous administration. The tone he adopts is shall we say a little more inclusive but if you look for example at who has been placed in charge of Latin American policy you find it is the same guy, Secretary Thomas Shannon, worked for Bush now working for Obama, in exactly the same role, i.e. Chief State Department Official.

The summit held in Trinidad made a lot of declarations but like the recent G20 in London the draft declarations are essentially meaningless providing nothing more than a wish list; i.e. end poverty, unemployment, etc. along with declarations to strongly support capitalist free trade (a contradiction in itself) and investment, the very two things responsible for the conditions present in Latin America the Summit declares it aims to fix! What a joke, what a bad joke.

Promises and platitudes on display for all to see, if they will.

As for Prez Obama on the question of the US re-establishing ties with Cuba, the provisions he has offered will serve to make the gap between Cuban's that have dollars and those that don't far greater than it is now. And incredibly, posters on this thread, many of them apparently Cuban have failed to say a word about the fact that the Obama administration has made it clear the economic blockade will stay in place!

Well a lot is changing, even if the change isn't actually in the direction taken by Washington. The change lies within America itself. As economic conditions within America for a majority of Americans considerably worsens in quick time, and the social breakdown resulting becomes overwhelmingly visible, many have begun to question the sense of staying with a capitalist system that is clearly broke (broke a long time ago actually).

This is ironic. Here we have a US Prezident ostensibly extending a hand to its long surviving against all odds nemises Cuba in the hope it dashes its Stalinist model of socialism within a nation, and embrace American capitalism, while over 45% of Americans polled just days ago expressed strong doubt that a Capitalist system was better than a Socialist system. It kind of makes the JT poll a few weeks ago blush I would think.

As conditions in the US become more like those in Latin America the numbers of people turning against capitalism will only increase.
elbudamexicano at 07:44 PM JST - 20th April

Most of Latin America has a drug problem (violence, corruption etc..)thanks to Fidel Castro Cuba is still drug free. If Cuba "opens up" to America, I am very afraid it will also become another drug infested black hole like the USA is now, with it's so called "war on drugs." We should not forget that most of the drugs coming out of Colombia pass through Venezuela, then on to Mexico, the USA, etc..I wonder how long the so called "good relation" between FARC supporting Chavez and freedom loving Obama will last?
OhioDonna at 11:48 PM JST - 22nd April

Not good, Cuba is way too close to our shores for comfort. Much like N.Korea is way to close to Japan for comfort.