Cuba

I watched interview with President Obama during which Lester Holt asked him if he thought Cuba was moving too slowly on his initiative to improve relations. In this case as with other international cases, it is assumed that the other is the culprit.

In America, we have forgotten about the years in which Cuba was as US colony, a place where the US government wielded its bully power to protect American business interests and Mafia investments, keeping the poor extremely poor, supporting dictatorships, intervening in Cuban affairs and ultimately driving Cuba to Communism.

America has been recalcitrant in its 50 year embargo, punishing this small island nation while it deals with states like China and Vietnam. Cuba should be cautious of the dangers of American wealth and greed. It's hard to imagine David and Goliath turning out here as it did in the Bible.

The Cuban people struggle with issues of food and poverty and poor infrastructure. But the poor are not dirt poor as they were under Batista. Education is free and the Cuban people have a higher literacy rate that in the United States.

The sadly inevitable thing is that these problems cannot be solved people-to-people. It's the job of the governments, who up to this point have been the stubborn protectors of their own self interests.

Go to Cuba. See for yourself. Fall in love.