One year after Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake, Haiti is far from recovered and Haitian families are still struggling to survive.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, many countries and international organizations were quick to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti. Despite the outpouring of aid, recovery is painfully slow; and health care is a particular problem. Poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water and crowded conditions in camps have added to the strain on the nation’s limited healthcare system. The nation has been further devastated by a massive cholera outbreak that has claimed over 3,400 lives.
Cultural exchanges have always been an important element of expanding one’s knowledge about countries throughout the world. While certain countries may possess different political ideologies, religious beliefs, or speak different languages from the United States, “intercambios” allow citizens to become familiar with everyday people from cultures that are different from ours. And knowing the people encourages understanding and peaceful co-existence. For countries that are polar opposites on the political and/or social spectrum—like Cuba and the United States, for example—exchanges between students, artists, faith groups, farmers, sports teams (fill in your own community here) help humanize the “other.” And in more cases than not, these exchanges assist all parties to find common ground and shared experiences, despite outward differences.
On Monday, April 5th, two Cuban medical students spoke about
contemporary Cuba in an open forum at American University in
Washington, DC. The students, Yenaivis Fuentes Ascencio and Aníbal
Ramos Socarrás*, are the first students to receive visas from the
United States since 2002 after President Bush severely curtailed
academic exchanges between the United States and Cuba. In fact, in one
positive advancement under the Obama Administration, visas for Cubans
to travel to the United States are up approximately 65 percent overall,
according to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
We are the closest we have been for years to ending the ridiculous travel ban on Cuba. This Wednesday, September 29, at noon, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (HCFA) will consider H.R. 4645, the “Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act.” This means that they will be considering whether to lift the travel ban on Cuba, or not.
A United States delegation led by Craig Kelly, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, met with Cuban officials led by Dagoberto Rodríguez, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, in Havana on Friday, February 19th, to discuss migration issues. This meeting marked the second round of migration talks since their suspension in 2004 by President George W. Bush.
Speaking recently before a university audience in Kentucky, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared her thoughts about the future of U.S.-Cuban relations. She touched on many headline-grabbing issues, but her comment that it's her “personal belief that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States, because they would then lose all of their excuses for what hasn’t happened in Cuba in the last 50 years" is what got Cuba's, and the international media's, attention.
On February 11th, Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), long time pro-embargo supporter (and creator), announced that he will not run for his tenth term this coming November.
“I am convinced that in the upcoming chapter of the struggle, I can be more useful to the inevitable change that will soon come to Cuba, to Cuba’s freedom, as a private citizen dedicated to helping the heroes within Cuba,” said Rep. Diaz-Balart.
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