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I don't pay much attention to world events. Heck, I
don't pay much attention
to the local news. Still, there's enough scuttlebutt in the newsgroups
and
mailing lists that I read that some stuff comes through. And I watch
Larry
King Live and he has some topical guests, although today the guest was
Sarah
Ferguson, Duchess of York and all they talked about was being
overweight and
Weight Watchers. He has a wide variety of guests but some of the most
boring
subjects.
Anyway, yesterday there were some guests talking about Elian Gonzalez
and
whether or not he should be sent back to Cuba. There was a lot of back
and
forth: the boy should be with his father, the father should come to the
US,
we shouldn't send him back to live in oppression, why should be this be
any
different than if he were Mexican or North Korean. For the most part I
came
away thinking that I'm glad I don't have to make that decision. And
it's also
really unfortunate that the mom died, for then the decision would be
much
easier either way.
There are groups of people who wonder why we even have sanctions
against Cuba,
a rather minor country that has very little chance of hurting us. It
seems to
me that, unless you have lived under an oppressive regime, which I
haven't,
unless you've lived it then it's very hard to understand. It's nice for
me to
imagine what it's like to be destitute and one of the homeless people
of our
country and therefore feel some amount of sympathy. But I've never been
in
that situation, so there's no possible way that I can truly understand
people
like that.
For people to say that we have no quarrel with Cuba's
government is, I think,
a rather misguided view. They're right next to us so we try to help
them.
Maybe it's some vestigial "it's our backyard" syndrome, but we do try
to make
the world a better place. There are lots of places where the US ignores
the
plight of the oppressed for one reason or another, but I'm not going to
decry
the few efforts my government makes just because we can't be everywhere
and
solve all the world's problems.
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<>One of the
weird "agreements" we have with Cuba is that we return any of her
peoples who are stopped short of the shores of the United States. I'm
not too
sure if this Constitutional law, but any political or oppressed people
who
come to America must be granted asylum if they request it. People who
don't
actually make it to our shores can be repatriated to their home
countries,
where they can be oppressed or persecuted.
Now, I don't know why it's that way. I'm sure there's a
good reason, some
international law or whatever. It's hard to imagine that people would
risk
their lives and the lives of their loved ones in an attempt to come
here.
The freedoms that we take for granted are a rather intoxicating holy
grail
to some peoples. I can't really understand that yearning since my
country
of birth is not an oppressive state, just a poor one. We came here for
the
economic opportunities and for the security a more stable government.
If you ask me if we should send Elian back to Cuba, I'd say no. Rather
rare
for me to commit to something I have little knowledge about. But I
believe
that's what his mother wanted, although that doesn't stop us from
repatriating
other Cubans. I just don't think he has a real home to return to. His
father
loves him, I'm sure. I'm not sure just how much. The father has another
wife
and not the kid, and he hasn't shown any real desire to have Elian
back. But
it's hard to know what's inside a person's heart.
Still, if Elian was the son of a prominent Cuban government official. I
wonder
how that would change the equation and the politics? Once again, I'm
glad I
don't have to make these kinds of decisions.
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