Now We Can All Go To Cuba!

(cross-posted from www.indisputably.org)

Well not really, but soon.  cuba-seminary-front-green-car-e1453233240472Today the government announced that U.S. airlines can propose routes to Cuba which could then start flying later this year.  The President has also announced that he hopes to get to Cuba sometime this spring as well.  Even the New York Times at the end of January has helpfully posted a column on Frequently Asked Questions about travel to Cuba.

For more reasons on why this would be fascinating for all of us interested in conflict,  I am linking to the (last) bit of press coverage from our trip.  Here are students talking to the Marquette paper about the trip and here is a television interview conducted by our local station.  Enjoy!

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A Cuban Perspective on International Law

As a member of the group of students and faculty who recently visited Cuba, I want to concur in all of the prior posts that expressed how fascinating it was to tour Havana, learn about some of the history, and in particular interact with the people. Prior to the trip, my only encounters with socialists had taken place in Berkeley, California and Eugene, Oregon, so I’d always associated the ideology with Left Coast stuff like patchouli and hemp shoulder bags. This was my first opportunity to meet and talk with genuine, born-and-raised socialists–people who think of Marx and Engels the way we might think of Locke or Smith. One of those people was Celeste Pino Canales, a professor of public international law at the University of Havana, who spoke with us about Cuban perspectives on international law and, afterward, allowed me to interview her on what it’s like to be a law professor in Cuba. A post about our conversation is available here.

 

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Cuba – Do They Like Us?

(cross-posted from www.indisputably.org)

Since returning, I’ve received calls from those about to go and questions from others—what are the Cuban people like?  And what do they think of Americans?

The official Cuban policy, of course, is that the US policy has been shortsighted and narrow minded.  And the list of US policies that need to change was also outlined for us:

  • end the embargo
  • stop treating Cuban immigrants to the US differently from other immigrants (granting them refugee status when no other national group is and thereby encouraging them to leave)
  • leave Guantanamo Bay–what lease lasts over 100 years!?!
  • and stop broadcasting US propaganda from Radio Marti.

Museo_de_la_Revolucion-Rincon_de_los_cretinos_Batista_Reagan_G._Bush_W._BushAnd one can definitely see anti-American sentiment in the Museum of the Revolution in a very funny little exhibit called the Rincon de los Cretinos(the Corner of Idiots).

But those are the official sentiments, and not at all what one hears around and about.  According to the American journalist, Mark Frank, who spoke to us, there has not been any anti-US demonstrations in a decade.  And I did not see any billboards or posters that were anti-US (other than the historic exhibits in the Museum).  Most importantly, each student noted how individually friendly the Cubans were.

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