Good for the Bush Administration for offering hurricane relief aid to
Now let’s hope that the two governments find a way to make it work.
The U.S. insistence that the aid go through relief agencies was not a condition of the post-typhoon aid provided to Burma earlier this year (here’s a report of U.S. aid being loaded directly onto Burmese military trucks), but that doesn’t seem like an insurmountable obstacle if the Cuban side is indeed interested in U.S. aid.
Regarding the statement by Senator Menendez and others that I cited yesterday, the English text is here (h/t Mambi Watch).
17 comments:
We are not obligated to help Cuba. And this money comes from taxpayer anyways, so does the money to the war. But 100,000 seems like a very small amout. I see it more like a trap to complain Cuba is not accepting the offer.
Exactly. If someone is strangling you for billions with one hand and then reaches out to hand you this heavily conditioned pittance with the other it can only be viewed as an insincere insult designed more for political purposes than to really help Cuba. This "offer" almost exactly mirrors the plan of Cuba's worst enemies in the US - people who supported Bush's idiotic inhumane restrictions on family remittances and travel.
I think it is an offer meant to be rejected and I do think I see the hands or the heads or whatever, of those Cuban politicians in campaign now. They will never accept what the disidents in Cuba are proposing, for example, because that is what Obama is also proposing. And besides, it will take away their Cuba issue in their campaing.
leftside, since you undoubtedly ascribe to a worldview that the United States economically abuses and exploits the developing world in its normal everyday relationships, why are you so concerned that the U.S. doesn't have normal trade relations with Cuba? Seems to me you should be happy about that.
REVOLT
Now that it appears that IKE will also ravage Cuba, the Administration will have to allow Cuban Americans to send money to help their families or it will suffer the consequences in November. Everyone knows the relief agency line is B.S. How is it going to play in the Cuban American community (of the people who actually have family in Cuba), Latin America and the rest of the world when tens of thousands of people are suffering 90 miles away and the US government won't even let people send money directly to their families that are suffering and have lost everything. Come election time a lot of Cuban Americans are going to remember Obama was a voice of reason that would allow such assistance and not continue to blindly follow a failed policy at the cost of human lives.
Those 'cubans' in america who would put obstacles for real cubans to travel and send money to Cuba at this time of need, aren't REAL cubans.
true, they don't even have family left their. Their fantasies continue.
"US government won't even let people send money directly to their families that are suffering and have lost everything."
please cite the U.S. law or regulation that says people can't send money to Cuba.
To the last poster,
Here it is you dick (this is US gov. website):
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/cuba/cuba.pdf
The babalu types, who can't speak spanish, and don't have family there, are now claiming their flock to not even try to help the innocent cuban victims that will be for IKE. They say "to pray" is all we can do. These people are true animals.
Cuba just released a statement that did not mention the $100,000 directly but said it appreciated the gesture. However, it stated that the most ethical thing would be to drop the restrictions.
Anon 10:46, just because I am against the neo-liberal view of free trade does not mean I am against mutually beneficial trade. Trade is only abusive when a country is forced to negotiate from a position of weakness or is not well thought out. The US exploits Cuba today by making money off it, but not allowing the purchase of anything from Cuba.
Seems like a seriously token amount with lots of conditions - especially with the dept. of state meeting with khaddafy and providing forgiveness to other totalitarian governments for innumerable things. Just pandering to New Jersy and Florida as far as I'm concerned
anon 8:18, here's your next assignment: read the friggin' regs!
I know it's a lot for your closed mind to take in, so I'll even help you further, go to the section on remittances. If you still maintain that the "US government won't even let people send money directly to their families" then man you're best alone in a very quiet room.
while I'm at it:
professorp, I just hope you are not a real professor able to poison young minds with such facile thoughts.
leftside, champion of free trade --unless HE thinks it is not "well thought out." Anyway what is Cuba going to sell us, cigars and rum? To nanny-staters like you who want to run other people's lives, aren't those "bad for us" necessitating state intervention?
I can't believe that someone posting here is trying to make the point that Americans are allowed to send money to Cuba. Yes it's true Cubans are allowed to send a small amount to CLOSE family members, but I believe a person is only permitted to send $100 per month. (I'm not going to look for the law, but I know that's about right). For someone to infer that that's sufficient in these dire times is extremely right wing, misleading, selfish and idiotic.
anony 9:09 is right on. yes we can send, but its only 100 per month.
you are right, in saying
"For someone to infer that that's sufficient in these dire times is extremely right wing, misleading, selfish and idiotic."
don't forget - and an savage.
Collective dolts,
50k-100k is the standard initial official US disaster assistance in ANY situation. It's usually followed by an assessment team to identify actual damage to then serve as a basis for more aid. You just don't pull a number out of the sky without knowing what it would be applied to.
Anons 9:09, 12:19, I think we are making progress. You now acknowledge that the US doesn't prevent money from going to Cuba. Whether you think it is enough is a different debate.
It is possible to send money to Cuba through Western Union, however, it is a big rip-off because of what W.U. charges to send money ($20 for $0.01 to $100, $50 for up to $500) not to mention that Castro has his own chunk that he takes out in Cuba ($20 or more per $100). (My fiancee sends money when he can to his family in Cuba.) Hopefully this has cleared up the issue.
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