To show you how confident we are in this, we will engineer the harshest economic hit job and we will sanction the sh out of them, and every other country that tries something similar.
Respectfully, the US and its lackeys
The embargo doesn't exist because the US is correct in its assessment that Cuba's economic system won't succeed, an opinion shared by Cuba's largest trading partner: https://www.ft.com/content/9ca0a495-d5d9-4cc5-acf5-43f42a912...
That reads like sarcasm to me.
The embargo gets voted in every 6 months. There's huge lobby made up of bitter ex-land-owners from Cuba that now live in the USA and buy politicians.
The travesty in Cuba[1] and in Gaza[2] is directly related to the undemocratic policy in the United States where it is legal to bribe politicians.
1. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220207-cuba-marks-si...
2. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/i-am-zionist-how-joe-bidens...
Prior, this was not true. Israel assessed a VAT customs fee which was then transferred to the PA. The US has an FTA with the PA which applies across Gaza and the West Bank.
To show how confident we are in this, we will send to Russia 10,000 soldiers from North Korea, drones from Iran, weapons and cash from China. Houthis will strike ships in Red Sea. China will engage in blockade exercises around Taiwan.
Respectfully, China and its lackeys
Yes, China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, and I wouldn't be surprised by it having its own Bay Of Pigs equivalent in the next 20 years.
But also, e.g. Iran has called the USA "the Great Satan" for a while now; I asked a former Iranian coworker, and he told me that wasn't a translation oddity like the way Arabic speakers will say "Inshallah" (God willing) the way an English speaker would say "hopefully".
They have the whole world, their economy shouldn't need us.
Let them work with China and see how well that works out
"Certain jurisdictions, such as the European Union and Canada, have so-called blocking statutes in place that are intended to mitigate the impact of U.S. sanctions on their citizens or entities conducting (in their view) legitimate business in Cuba."
https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2019/05/under-...
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/isdb_results/factsheets/country...
China's Xi vows to support Cuba in defending its national sovereignty https://www.reuters.com/world/chinas-xi-vows-support-cuba-de...
The other way around, China puts Taiwan (the closest China has to its own Cuba) on a list of major countries with 291 bn USD* whereas Cuba's total with everyone put together was estimated to be 4.6 bn USD in 2017.
* http://guangzhou.customs.gov.cn/customs/302249/zfxxgk/279982...
However, this is an incomplete picture. Cuba has essentially no market economy whatsoever. All evidence throughout history shows this is economic suicide and is undoubtedly an even larger cause of their issues. It's so bad that in the FT this week (https://www.ft.com/content/9ca0a495-d5d9-4cc5-acf5-43f42a912...) this incredible line is written:
"Chinese officials have been perplexed and frustrated at the Cuban leadership’s unwillingness to decisively implement a market-oriented reform programme despite the glaring dysfunction of the status quo, the people said."
That's the CHINESE (Marxist at least in name) government lamenting the lack of Cuban adoption of market principles.
Further, the article makes quite clear that the US Embargo, for whatever it is worth, doesn't extend to the entire world (which should be obvious) noting very specific relations with multiple major Chinese companies. So even though Cuba is clearly able to trade with the second largest economy in the world (with giant enterpries like Huawei and ZTE), with a population of greater than 1B, they are still somehow completely incapable of operating a function al economy.
What's more, a cursory understanding of Cuban history should show that they are avowedly enemies of the US having once attempted to host nuclear missiles aimed at the US. What is the US to do? Actively support a regime which has threatened tens of millions of its people?
It's like suggesting Venezuela allying with the US.
Openly hostile lmao it’s such a tiny insignificant island nation- I never understood why the US should be afraid of Cuba - they are just vengeful after losing assets in the revolution. They managed to stamp every single one out in Latin America but viva was defiant.
It’s all about ideology not an actual threat that Cuba would pose
lmao wait until you find out how much damage a nuclear warhead can do and how small they are. They can even fit on a tiny insignificant island nation!
ICBMs existed back then as well. If the nuke comes from too close, there is no ability to react with early warning systems. That was the core problem with Cuban Missile Crisis.
> Cold War was over before I was born, yet you’re still salty
Good point. Probably shouldn't be concerned about Russia either then!
Cuba is collapsing because of failed economic policies and the resulting emigration.
Did the same AI tell you about Cuban exports? At least $2B is in the same ballpark, but definitely lower.
According to Haiti's Central Bank, total goods exports in 2022 were 1.07 Billion. GDP per capita estimated at $1,748.3 USD. [1]
Cuba is harder to pin down. OEC says they had 1.07 Billion in goods exports in 2022[2], whereas the WTO puts it around 2+ Billion[3]. The World Bank puts GDP per capita at 9,499.6 in 2020 (a bad year)[4], but Cuba doesn't really have a GDP and it changed its monetary system in 2021, so an economist who specializes in Cuba should weigh in here.
But in general, even with the lack of transparency on the Cuban economy, it's quite clear that with Haiti's complete breakdown of government and its historically low GDP per capita, Cuba and its people are in a much healthier economic state and are a much more attractive trading/business partner than Haiti.
[1] https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/haiti-market... [2] https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub [3] https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/cuba_e.htm [4] https://data.worldbank.org/country/cuba
https://www.yahoo.com/news/travellers-visited-cuba-last-11-1...
Why don’t we let the markets decide?
But being human is indeed valuable in a purely utilitarian economic sense, too: it's a prerequisite to being able to teach machines. Services like the more and more elaborate marking / description of data sets are often outsourced to countries that have low-cost labor. It's intellectual work, in a sense.
I'm in college and looking to work for a startup when I graduate. I want experience, I want to learn about what building a company is really like - because I have ambitions of starting my own. Your comment felt to me very raw and real, and I'd love to talk more about your experiences working for startups.
And if these comment threads are insufficient, please feel free to contact me at ruchirkavulli[at]gmail[.]com
Cuba trades just fine with China, EU, Canada even, not even considering South America. The numbers are out there. Also countries like Venezuela were not nearly as heavily sanctioned and yet they speed-ran the left playbook to run their economy into the ground in record time. On the other hand, somehow sanctions didn't do much to damage Russian internal economy, as much as I wish they did - probably because even mafiosos and strongmen are not as dumb as leftists. OTOH^2 economically illiterate Erdogan was able to make lira crash without any sanctions. That was from just one stupid idea, whereas leftism is a whole stupid system.
Also, why should they need trade to provide basic services that most countries provide locally? Forget power, Cuba is/was one of the major, and most famous, tobacco producers. A middle-aged US man once told me he often goes on vacations to Cuba (flying thru Canada), because "girls there will sleep with you for a pack of American cigarettes". The regime is so incompetent they cannot even provide basic local goods that require ~no trade.
Sanctions on Cuba have strangled their economy and spread misery among the population.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1143112
US is almost alone in spearheading the embargo.