Obama Lands In Cuba As First US President To Visit In Nearly A Century (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Barack Obama descended on Cuba with a pomp unmatched by the Pope on Sunday, becoming the first American president to visit Cuba in nearly a century, and the first since a revolution led by Fidel Castro toppled a U.S.-backed strongman in 1959. As he arrived, Obama used a Cuban phrase meaning "what's up?" when he tweeted: "Que bola Cuba? Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people." "This is a historic visit," Obama said as he greeted U.S. Embassy staff and their families at a Havana hotel. "It's an historic opportunity to engage with the Cuban people." One of the many results of the new diplomatic relations between the two countries is the ability for Cuban residents to become more connected to the internet. Reuters is reporting that Alphabet Inc's Google is poised to expand internet access in Cuba. "One of the things that we'll be announcing here is that Google has a deal to start setting up more Wi-Fi and broadband access on the island," Obama said in an ABC News interview that aired on Monday. The U.S. Treasury Department has even authorized San Francisco's Airbnb service to expand its home rental listings in Cuba to non-U.S. travelers.

Comments

Re:Obama is a traitor

[MightyMartian]

Because even if he's breaking laws, that's not treason...

Treason has a rather specific definition, and not merely "I don't like that guy..."

Re:Cruz isn't a fan

[iggymanz]

the countries we do billions of dollars of business with a year do far, far worse than Cuba and no one gives a shit. why make Cuba special, I don't get it.

Re:Wifi

[gstoddart]

How much do you know about Cuba?

They are still receiving food aid (small island, large population) but nobody would starve without it; it's not like 1994.

How much do you know about Cuba? Have you been there?

I've been there several times, and trust me, the levels of abject poverty in Cuba is a lot higher than you seem to think. You don't need to go very far to find people living in cinder block homes with dirt floors and a couple of chickens scratching in the yard. And that's a couple of notches above poor by Cuban standards.

The official rations people get? A bit of beans and rice per person, and people who are trained as engineers and doctors are working as bartenders because it pays a lot more.

Yes, they have education and health care, but much beyond that and there's probably a lot of people who are literally starving.

The picture is more complicated than you have been led to believe.

That cuts two ways. Cuba isn't a land of plenty, they've come a long way, but there's still a tremendous amount of poverty, and there are many many things they simply cannot get ... like basic toiletries and the like.

Cuba is a very poor country, with pockets where some people can make a lot of extra money working in the tourist trade.

But there's also people who are pan-handling, and waiting for the side of the road to catch a ride on an overcrowded bus which wouldn't even be legal to operate in a first world country.

The difference between the resorts and the rural parts of Cuba are massive. And increasingly in the larger cities there are huge signs of outright poverty.

It's very complex indeed. But if you think people aren't actually at risk of starving, you really know a lot less than you think.

It took way too long to end the CE hypocrisy.

[istartedi]

It took way too long for this to happen. Back when we gave China MFN status, what, early 90s? I was already complaining about the hypocrisy. The rationale was that by engaging with China we would eventually transfer our ideas as well as our goods. The theory behind this was called "Constructive Engagement".

But if CE was really the proper way to deal with these regimes, what about Cuba? It never really worked anyway. CE was just justification--it was all about the money, and earlier it was about playing China against the USSR. It was hypocritical on its face, right from the start.

I've literally been complaining about this since before some of you were born. Sheesh! Look, I get it. Castro stole your stuff, and you're mad; but most of the people who directly lost are dead. Aside from that, conquest happens. It's how America was built. At some point you have to write that off.

Don't get me wrong. Communism sucks. It's an evil little anachronism that exists down there; but our way of dealing with it didn't work. Time to try something different... finally!