Recent Cuban address to the UN – hay que tener la cara dura!

Two days ago, the Cuban Ambassador to the UN gave a speech (http://www.un.org/ga/63/generaldebate/pdf/cuba_en.pdf) before the UN General Assembly. I read the transcript with much amusement – it is truly incredible how Cuban officials can produce six pages worth of words with such little care for truth, reality, or indeed, logic. Thankfully it was not Fidel, or we would have had hundreds of pages.
A full rebuttal of the speech, point by point, is beyond the scope of this blog. However, I would like to highlight a few common threads in every rant by a Cuban official.

• Perverse subversion of the word “democratic” – a call for more “democracy” in the world is a common pitch. Ironic and ludicrous, of course, given that Cuban refuses to allow its citizens any form of political choice. Option 1 = Fidel. Option 2 = also Fidel.
  
• Calling for action but doing nothing – the rich world is the cause of all of Cuba’s problems. Surprising that Cuba finds no fault in itself. Cuba is a country awash with farmable land, yet imports food from the US worth hundreds of millions. It supposedly has an educated populace, but has no industry to speak of. Also interesting how Cuba refuses to adopt basic reforms regarding property and ownership – reforms that its erstwhile “comrades”, Russia and China, have fully embraced. Even Cuba’s BFF Chavez allows this.
  
• Embargo – no Cuban speech is free of rant against the embargo. It is amazing how they just gloss over the fact that they can purchase goods from every single country on Earth bar the US. Why so keen to buy from your self-described worst enemy? That’s right, they are at high risk of default and no one wants to give them credit.

It is also interesting to note a point that is never made. Despite the condemnation of the US, no Cuban official mentions the remarkable growth the US has experienced since Castro took power (vs. Cuban stagnation), the acceptance and integration of millions of immigrants from every corner of the world (vs. a mass outflow from Cuba), the incredible technological achievements (vs. Cuba’s drug recovery clinic for leftist South Americans), and the incredible amount of aid given to the third world, in terms of both dollars and people (vs. Cuban guerillas in Africa and a doctors for oil program with Venezuela).

Is it surprising then, that the world still flocks to the US in search and hope of a better future, while 10% of Cuba’s population lives in exile, while an untold number continue to search for a way out of the island?