Cuban attitudes towards America

I have chosen to write about Cuba, I feel that Cuba has many interesting views and opinions towards America and much of the everyday Cuban lifestyle is focused on not being influenced by American, American trends and the American way of life. I was fortunate enough to visit Cuba this summer, so I was able to experience this and when speaking to local Cubans it is obvious the traditions and Cuban way of life is something they want to remain kept untouched, they do not want to be effected by Americanisation!

When visiting Cuba one of the things is noticed was it was virtually impossible to buy any kind of American produce and products, it was very rare to find the brand ‘Coke’ on the island. Cuban alternatives of these brands were apparent though! Cuba is one of the countries which remain untouched for years. When you step out of the airport in Havana is it is like stepping back in time, with old fashioned cars and little technology, there is also very limited Wifi on the island something which is very uncommon in today’s society. Cuban crisis was the main reason Cuba and America have conflict issues today. The Cuban missile crisis’s, left America suspecting Cuba was in the Soviet Union and therefore resulted in many issues which are apparent today between Cuba and America. Cuba does not import any produce from America and America encouraged all of South America, Central America and Europe to break the trade with Cuba. Cuban policies differ a lot from American policies, for example, Cuban citizens do not have to pay to go to University, they also pay taxes but in these taxes national health is included.

Americans have only just been legally aloud to visit Cuba, due to the appeal made by Barack Obama. However there are still some rules and regulations American citizens have to abide by in order to visit Cuba. Americans have to include their visit with a cultural trip, they are not allowed to organise trips on their own. It is also illegal for American’s to take some Cuban produce home. Cuban citizens believe allowing Americans to visit Cuba is a positive effect, as they want to redevelop the relationship they once had with Cuba. With the increase in American travel to Cuba, Cuba’s economy has been increased, through tourism providing the citizens of Cuba with more income. The increase of tourist based business has also increased due to this. However Cuban’s believe this is still only one small step, to resolving this issues and problems shared by America and Cuba.

The following website is a Cuban website containing information about the Cuban Five.

http://www.freethefive.org/

They are a group of men who were wrongly accused of spying on American Cuban exile community, the Cuban five missions was to report on terrorist attacks in the US and to attempt to prevent them and protect Cuba. They were arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2001. Miami Journalists were paid to sway US American opinions on the Cuban Five.

The website provides information and data from America, with information and news on the Cuban Five however since it is a Cuban website the information is biasly selected from the Cuban point of view and showing how the Cubans felt towards the matter. Many Americans were unaware that the Cubans too had suffered from terrorist attacks also; I believe this shows how America is very self focused. Cuba has been suffering from terrorist attacks from Miami for over fifty years now, this is extremely sad as the main reason the Cuban five were in Miami was to prevent terrorism. However after the devastating news which hit American on September 11^th 2001, Americans became more aware of the possible chances of being attacked by terrorist, and therefore this could have lead them to dislike the Cuban five even more since they were believed to be terrorists at they were seen as a threat much like when Cuba was accused of being part of the Soviet Union.

Although the website is a Cuban website so the information is carefully selected in order to show how the Cuban citizens felt, some of the statements made in the Washington Post, an article posted on the website contains information which supports the release of the Cuban Five. For example the statement given by Ramsey Clark, expresses a positive view as to why the Cuban five should be released.

I believe this website is very effective in providing information on the Cuban five and portraying how the citizens for Cuba view America. These views are then supported by additional background knowledge of the county and some of the laws and policies put in place in order to prevent Cuba from being affected by Americanisation. After researching this I personally feel somewhat sympatric towards Cuba and feel I have more of an understanding as to why Cuba have certain attitudes towards America. It is very rare for a country to not be affected by the influences of America and to some extent Cuba may be swaying towards influences of America more and more in today’s modern society, as maybe it is almost impossibly not to be influenced by such a powerful country, especially since Cuba is only 90 miles away from Florida!

Here are some YouTube videos which help explain some of Cuba’s Attitudes towards America;