New Cuba Policy Stirs Caribbean Memories

[malaise]

http://www.wbur.org/npr/371701573/new-cuba-policy-stirs-caribbean-memories
<snip>
I was surprised by the strong emotional reaction I had when I saw the news of the U.S. change in policy toward Cuba. I found myself in tears. As a journalist, I could process it on an intellectual level and I understand the foreign policy implications. But as a naturalized American citizen of Jamaican and Caribbean heritage, I wanted to jump for joy and shout "Hallelujah!" that finally, Cuba was no longer a pariah and there was nothing to fear. This is something I never thought would happen in my lifetime.

When I was a young adult living in Jamaica, the government of then Prime Minister Michael Manley had very strong ties and a special relationship with Cuba. Jamaica lies just south of that island, fewer than 300 miles away. And before the Cuban revolution, Jamaicans and Cubans had always traveled freely back and forth between the two countries.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jamaica saw an increase in the numbers of Cubans living and working on the island as a result of Manley's openness in dealing with the Castro government. Thanks to Cuba's largesse, schools were built in the rural areas of Jamaica. Community health clinics were constructed too, so poor Jamaicans no longer had to travel half a day or more to the nearest doctor. Cuban nurses, doctors and agricultural specialists worked alongside their Jamaican counterparts, while many young Jamaicans went to Cuba to study medicine, science and engineering.

[Mika]

1. The travel ban for general tourism is still in effect.

Of course, I guess one can simply lie more easily and say they're going as part of a legally categorized group/trip.

[panader0]

2. K and R--This policy change is looong overdue. I wish I could afford to go to Cuba (and Jamaica)!