(Here's a different kind of argument in favor of normalization:
Cuban sugar could produce seven times more ethanol than Iowa corn.)
======================================================================

Cuba Si Saudi Arabia No
How Diplomacy Not Denial Can Make Cuba Our New Saudi Arabia
Epluribus Media ParisNews Bureau

http://thejournal.epluribusmedia.net/index.php/
category-table/32-issues/99-cuba-si-saudi-arabia-no

OPEDITUDE

PARIS, FRANCE: Cuban cigars, which can be purchased in Paris but not in
Columbus, provides another small but telling sign of what a travesty our
foreign policy with the island nation in the Caribbean has been over the
last half century and how engaging its new leaders could turn into a win-win
situation for both nations.

While living for a time in Miami, Florida during my young years, I soon
learned that while Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale were Sunshine State
Meccas made possible by retirees from New York and other east coast metro
areas, the real rhythm and beat of the new Miami was reflected the culture
and movement of Cubans, many of whom had fled the harsh socialist regime of
Fidel Castro for the freedom and opportunities that were little more than
ninety miles away.

Over the decades since Castro came to power in 1959 when he overthrew yet
another dictator, Fulgencio Batista, each US president had worshipped at the
anti-Castro alter of the Cuban exiles who have come to dominate the many
facets that make Miami the vibrant city it is today.

But now that Fidel is watching the sun set on his life and the style of
government that was indistinguishable from his own flamboyant life, a new
dawn is rising on an opportunity for America and Cuba to be friends and
trading partners again, but this time using an old staple to create a new
life and lifestyle for each country.

Within a few months of Fidel turning the reins of power to his brother Raul,
we have already seen a crack in the 50-year build up of the glacier that was
Fidel's dogma of anti-Americanism that could spread wider, giving America's
next president a golden opportunity to entreat the island nation to turn the
page on the past by looking to a future that promises both nations a chance
to heal old wounds while building new muscle as one turns to energy
alternatives no longer tied to the dry, expensive, unsustainable sands of
Saudi Arabia and the other recasts its principal income crop of sugar cane
as supply-side economics to provide affordable, renewable fields of ethanol
that will in turn bring jobs and wealth back to an island paradise that
could and should be America's Saudi Arabia of ethanol fuel.

But for this to happen, the next president needs to put down the Reagan/Bush
babble of "evil empires" and "axis of evil" countries that played well among
their faithful bases but has done little to turn former enemies into new
trading partners.

Eugene Robinson writes correctly in the Washington Post that "stubbornly
sticking with a policy that has achieved nothing in 50 years is a pretty
good definition of insanity"

"The United States can attempt to influence any changes that eventually take
place in Cuba, or it can harrumph from the sidelines. Several of Cuba's
leading dissidents have urged the White Houseto end the decades-old trade
embargo and the draconian restrictions on travel to the island. Bush pays no
attention to those on the front lines of this struggle." [Eugene Robinson,
Washington Post]

For his part, Sen. John Sydney McCain of Arizona is mimicking the failed
rhetoric of former presidents who, to win the votes of the anti-Castro
politicos in south Florida, played rough and tough with Castro by listing
Cuba as a dictatorship and keeping American dollars and citizens from
entering the island's economy.

But with the potential for Barack Obama, and maybe his running mate of
Hillary Clinton, teaming up to take over the White House, also comes a new
day for a new dialogue with Cuba over how that country's sugar cane crop can
be harnessed to produce a steady stream of ethanol that can fuel new hybrid
cars and replace the dry, brown underground oil fields of Saudi Arabia with
the lush green fields of sugar cane waving in the wine than can turn Cuba in
our Saudi Arabia.

SUGAR NATION

For most of the 20th Century the saying of "how goes General Motors so goes
the country" was a statement of fact and legend that was hard to deny.
During these same years, "sin azucar no hay pais" was the Cuban equivalent
of the Motown slogan. But as much as Fidel wanted to industrialize Cuba,
sugar cane has remained the sugar daddy of the economy, creating jobs for
one-sixth of the population but constituting nearly 80 percent of its
exports, resulting in an equally high percentage of income.

In the good old days, when Batista let American companies run wild on the
island, sugar was bountiful and cheap. When Cuban relations with Russia went
sour, so did the sweet taste of its sugar revenue, which dropped, causing a
contraction in the size of sugar cane production.

Enter the rising price of oil and gas into the picture. American is
desperate for new, reliable and hopefully renewable sources of energy. Cuba
is looking to boost its buyers of its staple crop. As oil climbs to
precipitous levels and American drivers find themselves out of pocket on
rising fuel costs and out of their car looking at taking the bus or the
train or the subway, which only exist in limited supply because the country
has paid homage to the car by becoming car-centric to its detriment, it
seems a natural match exists between a close-by island that can grown vast
quantities of sugar cane - much the same way Brazil has done to make it
energy independent - and a drive-at-all-costs nation that needs lower cost
fuel.

CUBAN SUGAR BETTER THAN IOWA CORN

Moreover, the fact that sugar produces seven-times as much ethanol as does
corn should spur dialogue and discussions along between the US and Cuba.
Corn growers in Ohio and Iowa may not like the sound of this fact, but their
lobby needs to be overcome as does that of the south Florida anti-Castro if
such a new era of cooperative capitalism is to move forward.

It's high time that America turn its foreign policy cheek and endeavor to
reconcile its long-standing problems with Cuba so the island nation and the
world's greatest super power can forge a new win-win relationship about
energy that can both bring jobs and income to a nation starved of both and
turn its bounty of sweetness into a renewable source of ethanol fuel that
can hasten our weaning off of Middle East oil and provide a new lease on
life for hybrid vehicles that Detroit should start to make if a larger
supply of adaptive fuel could be in the pipeline.

About the author
John Michael Spinelli is a former Ohio Statehouse government and political
reporter and business columnist. He now serves as the OhioNews Bureau Chief
for ePluribus Media Journal. Find ONB archives here. If readers have a news
tip or story idea about Ohio politics or government, contact the OhioNews
Bureau at: \n ohionews@... e-mail address is being
protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it


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WALTER LIPPMANN, CubaNews
Los Angeles, California
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraiso bajo el bloqueo"
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