In case you missed it, the United Nations General Assembly went through an annual ritual late last month and voted, for the 22nd time, to condemn the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.
If you had a seat in the General Assembly, which way would you have voted? We would have voted to end the embargo. As we have stated repeatedly in this space, the economic embargo is a relic of the Cold War and contributes nothing constructive to the prospects for harmony and progress in the Western Hemisphere.
Yes, the regime of the Castro brothers has proven to be lousy at governing and at managing Cuba's economy, but the architects of U.S. foreign policy have always found the flexibility, when it suits them, to tolerate trade and travel to countries run by dictators. Our Cuba policy needs more carrot and less stick.
Anyone reading the recent reports from our Caribbean editor, Gay Nagle Myers, describing her people-to-people trip to Cuba would have to agree that it's a country that offers a wealth of rewarding experiences that go beyond climate, landscapes, art and architecture.
The people-to-people programs allowed under U.S. regulations focus on eye-opening interactions with the people and culture rather than beaches, water sports, nightclubs, casinos and other traditional attractions of the Caribbean.
The great paradox facing us today is that the relatively few lucky Americans who have managed to travel to Cuba under these programs have enjoyed a unique product that was largely made possible by the embargo. As the travelers and the operators are learning, these tour programs have an inherent value and a market value that makes them worthy of being replicated in other destinations.
When the embargo crumbles, and it will as surely as the Berlin Wall crumbled, the U.S. travel industry may be surprised to discover that the best that Cuba has to offer American visitors has already been on offer, in the form of the people-to-people experience.
It will be our challenge, and Cuba's challenge, to nurture and preserve it as the airplanes land, the cruise ships arrive, the beach resorts rise up and waves of Americans wash over the island.