{"id":230546,"date":"2020-11-18T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=230546"},"modified":"2020-11-17T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T21:43:09","slug":"being-able-is-not-wanting-wanting-is-not-being-able","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/counterbalance\/being-able-is-not-wanting-wanting-is-not-being-able\/","title":{"rendered":"Being able is not wanting, wanting is not being able"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maintaining a balanced relationship is always a great challenge. For example, with a neighbor who is passionate about reggaeton and playing it loud; when we ride our bikes on the road and some truck driver tries to show us that we hardly mean anything. It is even more difficult when those relations are between two countries, which are too close to be able to ignore each other. Not now that everything is global and WhatsApp and Facebook unite us so much that it seems the house\u2019s living room is getting larger ad infinitum, but in that distant time when traveling was an adventure that no one knew the end it could have and filibusterism was the online platform of the time.<\/p>\n

Geography, even now, matters. It is still important and sometimes almost decisive. Based on this, it is possible to affirm that the United States of America should be Cuba\u2019s natural market and its natural supplier, as well as the natural destination of its tourists.<\/p>\n

What physically separates the two countries is the Strait of Florida, ninety miles of sea, but beware, it is not the Florida sea, nor the Florida ocean, it is just a \u201cstrait.\u201d So narrow that it takes just half a day for a ferry to go from one side to the other and a plane takes longer to taxi down a runway at Miami International Airport than it does to get to Havana after it takes off. That\u2019s how narrow it is.<\/p>\n

But there are other asymmetries that widen the narrow and complex relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nCuba<\/td>\nUnited States<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Population (2017)<\/td>\n11,339,250<\/td>\n325,326,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Life expectancy<\/td>\n78,73<\/td>\n78,54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Annual GDP (2018)<\/td>\n100,023B$<\/td>\n20,611,900B$<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Per capita GDP (2018)<\/td>\n8,861$<\/td>\n62,868$<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Exports (2018)<\/td>\n2,742,0B$<\/td>\n1,663,982,3B$<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Exports\/GDP<\/td>\n2,74%<\/td>\n8,07%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Prod. Crude oil thousands of barrels per day<\/td>\n50<\/td>\n12,248<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CO2 emission Ton\/Per cap<\/td>\n2,40<\/td>\n16,14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Source: Datosmacro.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Other issues, not at all physical, separate the two countries. The first is the permanence of the Monroe Doctrine in the minds of U.S. administrations and, derived from it, a history of tremendous disagreements, difficult to fix, although not impossible.<\/p>\n

That Biden-Harris reach the White House (Trump\u2019s tantrum aside) seems undoubtedly much better than the current administration and its more than 132 measures that have not achieved what they wanted either. That the elected presidency has declared that its path follows in Obama\u2019s footsteps on the Cuba issue also seems better. But returning to the path of a relationship of understanding requires not only wanting it, but being able to do it, effectively. The Democratic agenda for the future has an important weight in that respect. John Kavulich, someone with years of experience dealing with the matter, predicted what the new administration could do<\/a>. Here I summarize it:<\/p>\n