U.S. pushes foolish policy of 'baseball, sí, academics, no'

How insane is this?

Digna Castañeda, a frail and aging professor of Caribbean history
and philosophy
at the University of Havana, cannot go to Puerto Rico next week
to attend the International Congress of the Latin American Studies
Association.


She is one of 59 Cuban academics who have been denied visas to
enter the U.S. commonwealth to take part in LASA's meeting because
the Bush administration says
it would be "detrimental to the interests of the United States" to
permit them to
do so.

Wrong! Not just the Bush Administration, but all the way back
to Reagan. We had eased up the policies unofficially for a while,
but after 9-11, it's easy
to understand going back to a more restricted variation. Let's
stay on topic
here, not blast an administration you don't like. We're discussing
a particular policy, not a president that didn't write it.


On Wednesday, however, Cuba's national baseball team will take the
field in San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium to play its first game in
the World Baseball Classic,
a competition among 16 nations. While a group of young, brawny,
bat-wielding Cuban men can get visas (admittedly after some strong
protests of the U.S. government's initial refusal), a diminutive
Havana college professor cannot.

This is because that "diminutive" prof can inflict much greater
harm if she or any others is one of Castro's "yes" people and come
with his agenda's in mind for education and government.

This "baseball si, academics no" policy severely limits the kind
of personal contacts and intellectual exchanges between Cubans and
Americans that could be
the taproot of improved diplomatic relations. One of the workshops
scheduled to
be held at this year's LASA meeting is titled, "The Never-Ending
Cold War: The United States, Cuba, and LASA's Battle for Academic
Freedom."

There is a cold war, and until the aggressor of that war is
removed, Cuba
will NEVER have academic freedom, whether its academics are allowed
into LASA meetings or not.


Visas denied


The academics were denied visas pursuant to a 1985 Cold War-era
presidential proclamation that "suspends entry into the U.S. of officers
and employees of the Cuban government and Communist Party," says the
State
Department's Justin Higgins. "Cuban academic institutions are state-run,
and
the Cuban government tightly controls the activities of its academic researchers."

Makes sense too!

But this rule wasn't always broadly applied. In 2000,
'01 and
'03, Cuban academics were allowed to attend LASA meetings.
Then in October '04 - three months after the Bush administration
stepped up its effort
to topple the Castro government - more than 60 Cuban scholars
were
refused visas to attend LASA's meeting in Las Vegas.

Believe it or not, this is a move bent on helping Cuba, not hurting
it.
Trying to topple Castro is a great thing! Until the people of Cuba
realize
that they must play their own part in removing Castro from power,
they will
not understand why they must play a part in the sacrifices involved
in
toppling him. But the real reason is this: IT'S THEIR COUNTRY,
BUT FIDEL
HAS STOLEN THE GOODNESS OF IT FROM THEM.

Castañeda, who has visited 22 U.S. universities during her 42-year
career,
is miffed by the denial of her visa. But I am not surprised. The Bush
administration has been unwavering in its refusal to let Cuban academics
participate in the LASA conference because it's easier to demonize the
Castro regime when people-to-people contact is cut off.

It's not that the US is trying to cover up all the good things
happening
in Cuba, it's that they are trying to say that CASTRO IS RESTRICTING
AND CONTROLLING WHAT GOOD THINGS CUBA CAN DO AND HOW. This is not a
safe thing
for other countries, and so the people of Cuba pay the price for the
actions
of the LEADER of Cuba. A bad leader corrupts a good nation, that's a
very
simple TRUTH. Cuba, unfortunately, is seeing this played out. If
they would
remove him, they would not have to deal with the results of HIS
antics.

Castro the real target


Shielding Americans from some of Cuba's best and brightest
people
makes it easier for neo-conservatives to portray this island nation
as a
place that is driven by the thinking of just one man:
Fidel Castro.

That's very true, the USA does portray Cuba in this manner, but
that is
for due cause. Cuba has been enslaved by ONE MAN: Fidel Castro, for
decades
now. Neither Reagan nor Bush has any reason to dislike or demonize
the Cuban people. This is a case of saying to them "Fidel has an iron
grip on your
nation where it matters. Until you get him out of control of your
country,
we cannot let you into OUR country because we cannot trust HIM".

"Castro has stated publicly that the universities (in Cuba) are
available
only to those who share his revolutionary beliefs," Higgins says in
explaining why the Cuban academics were denied visas.


Apparently, the Bush administration doesn't want Americans to think
that
saving the lives of impoverished children might be one of Castro's
"revolutionary beliefs."

Whoah, Hold up, one thing ANYONE who has had experience with
Castro
knows is this: Castro is not concerned with "saving the lives of
impoverished children", he's concerned with his own well being and
staying
in control of Cuba by force. That's all he's EVER been concerned with.
DeWayne Wickham really got off base on this one, sounds like extreme
yellow yournalism to me. Let's just take whatever we can and throw it
at the Bush Administration, everyone knows it's all his fault
anyway!

Last year, the State Department refused to permit scientist Vicente
Verez-Bencomo into the country. He had been invited by California's
Tech
Museum of Innovation, which wanted to honor him for leading a team of
researchers that developed a low-cost synthetic vaccine to keep children
from getting meningitis and pneumonia. Each year, these diseases take
the
lives of up to 700,000 children, many living in countries where regular
mass immunizations are too costly. The vaccine Verez-Bencomo helped
develop might
save millions of lives, Science magazine said.


Cuba is no utopia. It's a communist state struggling to
find the right mix of social programs to safeguard its people and joint
ventures with foreign capitalists to fuel its sputtering economy.

And unfortunately this will NOT be accomplished [mark my words] until
Castro is out of control of Cuba. He's the monkey wrench in the whole
mix.
For a dictator, you must have non-safety, non-capitalists, and a closed
or
highly limited system to maintain control. Otherwise, the government
and
policies grow beyond your limited ability to manage and you become the
obvious hitch in the process. Then, you have no power, and again, POWER
is
Fidel Castro's number one goal.

Cuba is also a nation that is besieged by policies of the Bush administration that are arbitrary, capricious and simpleminded.

O Come on! Let's just break this down here: CUBA IS A NATION. Ok,
Cuba
has it's OWN policies and leaders that are besieging them. It's not our
country's fault that Cuba is in the predicament that it is. Good grief.
First get rid of the dictator! Second get rid of communism! Gee, that
might
just fix a few of the problems to begin with! :BESIEGED BY POLICIES OF
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Again, people, this is nothing more than an
"arbitrary, capricious, and simpleminded" attack on Bush by one person who
has way too much toe jam in his teeth to be saying what he is. Let's just
be logical and rational for one moment here. You mean to tell me that
the nation
of Cuba (which acts under its own auspices and governmental rule) is and
has
been besieged for the better part of 40 years by the policies of the US
President from 2001 to 2008?!?! WOW!!! Bush is worse than we thought now
baby, he's been ruining our international policies for decades! And for the
present, considering how many problems we've had from terrorism since 9-11,
it's really worth our time to be more cautious. YES, SOME FOLKS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES MIGHT HAVE TO SUFFER JUST A LITTLE, but it's that way with ANY
OTHER COUNTRY TOO! If the people of Cuba would remove Castro from power,
they
wouldn't been screened out. But they're not willing to take that step.
They
just want to have their cake and eat it too. I mean really, this train
of
an attact doesn't even need a penny to derail it. Wickham, Bush won an
election that the majority of America wanted him to win, it's just that
simple. If you
don't like it, I'm very sorry, but you have another 2 years and then you
can
write about someone else, but don't put yourself further down in everyone's
eyes by writing things about him that don't even make sense.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY. Unfortunately