President
Barack Obama announced this past December that the United Sates will restore
diplomatic relations with Cuba. Last
July, the two nations reopened embassies in each other’s countries and our
nation removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. The president led a huge delegation to the
nation island 90 miles off the Florida coast in March. Is it time to lift the blockade against
buying and selling books from and to Cuba?
Hardliners
say we shouldn’t sell to a Communist country that doesn’t allow for certain
liberties and freedoms to exist. Others
say that Cuba is no longer a threat to us and that we have to find a way to
make peace. After all, we usually end up
befriending former enemies. See Germany,
Italy, Japan, Vietnam.
Some
say we should lift the economic embargo and increase trade. It will help our economy and create new
business opportunities for America. 2015 Gallup and Pew polls overwhelmingly showed support for the elimination of
the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. We
do business with China and Russia, so surely we can do so with Cuba.
So
what should be done? Tell Congress that
you want to see the book market open to Cuba.
The American book market would love selling books to a nation with a
reported literacy rate for adults near 100%.
Consumers in America would love to read the works of Cuban authors for
the first time in over 50 years.
Publishers Weekly recently publicly
stated its request that people support action by Congress to open the doors to
a free book trade between the bickering countries. If you want to “support the
effort to promote the exchange of ideas found in books,” as PW stated, go sign the petition at www.publishersweekly.com/petition.
I
would love to visit Cuba. It’s a place
that’s been mainly unavailable to three American generations. I predict that eventually Cuba will become a socialist democracy that becomes so open to America that it becomes dependant upon us. Maybe we can buy them and make
them our 52nd state. Puerto Rico should become the 51st. It could happen one day. As our nation’s Hispanic population grows – legally -- it
will influence American culture and policies.
Can
Cuba handle a flood of American books and ideals? Could this be the way America begins to turn
Cuba into a more open, modern, freedom-loving society – by using books to
educate and enlighten its people? One can only hope so.
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2016
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