Family ties
by Sam
Yesterday, the Obama Administration eased family travel and remittance restrictions with Cuba and sketched some initial steps to improve telecommunications with the communist island. In the White House fact sheet on “Reaching out the Cuban people,” a surprising rationale appeared:
Cuban American connections to family in Cuba are not only a basic right in humanitarian terms, but also our best tool for helping to foster the beginnings of grassroots democracy on the island.
This statement concisely captures what one could call the intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for pursuing these measures:
Intrinsic: it’s the right thing to do.
Extrinsic: it will achieve other, ancillary goals.
The extrinsic reasons make good sense. The United States has been unwilling to abandon its public commitment to Cuban democracy and the new, softer Obama touch on foreign policy would seem to support this course.
The intrinsic reasons are more suspect. Formalized family relations abroad a human right? In an increasingly diasporic world, the inclination of many nations has been to resist close family ties across borders, not support them.
It’s hard to believe that the Obama Administration is really committed to this interpretation of human rights. If so, it would be a watershed declaration. As it stands, it’s more likely to be overlooked and forgotten.
Related posts:
- Havel speaks
- Is the Right pro-family or anti-abortion?
- Is gay marriage pro-family?
- Does terror have a nationality?
- Is health care pro-family?
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