Next Gen Journal

By Brandon Lopez

Many Americans have felt the impact of the current economic crisis; others are concerned that they will feel it in the months to come. Their concerns are justified as thousands lose jobs and/or investments requiring them to take on a new outlook on spending. But let’s face it, America: the majority of us still enjoy a relatively similar lifestyle, just without the “frivolous” spending of days before. Our bare necessities like food, water, toiletries, etc. have remained mostly constant and unaffected by the general recession. However, other people around the world aren’t so fortunate.

Cuba is short on toilet paper

Toward the end of July, the Spanish newspaper El País, the largest and most important Spanish language paper, reported that there was and will remain a shortage of toilet paper on the island of Cuba. Although the communist Cuban government denied any existence of the shortage for weeks, it is now admitting that the shortage will last until the start of 2010. Cuba has to import a majority of its food and goods but this has become increasingly difficult with recent hurricanes and a poor economy. More importantly, the current U.S. embargo on Cuba limits and prevents American corporations from offering their highly efficient and cost-effective services to the Cuban people. The result is a lack of competitive pricing and the existence of artificially high costs regardless of the government’s efforts to intervene.  So here’s the question for you:

Should the United States lift the current embargo on Cuba to help the nation’s people or should it maintain the current policy in these tough times?