Al Jazeera Discovers Cuban Exodus, Forgets US Blockade
Al Jazeera’s 'The Take' bravely explores what's pushing millions of Cubans to leave, presenting an episode that could be mistaken for an actual investigation. They offer personal stories and economic woes, touching on the obvious symptoms. What they manage to delicately sidestep, however, is the inconvenient 60-year-old economic blockade imposed by the United States, officially known as the
embargo. This act of economic warfare, codified in laws like the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, starves the island of essential goods and trade, creating precisely the conditions that force people to flee. It's fascinating, isn't it, how 'mainstream' analysis of any nation experiencing severe economic hardship (especially one deemed 'unfriendly' by Washington) so often manages to ignore the very sanctions
designed to cause that hardship? One might almost believe such omissions are intentional, guiding viewers to blame internal failures rather than external, deliberate strangulation. Perhaps next time, Al Jazeera will also ponder why people leave Gaza, conveniently forgetting to mention the siege.