By Tracy Overstreet. Published: Friday, October 22, 2010 9:02 PM CDT. The United States placed a trade embargo on Cuba 54 years ago that remains in place today. "It is time to end the embargo," said Rosemarie Skaine, a Grand Island Senior High graduate and author. "Nowhere in the world has a country been asked for such a long time to live in isolation." Skaine was a keynote speaker Thursday at the Multicultural Coalition of Grand Island's sixth annual one-day conference.">By Tracy Overstreet. Published: Friday, October 22, 2010 9:02 PM CDT. The United States placed a trade embargo on Cuba 54 years ago that remains in place today. "It is time to end the embargo," said Rosemarie Skaine, a Grand Island Senior High graduate and author. "Nowhere in the world has a country been asked for such a long time to live in isolation." Skaine was a keynote speaker Thursday at the Multicultural Coalition of Grand Island's sixth annual one-day conference.">

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By Tracy Overstreet. Published: Friday, October 22, 2010 9:02 PM CDT. The United States placed a trade embargo on Cuba 54 years ago that remains in place today.

"It is time to end the embargo," said Rosemarie Skaine, a Grand Island Senior High graduate and author. "Nowhere in the world has a country been asked for such a long time to live in isolation."

Skaine was a keynote speaker Thursday at the Multicultural Coalition of Grand Island's sixth annual one-day conference.

Author Rosemarie Skaine speaks to conference participants during the Multicultural Coalition's one-day conference on Thursday at the Mid-Town Holiday Inn in Grand Island. (Independent/Barrett Stinson)

10/28/2010. She has written several national and international articles and 11 books, including "The Cuban Family: Custom and Change in  an Era of Hardship."

Skaine traveled to Cuba in 2002 to do research for her book. She attended the XII International Congress on Family Law in Havana during that trip.

Had she not been participating in an international conference, Skaine said, she would not have been allowed to travel there because of the embargo and travel restrictions enacted by the United States.

What she learned during the trip was eye-opening. "Cuba is a beautiful country," she said while showing slides of the coastline in Havana, a museum, a cathedral, a department  store and the Teatro Garcia Lorca, which houses the National Ballet.

But the embargo has placed hardships on the Cuban people.

Medical supplies and other necessities are restricted under the embargo that was first enacted by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower after Fidel Castro's overthrow of Fulgencio Batista in the Cuban Revolution.

The shortage of supplies and the impact of hurricanes both have led to a housing shortage in the country.

However, Cuban people are strong-willed and adapt, Skaine said.

A family in Cuba is not nuclear with a mother and father and children in a home, but rather several generations living together.

Homes can become cramped and not very private, she said.

Walking and bicycling are common modes of transportation in Cuba.

Emigration from the country also occurs.

Numerous mass emigrations have occurred over the decades, including "Operation Peter Pan" from 1960 to 1963 when 14,000 Cuban children were brought to the United States to be saved from communism.

While the parents and children thought they would be reunited again, in many cases, they were not, Skaine said.

She interviewed one woman who became a Peter Pan child at age 11.

During the 1990s, some 30,000 rafters emigrated to the United States by small boats and rafts. Because some rafters died in the ocean during their efforts, then U.S. President Bill Clinton opened the door to easier emigration to the U.S. by granting 20,000 Cuban visas a year, she said.

Cuba is the third closest country to the United States. Canada and Mexico share borders with the United States, but Cuba is just 90 miles south of Florida, she said.

The United Nations has voted 18 years (from 1992 to 2009) in a row to lift the embargo, but the United States is always in favor of keeping it.

Skaine called the embargo bad law and bad policy.

"Lifting the embargo will further the road of cultural understanding," she said.

Cuban families who have emigrated and those who have remained in the country will be reunited, she said. The United States and Cuba will be at peace, Skaine said.

By Tracy Overstreet

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Source: http://theindependent.com/articles/2010/10/31/news/local/12524015.txt


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