My Wandering Mind: Cuba

The following is a journal entry written at some point during my travels.  I offer it to you in hopes of inspiring you to consider the world we live in during your own travels.  It is one thing to be a visitor in a foreign land and another to be mindful and conscious of the people and culture you find yourself a part of, even if only temporarily.

I woke up this morning only miles from the coast of Cuba, near Havana.

From the deck of the ship I watch the pale blue mountains in the distance as we sail through the deep blue water, unnoticed by the people of Cuba.  Miles away, yet worlds apart our cruise ship blasts the sounds of reggae while the people on the island go quietly about their lives.  A lonely man in a black polo shirt leans against the railing of the boat, gazing into the distance.  I wonder what he might be thinking.  Is he considering how the break up of the Soviet Union affected the people of Cuba?  Is he pondering about how after oil imports ceased, the people of Cuba faced a serious food crisis?  Maybe his thoughts are about how the farmers in Cuba have become the rock stars while our farmers are looked at with disdain by the very people they feed.

I look again and notice the man is no longer looking over the rail but instead is checking his cell phone, as if he could receive service in the middle of the sea.  Maybe I was wrong.

The cold weather moves us inside to one of many dining areas aboard the ship.  People are lined up, ready to stuff themselves on pizza and French fries, blind to the daily struggle of millions of people around the world.  Aboard this ship, this vessel of international voyage, the world seems so distant.  In my mind I envision what life in Havana might be like.  I imagine it to be dirty and crowded, poor and impoverished.  Are the pictures in my mind reality or a product of what I have been sold by the media over the years?  How am I ever to really know without experiencing Cuba firsthand?

Looking over the rolling blue water that separates our ship from the shore, I imagine a small group of people willing the risk their lives on a makeshift raft in search of a better life for themselves and their families.  They are willing to risk everything in the pursuit of their goal.  On a map, the distance from southern Florida to Cuba seems so insignificant and now, as I find myself somewhere between here and there, the reality seems so much different.  The journey that these people will face after they push their raft into the water is amazing.  It takes more than courage.  By committing yourself to such a journey, you are putting your life into the hands of something more powerful than yourself.  You are submitting yourself to the mercy of Mother Nature and putting your faith into a higher being.

If it is something that is driving these people from their country, we need to find empathy for them instead of attacking them with the strong arm of the law.  We have a responsibility to protect our country and the only way we can accomplish that is to help our neighbors in their own homes.  Instead of offering weapons of destruction, we can offer opportunity, education and hope to these people.  We are a world power but we are using that power in a way that is not conducive to our own safety.  We should not be policing the world and we should not be fighting overseas in the interests of oil and greed.  Our wealth and power would more wisely be spent building schools to educate, clinics to cure and wells to provide clean drinking water.  These small actions will do more for the security of our own country than any amount of bombs and bullets.

If it is something that is drawing these people into our country, we need to be more appreciative of the life we have as Americans.  We take things for granted everyday.  Imagine an America without electricity, proper sanitation and no clean drinking water.  Imagine a day without eating and try to imagine living your entire life without proper nutrition.  As we sit on the top of the pyramid looking down at all of the struggling people, it is easy to say that it is their own fault they are where they are today.  It is not so easy to reach down and pull these people up to our level and share the bounty of our Earth.