>I kid Bill.

Actually Don Tennant from Computerworld weighed in on the matter and brought Allison Watson of Microsoft along for the ride.

“Frankly, from a Cuba perspective, Cuba’s not a bad word to anyone outside of the United States,” she said. “I don’t know, outside the United States, if [doing business with Cuba] is a good or bad thing, per se.”

She’s right, of course. The U.S. pretty much stands alone in its obstinate refusal to engage Cuba and enable the citizens of both countries to benefit from investment there.

To which I replied on his blog:

Greetings from the heartland of said obstinance, Miami FL. But fret not, this will be an outrage-free response.

Your article quotes Allison Watson of Microsoft as follows: “Frankly, from a Cuba perspective, Cuba’s not a bad word to anyone outside of the United States,” she said. “I don’t know, outside the United States, if [doing business with Cuba] is a good or bad thing, per se.”

First I am going to assume that when she notes ‘Cuba,’ she is in effect referring to the Cuban government. That said, if the first sentence were true, why the ambivalence in the second?

Leaving aside the fact that you conveniently blew past said ambivalence in your subsequent comments, the reason is elementary, while perhaps not to someone in dear Ms. Watson’s position. Her position being one of devising corporate strategy for Microsoft, not someone whose job it is to take responsible positions on foreign regimes which routinely violate their citizens human rights.

The elementary reason I refer to is that it is palpably untrue that the Cuban government is not criticized outside of the US. The list would include, but not limited to, the UN, the EU, Mexico, Spain and France.

Perhaps the problem is geographical. No one ever washes up on a raft [dead or alive] in the glorious northwest region with a connection to Cuba, aside from those sporting Che t-shirts.

Just another day on the Cuba dilettantes watch.