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Cuba Neg ......................................................................................................................................... 1 AT: Economy Advantage.............................................................................................................. 2 1NC AT: Economy Advantage ............................................................................................... 3 2NC Economy U.S. Economy Strong Now.......................................................................... 6 2NC Economy Economic Decline Doesnt Cause War ....................................................... 8 2NC Economy Trade Sustains Regime ............................................................................... 9 AT: Oil Spills Advantage ............................................................................................................. 10 1NC AT: Oil Spills Advantage .............................................................................................. 11 2NC Oil Spills No Biodiversity Impact .............................................................................. 16 2NC Oil Spills Impact Inevitable ....................................................................................... 17 2NC Oil Spills No New Drilling .......................................................................................... 19 2NC Oil Spills No Risk of Spills .......................................................................................... 20 AT: Democracy Promotion Advantage ...................................................................................... 21 1NC AT: Democracy Promotion Advantage ........................................................................ 22 2NC Democracy Promotion No Terror Impact ................................................................ 25 2NC Democracy Promotion No Nuke Terrorism ............................................................. 26 2NC Democracy Promotion Democracy Inevitable ......................................................... 28 2NC Democracy Promotion Lifting Embargo Hurts Demoracy ........................................ 30 AT: Hemispheric Relations Advantage ...................................................................................... 32 1NC AT: Hemispheric Relations Advantage ........................................................................ 33 2NC Hemispheric Relations Organized Crime Inevitable................................................. 36 2NC Hemispheric Relations Lifting Embargo Doesnt solve Relations............................. 37 AT: Solvency .............................................................................................................................. 39 1NC Solvency ...................................................................................................................... 40 2NC Solvency Dont Lift the Embargo .............................................................................. 42 Health Care Turn ....................................................................................................................... 44 1NC Health Care Turn ......................................................................................................... 45 2NC Health Care Turn Uniqueness Strong Now ........................................................... 47 2NC Health Care Turn Lifting Embargo = Brain Drain ...................................................... 49 2NC Health Care Turn Doctors K2 Cuban Economy......................................................... 51 2NC Health Care Turn Solves Disease .............................................................................. 52
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Severe problems remain, like high unemployment in the West, and we face new problems caused by responses to the crisissoaring debt and fears of inflation. But overall, things look nothing like they did in the 1930s. The predictions of economic and political collapse have not materialized at all. A key measure of fear and fragility is the ability of poor and unstable countries to
borrow money on the debt markets. So consider this: the sovereign bonds of tottering Pakistan have returned 168 percent so far this year. All this doesn't add up to a recovery yet, but it does reflect a return to some level of normalcy. And that rebound has been so rapid that even the shrewdest observers remain puzzled. "The question I have at the back of my head is 'Is that it?' says Charles Kaye, the co-head of Warburg Pincus. "We had this huge crisis, and now we're back to business as usual?" This revival did not happen because markets managed to stabilize themselves on
their own. Rather, governments, having learned the lessons of the Great Depression, were determined not to repeat the same mistakes once this crisis hit. By massively expanding state support for the economythrough central banks and national treasuries they buffered the worst of the damage. (Whether they made new mistakes in the process remains to be seen.) The
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extensive social safety nets that have been established across the industrialized world also cushioned the pain felt by many. Times are still tough, but things are nowhere near as bad as in the 1930s,
when governments played a tiny role in national economies. It's true that the massive state interventions of the past year may be fueling some new bubbles: the cheap cash and government guarantees provided to banks, companies, and consumers have fueled some irrational exuberance in stock and bond markets. Yet these rallies also demonstrate the return of confidence, and confidence is a very powerful economic force. When John Maynard Keynes described his own prescriptions for economic growth, he believed government action could provide only a temporary fix until the real motor of the economy started cranking againthe animal spirits of investors, consumers, and companies seeking risk and profit. Beyond all this, though, I believe there's a fundamental reason why we have not faced global
collapse in the last year. It is the same reason that we weathered the stock-market crash of 1987, the recession of 1992, the Asian crisis of 1997, the Russian default of 1998, and the tech-bubble collapse of 2000. The current global economic system is inherently more resilient than we think. The world today is characterized by three major forces for stability, each reinforcing the
other and each historical in nature.
Economic Decline doesnt cause war Barnett 9 (Thomas, senior managing director of Enterra Solutions LLC, contributing editor/online columnist for
Esquire, The New Rules: Security Remains Stable Amid Financial Crisis, Aprodex, Asset Protection Index, August 25, http://www.aprodex.com/the-new-rules--security-remains-stable-amid-financial-crisis-398-bl.aspx) When the global financial crisis struck roughly a year ago, the blogosphere was ablaze with all sorts of scary predictions of, and commentary regarding, ensuing conflict and wars -- a rerun of the Great Depression leading to world war, as it were. Now,
as global economic news brightens and recovery -- surprisingly led by China and emerging markets -- is the talk of the day, it's interesting to look back over the past year and realize how globalization's first truly worldwide recession has had virtually no impact whatsoever on the international security landscape. None of the more than three-dozen ongoing conflicts listed by GlobalSecurity.org can be clearly attributed to the global recession. Indeed, the last new entry (civil conflict between Hamas and Fatah in the Palestine) predates the economic crisis by a year, and three quarters of the chronic struggles began in the last century. Ditto for the 15 low-intensity
conflicts listed by Wikipedia (where the latest entry is the Mexican "drug war" begun in 2006). Certainly, the Russia-Georgia conflict last August was specifically timed, but by most accounts the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was the most important external trigger (followed by the U.S. presidential campaign) for that sudden spike in an almost two-decade long struggle between Georgia and its two breakaway regions. Looking over the various databases, then, we see a most familiar picture: the usual mix of civil conflicts, insurgencies, and liberation-themed terrorist movements. Besides the recent RussiaGeorgia dust-up, the
only two potential state-on-state wars (North v. South Korea, Israel v. Iran) are both tied to one side acquiring a nuclear weapon capacity -- a process wholly unrelated to global economic trends. And with the United States effectively tied down by its two ongoing major interventions (Iraq and Afghanistan-bleeding-into-Pakistan), our involvement elsewhere around the planet has been quite modest, both leading up to and following the onset of the economic crisis: e.g., the usual counter-drug efforts in Latin America, the usual military exercises with allies across Asia, mixing it up with pirates off Somalia's coast). Everywhere else we find serious instability we pretty much let it burn, occasionally pressing the Chinese -- unsuccessfully -to do something. Our new Africa Command, for example, hasn't led us to anything beyond advising and training local forces.
Even if the embargo gives business opportunitiesit would only marginally boost the economy McElvaine, 2011
[Robert, 9-8-11, Los Angeles Times, Lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/08/opinion/la-oe-mcelvaine-cuba-20110908] /Wyo-MB Lifting the embargo would not turn the U.S. economy around. But it would be of marginal assistance to the overall economy and could be of substantial help to businesses and employment in industries that would have significant exports to the island. Cuba is, of course, well known as a living museum of the golden age of the Detroit automotive industry. There is a vast fleet of U.S.-made automobiles on the road here, but none more recent than 1959. In addition to the common Russian-built Ladas, the newer models include Mercedes, BMWs,
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Nissans, Hyundais just about every car make except those made in the U.S. And even the old American cars here often have new Japanese-made engines in them. An end to the embargo would give U.S. manufacturers an opportunity to compete for business in Cuba.
Other countries trade for goods cheaper than the US and will crowd out economic gains AP, 11-10-12
[Associate press, Floundering US Exports to Cuba Buck Optimism, http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/11/10/floundering-us-exports-to-cuba-buckoptimism/] /Wyo-MB But cold numbers belie the enthusiasm on the convention center floor. Cuban purchases of U.S. goods have plunged as the island increasingly turns to countries like China, Brazil, Vietnam and Venezuela, which offer cheaper deals, long-term credits and less hassle over payment and shipping. "The pattern that we see is it's just continuing to either be lower each year, or if it does increase, it's just not a lot at all," said John Kavulich, senior policy adviser to the New Yorkbased U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. "No executives should be going to a travel agent and buying a ticket to go down to Havana thinking that there's going to be a change."
Financing from tourism and lifting embargo just sustains the regime in Cuba Bustillo, 2013
[Mitchell, International Policy Digest, Time to Strengthen the Cuban Embargo, 5-9-13, http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2013/05/09/time-to-strengthen-the-cubanembargo/] /Wyo-MB Still there is the idea that further increasing American tourism to this nearby Caribbean island will at least aid their impoverished citizens in some manner, but this is neither a straightforward nor easy solution. From the annual throng of American visitors, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio declared at a 2011 Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Hearing that an estimated, $4 billion a year flow directly to the Cuban government from remittances and travel by Cuban Americans, which is perhaps the single largest source of revenue to the most repressive government in the region. These remittances are sent by Americans to help their Cuban families, not support the Cuban government. It is also a common belief that the Cuban embargo is a leading cause of poverty among the Cuban citizens and that lifting the embargo would go a long way toward improving the Cuban standard of living. However, no amount of money can increase the living standards there as long as their current regime stands. After all, the authorities were already skimming 20 percent of the remittances from Cuban-Americans and 90 percent of the salary paid to Cubans by non-American foreign investors, states Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Senior Fellow of The Center on Global Prosperity at The Independent Institute. However unfortunate it may be, Cuba, in its current state, is a nation consisting only of a wealthy and powerful few and an impoverished and oppressed proletariat, who possess little to no means to escape or even improve their fate. Lifting the trade embargo will not increase the general prosperity of the Cuban people, but it will increase the prosperity of the government. Ergo, the poverty and dire situation of the Cuban people cannot be blamed on the United States or the embargo.
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Multiple signals for short and long term economic growth in the U.S. Schwartz, 6-15-13
[Nelson, has covered the economy and economics for the business section of The New York Times since August 2012, Even Pessimists Feel Optimistic About the American Economy, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/business/economy/even-pessimists-feel-optimistic-overeconomy.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0] /Wyo-MB
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Mr. Cowen, who is also an occasional contributor to the Sunday Business section of The New York Times, is more skeptical about a short-term takeoff, focusing instead on what he sees as a brightening, longer-term picture of the United States economy. The recent surge in domestic oil and gas production signals the start of a new era of cheap energy, he said, while less expensive online education programs could open the door to millions of people who have been priced out of more traditional academics. At the same time, Mr. Cowen said, he now expects subtler improvements in the countrys economic well-being that will not necessarily be reflected in statistics like gross domestic product, but will be significant nonetheless. For example, slower growth in the cost of health care will be a boon for the government and businesses, but will actually subtract from reported economic activity. Its like the music industry, he said. Revenues are lower at record companies but the experience for listeners is better. Martin Neil Baily, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, said he has always been skeptical of Professor Gordons long-term view but has recently become more hopeful about the shortterm as well.
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Decline doesnt cause war Miller 00 (Morris, Professor of Administration @ the University of Ottawa, 2K (Interdisciplinary Science Review, v 25
n4 2000 p ingenta connect) The question may be reformulated. Do wars spring
economic crisis that exacerbates poverty and growing disparities in wealth and incomes? Perhaps one could argue, as
some scholars do, that it is some dramatic event or sequence of such events leading to the exacerbation of poverty that, in turn, leads to this deplorable denouement. This exogenous factor might act as a catalyst for a violent reaction on the part of the people or on the part of the political leadership who would then possibly be tempted to seek a diversion by finding or, if need be, fabricating an enemy and setting in train the process leading to war. According
to a study under- taken by Minxin Pei and Ariel Adesnik of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, there would not appear to be any merit in this hypothesis. After studying ninetythree episodes of economic crisis in twenty-two countries in Latin America and Asia in the years since the Second World War they concluded that:19 Much of the conventional wisdom about the political impact of economic crises may be wrong ... The severity of economic crisis as measured in terms of inflation and negative growth bore no relationship to the collapse of regimes ... (or, in democratic states, rarely) to an outbreak of violence ... In the cases of dictatorships and
semi-democracies, the ruling elites responded to crises by increasing repression (thereby using one form of violence to abort another).
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Cuba wont spill---theyll be safe and U.S. involvement isnt key Richard Sadowski 11, J.D., Hofstra University School of Law, Fall 2011, IN THIS ISSUE:
NATURAL RESOURCE CONFLICT: CUBAN OFFSHORE DRILLING: PREPARATION AND PREVENTION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE UNITED STATES' EMBARGO, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, 12 Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 37, p. lexis Fears that Cuban offshore drilling poses serious environmental threats because of the proximity to the United States and the prohibition on U.S. technology transfer are overblown . Cuba has at least as much incentive to ensure safe-drilling practices as does the United States, and reports indicate that Cuba is taking safety seriously . n64 Lee Hunt, President of the Houston-based International Association of Drilling Contractors, said, "[t]he Cuban oil industry has put a lot of research, study and thought into what will be required to safely drill," and that "they are very knowledgeable of international industry practices and have incorporated many of these principles into their safety and regulatory planning and requirements." n65 Thus, while the economic embargo of Cuba restricts American technology from being utilized, foreign sources have provided supplemental alternatives . n66
No impact to biodiversity
Sagoff et al 97 Mark, Senior Research Scholar Institute for Philosophy and Public policy in School
of Public Affairs U. Maryland, William and Mary Law Review, INSTITUTE OF BILL OF RIGHTS LAW SYMPOSIUM DEFINING TAKINGS: PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION: MUDDLE OR MUDDLE THROUGH? TAKINGS JURISPRUDENCE MEETS THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT, 38 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 825, March, L/N Note Colin Tudge - Research Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Frmr Zoological Society of London: Scientific Fellow and tons of other positions. PhD. Read zoology at Cambridge. Simon Levin = Moffet Professor of Biology, Princeton. 2007 American Institute of Biological Sciences Distinguished Scientist Award 2008 Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti 2009 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Michigan State University 2010 Eminent Ecologist Award, Ecological Society of America 2010 Margalef Prize in Ecology, etc PhD
Although one may agree with ecologists such as Ehrlich and Raven that the earth stands on the brink
of an episode of massive extinction, it may not follow from this grim fact that human beings will suffer as a result. On the contrary, skeptics such as science writer Colin Tudge have challenged biologists to explain why we need more than a tenth of the 10 to 100 million species that
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100-fold or more," Tudge declared that "the argument that humans need the variety of other species is, when you think about it, a theological one." n343 Tudge observed that "the elimination of all but a tiny minorityof our fellow creatures does not affect the
material well-being of humans one iota." n344 This skeptic challenged ecologists to list more than
10,000 species (other than unthreatened microbes) that are essential to ecosystem productivity or functioning. n345 "The human species could survive just as well if 99.9% of our fellow creatures went
extinct, provided only that we retained the appropriate 0.1% that we need." n346 [*906] The monumental Global Biodiversity Assessment ("the Assessment") identified two
positions with respect to redundancy of species. "At one extreme is the idea that each species is unique and important, such that its removal or loss will have demonstrable consequences to the functioning of the community or ecosystem." n347 The authors of the Assessment, a panel of eminent ecologists, endorsed this position, saying it is "unlikely that there is much, if any, ecological redundancy in communities over time scales of decades to centuries, the time period over which environmental policy should operate." n348 These eminent ecologists rejected the opposing view, "the notion that species overlap in function to a sufficient degree that removal or loss of a species will be compensated by others, with negligible overall consequences to the community or ecosystem." n349 Other biologists
believe, however, that species are so fabulously redundant in the ecological functions they perform that the life-support systems and processes of the planet and ecological processesin general will function perfectly well with fewer of them, certainly fewer than the millions and millions we can expect to remain even ifevery threatened organism becomes extinct. n350 Even the kind of sparse and miserable world
depicted in the movie Blade Runner could provide a "sustainable" context for the human economy as long as people forgot their aesthetic and moral commitment to the glory and beauty of the natural world. n351 The Assessment makes this point. "Although any ecosystem contains hundreds to thousands of species interacting among themselves and their physical environment, the emerging consensus is that the system is driven by a small number of . . . biotic variables on whose interactions the balance of species are, in a sense, carried along." n352 [*907] To make up your mind on the question of the functional redundancy of species, consider an endangered species of bird, plant, or insect and ask how the ecosystem would fare in its absence. The fact that the creature is endangered suggests an answer: it is already in limbo as far as ecosystem processes are concerned. What
crucial ecological services does the black-capped vireo, for example, serve? Are any of the species threatened with extinction necessary to the provision of any ecosystem service on which humans depend? If so, which ones are they? Ecosystems and the species that compose them have changed, dramatically, continually, and totally in virtually every part of the United States. There is little ecological similarity, for example, between New England today and the land where the Pilgrims died. n353 In view of the constant reconfiguration of the biota, one may wonder why Americans have not suffered more as a result of ecological catastrophes. The cast of species in nearly every environment
changes constantly-local extinction is commonplace in nature-but the crops still grow. Somehow, it seems, property values keep going up on Martha's Vineyard in spite of the tragic disappearance of the heath hen. One might argue thatthe sheer
number and variety of creatures available to any ecosystem buffers that system against stress. Accordingly, we should be concerned if the "library" of creatures
ready, willing, and able to colonize ecosystems gets too small. (Advances in genetic engineering may well permit us to write a large number of additions to that "library.") In the United States
as in many other parts of the world, however, the number of species has been increasing dramatically , not decreasing, as a result of human activity. This is because the hordes of exotic species coming into ecosystems in the United States far exceed the number of species that are becoming extinct. Indeed, introductions may outnumber extinctions by more than
ten to one, so that the United States is becoming more and more species-rich all the time largely as a result of human action. n354 [*908] Peter Vitousek and colleagues estimate that over 1000 non-native plants grow in California alone; in Hawaii there are 861; in Florida, 1210. n355 In Florida more than 1000 non-native insects, 23 species of mammals, and about 11 exotic birds have established themselves. n356 Anyone who waters a lawn or hoes a garden knows how many weeds desire to grow there, how many birds and bugs visit the yard, and how many fungi, creepy-crawlies, and other odd life forms show forth when it rains. All belong to nature, from wherever they might hail, but not many homeowners would claim that there are too few of them. Now, not all exotic species provide ecosystem services; indeed, some may be disruptive or have no instrumental value. n357 This also may be true, of course, of native species as well, especially because all exotics are native somewhere. Certain exotic species, however, such as Kentucky blue grass, establish an area's sense of identity and place; others, such as the green crabs showing up around Martha's Vineyard, are nuisances. n358 Consider an analogy
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Ecological Society of America has urged managers to maintain biological diversity as a critical component in strengthening ecosystems against disturbance. n360 Yet as Simon Levin observed, "much of the detail about species composition will be irrelevant in terms of influences on ecosystem properties." n361 [*910] He added: "For net primary productivity, as is likely to be the case for any system property, biodiversity matters only up to a point; above a certain level, increasing biodiversity is likely to make little difference." n362 What about the use of plants and animals in agriculture? There is no scarcity foreseeable. "Of an estimated 80,000 types of plants [we] know to be edible," a U.S. Department of the Interior document says, "only about 150 are extensively cultivated." n363
About twenty species, not one of which is endangered, provide ninety percent of the food the world takes from plants. n364 Any new food has to take "shelf space" or "market share" from one that is now produced. Corporations also find it difficult to create demand for a new product; for example, people are not inclined to eat paw-paws, even though they are delicious. It is hard enough to get people to eat their broccoli and lima beans. It is harder still to develop consumer demand for new foods. This may be the reason the Kraft Corporation does not prospect in remote places for rare and unusual plants and animals to add to the world's diet. Of the roughly 235,000 flowering plants and 325,000 nonflowering plants (including mosses, lichens, and seaweeds) available, farmers ignore virtually all of them in favor of a very few that are profitable. n365 To be sure, any of the more than 600,000 species of plants could have an application in agriculture, but would they be preferable to the species that are now dominant? Has
anyone found any consumer demand for any of these half-million or more plants to replace rice or wheat in the human diet? There are
require? [*911] The
reasons that farmers cultivate rice, wheat, and corn rather than, say, Furbish's lousewort. There are many kinds of louseworts, so named because these weeds were thought to cause lice in sheep. How many does agriculture really
species on which agriculture relies are domesticated, not naturally occurring; they are developed by artificial not natural selection; they might not be able to survive in the wild. n366 This argument is not intended to deny the religious, aesthetic, cultural,
and moral reasons that command us to respect and protect the natural world. These spiritual and ethical values should evoke action, of course, but we should also recognize that they are spiritual and ethical values. We should recognize that ecosystems and all that dwell therein compel our moral respect, our aesthetic appreciation, and our spiritual veneration; we should clearly seek to achieve the goals of the ESA. There is no reason to assume, however, that these goals have anything to do with human well-being or welfare as economists understand that term. These are ethical goals, in other words, not economic ones. Protecting the marsh may be the right thing to do for moral, cultural, and spiritual reasons. We should do it-but someone will have to pay the costs. In the narrow sense of promoting human welfare, protecting nature often represents
a net "cost," not a net "benefit." It is largely for moral, not economic, reasons-ethical, not prudential, reasons- that we care about all our fellow creatures. They are valuable as
objects of love not as objects of use. What is good for [*912] the marsh may be good in itself even if it is not, in the economic sense, good for mankind. The most valuable things are quite useless .
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and bioregion represent expressions of biological diversity at different scales. The basis of all expressions of biological diversity is the genotypic variation found in populations. The individuals that comprise populations at each level of ecological organization are subject to natural se- lection and contribute to the adaptive capacityor re- silienceof tree species and forest ecosystems (Mull- er-Starck et al. 2005). Diversity at each of these levels has fostered natural (and artificial) regeneration of forest ecosystems and facilitated
diversity must be maintained in the face of antici- pated changes from anthropogenic climate warming. Genetic (e.g., additive genetic variance) within a species
their adaptation to dramatic climate changes that occurred during the quaternary period (review by: DeHayes et al. 2000); this
diversity is important because it is the basis for the natural selection of genotypes within popu- lations and species as they respond or adapt to en- vironmental changes (Fisher 1930, Pitelka 1988, Pease et al. 1989, Burger and Lynch 1995, Burdon and Thrall, 2001, Etterson 2004, Reusch et al. 2005, Schaberg et al. 2008). The potential for evolutionary change has been demonstrated in numerous long- term programmes based on artificial selection (Fal- coner 1989),and genetic strategies for reforestation in the presence of rapid climate change must focus on maintaining species diversity and genetic diversi- ty within species (Ledig and Kitzmiller 1992). In the face of rapid environmental change, it is important to understand that the genetic diversity and adap- tive capacity of forested ecosystems depends largely on in situ genetic variation within each population of a species (Bradshaw
1991). Populations exposed to a rate of environmental change exceeding the rate at which populations can adapt, or disperse, may be doomed to extinction (Lynch and Lande 1993, Burger and Lynch 1995). Genetic diversity deter- mines the range of fundamental eco-physiological tolerances of a species. It governs inter-specific competitive interactions, which, together with dispersal mechanisms, constitute the fundamental de- terminants of potential species responses to change (Pease et al. 1989, Halpin 1997). In the past, plants have
adaptation and migration (Davis and Shaw 2001). The capacity for long-distance migration of plants by seed dispersal is particularly important in the event of rapid environmental change. Most, and probably all, species are capable of long-distance seed disper- sal, despite morphological dispersal syndromes that would indicate
morphological adaptations primarily for short-distance dispersal (Cwyner and MacDon- ald 1986, Higgins et al. 2003). Assessments of mean migration rates found no significant differences be- tween wind and animal dispersed plants (Wilkinson 1997, Higgins et al. 2003). Long-distance migration can also be strongly influenced by habitat suitabil- ity (Higgins and Richardson 1999) suggesting that rapid migration may become more frequent and vis- ible with rapid changes in habitat suitability under scenarios of rapid climate change. The discrepancy between estimated and observed migration rates during re-colonization of northern temperate forests following the retreat of glaciers can be accounted for by the underestimation of long-distance disper- sal rates and events (Brunet and von Oheimb 1998, Clark 1998, Cain et al. 1998, 2000). Nevertheless, concerns persist that potential migration and ad- aptation rates of many tree species may not be able to keep pace with projected global warming (Davis 1989, Huntley 1991, Dyer 1995, Collingham et al. 1996, Malcolm et al. 2002). However, these models refer to fundamental niches and generally ignore the ecological interactions that also govern species dis- tributions.
Overfishing makes marine biodiversity and ecosystem destruction inevitable Nuttall, 2004
[Nick, Head of Media Services, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya, Overfishing: a threat to marine biodiversity, http://www.un.org/events/tenstories/06/story.asp?storyID=800] /Wyo-MB Despite its crucial importance for the survival of humanity, marine biodiversity is in evergreater danger, with the depletion of fisheries among biggest concerns. Fishing is central to the livelihood and food security of 200 million people, especially in the developing world, while one of five people on this planet depends on fish as the primary source of protein. According to UN agencies, aquaculture - the farming and stocking of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants - is growing more rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors. But amid facts and figures about aquaculture's soaring worldwide production rates, other, more sobering, statistics reveal that global main marine fish stocks are in jeopardy, increasingly pressured by overfishing and environmental degradation. Overfishing cannot continue, warned Nitin Desai, Secretary General of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Johannesburg. The depletion of fisheries poses a major threat to the food supply of millions of people. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation calls for the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which many experts believe may
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hold the key to conserving and boosting fish stocks. Yet, according to the UN Environment Programmes (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre, in Cambridge, UK, less than one per cent of the worlds oceans and seas are currently in MPAs. The magnitude of the problem of overfishing is often overlooked, given the competing claims of deforestation, desertification, energy resource exploitation and other biodiversity depletion dilemmas. The rapid growth in demand for fish and fish products is leading to fish prices increasing faster than prices of meat. As a result, fisheries investments have become more attractive to both entrepreneurs and governments, much to the detriment of small-scale fishing and fishing communities all over the world. In the last decade, in the north Atlantic region, commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock and flounder have fallen by as much as 95%, prompting calls for urgent measures. Some are even recommending zero catches to allow for regeneration of stocks, much to the ire of the fishing industry. According to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate, over 70% of the worlds fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. The dramatic increase of destructive fishing techniques worldwide destroys marine mammals and entire ecosystems. FAO reports that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing worldwide appears to be increasing as fishermen seek to avoid stricter rules in many places in response to shrinking catches and declining fish stocks. Few, if any, developing countries and only a limited number of developed ones are on track to put into effect by this year the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. Despite that fact that each region has its Regional Sea Conventions, and some 108 governments and the European Commission have adopted the UNEP Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land based Activities, oceans are cleared at twice the rate of forests.
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example of human preferences directly or indirectly enhancing biodiversity and contributing to the size and growth of the economy is the biotechnology industry. The biotechnology industry produces new biodiversity that has value for us. Reecting this value, the worldwide revenues of the biotechnology industry were about $89 billion in 2008, up from $63 billion in 2005 and $8 billion in 1992 (Ernst & Young 2006, 2009). Other examples include the traditional
breeding of domestic organisms (Darwin 1868; Helms and Brugmann 2007)with dogs now displaying as much morphological diversity as does the whole class Carnivora according to Drake and Klingenberg (2010)or the creation of new ecological communities and landscapes for food and ber production and recreation (Rosenzweig 2003; Palmer et al. 2004; Hobbs et al. 200 6; Ellis and Ramankutty 2008).
In all these instances human activities create new biodiversity that is valuable to humans, and the act of value creation adds to the size of the economy.
might make parts of the globe unpleasant, but considering that the biosphere has survived ice ages, it wouldn't be the final curtain. Depression, which has become 10 times more prevalent in Western nations in the
postwar era, might grow so widespread that vast numbers of people would refuse to get out of bed, a possibility that Petranek suggested in a doomsday talk at the Technology Entertainment Design conference in 2002. But Marcel Proust, as miserable as he was, wrote Remembrance of Things Past while lying in bed.
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By far the greatest pressure on biodiversity is the demand the growing human population places on the oceans. Marine ecosystems have been modified and biodiversity lost through the clearing of native vegetation, the introduction of exotic species, pollution and climate change. For example, 5000 million litres of Sydney sewage which has only received primary treatment is discharged into the ocean each day. This is the equivalent of 2000 Olympic swimming pools full of sewage being pumped into the ocean 365 days of the year.
[ December 1, 2000 (No. 12, Vol. 50, p. 1108] Diaz and Rosenberg (1995) list at least 23 areas documented in the scientific literature as suffering increasingly from severe oxygen stress resulting from coastal eutrophication. Areas periodically oxygen-stressed are often quite large, covering hundreds to thousands of square kilometers (e.g., 250 [km.sup.2] in the Gulf of Trieste, approximately 3000 [km.sup.2] in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden, and 8000-9500 [km.sup.2] on the Louisiana shelf). Many of these areas appear to be near a threshold at which further oxygen depletion will yield catastrophic benthic mortality, loss of seafloor biodiversity (Figure 1), and alteration of food webs leading from the sediments to crustacean and finfish fisheries above the SWI (de Jonge et al. 1994). It is important to note that because
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Diaz and Rosenberg (1995) have focused on oxygen-stressed sites reported in scientific journals, their list clearly represents the tip of the hypoxic/anoxic iceberg. To quote these authors: "There is no other environmental param eter of such ecological importance to coastal marine ecosystems that has changed so drastically in such a short period of time as dissolved oxygen.... If we do not move quickly to reduce or stop the primary cause of low oxygen, the decomposition of excess primary production associated with eutrophication, then the productivity structure of our major estuarine and coastal areas will be permanently altered."
Cardillo, 06 (Marcel, Division of Biology, Imperial College London, 2006, Disappearing forests and biodiversity loss: which areas should we protect?, International Forestry Review Volume 8, Issue 2, http://www.tempoandmode.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/intforestry-review-june-2006-cardillo.pdf,) The destruction of forests and other habitats is the single most important cause of biodiversity loss (IUCN 2004), and it is inevitable that the massive loss of forests that will occur over the next few decades will result in widespread extinctions . The magnitude of this impending extinction event can be estimated, roughly, using the species-area relationship. The species-area
relationship describes the increase in species richness (S) with area of habitat (A), which can usually be modelled as a power function of the form S = cAz, the value of z indicating the slope of the increase. The expected loss of species from time t to t+1 can therefore be estimated as a function of habitat loss, using the equation St+1/St = (At+1/At)z. Using this method it has
been predicted, for example, that endemic mammal species richness in the Brazilian Amazon could be reduced by 518% under different modelled scenarios of forest loss to 2020 (Grelle
2005).
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Mueller 9pol sci prof and IR, Ohio State.Widely-recognized expert on terrorism threats in foreign
policy. AB from U Chicago, MA in pol sci from UCLA and PhD in pol sci from UCLA (John, Faulty Correlation, Foolish Consistency, Fatal Consequence: Democracy, Peace, and Theory in the Middle East, 15 June 2007, http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller/KENT2.PDF)
there has been aburgeoning and intriguing discussion about the connection between democracy and war aversion.7 Most notable has been the empirical observation that democracies have never, or almost never, gotten into a war with each other. This relationship seems more correlative than causal,however. Like many important ideas over the last few
In the last couple of decades centuries, the idea that war is undesirable and inefficacious and the idea that democracy is a good form of government have largely followed the same trajectory: they were embraced first in northern Europe and North America and then gradually, with a number of traumatic setbacks, became more accepted elsewhere. In this view, the rise of democracy not only is associated with the rise of war aversion, but also with the decline of slavery, religion, capital punishment, and cigarette smoking, and with the growing acceptance of capitalism, scientific methodology, women's rights, environmentalism,
While democracy and war aversion have taken much the sametrajectory, however, they have been substantially out of synchronization with each other: the movement toward democracy began about 200 years ago,but the movement against war really began only about 100 years ago (Mueller 1989, 2004). Critics of the
abortion, and rock music.8 democracy/peace connection often cite examples of wars or near-wars between democracies. Most of these took place before World War I--that is, before war aversion had caught on.9 A necessary, logical connection between democracy and war aversion, accordingly, is far from clear. Thus,
often asserted that democracies are peaceful because they apply their domestic penchant for peaceful compromise (something, obviously, that broke down in the United States in 1861) to the
it is
WFI 13 Pre Camp international arena or because the structure of democracy requires decision-makers to obtain domestic approval.10 But authoritarian regimes must also necessarily develop skills at compromisein order to survive, and they all have
domestic constituencies that must be serviced such as the church, the landed gentry, potential urban rioters, the nomenklatura, the aristocracy, party members, the military, prominent business interests, the police or secret police, lenders of money to the exchequer, potential rivals for the throne, the sullen peasantry.11 Since World War I, the democracies in the developed world have been in the lead in rejecting war as a methodology. Some proponents of the democracy-peace connection suggest that this is because the democratic norm of non-violent conflict resolution has been
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developed democracies have not necessarily adopted a pacifist approach, particularly after a version of that approach failed so spectacularly to prevent World War II from being forced upon them. In addition, they were willing actively to subvertor to threatenand sometimes apply military force when threats appeared to loom during the Cold War contest. At times this approach was used even against regimes that had some democratic credentials such as in Iran in 1953,
externalized to the international arena. However,
Guatemala in 1954, Chile in 1973, and perhaps Nicaragua in the 1980s (Rosato 2003, 590-91). And, they have also sometimes used military force in their intermittent efforts to police the post-Cold War world (Mueller 2004, chs. 7, 8). It is true that they have warred little or not at all against each other--and, since there were few democracies outside the developed world until the last quarter of the twentieth century, it is this statistical regularity
developed democracies hardly needed democracy to decide that war among them was a bad idea.12 In addition,
that most prominently informs the supposed connection between democracy and peace. However, the
they also adopted a live-and-let-live approach toward a huge number of dictatorships and other non-democracies that did not seem threatening during the Cold War--in fact, they often aided and embraced such regimes if they seemed to be on the right side in the conflict with Communism. Moreover, the supposed penchant for peaceful compromise of democracies has not always served them well when confronted with civil war situations, particularly ones involving secessionist demands. The process broke down into civil warfare in democratic Switzerland in 1847 and savagely so in the United States in 1861. Democracies have also fought a considerable number of wars to retain colonial possessions--six by France alone since World War II--and these, as James Fearon and David Laitin suggest, can in many respects be considered essentially to be civil wars (2003, 76). To be sure, democracies have often managed to deal with colonial problems peacefully, mostly by letting the colonies go. But authoritarian governments have also done so: the Soviet
Thus, while democracy and war aversion have often been promoted by the same advocates, the relationship does not seem to be a causal one . And when the two trends are substantially out of step today, democracies will fight one another. Thus, it is not at all clear that telling the elected hawks in the Jordanian parliament that Israel is a democracy will dampen their hostility in the slightest. And various warlike sentiments could be found in the elected parliaments in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s or in India and then-democratic Pakistan
Union, for example, withdrew from his empire in Eastern Europe and then dissolved itself, all almost entirely without violence. when these two countries engaged in armed conflict in 1999. If Argentina had been a democracy in 1982 when it seized the Falkland Islands (a very popular undertaking), it is unlikely that British opposition to the venture would have been much less severe. "
The important consideration," observes Miriam Fendius Elman after surveying the literature on the subject, does not seem to be "whether a country is democratic or not, but whether its ruling coalition is committed to peaceful methods of conflict resolution." As she further points out, the countries of Latin America and most of Africa have engaged in very few international wars even without the benefit of being democratic (for a the long peace enjoyed by developed countries since World War II includes not only the one that has prevailed between democracies, but also the even more important one between the authoritarian east and the democratic west. Even if there is some connection,
warlike states to Latin America or Europe.) And, of course,
century before its 1982 adventure, Argentina, for example, fought none at all) (1997, 484, 496). (Interestingly, although there has also been scarcely any warfare between Latin American states for over 100 years or among Arab ones or European ones for more that 50--in all cases whether democratic or not--this impressive phenomenon has inspired remarkably few calls for worldwide Arab colonialism or for the systematic transplant of remaining
whether causal or atmospheric, between democracy and peace, it cannot explain this latter phenomenon. Democracy and the democratic peace become mystiques: the role of philosophers and divines Democracy has been a matter of debate for several millennia as philosophers and divines have
Associated with these speculations has been a tendency to emboss the grubby gimmick with something of a mystique. Of particular
speculated about what it is, what it might become, and what it ought to be. interest for present purposes is the fanciful notion that democracy does not simply express and aggregate preferences, but actually somehow creates (or should create) them. In addition,
the (rough) correlation between democracy and war aversion has also been elevated into a causal relationship.
Lifting embargo hurts the spread democracy and it doesnt support the Cuban people Bustillo, 2013
[Mitchell, International Policy Digest, Time to Strengthen the Cuban Embargo, 5-9-13, http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2013/05/09/time-to-strengthen-the-cubanembargo/] /Wyo-MB Washingtons goal in its dealings with Havana is clear: facilitate the introduction and growth of democracy while increasing personal freedoms. There are many who argue that the best way to spread democracy is by lifting the embargo and travel restrictions. U.S. Rep. Michael Honda
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argues that an influx of politically enlightened U.S. travelers to Cuba would put Havana in a difficult place, leading to their own people calling for change. However, this is erroneous. Due to the fractured and weakened state of the embargo, over 400,000 U.S. travelers visited Cuba in 2011, making the United States the second-largest source of foreign visitors after Canada, according to NPRs Nick Miroff. Obviously, this influx of what has been theorized to be liberty professing tourists has not resulted in an influx of such democratic ideals into this overwhelmingly federally controlled country. One example is the case of Alan Gross, an American citizen working for USAID. He was arrested in Cuba in 2009 under the allegations of Acts against the Independence and Territorial Integrity of the State while distributing computers and technological equipment to Jewish communities in Cuba. He is currently serving the fourth of his fifteen-year conviction, is in poor health, and receiving little to no aid from the U.S., according to the Gross Family website. In light of this, it is hard to believe that the U.S. would be able to protect a large number of tourists in a hostile nation, especially when they plan to profess political freedom. This view is further promoted by the Ladies in White, a Cuban dissident group that supports the embargo. They fear ending it would only serve to strengthen the current dictatorial regime because the real blockade, they claim, is within Cuba. Allowing American travelers to visit Cuba does not help propel the cause of Cuban democracy; it hampers it.
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total number of worldwide attacks in 2011, however, dropped by almost 12 percent from 2010 and nearly 29 percent from 2007." (9) "Attacks by AQ and its affiliates increased by 8 percent from 2010 to 2011. A significant increase in
attacks by al-Shabaab, from 401 in 2010 to 544 in 2011, offset a sharp decline in attacks by al-Qa'ida in Iraq (AQI) and a smaller decline in attacks by al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)." (11) "In cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97 percent of terrorismrelated fatalities over the past five years." (14) Of 978 terrorism-related kidnapping last year, only three hostages were private U.S. citizens, or .003 percent. A private citizen is defined as 'any U.S. citizen not acting in an official capacity on behalf of the U.S. government.' (13, 17) Of the
13,288 people killed by terrorist attacks last year, seventeen were private U.S. citizens, or .001 percent. (17) According to the report, the number of U.S. citizens who died in terrorist attacks increased by two between 2010 and 2011; overall, a comparable number of Americans are crushed to death by their televisions or furniture each year . This is not
to diminish the real--albeit shrinking--threat of terrorism, or to minimize the loss and suffering of the 13,000 killed and over 45,000 injured around the world. For Americans, however, it should emphasize that
The impact is exaggerated more likely to be killed in a natural disaster or accident Mueller and Stewart 10
(John, Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University, Mark, writer for Foreign Affairs, Hardly Existential: Thinking Rationally about Terrorism, April 2, 2010, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66186/john-mueller-and-mark-g-stewart/hardlyexistential?page=show) As can be seen, annual terrorism fatality risks, particularly for areas outside of war zones, are less than one in one million and therefore generally lie within the range regulators deem safe or acceptable, requiring no further regulations, particularly those likely to be expensive. They are similar to the risks of using home appliances (200 deaths per year in the United States) or of commercial aviation (103 deaths per year). Compared with dying at the hands of a terrorist, Americans are twice as likely to perish in a natural disaster and nearly a thousand times more likely to be killed in some type of accident. The same general conclusion holds when the full damage inflicted by terrorists -- not only the loss of life but direct and indirect economic costs -- is aggregated. As a hazard, terrorism, at least outside of war zones, does not inflict enough damage to justify substantially increasing expenditures to deal with it.
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most recent unclassified report to Congress on the acquisition of technology relating to weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional munitions, it does have a section on CBRN terrorism (note, not WMD terrorism). The intelligence community has a very toned down statement that says several terrorist groups probably remain interested in [CBRN] capabilities, but not necessarily in all four of those capabilities. mostly focusing on low-level chemicals and toxins. Theyre talking about terrorists getting industrial chemicals and making ricin toxin, not nuclear weapons. And yes, Ms. Squassoni, it is primarily al Qaeda that the U.S. government worries about, no one else. The trend of worldwide terrorism continues to remain in the realm of conventional attacks. In 2010, there were more than 11,500 terrorist attacks, affecting about 50,000 victims including almost 13,200 deaths. None of them were caused by CBRN hazards. Of the 11,000 terrorist
attacks in 2009, none were caused by CBRN hazards. Of the 11,800 terrorist attacks in 2008, none were caused by CBRN hazards.
No successful detonation
Schneidmiller 9(Chris, Experts Debate Threat of Nuclear, Biological Terrorism, 13 January 2009,
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090113_7105.php)
There is an "almost vanishinglysmall" likelihood that terrorists would ever be able to acquire and detonate a nuclear weapon, one expert said here yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 2, 2008). In even the most likely scenario of nuclear terrorism, there are 20 barriers between extremists and a successful nuclear strike on a major city, said John Mueller, a political science professor at Ohio State University. The process itself is seemingly straightforward but exceedingly difficult -- buy or steal highly enriched uranium, manufacture a weapon, take the bomb to the target site and blow itup. Meanwhile, variables strewn across the path to an attack would increase the complexity of the effort, Mueller argued. Terrorists would have to bribe officials in a state nuclear program to acquire the material, while avoiding a sting by authorities or a scam by the sellers. The material itself could also turn out to be bad. "Once the purloined material is purloined, [police are] going to be terrorists would then have to find scientists and engineers willing to giveup their normal lives to
overcome, Mueller said, putting the chance of success at no less than one in three for each. The
chasing after you. They are also going to put on a high reward, extremely high reward, on getting the weapon back or getting the fissile material back," Mueller said during a panel discussion at a two-day Cato Institute conference on counterterrorism issues facing the incoming Obama administration. Smuggling the material out of a country would mean relying on criminals who "are very good at extortion" and might have to be killed to avoid a double-cross, Mueller said. The manufacture a bomb, which would require an expensive and sophisticated machine shop. Finally, further technological expertise would be needed to sneak the weapon across national borders to its destination point and conduct a successful detonation, Mueller said. Every obstacle is "difficult but not impossible" to
likelihood of successfully passing through each obstacle, in sequence, would be roughly one in 3 1/2 billion, he said, but for argument's Other scenarios are even less probable, Mueller said. A nucleararmed state is "exceedingly unlikely" to hand a weapon to a terrorist group, he argued: "States just simply won't give it to somebody they can't control." Terrorists are also not likely tobe able to steala whole weapon, Mueller asserted, dismissingthe idea of "loose nukes." Even Pakistan, which today is
maybe one in 3 1/2 million or 3 1/2 billion."
sake dropped it to 3 1/2 million. "It's a total gamble. This is a very expensive and difficult thing to do," said Mueller, who addresses the issue at greater length in an upcoming book, Atomic Obsession. "So unlike buying a ticket to the lottery ... you're basically putting everything, including your life, at stake for a gamble that's
perhaps the nation of greatest concern regarding nuclear security, keeps its bombs in two segments that are stored at different locations, he said (see GSN, Jan. 12). Fear of an "extremely improbable event" such as nuclear terrorism produces support for a wide range of homeland security activities, Mueller said. He argued that there has been a major and costly overreaction to the terrorism threat -- noting that the Sept. 11 attacks helped to precipitate the invasion of Iraq, which has led to
academic and governmental discussions of acts of nuclear or biological terrorism have tended to focus on "worstfar more deaths than the original event. Panel moderator Benjamin Friedman, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, said
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case assumptions about terrorists' ability to use these weapons to kill us." There is need for consideration for what is probable rather than simply what is possible, he said. Friedman took issue withthe finding late last year of an experts' report that an act of WMD terrorism would "more likely than not" occurin the next half decade unless the international community takes greater action. "I would say that the report, if you read it, actually offers no analysis to justify that claim, which seems to have been made to change policy by generating alarm in headlines." One panel speaker offered a partial rebuttal to Mueller's presentation. Jim Walsh, principal research scientist for the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he agreed that nations would almost certainly not give anuclear weapon to a nonstate group, that most terrorist organizations have no interest in seeking out the bomb, and that it would be difficult to build a weaponor use one that has been stolen.
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Democracy, as with all other processes engineered by human civilisation, is evolving at a rapid rate. A number of indicators are pointing to a major leap forward, encompassing a more public participatory form of democratic model and the harnessing of the expert intelligence of the Web. By the middle of the 21st century, such a global version of the democratic process will be largely in place.Democracy has a long evolutionary history. The concept of democracy - the notion that men and
women have the right to govern themselves, was practised at around 2,500 BP in Athens. The Athenian polity or political body, granted all citizens the right to be heard and to participate in the major decisions affecting their rights and well-being. The City State demanded services and loyalty from the individual in return. There is evidence however that the role of popular assembly actually arose earlier in some Phoenician cities such as Sidon and Babylon in the ancient assemblies of Syria- Mesopotamia, as an organ of local government and justice. As demonstrated in these early periods, democracy, although imperfect, offered each individual a stake in the nations collective decision-making processes. It therefore provided a greater incentive for each individual to cooperate to increase group productivity. Through a more open decision process, improved innovation and consequently additional wealth was generated and distributed more equitably. An increase in overall economic wellbeing in turn generated more possibilities and potential to acquire knowledge, education and employment, coupled with greater individual choice and freedom.
According to the Freedom House Report, an independent survey of political and civil liberties around the globe, the world has made great strides towards democracyin the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1900 there were 25 restricted democracies in existence covering an eighth of the worlds population, but none that could be judged as based on universal suffrage. The US and Britain denied voting rights to women and in the case of the US, also to African Americans. But at the end of the 20th century 119 of the worlds 192 nations were declared electoral democracies. In the current century, democracy continues to spread through Africa and Asia andsignificantly also the MiddleEast,withover 130 states invarious stages of democratic evolution.Dictatorships or quasi democratic one party states still
exist in Africa, Asia and the middle east with regimes such as China, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Burma, the Sudan, Belarus and Saudi Arabia, seeking to maintain total control over their populations. However
two thirds of sub-Saharan countries have staged elections in the past ten years, with coups becoming less common and internal wars gradually waning. African nations are also starting to police human rights in their own region. African Union peacekeepers are now deployed in Darfur and are working with UN peacekeepers in the
jurisdiction of any State.
Democratic Republic of the Congo. The evolution of democracy can also be seen in terms of improved human rights. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several ensuing legal treaties, define political, cultural and economic rights as well as the rights of women, children, ethnic groups and religions. This declaration is intended to create a global safety net of rights applicable to all peoples everywhere, with no exceptions. It also recognises the principle of the subordination of national sovereignty to the universality of human rights; the dignity and worth of human life beyond the
The global spread of democracy isnow also irreversibly linked to the new cooperative globalisation model. The EU, despite its growing pains, provides a compelling template; complementing national decisions in the supra-national interest at the commercial, financial, legal, health and research sharing level. The global spread of new technology and knowledge also provides the opportunity for developing countries to gain a quantum leap in material wellbeing; an essential prerequisite for a stable democracy. The current cyber-based advances therefore presage a much more interactive public form of democracy and mark the next phase in its ongoing evolution. Web 2.0s social networking, blogging, messaging and video services have already significantly changed the way people discuss political issues and exchange ideas beyond national
boundaries. In addition a number of popular sites exist as forums to actively harness individual opinions and encourage debate about contentious topics, funnelling them to political processes. These are
allowing the public to deliver requests to Government and receive a committed response. In addition there are a plethora of specialized smart search engines and analytical tools aimed at locating and interpreting information about divisive and
often coupled to online petitions,
complex topics such as global warming and medical stem cell advances. These are increasingly linked to Argumentation frameworks and Game theory, aimed at supporting the logical basis of arguments, negotiation and other structured forms of group decision-making. New logic and statistical tools can also provide inference and evaluation mechanisms to better assess the evidence for a particular hypothesis. By 2030 it is likely that such intelligence-based algorithms will be capable of automating the analysis and advice provided to politicians, at a similar level of qualit y and expertise as that offered by the best human advisers. It might be argued that there is still a need for the role of politicians and leaders in assessing and prioritising such expert advice in the overriding national interest. But a moments reflection leads to the opposite conclusion. Politicians have party allegiances and internal obligations that can and do create serious conflicts of interest and skew the best advice. History is replete with such disastrous decisions based on false premises, driven by party political bias and populist fads predicated on flawed knowledge. One needs to look no further in recent times than the patently inadequate evidential basis for the USs war in Iraq which has cost at least half a million civilian lives and is st ill unresolved. However there remains a disjunction between the developed west and those developing countries only now recovering from colonisation, the subsequent domination by dictators and fascist regimes and ongoing natural disasters. There is in fact a time gap of several hundred years between the democratic trajectory of the west and east, which these countries are endeavouring to bridge within a generation; often creating serious short-term challenges and cultural dislocations. A very powerful enabler for the spread of democracy as mentioned is the Internet/Web- todays storehouse of the worlds information and expertise. By increasing the flow of essential intelligence it facilitates transparency, reduces corruption, empowers dissidents and ensures governments are more responsive to their citizens needs. Ii is already providing the infrastructure for the
By 2040 more democratic outcomes for all populations on the planet will be the norm. Critical and urgent
emergence of a more democratic society; empowering all people to have direct input into critical decision processes affecting their lives, without the distortion of political intermediaries. decisions relating to global warming, financial regulation, economic allocation of scarce resources such as food and water, humanitarian rights and refugee migration etc, will to be sifted through community knowledge, resulting in truly representative and equitable global governance.
Implementation of the democratic process itself will continue to evolve with new forms of e-voting and governance supervision, which will include the active participation of advocacy groups supported by a consensus of expert knowledge via the Intelligent Web 4.0. Over time democracy as with all other social processes, will evolve to best suit the needs of its human environment. It will emerge as a networked model- a non-hierarchical, resilient protocol, responsive to rapid social change. Such distributed
forms of government will involve local communities, operating with the best expert advice from the ground up; the opposite of political party self-interested power and superficial focus-group decision-
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making, as implemented by many current political systems. These are frequently unresponsive to legitimate minority group needs and can be easily corrupted by powerful lobby groups, such as those employed by the heavy carbon emitters in the global warming debate.
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any dictator is to kill those dreams by condemning poor kids in Latin America, like me, to tyrants and the burden of limited education and economic opportunity."
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The removal of sanctions, however, would be just one step in the process of normalizing relations. Such a process is sure to be controversial, as indicated by the heated congressional debate spurred in
March 2009 by attempts to include provisions easing travel and trade restrictions in a large appropriations bill. These provisions passed in a March 10 vote. "Whatever we call it--normalization, detente, rapproachement--I think it is clear that the
policy
process risks falling victim to the politics of the issue," says Sweig.
Lifting the embargo fuels anti-Americanism and emboldens Cuba to undermine US leadership Brookes, 2009
[Peter, Senior fellow national security affairs, Keep the Embargo, O, 4-16-9, http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2009/04/keep-the-embargo-o] /Wyo-MB We also don't need a pumped-up Cuba that could become a serious menace to US interests in Latin America, the Caribbean -- or beyond. (The likes of China, Russia and Iran might also look to partner with a revitalized Cuba.) With an influx of resources, the Cuban regime would surely team up with the rulers of nations like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia to advance socialism and anti-Americanism in the Western Hemisphere. The embargo has stifled Havana's ambitions ever since the Castros lost their Soviet sponsorship in the early 1990s. Anyone noticed the lack of trouble Cuba has caused internationally since then? Contrast that with the 1980s some time. Regrettably, 110 years after independence from Spain (courtesy of Uncle Sam), Cuba still isn't free. Instead of utopia, it has become a dystopia at the hands of the Castro brothers. The US embargo remains a matter of principle -- and an appropriate response to Cuba's brutal repression of its people. Giving in to evil only begets more of it. Haven't we learned that yet? Until we see progress in loosing the Cuban people from the yoke of the communist regime, we should hold firm onto the leverage the embargo provides.
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president, Fernando H. Cardoso, and Colombia's former president, Cesar Gaviria -- a strategy based on demand reduction, rather
some fear the Mexican drug violence could spill over into the southern United States, Latin America poses little to no threat to international peace or stability. The major global security concerns today are the proliferation of nuclear weapons and terrorism. No country in the region is in possession of nuclear weapons -- nor has expressed an interest in having them. Latin American countries, on the whole, do not have much history of engaging in cross-border wars. Despite the recent tensions on the Venezuela-Colombia border, it should be pointed out that Venezuela has never taken part in an international armed conflict. Ethnic and religious conflicts are very uncommon in Latin America.
Although the region has not been immune to radical jihadist attacks -- the 1994 attack on a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, for instance -- they have been rare. Terrorist attacks on the civilian population have been limited to a large extent to the FARC organization in Colombia, a tactic which contributed in large part to the organization's loss of popular support.
Organized crime inevitable-Globalization Dr. Phil Williams is Professor of International Security in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh 8-18-2006 http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199289783/baylis_chap09.pdf
Globalization has had paradoxical consequences for both transnational organized crime and international terrorism, acting as both motivator and facilitator. This is not entirely surprising. Although
globalization has had many beneficial consequences, it has losers as well as winners and the pain for the losers can be enormous. Indeed, globalization
has had a disruptive impact on patterns of employment, on traditional cultures, and on the capacity of states to deal with problems facing citizens within their jurisdictions, as well as problems that span multiple jurisdictions. In some
instances, globalization has created massive economic dislocation that has pushed people from the legal economy to the illegal. In other cases, globalization has been seen as merely a cover for Western and especially United States cultural and economic dominationdomination that has created enough resentment to help fuel what has become the global jihad movement. At the same time, globalization has acted as a facilitator for a whole set of illicit activities ranging from drugs and arms trafficking to the use of large-scale violence against innocent civilians. Many observers assumed that in the post-cold war world, democracy, peace, stability and order could easily be exported from the advanced post-industrialized states to areas of conflict and instability (Singer and Wildavsky 1993). In fact the opposite has occurred. Al-Qaeda was able to attack the United States homeland while based in Afghanistan, thereby illustrating what Robert Keohane described as the transformation of geography from a barrier to a connector (2002: 275). Indeed, one of the most important characteristics of a globalized world is that the interconnections among different parts of the world are dense, communication is cheap and easy, and transportation and transmission, whether of disease, crime, or violence, are impossible to stop. Transnational networks link businessmen, families, scientists, and scholars; they also link members of terrorist networks and criminal organizations. In some cases, networks are successfully integrated into the host societies. In other instances, however, migrants find themselves in what Castells called zones of social exclusion (1998: 72).Muslim immigration from North Africa and Pakistan t o Western Europe, for example, has resulted in marginalization and alienation that were evident in the widespread riots in France in the late months of 2005 and that have also helped to fuel radical Islamic terrorism in Western Europe.Moreover, for second and third generation immigrants who have limited opportunities in the licit economy, the illegal economy and either petty crime or organized crime can appear as an attractive alternative. Ethnic networks of this kind can provide both cover and recruitment opportunities for transnational criminal and terrorist organizations. In effect, therefore, globalization
has acted as a force multiplier for both criminal and terrorist organizations, providing them with new resources and new opportunities.
-No jurisdiction, weak states, trade offs, too adaptable Dr. Phil Williams is Professor of International Security in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh 8-18-2006 http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199289783/baylis_chap09.pdf
There are several reasons for this. First, in enforcement agencies, law enforcement
spite of growing international cooperation among national law remains a national activity confined to a single territorial jurisdiction, while organized crime is transnational in scope. In effect, law enforcement still continues to operate in a bordered world, whereas organized crime operates in a borderless
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world. Second, although the United States placed a high priority on denying safe haven or sanctuary to international criminals, many states have limited capacity to enforce laws against organized crime.Consequently, transnational criminal organizations are able to operate from safe havens, using a mix of corruption and violence to perpetuate the weakness of the states from which they operate.Nowhere is this more evident than in Mexico, where a war for control of routes and markets on the northern border has led to violence spilling over into the United States. Third, all too often attacking transnational criminal organizations has been subordinated to other goals and objectives. In spite of the emphasis on attacking smuggling and smugglers, for example, this is not something
which has been allowed to interfere with global trade. In effect, reaping the benefits of globalization, tacitly at least, has been deemed more important than combating transnational organized crime.Not surprisingly, therefore, as Moises Naim has pointed out, there is simply nothing in the cards that points to an imminent reversal of fortune for the myriads of networks active in illicit trade. It
is even difficult to find evidence of substantial progress in reversing or even just containing the growth of these illicit markets(2005: 221). Fourth, both transnational criminal organizations and the illicit markets in which they operate are highly adaptable. Law
gap.Moreover, the
enforcement success against a particular organization, for example, tends simply to offer opportunities for its rivals to fill the
ability of organizations to move from one illicit product to another makes them even more difficult to combat. In recent years, for example, Burmese warlords have moved
from opium to methamphetamine production and have become major suppliers to Asian markets for the drug.
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the United States has developed clear strategies for combating both organized crime and terrorism, the implementation of these strategies is clearly hindered by the dominance of governmental structures that were wellsuited to the cold war against a slow, bureaucratic, ponderous adversary but are singularly ill-suited to combating agile transnational adversaries. In the final analysis, fighting terrorism and transnational organized crime is not only about strategy, it is also about appropriate organizational structures to implement strategy.And in that respect, terrorists and criminals have the advantage. The result is that the efforts of the United States and the international community to combat both crime and terrorism are unlikely to meet with unqualified success.
-Too agile, bureaucratic inefficiency Dr. Phil Williams is Professor of International Security in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh 8-18-2006 http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199289783/baylis_chap09.pdf
In many respects, the threats posed to the United States and more broadly to the international community of states by transnational organized crime and terrorism can be understood as an important manifestation of the new phase in world politics in which some of the key interactions are between the state system and what James Rosenau (1990) termed the multi centric system, composed of sovereignty-free actors . In this connection, it is notable that the first serious challenge to United States hegemony in the post-cold war world came not from another state but from a terrorist network.Moreover, both
criminals and terrorists have certain advantages over states: they are agile, distributed, highly dynamic organizations with a capacity to morph or transform themselves when under pressure. States in contrast are slow, clumsy, hierarchical, and bureaucratic and,
although they have the capacity to bring lots of resources to bear on a problem, can rarely do this with speed and efficiency. As discussed above, in the United States war on terror, the strategy for the war of ideas was very slow to develop, not least because of inter-agency differences. The same has been true in the effort to combat terrorist finances. As the Government Accountability Office (2005) has noted, the U.S. government lacks an integrated strategy to coordinate the delivery of count erterrorism financing training and technical assistance to countries vulnerable to terrorist financing. Specifically, the effort does not have key stakeholder acceptance of roles and procedures, a strategic alignment of resources with needs, or a process to measure performance. Differences of
perspective and approach between the Departments of State and Treasury have also seriously bedevilled the effort to enable weak states, one of the keys to the multilateral component of the administrations strategy to combat terrorism. Similar problems have been evident in efforts to combat organized crime and drug trafficking.A striking example is the
counter-drug intelligence architecture for the United States which has the Crime and Narcotics Center at CIA looking at the international dimension of drug trafficking, the National Drug Intelligence Center responsible for domestic aspects of the problem, the Treasurys Financial Crimes Enforcement Network focusing on money laundering, and the El Paso Intelligence Center responsible for tactical intelligence. Although this architecture provides clear roles and responsibilities, it also creates bureaucratic seams in the effort to understand and assess what is clearly a seamless process of drug trafficking and money laundering across borders. Although good information exchanges can ease this problem, the architecture is far from optimal.
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Alt cause Guantanamo Bay Hanson associate director and coordinating editor at CFR.org 2009 Stephanie US Cuba
Relations Council on Foreign Relations 4/14 http://gees.org/documentos/Documen-03412.pdf Experts say the issues preventing normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations include the following:
Human rights violations. In March 2003, the Cuban government arrested seventy-five dissidents and journalists, sentencing them to prison terms of up to twenty-eight years on charges of conspiring with the United States to overthrow the state. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a Havana-based nongovernmental group, reports that the government has in recent years resorted to other tactics--such as firings from state jobs and intimidation on the street--besides prison to silence opposition figures. A 2005 UN Human Rights Commission vote condemned Cuba's human rights record, but the country was elected to the new UN Human Rights Council in 2006. Guantanamo
Bay. Cuba indicated after 9/11 that it would not object if the United States brought prisoners to Guantanamo officials have since seized on the U.S. prison camp--where hundreds of terror suspects have been detained without recourse to trial--as a "symbol of solidarity" with the rest of the world against the United States. Obama has ordered a review of U.S. policy on Guanatanamo Bay.
Bay. However, experts such as Sweig say Cuban
Engagement with regime in Cuba doesnt boost relations, should side with the democratic aspirations of the people Walser, 2012
[Ray, PHD and Senior Policy Analyst specializing in Latin America at The Heritage Foundation, How To Achieve Real Political Reform in Cuba, 5-18-12, http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/05/how-to-achieve-real-political-reformin-cuba] /Wyo-MB But theres another school of thought on how best to mark this day one that encourages engagement and leans more on diplomacy than accountability. Today, thanks to the Obama administration, as well as left-leaning think tanks in Washington and New York, an effort is underway to steer an opposite course one that moves, incredibly enough, closer to
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cooperation with the Castro regime. Tossed overboard are demands for human rights, freedom and dignity for Cubans. In their place: the siren song of tourism partnerships and exchanges of academics and musicians. A fresh wave of Cubans is disembarking on and around May 20 to participate in Cubas latest charm offensive. The capstone visit for this round features Mariela Castro Espn, daughter of Raul Castro and an activist for gay and lesbian rights, at the Latin American Studies Association in San Francisco. She will be received with acclaim as a voice of progressive tolerance on issues of individual sexual preference. The objective of these latest Cuban visitors salaried employees and privileged members of the regime is to convince ordinary Americans that Cuba is already on a course to better days. Were to believe that major economic change is underway, and that small portions of democratic space, as the Obama administration fondly refers to it, are being carved out. The ultimate goal of spokespersons such as Mariela Castro is relatively simple: Win the coveted U.S. imprimatur of acceptance for Cuban-style, post-Castro socialism, and smooth the way for full diplomatic recognition. The eventual goal, of course, is to bring down the 1996 Helms-Burton Act and with it the trade embargo. That way, the fabled Castro Revolution may continue on a course of channeled change, with a succession of next-generation party apparatchiks, bureaucrats and military leaders fully in control in the wheelhouse. Yet, as the Bush administration knew, and the Obama administration seems to forget, authentic change in Cuba requires far more than institutional tinkering and piecemeal economic reform or the creation of manufactured democratic space. It means taking these five fundamental steps toward authentic political reform: Recognition of the right to independent political parties to exist legally and operate freely. Free and fair elections. Genuine freedom of expression, including unfiltered access to the Internet. Freedom of association for civil society, private enterprise and organized labor. Nothing more and nothing less will do. The first step to real solidarity with the Cuban people is to correct an erroneous impression that the hired guns and apologists for the Castro regime who ride in first class cabins speak for all Cubans. Time for truth in advertising! They represent the Castro regime. They speak for the power elite in Havana. And they have clearly in view a succession scenario, or soft landing, for the post-Castro era. On May 20, those interested in the future of U.S.-Cuba relations, and authentic liberty on the island, need to remember that the authentic voices of change are far more likely to be found below decks in Cubas permanent steerage class. Here you find the people barred from traveling. Here are the ones with limited access to the outside world. Here are the ones constantly harassed and threatened, left in jail and treated as enemies of the state. Its a difficult course to steer, but its the only one that will effect change. Solidarity with Cubas people begins below decks, not in luxury cabins with ocean views.
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AT: Solvency
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1NC Solvency
Lifting embargo emboldens the regimeempirics prove wont sustain transition Currie, 2010
[Duncan, National Review, 6/7/2010, Vol. 62 Issue 10, p28-30, 2p, 1 Color Photograph, Spare Not The Stick, Accesed online via Ebscohost] /Wyo-MB What does all that mean for U.S. sanctions against Cuba? This is clearly the wrong time to lift the embargo, because the regime is under pressurenot only in - ternally, but internationally, says former State Department official Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Center for Hemis - pheric Policy at the University of Miami. Moreover, the Castro government has made a habit of scuttling U.S. efforts to improve bilateral relations. When Presi - dent Ford sought rapprochement, Cuba dispatched a massive number of military personnel to aid Communist forces in the Angolan civil war. When President Carter established a U.S. mission in Havana, Fidel sent thousands of dangerous criminals and mental patients to Florida as part of the Mariel boatlift. When President Clinton loosened the embargo, Cuban aircraft shot down two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a CubanAmerican group that assists seaborne refugees. Similarly, President Obama initially hoped to launch a new beginning with Cuba. In a gesture of goodwill, he eased restrictions on family travel and remittances to the island. But Havana once again failed to reciprocate: In December, Cuban security agents arrested Alan Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contractor seeking to foster civil society on the island. The regime has since been holding him on trumped-up spying charges. After the Gross detention, USAIDfunded trips aimed at nurturing Cuban democracy were temporarily suspended. But on April 9, the Miami Herald reported that the agency had given its partner or - ganizations the green light to resume them. Cuban officials are really worried about the USAID programs, says Latell, author of the magisterial 2005 book After Fidel. A 2006 Government Accounta - bility Of fice study found that those programs are plagued by managerial dif - ficulties and inadequate oversight, but it also noted that Cuban dissidents felt USAID activi ties provided moral sup- port and enhanced their ability to continue their pro-democracy work. In a statement on March 24, Obama lamented that Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist. Would scrapping the embargo help spur liberalization? Peter Orr, who served as USAID Cuba co - ordinator under President Clinton, is doubtful. Foreign investment has been pouring into Cuba since the mid-1990s, as have foreign tourists. Both have strengthened the dictatorship. It is somewhat fanciful to think that still more mojitosipping sunbathers would catalyze a transformation.
And, the embargo is a critical bargaining chip to force governmental change in Cuba Currie, 2010
[Duncan, National Review, 6/7/2010, Vol. 62 Issue 10, p28-30, 2p, 1 Color Photograph, Spare Not The Stick, Accesed online via Ebscohost] /Wyo-MB The broader U.S. embargo should be used as a tool to incentivize Cuban liberalization. Latell reckons that most senior members of the military and Communist bureaucracyincluding Ral Castro favor Chinese-style economic reforms, though they do not necessarily want Cuba to become what China is today. But Fidel rejects the Deng Xiaoping model, and any large-scale
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implementation of that model presupposes his death. Latell suspects that if Fidel died and Ral (who turns 79 on June 3) were still in control as president, Havana would adopt a more pragmatic approach to the United States, and might even be willing to free political prisoners in return for U.S. investment. If America ditched sanctions tomorrow without first obtaining serious concessions, it would be rewarding the Cuban government at a time when that government appears increasingly vulnerable. The embargo may seem a hopeless anachronism. But it could prove a valuable bargaining chip, and its worth keeping at least a little while longer.
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Now is key time to use embargo to force regime change, Venezuala regime change means that Cuba cant stand up to the embargo Bustillo, 2013
[Mitchell, International Policy Digest, Time to Strengthen the Cuban Embargo, 5-9-13, http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2013/05/09/time-to-strengthen-the-cubanembargo/] /Wyo-MB No doubt, it has been a fruitless 50 years since the embargo was enacted. Little has changed as far as democracy and human rights are concerned. To maintain control, Cuba has managed to offset much of the effects over the years in large part because the Soviets subsidized the island for three decades, because the regime welcomed Canadian, Mexican and European capital after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and because Venezuela is its new patron, according to Llosa. However, Venezuela is now undergoing a political transition of its own with the recent death of Hugo Chvez, its president for the past 14 years, and the controversial election of Nicols Maduro. Despite being Chvezs handpicked successor, Maduro only won by a narrow margin and will likely be forced to cut spending on social programs and foreign assistance in an effort to stabilize Venezuelas dire economic problems. Therefore, now is the ideal time to take action. Without Venezuelas support, the Cuban government will assuredly face an economic crisis. Strengthening the embargo to limit U.S. dollars flowing into Cuba would place further pressure on the Cuban government and has the potential to trigger an economic collapse. A change in the Cuban political climate is within reach.
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(openness) that played an invaluable role in the dissolution of the Soviet empire. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping opened his country to investment and the start of private competition (with countries like Singapore as a model). Theres little sign of such a shift in Cuba. While Cuban President Raul Castro has made signs of being willing to talk to the United States, those moves have been interfered with by Rauls brother Fidel. A freer Cuba would be beneficial to everyone. It is important, however, to remember that this is a transformation that can only happen through a change in Cubas policies, toward a more pluralist, democratic political system and more open economy. It is not a transformation that can happen simply through a change in our policies toward Cuba.
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infrastructure; and improve working conditions for common workers. To bolster its healthcare infrastructure and create incentives for Cuban doctors to stay in the system, Cuba will have to find external support from donors, such as the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development. But few sources will support Havana with funding as long as the regime restricts the travel of its citizens. In the long run, Cuba will need to develop a taxable economic base to generate government revenues--which would mean inviting foreign investment and generating serious employment opportunities. The onus is on the Castro government to demonstrate how the regime could adapt to the easing or lifting of the U.S. embargo. Certainly, Cuban leaders already know that their health triumphs would be at risk.
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the embargo, Cuba has produced better health outcomes than most Latin American countries, and they are comparable to those of most developed countries. Cuba has the highest average life expectancy (78.6 years) and density of physicians per capita (59 physicians per 10,000 people), and the lowest infant (5.0/1000 live births) and child (7.0/1000 live births) mortality rates among 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries (11, 26).
In 2006, the Cuban government spent about $355 per capita on health, 7.1% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (11, 26). The annual cost of health care for an American was $6714, 15.3% of total U.S. GDP. Cuba also spent less on health than most European countries. But low health
care costs alone may not fully explain Cuba's successes (27), which may relate more to their emphasis on disease prevention and primary health care, which have been cultivated during the U.S. trade embargo. Cuba has one of the most proactive primary health care systems in the world. By educating their population about disease prevention and health promotion, the Cubans rely less on medical supplies to maintain a healthy population. The converse is the United States, which relies heavily on medical
supplies and technologies to maintain a healthy population, but at a very high cost.
Cuban health care doing good lots of doctors and focus on prevention Campion M.D. & Morrissey Ph.D. 2013 Edward & Stephen A Different Model Medical
Care in Cuba New England Journal of Medicine http://www.sld.cu/galerias/pdf/sitios/santiagodecuba/nejmp1215226_1.pdf Internet access is virtually nonexistent. And the Cuban health care system also seems unreal. There are too many doctors. Everybody has a family physician. Everything is free, totally free and not after prior approval or some copay. The whole system seems turned upside down. It is tightly organized, and the first priority is prevention. Although Cuba has limited economic resources, its health care system has solved some problems that ours has not yet managed to address.1,2 Family physicians, along with their nurses and other health workers, are responsible for delivering primary care and preventive services to their panel of patients about 1000 patients per physician in urban areas. All care delivery is organized at the local level, and the patients and their caregivers generally live in the same community. The medical records in cardboard folders are simple and handwritten, not unlike those we used in the United States 50 years ago. But the system is surprisingly information-rich copic nd focused on population health.
Cuban health care strong lots of positive trends Campion M.D. & Morrissey Ph.D. 2013 Edward & Stephen A Different Model Medical
Care in Cuba New England Journal of Medicine http://www.sld.cu/galerias/pdf/sitios/santiagodecuba/nejmp1215226_1.pdf This highly structured, prevention-oriented system has produced positive results. Vaccination rates in Cuba are among the highest in the world. The life expectancy of 78 years from birth is virtually identical to that in the United States. The infant mortality rate in Cuba has fallen from more than 80 per 1000 live births in the 1950s to less than 5 per 1000 lower than the U.S. rate, although the maternal
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mortality rate remains well above those in developed countries and is in the middle of the range for Caribbean countries.3,4 Without doubt, the improved health outcomes are largely the result of improvements in nutrition and education, which address the social determinants of health. Cubas
literacy rate is 99%, and health education is part of the mandatory school curriculum. A recent national program to promote acceptance of men who have sex with men was
designed in part to reduce rates of sexually transmitted disease and improve acceptance of and adherence to treatment. Cigarettes can no longer be obtained with monthly ration cards, and smoking rates have decreased, though local health teams say it remains difficult to get smokers to quit. Contraception is free and strongly encouraged. Abortion is legal but is seen as a failure of prevention.
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with falling life expectancies and high rates of HIV/AIDS, donor resources aimed at combating the disease often have the unintended consequence of further straining meager supplies of human medical resources by drawing talent away from less well-funded areas of medicine, such as basic children's health care. According to the American College of Physicians, the United States currently has approximately one doctor for every 2,500 patients and a critical shortage of nearly 17,000 doctors. The American Medical Association estimates that there is an especially grave deficit of primary-care physicians, with only 304,000 licensed--about 30,000 fewer than needed. And the recently enacted federal health-care reform law will put more than 30 million more Americans on insurance or public rolls, thereby dramatically increasing the need for physicians. Primary-care physicians are the worst-paid doctors in the United States. Their average salaries have grown by less than four percent per year since 2000, compared with roughly ten percent per year for the salaries of surgeons and specialists, according to the American College of Physicians. Last year, primary-care doctors in the United States earned about $173,000 on average, compared with $344,000 for anesthesiologists and $481,000 for orthopedic surgeons. With most U.S. doctors incurring debts of $200,000 to complete their schooling, there is little hope that the acute primary-care deficit can be filled anytime soon by talent trained in the United States. Already, U.S. and Canadian medical institutions are trying to fill their human-resource gaps through recruitment from Africa, Asia, eastern Europe, and Latin America.
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Poor countries simply cannot afford such a health system. Well over 100 countries are looking to the example of Cuba, which has the same 78-year life expectancy of the US while spending 4% per person annually of
what the US does.2 The most revolutionary idea of the Cuban system is doctors living in the neighborhoods they serve. A doctor-nurse team are part of the community and know their patients well because they live at (or near) the consultorio (doctor's office) where they work. Consultorios are backed up by policlnicos which provide services during off-hours and offer a wide variety of specialists. Policlnicos coordinate community health delivery and link nationally-designed health initiatives with their local implementation.
Cubans call their system medicina general integral (MGI, comprehensive general medicine). Its programs focus on preventing people from getting diseases and treating them as rapidly as possible. This has made Cuba extremely effective in control of everyday health issues. Having doctors' offices in every neighborhood has brought the Cuban infant mortality rate below that of the US and less than half that of US Blacks.3 Cuba has a record unmatched in dealing with chronic and infectious diseases with amazingly limited resources. These include (with date eradicated): polio (1962), malaria (1967), neonatal tetanus (1972), diphtheria (1979),
congenital rubella syndrome (1989), post-mumps meningitis (1989), measles (1993), rubella (1995), and TB meningitis (1997).4 The MGI integration of neighborhood doctors' offices with area clinics and a national hospital system also means the country responds well to emergencies. It has the ability to evacuate entire cities during a hurricane largely because consultorio staff know
At the time when New York City (roughly the same population as Cuba) had 43,000 cases of AIDS, Cuba had 200 AIDS patients.5 More recent emergencies such as outbreaks of dengue fever are quickly followed by national mobilizations.6
everyone in their neighborhood and know who to call for help getting disabled residents out of harm's way.