Willful Ignorance

June 13th, 2006

Posted by: Roger Pielke, Jr.

I find this just amazing:

Beginning next month, Florida researchers won’t be able to travel to Cuba to carry out any studies. Although the United States allows such interactions, the state has banned faculty members at Florida’s public universities from having any contact with the island nation under a law enacted last week. “This law shuts down the entire Cuban research agenda,” says Damián Fernández, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami.

Cuba is one of six countries that the U.S. State Department has designated as a “sponsor of terrorism,” although U.S. scholars can travel to Cuba for research if they first obtain a government license. The Florida measure, which passed the state legislature unanimously, essentially closes that loophole by disallowing state-funded institutions from using public or private funds to facilitate travel to such countries. (The list includes North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Sudan.)

“Florida’s taxpayers don’t want to see their resources being used to support or subsidize terrorist regimes at a time when America is fighting a war on terror,” says David Rivera, a Republican Cuban-American state legislator who introduced the bill. Florida researchers won’t miss out on anything by not going to Cuba, he adds: “I don’t think there’s anything there that cannot be studied in the Dominican Republic or other Caribbean islands.”

Except Cuba. Duh.

4 Responses to “Willful Ignorance”

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  1. coby Says:

    You should not be surprised, Roger. This is completely in line with decades of policy, as the article says, this was a loop hole.

    Meanwhile, the US drags its feet and may eventually harbor convicted international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/09/148243

    But our terrorists are freedom fighters. And intellectuals are too naive to be allowed to go to a communist nation like Cuba so for the good of us all the research community should pretend they do not exist.

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  3. Roger Pielke, Jr. Says:

    Coby- Thanks, but the US has a long history of studying the Soviet Union and China, even in periods of high tension. This is surprising, though I am sure has far moe to do with the perculiarities of Florida politics related to Cuba than anything else. Thanks.

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  5. Nosmo Says:

    Roger,
    The Soviet Union and China are not analogous to Cuba for obvious reasons. The more you learn about Cuba/Us and Cuba/Florida relations the more idiotic it will seem. Idiotic but not surprising. (At least it not as destructive as our policy toward Haiti has been).

    Nosmo.

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  7. coby Says:

    Roger,

    You are absolutely right, it has a lot to do with Floridian politics and the anti-castro Cuban exile community.