Tournament: Obligatory Disclosure | Round: Finals | Opponent: asdf | Judge: jkl
The United States maintains an embargo that bars nearly all economic activity with Cuba
Guzman 13 Guzmán, Emmy award winning journalist, 2013
(Sandra, "Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s trip to Cuba isn’t the problem, the embargo is," CNN, May 8, Online: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/07/opinion/guzman-beyonce-jay-z-cuba/index.html)
The few but very influential pro-embargo lobby have put a stranglehold on a
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economy can’t grow, it’s because of this U.S. policy.
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Embargo kills science coop—plan key to solve Latin American relations, disaster preparedness, diseases, biotechnology and biodiversity
Pastrana 26 Clegg 08. Foreign Secretary of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, Foreign Secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the School of Biological Sciences, University of California (Sergio, Michael, "U.S.-Cuban Scientific Relations". 7/3/13. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/322/5900/345.full?ijkey=3aK7XuLHCJLJ.26keytype=ref26siteid=sci. KJ)
In a few years, the two oldest national academies of science in the world
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us celebrate our mutual anniversaries by starting a new era of scientific cooperation.
West 12 former Fulbright fellow, is a frequent contributor to NAFSA’s award-winning International Educator magazine. (Charlotte West, 2012, New Approaches to Cooperation with Latin America, http://www.nafsa.org/uploadedFiles/Chez_NAFSA/Find_Resources/Publications/Periodicals/Epublications/epub_latin_america.pdf)**
One place where Latin America has a distinct research advantage is in the area of
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of the best places to do research on these topics," Lever said.
Guterl 12 – Executive Editor of Scientific American, expert in Climate and Environment, Science Policy, citing James Hanson, a NASA scientist (Fred, "Climate Armageddon: How the World’s Weather Could Quickly Run Amok", 5/25/12; http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-worlds-weather-could-quickly-run-amok)//Beddow
The world has warmed since those heady days of Gaia, and scientists have grown
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scope, that could make a rapid transition from one state to another.
CEPF ’10
(quoting Mittermeier — the same author that establishes the "hotspot" thesis and writes our impact ev. , Dr. Russell Alan Mittermeier is a primatologist, herpetologist and biological anthropologist. He holds Ph.D. from Harvard in Biological Anthropology and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. CEPF is the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund – "Ecosystem Profile: THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT" – Prepared by: BirdLife International¶ in collaboration with:¶ Durrell Wildlife Conservation¶ Trust / Bath University¶ The New York Botanical Garden¶ and with the technical support of:¶ Conservation International-Center¶ for Applied Biodiversity Science; assistance for this report was offered by 100 international and non-profit organizations. Jan 15th – http://www.cepf.net/Documents/Final_Caribbean_EP.pdf)
The Caribbean Islands Hotspot is one of the world’s greatest centers of biodiversity and¶
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species amounting to at least 2 percent of the world’s total¶ species.
====And Cuba is key to the Caribbean hotspot====
Conservation International, No Date ("Carribean Islands: Species," http://www.conservation.org/where/priority_areas/hotspots/north_central_america/Caribbean-Islands/Pages/biodiversity.aspx)
Endemism is also significant at the island level; about one-quarter of the
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endemic genera in the hotspot, about 120 are confined to single islands.
And hotspot biodiversity key to solve extinction—also key for agriculture, medicine, and ecosystems
Mittermeier ’11
(et al, Dr. Russell Alan Mittermeier is a primatologist, herpetologist and biological anthropologist. He holds Ph.D. from Harvard in Biological Anthropology and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has conducted fieldwork for over 30 years on three continents and in more than 20 countries in mainly tropical locations. He is the President of Conservation International and he is considered an expert on biological diversity. Mittermeier has formally discovered several monkey species. From Chapter One of the book Biodiversity Hotspots – F.E. Zachos and J.C. Habel (eds.), DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20992-5_1, ~23 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011. This evidence also internally references Norman Myers, a very famous British environmentalist specialising in biodiversity. available at: http://www.academia.edu/1536096/Global_biodiversity_conservation_the_critical_role_of_hotspots)
Extinction is the gravest consequence of the biodiversity crisis, since it is¶ irreversible
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than 30 of original vegetation remaining" criterion to a genuine hotspot.
Disease leads to extinction and outweighs nuclear war
Zakaria 5 ~Fareed, Editor of Newsweek International whose column appears in Newsweek, Newsweek International and The Washington Post, "A Threat Worse than Terror," 10-31, Newsweek, http://www.fareedzakaria.com/ARTICLES/newsweek/103105.html~~
A flu pandemic is the most dangerous threat the United States faces today," says
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for the first time. No such expertise exists for today’s deadliest threat.
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Hidalgo and Martinez 2K
Hidalgo, Vilma and Martinez, Milagros. "Is the U.S. Economic¶ Embargo on Cuba¶ Morally Defensible?" 2000. Pg 109-110. http://www.stthomas.edu/CathStudies/logos/archives/volumes/3-4/3-420Article.pdf
The human costs due to impact on the health sector are even¶ more obvious
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and ownership to the United¶ is the embargo on cuba morally defensible.
Claims that Cuba’s health care is good rely on corrupt studies and oppressive policies
Stossel 13
John Stossel. "Cuba Has Better Health Care than the United States?" Creators.com. Last modified 7/17/13. http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/cuba-has-better-health-care-than-the-united-states.html
Cuban-born Dr. Jose Carro, who interviews Cuban doctors who have moved to the United States, says Moore’s movie lies. Dr. Darsi Ferrer, a human-rights advocate in Cuba, told us that Americans should not believe the claims being made. He describes the Cuban people as "crazy with desperation" because of poor-quality care.¶ George Utset, who writes The Real Cuba Web site ~www.therealcuba.com/~, says Moore and his group were ushered to the upper floors of the hospital, to rooms reserved for the privileged. "They don’t go to the hospital for regular Cubans. They go to hospital for the elite. And it’s a very different condition," Utset says.¶ For ordinary Cubans, health care is different. A YouTube.com video ~http://tinyurl.com/3c4pzg~~, posted by a woman from Venezuela, purports to show the two forms of health care, one for the privileged who pay in dollars and a far inferior one for regular Cubans.¶ Moore claims Cubans live longer than Americans. It’s true that a U.N. report claims that. But the United Nations didn’t gather any data. "The United Nations simply reports whatever the government in Cuba reports, so we have no objective way to know what the real statistics are," Carro says.¶ Exactly. Communist countries are famous for hiding the truth. Twenty years ago, when I reported from the Soviet Union, officials insisted there were no poor people in Russia, but they refused to let me look for myself.¶ Why would we believe the Cuban government’s health statistics?¶ Cuba claims it has low infant mortality, but doctors tell us that Cuban obstetricians abort a fetus when they think there might be a problem. Dr. Julio Alfonso told us he used to do 70-80 abortions a day. And here’s an even more devious way of distorting infant-mortality data: Some doctors tell us that if a baby dies within a few hours of birth, Cuban doctors don’t count him or her as ever having lived.¶ Moore told me: "All the independent health organizations in the world, and even our own CIA, believe that the Cubans have a pretty good health system. And they do, in fact, live longer than we do."¶ But the CIA does not claim that Cubans live longer than Americans. In fact, the CIA says Americans live longer.¶ When I pressed Moore, he backed away from the claims his movie makes about Cuba. "Let’s stick to Canada and Britain," he said, "because I think these are legitimate arguments that are made against the film and against the so-called idea of socialized medicine. And I think you should challenge me on these things, and I’ll give you my answer."
And depriving health care is a violation of human rights
Heitzer, 98 (Arthur Heitzer, lawyer, 1998, "The U.S. Blockade of Cuba: A Crime Against Humanity", Guild Practitioner)
The strongest argument that the U.S. embargo policy reaches criminal pro-¶
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behooves all of us to¶ help end this "crime of silence."
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And human rights are an ethical obligation
Bernstorff and Venzke 9 (Jochen Von Bernstorff and Ingo Venzke, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and the University of Amsterdam center for International Law, "Ethos, Ethics, and Morality in International Relations" 2009)
27. According to a broad group of scholars, universally shared values lay the
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international lawyer is carried by his or her normative convictions¶ and sensibilities.
Kirkpatrick 96 Kirkpatrick 96 Anthony, MD, PhD, left to establish the RSD / CRPS Treatment Center and Research Institute, the world’s first institute of its kind, dedicated exclusively to RSD / CRPS. The Institute opened its Center in February 2008 and is headquartered in Tampa. Dr. Kirkpatrick has devoted his life to the fight against RSD. He has been the recipient of awards from Florida Governors Jeb Bush and Bob Martinez, and from several Deans of the College of Medicine for his accomplishments while at USF. In 2002, the Dean recognized his service and gave him an award for being an "outstanding employee who exemplifies the work ethic and commitment that has helped to make the College of Medicine and the Health Science Center a success".http://www.cubasolidarity.net/Kirkpatrick-lancet.pdf
The US Government acknowledges that there is no exemption for food items; it simply notes that there are "ample suppliers" of foodstuffs elsewhere, that Cuba receives donations of food, and that the food shortages are not due to the embargo , but, rather, are caused by the "Regime’s failure to alter Cuba’s inefficient centralised economic system".10 This argument rings hollow.
First, even if Cuba can buy food elsewhere, the inclusion of food in the US trade embargo remains in violation of international law.
Second, FIRST: a small amount of food is donated by US organizations,
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of supplies of food and medicine to Cuba resulting in widespread famines.4
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De Schutter 13
"Right to Food." Olivier De Schutter | United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 July 2013. http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/right-to-food. (last modified 7/19/13)
Countries must implement at national level the right to food, as stated by the
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fully realized where both ’national’ and ’international’ obligations are complied with.
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Lamrani 03
Lamrani, Salim, Sorbonne University Paris. "U.S. Economic sanctions against Cuba:
objectives of an imperialist policy." Third World Traveler. 12/17/2003. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Caribbean/USEconomicSanctions_Cuba.html
The economic sanctions imposed on Cuba by the United States are unique in view of
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Spain, Cuba was in the U.S. line of sight.
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Patriarchy, racism, homophobia, and class distinction all survive because imperialism necessitates it. Only a mindset shift in the motivations behind our political actions can solve.
Mason 12
Sofia Mason. Sofia Mason is a post-doctoral researcher whose specialisms include the testimonies of politically active Latin American women, the Cuban and Nicaraguan Revolutions and feminism. "Unpicking the narratives: only by rejecting patriarchy and imperialism can we end war." Ceasefire. December 6, 2012. http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/war-if-you-want-it/
Those of us who are against racism, white supremacy and imperialism while also opposing
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racism, and can also lead to an increase in the popularity of fascism
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Reuters 96
(Reuters, The Globe and Mail, July 4 1996, Lexis Nexis, Accessed July 18, 2013, JD)
The incoming chairman of the Caribbean Community yesterday issued a sharp condemnation of attempts to
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business with properties confiscated from Americans by Cuban leader Fidel Castro. —Reuters
And colonialism generates a permanent state of exception that is the root cause of the death ethics of war and underwrites a hellish existence where death, murder, war, rape, and racism are ordinary
Maldonado-Torres 08
(Nelson Maldonado-Torres, associate professor of comparative literature at Rutgers, 08, "Against War: Views from the Underside of Modernity, p. 217-221, JD)
Dussel, Quijano, and Wynter lead us to the understanding that what happened in
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to define ordinary relations in this, our so-called postmodern world.
Race emerges within a permanent state of exception where forms of behavior that are legitimate
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permanent state of war that racialized and colonized subjects cannot evade or escape.
The modern function of race and the coloniality of power, I am suggesting here
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, also makes links, albeit indirectly, with the reality of war.
And thus, in the beginning of modernity, before Descartes discovered ... a terrifying
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reference to the transformation and naturalization of war and conquest in modern times.
Hellish existence in the colonial world carries with it both the racial and the gendered
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such a world, ontology collapses into a Manicheanism, as Fanon suggested."
Tepperman 9 Jonathan Tepperman, Deputy Editor of Newsweek, Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, now Managing Editor of Foreign Affairs, holds a B.A. in English Literature from Yale University, an M.A. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, and an LL.M. in International Law from New York University, 2009 ("Why Obama Should Learn to Love the Bomb," The Daily Beast, August 28th, Available Online at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/08/28/why-obama-should-learn-to-love-the-bomb.print.html, Accessed 01-27-2012)
¶ A growing and compelling body of research suggests that nuclear weapons may not, in fact, make the world more dangerous, as Obama and most people assume. The bomb may actually make us safer. In this era of rogue states and transnational terrorists, that idea sounds so obviously wrongheaded that few politicians or policymakers are willing to entertain it. But that’s a mistake. Knowing the truth about nukes would have a profound impact on government policy. Obama’s idealistic campaign, so out of character for a pragmatic administration, may be unlikely to get far (past presidents have tried and failed). But it’s not even clear he should make the effort. There are more important measures the U.S. government can and should take to make the real world safer, and these mustn’t be ignored in the name of a dreamy ideal (a nuke-free planet) that’s both unrealistic and possibly undesirable.¶ The argument that nuclear weapons can be agents of peace as well as destruction rests on two deceptively simple observations. First, nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945. Second, there’s never been a nuclear, or even a nonnuclear, war between two states that possess them. Just stop for a second and think about that: it’s hard to overstate how remarkable it is, especially given the singular viciousness of the 20th century. As Kenneth Waltz, the leading "nuclear optimist" and a professor emeritus of political science at UC Berkeley puts it, "We now have 64 years of experience since Hiroshima. It’s striking and against all historical precedent that for that substantial period, there has not been any war among nuclear states."¶ To understand why—and why the next 64 years are likely to play out the same way—you need to start by recognizing that all states are rational on some basic level. Their leaders may be stupid, petty, venal, even evil, but they tend to do things only when they’re pretty sure they can get away with them. Take war: a country will start a fight only when it’s almost certain it can get what it wants at an acceptable price. Not even Hitler or Saddam waged wars they didn’t think they could win. The problem historically has been that leaders often make the wrong gamble and underestimate the other side—and millions of innocents pay the price.¶ Nuclear weapons change all that by making the costs of war obvious, inevitable, and unacceptable. Suddenly, when both sides have the ability to turn the other to ashes with the push of a button—and everybody knows it—the basic math shifts. Even the craziest tin-pot dictator is forced to accept that war with a nuclear state is unwinnable and thus not worth the effort. As Waltz puts it, "Why fight if you can’t win and might lose everything?"¶ Why indeed? The iron logic of deterrence and mutually assured destruction is so compelling, it’s led to what’s known as the nuclear peace: the virtually unprecedented stretch since the end of World War II in which all the world’s major powers have avoided coming to blows. They did fight proxy wars, ranging from Korea to Vietnam to Angola to Latin America. But these never matched the furious destruction of full-on, great-power war (World War II alone was responsible for some 50 million to 70 million deaths). And since the end of the Cold War, such bloodshed has declined precipitously. Meanwhile, the nuclear powers have scrupulously avoided direct combat, and there’s very good reason to think they always will. There have been some near misses, but a close look at these cases is fundamentally reassuring—because in each instance, very different leaders all came to the same safe conclusion.¶ Take the mother of all nuclear standoffs: the Cuban missile crisis. For 13 days in October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union each threatened the other with destruction. But both countries soon stepped back from the brink when they recognized that a war would have meant curtains for everyone. As important as the fact that they did is the reason why: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s aide Fyodor Burlatsky said later on, "It is impossible to win a nuclear war, and both sides realized that, maybe for the first time."
Mueller, 9 (John, political scientist in the field of international relations as well as a scholar of the history of dance, "War Has Almost Ceased to Exist: An Assessment," page 310, 2009, Online, http://politicalscience.osu.edu/faculty/jmueller//thispsq.pdf, accessed 7/22/13) PE
Some argue that peacekeeping efforts by international organizations have often proved effective at keeping the
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, but rather in the establishment of competent domestic military and policing forces.
And even if they win a risk of war, even the worst possible nuclear war would leave 90 of the world’s population unhurt—huge areas would not be affected
Martin 82 MARTIN 1982 (Dr Brian Martin is a physicist whose research interests include stratospheric modelling. He is a research associate in the Dept. of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Australian National University, Journal of Peace Research, No 4, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/82jpr.html)
To summarise the above points, a major global nuclear war in which population centres
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the capacity to kill everyone on earth, is highly misleading.~14~
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The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba is endangering the health of millions
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special attention to the impact they can have on the targeted country’s population."
Mihalik, ’3 (Andrew Mihalik, ,winter 2003, International Trade and Law Journal)
According to the Center for Trade Policy Studies, history shows isolation is not an
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wonder that the support for easing the Cuban embargo increases each Congressional session.
Griswold 5 (Daniel, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, "Four Decades of Failure: The US Embargo Against Cuba," October 12th, 2005)
Economic sanctions rarely work. Trade and investment sanctions against Burma, Iran, and
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that promote human dignity—trade is a good way to do that."
AP 12 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, February 7, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/world/americas/american-embargo-on-cuba-has-50th-anniversary.html?_r=0
HAVANA (AP) — The world is much changed since the early days of
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fall, a vast majority of nations back a resolution condemning the embargo.