Tournament: West OK Regionals | Round: 1 | Opponent: Moore OB | Judge: Baez

Advantage One US Oppression

The embargo in the status quo is emblematic of the United States’ refusal to recognize the political legitimacy of Cuba’s people.

Manchak 10
(Benjamin, staff writer working for the Boston College Third World Law Journal (2009-2010), "Comprehensive Economic Sanctions, the Right to Development, and Constitutionally Impermissible Violations of International Law", Boston College Third World Law Journal, Spring 2010, page 4-5, LEXUS)

The comprehensive unilateral trade sanctions regime imposed by the United States on Cuba specifically targets
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illegality of the blockade even under the most restrictive understandings of development. n82 

This strategy of targeting the most vulnerable can be seen in Cuba where sanctions deny food and medicine to those that need it most

Hidalgo and Martinez 2k (Vilma, professor of macroeconomics at the University of Havana, Milagros, Research Fellow at the University of Havana, working with the Centro de Estudios sobre Estados Unidos (CESEU), "Is the U.S. Economic Embargo on Cuba Morally Defensible?," muse.jhu.edu/journals/logos/v003/3.4hidalgo.html, Project Muse)

Assuring Adequate Food Supplies and Good Health¶ In spite of the severity of the
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, since heart disease is the leading cause of death in Cuba. 9

This strategy reduces human life to a means to an end-It uses civilian suffering as leverage to enforce a failing political agenda and should be rejected

Gordon 6 (Joy, Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University, published in the Harvard University Press, "A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy: The Ethics Of Economic Sanctions," Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 13, Issue 1, 4-11-06, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.turing.library.northwestern.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1999.tb00330.x/pdf)

But deontological arguments do offer guidance in situations where military aggression is not at issue
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where that end is something less than the lives of other human beings.

Furthermore, US embargo on Cuba is a mask of expansion of unilateral colonialism

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

Coloniality 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

Madlonado-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." 

And we must decolonize debate practice itself—Education based on Western epistemologies continue forms of colonial schooling designed to reproduce coloniality- from the "moral project" of educating and civilizing the Indians to teaching of social Darwinism in the Congo.  Decolonizing education requires not only an analysis of the knowledge, power, Eurocentrism, colonial history, and political economy inherent in educational activities like debate but also foregrounding the possibility of epistemic resistance.

Shahjahan 2011 ~Riyad Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) at Michigan State University. Ph.D. at the OISE/University of Toronto in Higher Education. "Decolonizing the evidence-based education and policy movement:¶ revealing the colonial vestiges in educational policy, research, and¶ neoliberal reform" Online publication date: 22 March 201, Journal of Education Policy, 26: 2,¶ 181 — 206 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2010.508176~~

Revisiting histories of colonial educational policy in schooling helps us contextualize¶ and demonstrate how evidence-based education, tied to high-stakes testing and¶ neoliberalism, reproduces past colonial ideologies with respect to developing colonized¶ labor. Throughout European colonialism, schooling was not only used to colonize¶ the minds to force cultural assimilation or acceptance of colonial rule, but also to¶ produce a reservoir of subservient labor that would harvest and mine commodities for¶ the imperial economy. For instance, in North America, colonial schooling ’introduced¶ the concept of forced labor as part of Indian education, transforming the ostensibly¶ "moral project" of civilizing Indians into a for-profit enterprise’ (Grande 2004, 13). In¶ boarding schools, part of the most important feature of the colonialist curriculum ’was¶ the inculcation of the industrial or "Protestant" work ethic’ (13). In the Belgian¶ Congo, Darwin’s scientific racism was the dominant discourse among Belgian colonizers,¶ and it influenced their colonial educational policy. For the Belgian government¶ and leaders of industry, the Congolese was to learn in school a work ethos that clearly¶ catered to the economic endeavor, and to mold the Congolese playfulness and laziness¶ into a life of ’progress,’ order and discipline (Seghers 2004, 465). In Hawaii, colonial¶ schools ’became less a means of religious conversion and more a site for socializing¶ Hawaiian and immigrant children for work on the plantation’ (Kaomea 2000, 322). In¶ Africa in general, Urch notes: The demand for skilled native labor by the white settlers and commercial leaders caused¶ the colonial administrators to reevaluate the educational program of the missions.¶ Education solely for proselytization was not considered sufficient to enable the colonies’¶ economy to expand. Government officials saw the need for an educational process that¶ would help to break down tribal solidarity and force the African into a money economy.¶ (1971, 252)¶ In short, colonial schooling played a significant role in disciplining the minds and¶ bodies of the colonized for imperial profit.¶ Interestingly, when it came to ’pillars of the curriculum,’ what was common¶ among many colonial environments, ’were religion and the legendary "3Rs"¶ ~Reading, (W)riting and "Rithmetic"~’ (Sjöström 2001, 79). These pillars of the¶ curriculum very much parallel, with a slight change, the curriculum that is tested via¶ PISA and TIMSS which concentrates on reading, math, and science. In the contemporary¶ context, science has replaced the pillar of religion in the curriculum. Also, in the¶ present context, the neoliberal economy has replaced the old imperial economy, but¶ the objective for schooling still stays the same, which is to produce a labor force for¶ the global economy. As Lipman points out, these accountability reforms ’certify that¶ students that graduate from’ schooling ’will have ~the~ basic literacies and disciplined¶ dispositions’ needed for a global workforce (2003, 340). International organizations¶ such as the OECD and the World Bank, have replaced the old adage ’protestant work¶ ethic’ of colonial schooling, with the knowledge and skills to function in the knowledge¶ economy, such as literacy to manipulate information, problem solving, math, and¶ science (Spring 2009). In other words, like colonial schooling, education via neoliberal¶ reform is working towards reproducing a labor force and objectification of the¶ colonized. Ceasire’s argument of ’thingification’ fits very well with the colonizing of¶ bodies in neoliberal educational reform. Teachers, students, and education in general¶ are all objectified and reduced to commodities to serve the global economy. To this¶ end, Lipman states: Students are reduced to test scores, future slots in the labor market, prison numbers, and¶ possible cannon fodder in military conquests. Teachers are reduced to technicians and¶ supervisors in the education assembly line – ’objects’ rather than ’subjects’ of history.¶ This system is fundamentally about the negation of human agency, despite the good¶ intentions of individuals at all levels. (2004, 179)¶ Global colonialism continues with the evidence-based education movement, as education¶ is increasingly reduced into standardized packages that can be sold in the global¶ marketplace, while at the same time promoting a system of education that is focused¶ on training a skilled workforce that will operate in the global labor market (Lipman¶ 2004; Berry 2008; Spring 2009; Rizvi and Lingard 2010). To this end, Fanon states:¶ I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled¶ with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object¶ in the midst of other objects. (1967, 109).¶ The desires and agencies of many teachers, students, and educational leaders are being¶ stripped away, while at the same time they are turned into ’an object in the midst of¶ other objects’ through the neoliberal logic of evidence-based education. In summary,¶ the neoliberal agenda, currently dominant in education systems around the world, reproduces¶ colonial educational policies. Within the evidence-based education movement, the epistemic and material are not separate but are intertwined in colonial discourse¶ and history. As this section demonstrates, evidence-based education not only colonizes¶ education epistemologically, but also perpetuates materialist power relations and¶ disciplines bodies of the colonized to serve the global economy.¶ Concluding remarks and implications¶ ~U~nless educational reform happens concurrently with analysis of the forces of colonialism,¶ it can only serve as a insufficient Band-aid over the incessant wound of imperialism.¶ (Grande 2004, 19)¶ Grande eloquently summarizes the intention behind this article, which is to offer a¶ conceptual map linking events of the colonial past with a present movement that¶ continues to perpetuate colonial discourses and practices within educational policy.¶ My hope is that the analysis presented in this paper provides an alteration in terms on¶ what is unsaid or left out in educational policy and bolsters a critical analysis of power¶ in educational policy. I argue in this paper that the evidence-based education movement¶ is very much tied to multiple colonial discourses, which can be traced back to a¶ colonial history that has simply been ignored in the literature. In other words, this article¶ challenges us to move beyond the confines of Eurocentrism and historical amnesia¶ to critically examine evidence-based education and to contextualize this movement¶ within colonial discourses and histories. It is my hope that this article demonstrates the usefulness of the anticolonial lens¶ in examining educational policy. This framework foregrounds the intersections¶ between knowledge, power, Eurocentrism, colonial history, and political economy, in¶ educational policy. The epistemic, cultural, and material perspectives in anticolonial¶ thought are applicable to policy analysis. This is evident in the way that ’educational¶ research,’ ’evidence,’ ’curriculum,’ and ’learning outcomes’ are being defined and¶ re-imagined in evidence-based education, as these are ultimately shaped by material¶ relations of power that are colonizing. For instance, common to any colonial¶ discourse is the rationale for purifying administration in the name of efficiency, and a¶ binaristic civilizing narrative is used in this regard. By naming and representing¶ education as a field in chaos, evidence-based education proponents, with good intentions,¶ are justifying actions and measures to make education systems more evidencebased¶ and in turn standardize and rationalize complex educational processes. As this¶ paper demonstrates, many proponents of evidence-based education profess an¶ educational policy with the intention of improving learning for all students (which¶ may be their full intent), but their discourse continues to perpetuate colonized power¶ relationships. In other words, they are unknowingly striving to control and ’tame’¶ education through evidence-based education. An anticolonial lens also reminds us how social hierarchies and knowledge¶ systems were used to justify colonial interventions with the objective of reshaping¶ society in order to exploit the labor and material resources of the colonized, and allow¶ for certain power relations to be legitimized. In the evidence-based education movement,¶ we see the mobilization of colonial discourse with regard to the way ’evidence’¶ and ’learning’ is being constructed and used to purify the production of knowledge to¶ meet neoliberal ends of education. Furthermore, the anticolonial lens reveals the¶ commodification, objectification, and dehumanization of bodies and knowledge¶ systems in colonial processes. This article demonstrates how this ’thingification’ occurs in evidence-based education for teachers, students, and educational leaders. An¶ anticolonial lens cannot separate the political economy from the epistemic issues. To¶ this end, this paper demonstrates how evidence-based education is part of a neoliberal¶ agenda which is also tied to global colonialism and the production of colonized labor.¶ In short, an anticolonial lens helps to bring forward the social–historical–political¶ processes that stem from colonial relations of power and informs contemporary¶ knowledge production, validation, and dissemination in educational policy. An anticolonial lens also stresses that colonial discourses and material relations of¶ power are not absolute, and that the colonized also have discursive and material¶ agency. To this end, one of the limitations of my analysis is that it overlooks the¶ agency among the colonized, and has presented evidence-based education as a monolithic¶ discourse with homogenizing effects, rather than a partial discourse that is¶ contested and lived differently from its intentions. Historically, and in present¶ contexts, imperialism and colonialism were never monolithic or unidirectional, and¶ the boundaries between colonizers and colonized were not clearly demarcated (see¶ Cooper and Stoler 1997; Young 2001; Bush 2006). Similarly, evidence-based education¶ is not an absolute, unidirectional discourse. From an anticolonial lens, we need to¶ look for those sites of resistance and discrepancies to highlight the limitations/¶ inequities of evidence-based education and bring those struggles to the foreground. To¶ this end, I will now discuss some examples of the ’tensions’ and resistances to¶ evidence-based education. For instance, in Canada, the British Columbia Teacher’s¶ Federation has led a campaign to resist the Foundations Skills Assessment instituted¶ by the provincial government (http://www.bctf.ca/fsa.aspx). In Ontario, African-¶ Canadian parents are frustrated with the Toronto public schooling system failing to¶ respond to the needs of Black youth and are demanding Africentric schools from the¶ Toronto District School Board (Adjei and Agyepong 2009). In the USA, Fine et al.¶ (2007) describe, how schools, communities, parents, and grandparents are engaged in¶ active resistance to such accountability measures and schooling. Chicago residents of¶ Little Village have launched an organizing campaign for a local high school dedicated¶ to culture, community, and activism, which culminated in a 19-day hunger strike by¶ Latino high school students, educators, community organizers, residents, and even¶ grandmothers. Similarly, in a California community, largely populated by migrant¶ families, the school district, joined by nine other districts and civil rights organizations,¶ sued the state over the improper use of English-language assessments to test¶ English Language Learners and the sanctions they face under NCLB (Fine et al.¶ 2007). Teachers also have the agency to interpret, disseminate, and act on the information¶ based on such accountability policies (Lipman 2002; Ball 2003; Sloan 2007). Some¶ teachers have left the profession as an act of resistance because these accountability¶ trends no longer reflect their critical educational philosophy (McNeil 2000; Lipman¶ 2002; Ball 2003). Other teachers enact resistance by subverting the official test-based¶ curriculum. For instance, as one Chicago school teacher put it:¶ I think that we are having a rough time, that sometimes we may lean a little bit more¶ towards CPS policies and other times we lean a little bit more to ’screw CPS’ and focus¶ on critical thinking skills. (Lipman 2002, 392)¶ Some still display ambivalence towards teaching for the test for the purpose of¶ surveillance: I have mixed feelings about it … I think it’s how we interpret the results. If we use it to¶ say our school is better than yours, then I don’t want to do it. If we use it so that we can¶ help the teachers program better for the kids, then that is more useful as a tool. (Canadian¶ Grade 3 teacher, cited in Childs and Fung 2009, 9)¶ In short, teachers, students, parents, families, and community activists have demonstrated¶ the agency to negotiate and contest these colonial discourses in every day¶ practice. Accountability reforms, tied with evidence-based education, depending on¶ context, have also had multiple effects on schools and curricula, and also have critics¶ from within. Scholars have noted how the colonizing effects of accountability reform¶ on schooling and resistance to these reforms depend on the context and the questions¶ of race, class, language, and localized policies (Lipman 2002, 2003; Earl and Fullan¶ 2003; Maxcy 2006). For instance, in her study on the impact of accountability reform¶ for four Chicago schools, Lipman notes how these ’schools’ responses to accountability¶ are closely linked to past and present race and class advantages, the relative political¶ power of their communities, and new forms of racialization’ (2003, 338).¶ Moreover, in a significant minority of cases, high-stakes testing has led to curricular¶ content expansion, the integration of knowledge, and more student-centered, cooperative¶ pedagogies, such as in secondary social studies and language arts (Au 2007).¶ Hence, the nature of high-stakes-test-induced curricular control is highly dependent¶ on the structures of the tests themselves (Au 2007). In summary, high-stakes testing¶ does not produce a monolithic effect, but has heterogeneous results depending on¶ questions of social difference and context. Furthermore, proponents of evidence-based¶ education ’are not monolithic and that at least some of them are open to dialog on the¶ issues on which we disagree’ (Maxwell 2004, 39). In short, an acknowledgment of the¶ colonial historical legacy of the evidence-based education movement may help us¶ move beyond a discourse of sameness in colonial discourse, and start thinking about¶ the possibilities, interruptions, contestations, and resistances to the colonizing effects¶ of evidence-based education. Recently, there has been growing ethnographic studies¶ that examine such sites of resistance and contradictions at the ground level. These¶ spaces are where future studies and dialog could focus their attention. In terms of policy and educational practice, an anticolonial lens motivates us to ask¶ a different set of questions and re-imagine educational research, practice, and policy.¶ For instance, what is being left out in the discussion of evidence-based education¶ movement is the glaring systemic inequities that are privileging some bodies¶ (students, teachers, and administrators) and knowledge systems (language, curricula,¶ and culture) over others (see McNeil 2000; Lipman 2004; Valuenzela 2005; Maxcy¶ 2006), that are tied to the global economy (Stewart-Harawira 2005). Rather than blaming¶ students, teachers, and administrators for progress in public tests, and working¶ from a deficit model, we need to shift our attention towards deploying significant¶ material and intellectual resources to serve diverse needs and minoritized bodies¶ (Lipman 2002, 2003), and challenge global economic systems. Furthermore, instead¶ of looking for the pitfalls of educational practice, we could ask and explore the following¶ questions (see Asa Hilliard cited in Lemons-Smith 2008; Hood and Hopson 2008):¶ How does academic excellence flourish in schools attended mostly by minoritized¶ students? How do teachers who reject the status quo and define excellence as responding¶ to community needs, find ways to promote excellence for all students regardless¶ of their circumstances? ’Student achievement at what cost’ ~Michael Dantley, personal communication~? What ideological paradigms underlie teacher education?¶ What is the role of teacher preparation programs in perpetuating and promoting these¶ values of equity and social justice?¶ Finally, in terms of educational policy, we may ask: whose cultural assumptions¶ and histories inform such accountability systems, ’evidence,’ ’data,’ and ’learning¶ outcomes?’ ’Whose notions of evidence matter most? And to whom does evidence¶ matter most?’ (Hood and Hopson 2008, 418). According to Stanfield (1999) and¶ Gillborn (2005), educational policy and research continue to impose the standards and¶ products of White supremacy on the racially minoritized. As Stanfield states:¶ Implicit White supremacy norms and values contribute … to Eurocentric concepts and¶ measurement epistemologies, techniques, and interpretations … Concretely, in the¶ United States and elsewhere in the West, … it has been considered normative to consider¶ Eurocentric notions and experiences as the baseline, as the yardstick to compare and¶ contrast the notions and experiences of people of color. This is … most apparent in¶ designing, implementing, and interpreting standardized tests and survey instruments.¶ (1999, 421)¶ I would argue that we need to ’reappropriate’ evidence-based education to include a¶ broader array of evidence, experiences, and cultural knowledges (Luke 2003, 98; see¶ also Stanfield 1999; Valuenzela, Prieto, and Hamilton 2007). Finally, borrowing the¶ words of Asa Hilliard III, we need to ask, ’do we have the will to educate all children’¶ (cited in Lemons-Smith 2008, 908), to respond to the needs, survival, self-determination,¶ and sovereignty of their respective communities and the planet? (see also Dei 2000;¶ Grande 2004). In an era of transnational capital, where ’~g~lobalized discourses and agendasetting¶ and policy pressures now emerge from beyond the nation’(Rizvi and Lingard¶ 2010, 14–15), we need to have transnational dialogs (Mohanty 2003) on the impact of¶ evidence-based education and neoliberal reform across borders and social institutions.¶ This is because such transnational alliances and solidarity are needed to contest global¶ forces informed by transnational corporations as well as international organizations¶ such as the World Bank and OECD. What is noteworthy and rarely discussed, are the¶ similarities and differences in the discourses and effects of evidence-based education¶ movement across the three nation-states analyzed in this paper. Future research could¶ speculate and study how these ideas of evidence-based education circulate and move¶ across borders (see Rizvi and Lingard 2010).¶ Finally, as someone who has had the privilege to teach research methodology to¶ graduate students (including teachers, teacher educators, principals, and superintendents),¶ I am alarmed by how many of my students grumble about standardized testing,¶ and some even focus their research on such topics. What is also disconcerting is how¶ many of my students have a hard time imagining research and evidence that go¶ beyond numbers because of the ’numbers game’ they must play in their daily working¶ lives. These trends are not a reflection of my students’ inabilities to see beyond¶ numbers, but a testament to the hegemony of the structural environment that reminds¶ them of what constitutes valid knowledge every day. Also of great concern is the¶ speed at which educational leaders, students, and teachers are being rushed through¶ standardized processes that leave little time for reflection, authenticity, and healing.¶ Many of my students have shared these accounts in my classroom, with me in person,¶ and in their reflection papers. For instance, one student who is currently a high school¶ teacher commented in a recent email: ’The standards and objectives themselves work to eliminate any third space or anticolonial space. We read, write, process for the sole¶ purpose of testing and not for liberation.’¶ In this regard, I propose that we need to ’slow down’ in educational practice and¶ policy. To this end, I am reminded of the words of Malidoma Some, an African Shaman¶ healer, who stated ’while that the indigenous world looks, the industrial world over¶ looks’ (emphasis added). Educators, teachers, students, and policy-makers need time,¶ not to be given more information for decision-making or learning, but more importantly¶ to assess what we are overlooking in educating future generations. For instance, we¶ need more time to come together, dialog, heal, build reciprocity, understand difference,¶ and re-imagine educational policy and practice for the benefit of future generations. It¶ is only by slowing down that we will realize that our students, educational researchers,¶ teachers, and administrators are not ’uncultivated soil,’ in the words of La Casas, but¶ rather seeds with the power within to germinate on their own if they are provided the¶ freedom, resources, and time. Slowing down is what I believe decolonizing education¶ means in this era of neoliberal policies and transnational capital21

Advantage Two Cuban Oppression

Under the Castro regime, Cuban citizens are labeled dangerous dissidents for not agreeing with the oppressive government and impoverished of freedom.

Human Rights Watch ’09 (New Castro, Same Cuba.
Political Prisoners in the Post-Fidel Era; http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cuba1109web_0.pdf pages 1-4)
In July 2006, Fidel Castro handed control of the Cuban government over to his
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past, the Cuban government did not  respond to any of our requests.

The Castro Regime silences any dissidents by revoking due process and detaining its citizens

Human Rights Watch ’09 (New Castro, Same Cuba.
Political Prisoners in the Post-Fidel Era; http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cuba1109web_0.pdf pages 4-5)
Cuba’s laws empower the state to criminalize virtually all forms of dissent. Article 62
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civil society leaders, and other dissenters arrested in  a massive 2003 crackdown.  

And, prisoners are tortured

Human Rights Watch ’09 (New Castro, Same Cuba.
Political Prisoners in the Post-Fidel Era; http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cuba1109web_0.pdf page 5)
Cuba’s prison officials, like the Cuban government as a whole, punish dissent.
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little window, others  none. Some cells have light, others don’t.  
—Víctor Yunier Fernández Martínez describes the conditions in solitary confinement, where he  was sent repeatedly during his imprisonment for "dangerousness" from 2006 to 2009

Torture violates dignity and cannot be justified

UNITED NATIONS ND (international organization whose stated aims include promoting and facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development and social progress, press release "International Day in Support of Victims of Torture" No date, http://www.un.org/en/events/torturevictimsday/)

Torture seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human
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. The systematic or widespread practice of torture constitutes a crime against humanity.

In the Status Quo the United States is complacent with the atrocities occurring in Cuba. The embargo justifies the torture of the Cuban people and the oppressive Cuban regime. Only by lifting the embargo will other countries come together to prevent the oppression of the Cuban people

Human Rights Watch ’09 (New Castro, Same Cuba.
Political Prisoners in the Post-Fidel Era; http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cuba1109web_0.pdf page 5)
Given the effectiveness of Cuba’s repressive machinery and the Castro government’s firm¶ grip on
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policy for their own failures to hold Cuba accountable for¶ its abuses.¶ 

The concept of extinction is insignificant. The only impact that matters is the one done on individuals in the status quo

By Tom McKay March 18,( NASA Study Concludes When Civilization Will End, And It’s Not Looking Good for Us Tom McKay’s avatar image, nasa, study, concludes, when, civilization, will, end _{and, it’s, not, looking, good, for, us, NASA Study Concludes When Civilization Will End, And It’s Not Looking Good for Us Image Credit: AP Update: NASA is now clarifying its role in this study. As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone. NASA does not endorse the paper or its conclusions." http://www.policymic.com/articles/85541/nasa-study-concludes-when-civilization-will-end-and-it-s-not-looking-good-for-us )}

Civilization was pretty great while it lasted, wasn’t it? Too bad it’s not
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forecasts could be very conservative." Well, at least zombies aren’t real. 

Thus, Matt and I demand that the United States Federal Government should lift the economic embargo on Cuba

Our affirmative is not simply a reinvestment in traditional narrow understanding of rights; political debates must begin with a particular demand in order to reinvigorate a truly counter-hegemonic politics that gestures towards radical freedom.

Chambers 2004
(. Samuel A. Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University; Giving up  Rights? The Future of Rights and the Project of Radical Democracy Author(s): Source: American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Apr., 2004), pp. 185-200)

A Future for Rights? I opened my argument by analyzing Brown’s critique of the
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then their new beginning may be found within the project of radical democracy.

Our tactic of holding the law to its letter precipitates a crisis in legitimacy that threatens the disintegration of the entire edifice. Of course civil society cannot accommodate the inclusion of anticoloniality, which is precisely why demanding exactly that leads to its collapse.

zizek, Institute for Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana, 1998 ~Slavoj, "Why Does the Law Need an Obscene Supplement?" Law and the Postmodern Mind~
When, in the late eighteenth century, universal human rights were proclaimed, this
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that makes them "too good" for the banality of men’s rights.

Tournament: JW Patterson | Round: 4 | Opponent: CE Byrd DN | Judge: Leigha Maddy
*1AC*
Plan: The United States federal government should lift the economic embargo on Cuba. 

Contention 1 is the Original Position:

Despite its general accession to international law, the United States has failed to recognize the cornerstone of international law: the right to development.
Marks 2004
(Stephen Marks Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; Director, Right to development Project.  U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: ARTICLE: The Human Right to Development: Between Rhetoric and Reality The Harvard Human Rights Journal17 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 137)

The right to development (RTD) has been part of the international debate on
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incorporates the essence of the RTD without acknowledging any connection (Part IV).

The embargo in the status quo is emblematic of the United States’ refusal to recognize the political legitimacy of Cuba and its people.  
Further, the embargo is a remnant of blatant disregard for international law.  
Manchak 10
(Benjamin, staff writer working for the Boston College Third World Law Journal (2009-2010), "Comprehensive Economic Sanctions, the Right to Development, and Constitutionally Impermissible Violations of International Law", Boston College Third World Law Journal, Spring 2010, page 4-5, LEXUS)

The comprehensive unilateral trade sanctions regime imposed by the United States on Cuba specifically targets
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illegality of the blockade even under the most restrictive understandings of development. n82 

The ethics of this position are insufficient.  We must commit ourselves to a paradigm shift in understanding the relation of rights to security; reducing understanding of war to status competition in a unipolar moment is a dream of a never-existing past; only an understanding of the interaction of myriad social actors can bring about the terms of peace.
Slaughter 2012
(Anne-Marie; Anne-Marie, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.  A Grand Strategy of Network Centrality, in AMERICA’S PATH: GRAND STRATEGY FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION, Center for a New American Security (Richard Fontaine and Kristin M. Lord, eds.) (May 31, 2012). http://www.cnas.org/americaspath-http://www.cnas.org/americaspath)

For the next decade, the United States should pursue a grand strategy of network
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much safer and more prosperous world, and a better place for Americans.

Contention 2 is the Right to Develop:

The right to development is key to an enforceable global climate change regime
Kartha et al 2010
(Sivan Kartha, Senior Scientist at SEI and co-leader of the institute
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The Greenhouse Development Rights framework1  Der Klimawandel 2010, pp 205-226)

The climate crisis does not come to us alone, but rather amidst worsening social
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the energy sources and technologies that historically enabled growth in the industrialized world.

Global warming is anthropogenic and real: scientific consensus.
Science Daily May 15, 2013
(Scientific Consensus On Anthropogenic Climate Change http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515203048.htm)

May 15, 2013 — A comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed articles on the
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, 97 per cent endorsed the consensus that it is caused by humans.

We’re reaching a tipping point – action now is critical to prevent positive feedbacks
Hansen 2009, heads the NASA-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddard_Institute_for_Space_Studies and adjunct professor-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professors_in_the_United_States in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University (James, December, Storms of My Grandchildren, 72-74)
Ice sheet response to global warming is quite the contrary. Ice sheet size changes
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-made climate forcing. But let’s not get ahead of the story.

And positive feedbacks cause extinction.
Hansen 2009, heads the NASA-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddard_Institute_for_Space_Studies and adjunct professor-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professors_in_the_United_States in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University (James, December, Storms of My Grandchildren, 236)
The paleoclimate record does not provide a case with a climate forcing of the magnitude
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and tar shale, I believe the Venus syndrome is a dead certainty.

The most moral act is the affirmative – preservation of the environment treats all forms of life with equal value.  This ethic excludes temporality as a justification to reduce the lives of current or future generations.

Matheny 07 ~Jason G. Matheny Research Associate, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University, PhD student, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University "Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction" Risk Analysis.  Volume 27, Number 5, 2007 http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/website/resources/publications/2007_orig-articles/2007-10-15-reducingrisk.html

An extinction event today could cause the loss of thousands of generations. This matters
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controversial, I later show how acceptance of discounting would affect our conclusions.

Global warming movements are coming now—affirmative support bolsters movements—solving for extinction.  
George Monbiot, English Writer and Environmental and Political Activist, 9-4-2008, "Identity Politics in Climate Change Hell," http://www.celsias.com/article/identity-politics-climate-change-hell/
If you want a glimpse of how the movement against climate change could crumble faster
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from this urgent task into the identity politics that have wrecked so many movements

Theoretical objections to the state crush movements—the state is inevitable and an indispensable part of the solution to warming.
Eckersley 4 Robyn, Reader/Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Melbourne, "The Green State: Rethinking Democracy and Sovereignty", MIT Press, 2004, Google Books, pp. 3-8
While acknowledging the basis for this antipathy toward the nation- state, and the
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at least as a potentially more significant ally in the green cause.17

Advantage 2: The Politics of Human Rights

Our affirmative is not simply a reinvestment in traditional narrow understanding of rights; political debates must begin with a particular demand in order to reinvigorate a truly counter-hegemonic politics that gestures towards radical freedom.
Chambers 2004
(. Samuel A. Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University; Giving up  Rights? The Future of Rights and the Project of Radical Democracy Author(s): Source: American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Apr., 2004), pp. 185-200)

A Future for Rights? I opened my argument by analyzing Brown’s critique of the
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then their new beginning may be found within the project of radical democracy.
We have an obligation to begin a conversation about the Cuban embargo—only by listening to the voices of democracy in Cuba. It establishes a new interpretation of democracy that exposes the use of anti-democratic measures in the squo and promotes an ontological understanding of ’the other.’
Ratliff 13
(William, research fellow and former curator of the Americas Collection at the Hoover Institution, expert on Latin America, China, and US Foreign Policy, "Cuba’s Tortured Transition", 1.30.13, http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/139281-http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/139281, ~CL~)

America’s post-Cold War embargo on Cuba isa clear example of failed international interventionism
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" by both Cuban-Americans in the States and Castroites in Havana.

And, the only chance for change occurs when the political can speak to and be heard by the abstract.  Generic criticisms of the status quo create the exact conditions that allow politicians to ignore our calls to action, rendering all discussion normative and meaningless.

Lutz, Prof PolSci U of Huston, 2k (Donald, Political Theory and Partisan Politics p 39-40) 

Aristotle notes in the Politics that political theory simultaneously proceeds at three levels – discourse
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possible, there are now define limits on where logical can take us.
Appeals to self-destruction, less happiness rather than more, psychic isolation,
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the theory, not in the moral vision of the non-theorist.  

We must embrace an ethic of unconditional hospitality in opposition to calculations-

the role of the ballot is ideal formation – a promise of justice to come. The ethical demand stems from this promise, not from its fulfillment through simulated enactment of a policy.

Doty 6 (roxanne lynn, Associate Professor Department of Political Science Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona, "fronteras compasivas and the ethics of unconditional hospitality", millenium- journal of international studies 2006; 35; 53, http://mil.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/1/53)

The concept of unconditional hospitality is located in the now sizeable body of Derrida’s writings
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of being right, of being on the side of reason, the side
of conscience, the side of science, the side of truth is to transform
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makes us think what hospitality or forgiveness, or gift might be.40

And, agency matters.  Calls to an ’imminent external threat’ is what mobilized the world to shirk international policy in the first place. Counter-advocacies reduce the ethics of the AC to political rhetoric preventing true change and reducing the other to an unknown populous, justifying genocide and violence.

DERRIDA, 1
JACQUES DERRIDA 01 As interviewed by Giovanna Borradori "9/11 and Global Terrorism A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida" http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/derrida/derrida911.html-http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/derrida/derrida911.html ~zachary leasau~
Borradori: Where were you on September 11?
Derrida: I was in Shanghai, at the end of a long trip to
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in rigor, impossible to maintain, and easily manipulated for certain ends.
~CONTINUED, NO BREAKS…~
Borradori: A radical deconstruction of the distinction between war and terrorism, as well as between different types of terrorism (such as national and international), makes it very difficult to conceive of politics in a strategic sense. Who are the actors on the world stage? How many of them are there? Isn’t there here the risk of total anarchy?
Derrida: The word "anarchy" risks making us abandon too quickly the analysis
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become accustomed to taking all the liberties they deem necessary with UN resolutions.
To answer your question more specifically, I would say that the United States is
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to conclude that "bin Laden" is also working to destabilize them…
~paragraph ends, no breaks in text~
Conceptions of politics that reduce action to great power competition and the use of nuclear weapons is hopelessly fantastical. A rigourous analysis of the empirical world reveals that escalatory war is not the terrain of the political.
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
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oppressive, but nothing in their behavior suggests they have a death wish.