All my life I have believed that this American-imposed embargo on Cuba was wrong. I have never been able to understand how preventing a country from trading helps the population. The lobbyists who support the embargo are nothing but a bunch of angry old men who did not like the idea that Castro and his rebels upset their 'dolly house' in 1958.

Having fled to the USA, they used their considerable wealth and power to lobby for the imposition of this evil act. For the last 50 years, the people of Cuba have had to suffer because of the vindictiveness of these people.

President Barack Obama is now applying a common sense approach to this situation. The embargo has not worked, he said, and he is right. He was echoing the sentiments of Michael Manley who said as much over 40 years ago, which is something that the entire world knows. There have been countless number of votes at the United Nations for the embargo to be lifted, but still the USA has not relented. In a way, it just goes to show how useless the United Nations has been or has become.

What the embargo has shown, however, is how resilient the people of Cuba are, and how resilient its leadership is. Cuba, for all the lack of resources, trains some of the world's best doctors and has trained doctors from all over the world. Just recently, when the world feared the worst from the outbreak of Ebola, Cuba sent a battery of doctors to the front line to help address the situation.

The country also boasts one of the best health care systems in the world. All this and more have been achieved under the full weight on what I believe to be an illegally imposed and evil embargo. Why doesn't the US try and impose an embargo on China? That will never happen because China holds much of the trillions of dollars in debt that the US owes.

Cuba, however, is a little nation in the Caribbean that can be picked on and bullied and as bullies tend to do, they pick on those who have little or no means to fight back.

The USA boasts that it is a great country, and maybe it is, but things like the Cuban embargo only serves to tarnish its image. Barack Obama is out to right the wrong, and add some sheen to America's tarnished image by normalising relations with a view, I hope, of eventually removing the embargo all together.

The Republicans will have a say in this as it will require an act of Congress for the embargo to be removed.

The whole world knows that is not going to be easy. The Republicans will oppose the idea because it was initiated by Obama and, of course, they have their benefactors to appease. This will be a hard battle to win.

Those who oppose the lifting of the embargo need to bear something in mind. Lifting the embargo has the potential to improve the economy of many countries in the Caribbean because of the sheer size of the Cuban market. Trading between the rest of the Caribbean and Cuba can only help improve the overall state of things in the region.

If that happens, maybe fewer people from the region will try to enter the US illegally. That cuts down on the illegal alien problem from this side.

Most important, however, is the fact that 11 million people will now have the chance to break free from the grasp of poverty and lead better lives. Lifting the embargo will also right a very terrible wrong.

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