Ahmadine..wha?

on saturday i was hanging out with my roommate's mom, who was in town for a meeting on migration at the united nations. since it had been all over the news, i asked her if she had seen ahmadinejad - the prime minster of iran. "oh! i was at the u.n. until 10pm yesterday. things got very exciting!"

the story begins with the iranian delegation presenting itself. this was apparently followed by the cuban delegation making a statement which turned into a criticism of the usa (big surprise) and a declaration that the usa has no right to accuse other nations of human rights abuses since they are abusers themselves. the cuban delegate referred to the travel ban that has been in effect for about 40 years.

of course the usa asked for the right to rebut cuba's statements. iran long forgotten, the usa delegate launched a verbal attack on cuba and so on until about 10pm.

and i'll tell you what i don't get. so we have the usa, champion of democrazy, land of the free, and home of the brave and yet they can decide whether or not we go to cuba. well okay, we can go but if we so much as, without government permission, spend a dollar or receive a gift, well, we just get fined. big brother, what? if cuba is such a terrible place, why not let us go and check it out and come back inspired to work towards the freedom of the cuban people (cigars in hand, naturally)? why not let us decide, on our own, not to travel to this awful tyrannical land. do you not trust the judgement of the american people - they voted for the current administration, didn't they?