here were many lofty ideas floating around during Obama’s presidential campaign, things like regaining international respect or taking a second glance at the constitution. One issue in particular has been festering in the shadowy underbelly of America for longer than the national debt or the Patriot Act. Obama campaigned on a promise to close Guantanamo Bay, the American military base in Cuba. Yes, Barack Obama told us he would change things, but after watching Harold and Kumar were fed “cock-meat sandwiches” at that god-forsaken place, I certainly had my doubts.

As haunting as the travesty against our stoner friends seems, it warms the soul in comparison to the traditional practices at the real Gitmo since 2001. After 9/11, the Bush administration exploited the informational black hole between the US and Cuba to construct a detention facility from which no semblance of humanity $mdash; or lack thereof $mdash; could be recognized. Humanity, in this case, means following the procedures and constraints outlined in the Army Field Manual, which all American military personal are obligated by law to obey. It includes everything from the “no soldier left behind” rule to the “rules of engagement” to the regulations about kinds of sandwich meat served on the battlefield.

There were two reasons why the AFM was disregarded at Guantanamo. First, legislation created during the Bush administration amended the absoluteness of this holy book so that its enforcement must be “consistent with national security”. What this is intended to mean is unclear, but its purpose was undeniably to serve as a leverage point for the ulterior motives of the CIA, who until last Wednesday was the most clever government agency in Washington. Second, because the United States does not recognize Cuba as a legitimate government, it does not consider actions on Cuban soil to be under the Jurisdiction of American Law.

As you may have already guessed, it gets worse. The CIA under Dubya has been establishing secret prisons all over the globe. OK, so you have seen enough CIA movies to have expected that. There has always been a group of tall, whispering men in trench coats who can supersede the law. But the problem is that they are not as smart as they look. It is true that they can keep the locations of these facilities a secret known only a handful of people in the world. However, parliaments in countries like Canada, Italy, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands have started to point fingers when their legal citizens suddenly begin to disappear, and the breadcrumb trail leads to the CIA.

Incidentally, it may interest you to know that the CIA tried to kill Fidel Castro over 20 times, including Warner Bros-esque attempts to give him a TNT cigar or feed him LSD before a speech (they actually succeeded here, and he proceeded to deliver one of the best speeches of his career). Alas, after all that trouble ,they failed to even make his beard fall out. The CIA tried to emaciate Fidel Castro by exploiting their knowledge of his greatest “weakness”: he had too much dignity.

Finally, last Thursday, the United States proved it could produce a politician with an equal measure of dignity. Surrounded by 15 retired generals, Obama made good on the promise of his campaign by signing three executive orders:

1. Guantanamo Bay prison is to be shut down within a year

2. “America does not torture” and will abide by the AFM under all circumstances

3. All secret CIA prisons will be closed within a year

Many critics have questioned the haste of Obama’s decision, claiming that he did not consider the consequences. Others accuse him of focusing too much on Guantanamo, and not enough on other detention facilities of equal or greater importance. It is true that the Obama administration is making great haste. The roughly 245 detainees are currently being scrutinized by over 600 federal defense lawyers. It is also true that the future is unclear, as many of the prisoners cannot return to prisons in their home countries for fear of persecution or torture. Is the suggestion implicit in these accusations that we should move more slowly, or do nothing at all? I say that anyone who opposes change to a failing system is either financially or emotionally dependent on its failure. And to that I say STOP FUCKING WHINING.

Just a day after Obama issued his orders, a front page story appeared in the New York Times about a freed Guantanamo prisoner who has now re-integrated himself into Al-Qaeda. However, this prisoner was freed in September 2007, and is therefore completely separate from Obama’s executive order. Contrary to what this article suggests, the Obama administration does not intend to set the detainees free, and the majority will be transported to foreign top-security prisons.

In a broad sense, Obama’s decision has been well received worldwide. The majority of the EU, as well as Pakistan and some other countries, have supported the closure of Gitmo, while at least 6 countries have agreed to accept detainees on “humanitarian grounds”.

Meanwhile, back in Cuba, the government is experiencing a transformation. In a subtle yet uncharacteristic act of diplomacy, Raúl Castro has said he awaits Barack Obama’s visit to Havana. Castro has also made an unprecedented offer to release a group of political dissidents from Cuban prisons on the condition that the US release the “Cuban 5” and allow them safe passage back to Cuba. Both groups of captives have been a source of tension for their respective countries for decades, and were previously used only as ammunition for political potshots to the enemy.

And last week, from some secret room in a Cuban hospital, kept alive by an astonishingly advanced health care system, a withering Fidel Castro reflected on the actions of our president, “the intelligent and noble face of the first black president of the United States, who has made himself under the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, has become a living symbol of the American Dream.” But, “Nevertheless,” …. “Obama still has not passed by”.

year has passed since I began my journey studying at the University of Havana in Cuba. If you are wondering how I was able to travel to Cuba, all I can say is that a GED and a connection to socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont (shout-out to Jane Sanders and Burlington college!) go a long way these days. The images of my experiences in Cuba are still reeling in my mind-playing guitar at the Ernest Hemingway Cafe, parading through the streets of Havana with hundreds of thousands of torch-wielding Cubans on the day of Jose Martí, drinking mojitos with three-dollar rum, and eating mangoes on the porch of my house with Cuban classmates (who were forbidden to come inside by the ever-present guards). It seems a shame that such a place should remain so mysterious to most Americans. You have undoubtedly heard fragments of news from this country in recent months. Perhaps you caught wind of the destruction wrought by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in September, and if you were alive last February, you couldn’t avoid hearing the news that the notorious “dictator” Fidel Castro resigned from a nearly half-century-long presidency. Hurricanes and notorious dictators aside, though, Cuba might seem to you a remote artifact, a thing of the past. Some might ask, “Why should I care about Cuba?”

Well, if you are a businessman, you should care because this archipelago is only 90 miles from the shores of Florida, and it is located strategically in the center of Latin America. Before’59, Havana had the largest middle class per-capita income in Latin America, and has the commercial potential to become the Singapore of the Western Hemisphere. If you are more the creative type, you should care because Cuban music, film, art, and dance are some of the world’s best kept secrets, and the Cuban way of life—the colorful limestone buildings crumbling like mashed potatoes, the layers of paint on a partially refurbished’50 Chevy Bel Aire, the gorgeous women wearing recycled “Rosie O’Donnell Show” t-shirts—offers a window into our own past. If you are a conservative, you should care because Cuba is the only true bastion of anti-Capitalism left on the planet, thus representing a challenge to the prospect of a global economy. If you are a liberal, you should care because most of what you hear about Cuba is a bent or broken truth… and because we continue to unlawfully detain “The Cuban Five”: five Cuban agents who were sent to the US to gather information on Miami-based terrorist groups (yes, actual terrorists) that were believed to be indirectly linked to the CIA in the’70’s. And finally, if you love nature (yay!), you should care because the imminent resource scarcity (peak oil, electricity, and food shortages) that you envision for our planet has been a reality in Cuba since’90. The problems Cuba has encountered with energy and agricultural independence are a microcosm of our entire planet’s future, and the solutions developed by Cuban scientists and doctors are showing the world what it will take to survive without any help from the outside (aliens).

I am writing this column because I believe that this year, on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban socialist revolution, our relationship with Cuba will begin to change drastically. Both the Bush and Castro families will be stepping out of the limelight, opening the door for a fresh start in Cuban-American relations. I remember the day Fidel Castro resigned from the presidency—the eerie silence in the streets, the newsman looking over his shoulder before slipping me a copy of Granma and shushing me away. Although it was quite different from our memories of the day Obama was elected, both days were ripe with anticipation of something new.