New York, seat of the United Nations and Wall Street, has five boroughs. In its most famous one, Manhattan, a luminous sign appeared reading en English and Spanish: Cuba yes, blockade no! at the same time a resolution asking to end the blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba for more than 60 years was being debated.
The showcase city of the capitalist society model was also a mural to expose the claim that summarizes what a large part of the U.S. population and the vast majority of the world wants and demands: that the U.S. government put an end to the restrictive and suffocating measures against the neighboring island.
On Thursday, while the representatives of 185 countries pressed the green button in support of the Cuban Resolution, only the United States and Israel -once again- did the opposite, in keeping with their philosophy of wanting to impose the model they profess.
The luminous signs, defending the right of the Cuban people to live and grow without extraterritorial sanctions, added an element of contrast to the city, where the most sophisticated in buildings and boutiques for millionaires, to the homeless and without food, who spend the night under bridges or in makeshift cardboard houses, and eat what they find in the trash cans can be seen.
It is in New York where the highest opulence and poverty are concentrated in the same place, and its most important district, Manhattan, is the heart of the Big Apple, one of the most important cultural, financial and commercial centers in the world.
A perverse contradiction that can be seen throughout this country, the greatest power on the planet, which exhibits this antagonism, along with the most sophisticated armaments, the production and export of which is a fundamental component of its economy.
While an apartment in Manhattan can cost a hundred million dollars, some 60,410 homeless people are reported these days, the highest number since 1983, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, an organization based in New York. Statistics show that, from 2001 to the present, robberies and extortions have increased by 48%, while rapes are up by 63%.
It remains to be seen how often U.S. presidents visit New York or attend the countless meetings held in the halls of the United Nations. However, it would be well worth suggesting to the current president, Joe Biden, to "look up," see and read the large illuminated sign with the sole request to eliminate the blockade against Cuba.
Translated by ESTI
