This former subject of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will always view the United Kingdom through the prism of Hong Kong -- how the former colony was handed back to China in 1997.

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The Current Discussion: With Castro gone, will Cuba become America's 51st state?

With Castro gone, Cuba will not become America's 51st state. Washington, however, should try to achieve that, perhaps by lifting the trade embargo and extending a free trade agreement to Havana.

Economic liberalization will bring political liberation -- as we're constantly being told that it would be the case for China. Therefore, the U.S. has been trading with the Asian communist state as if there's no tomorrow, achieving a record trade deficit of US$256 billion in 2007. However, we're also told, this formula doesn't apply to Cuba, another communist state.

If denying trade with Cuba is the way to press for positive changes on the island state, then denying trade with China should also be the way to press for positive changes in the mainland state. If trading with China is the way to open up the communist giant, then trading with Cuba should be the way to open up the small communist state.

Well, the China Exception somehow creeps in again, doesn't it?

Intellectual honesty and policy consistency demands the lifting of the embargo against Cuba. After all, the embargo has failed to bring the downfall of Castro for decades. It's time to try something different. If free trade with Cuba could bring progress to the people there, it may strengthen the case in China where free trade has, so far, failed to bring any magic.

Fidel Castro has resigned from a position he was never elected to in the first place. Unfortunately, its poison might outlast the beast itself. The U.S. must try harder to help the people in Cuba. Lift the embargo -- let the Cubans make dollars instead of relying on Hugo Chávez more.

Client-9 has already resigned from the Emperors Club VIP. Eliot Spitzer will also resign from the State of New York soon. It's inconceivable that he could hang on to the governor's seat much longer.

If Mr. Spitzer has broken the laws, which seems likely, he would have to step down whether he likes it or not. Even if Mr. Spitzer can prove that he hasn't done anything illegal, he still should go. For "Mr. Ethics," a former prostitution ring-busting state attorney general, to remain in office is simply too cynical and hypocritical for one to imagine. How could he carry on his duty with any moral authority? Who would take him seriously anymore?

The Fall of the House of Spitzer is as spectacular as the many surprises in the U.S. primary season.

Fairly or unfairly, public figures can't really separate their private and public lives. That seems to be true anywhere. In Hong Kong last summer, the head of the government-funded broadcasting network was forced to take an "early retirement" amid a sex scandal. He was caught not having sex with a prostitute like Mr. Spitzer, in fact, but merely "emerging from a karaoke bar with his arm around a woman and holding a wig in his other hand." This married man reacted by hiding behind his companion, then locked himself in a toilet. He simply couldn't continue his job normally even though he might not have done anything illegal.