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Sweating Is Not For Cuba’s New Rich
Sweating Is Not For Cuba’s New Rich 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 20 June 2017 — The passenger complains of the heat while frantically moving the fan. “In a few days I will install an air conditioning,” justifies the taxi driver and adds that he will charge “higher fares.” In summer everyone dreams of air-conditioning their […] Continue reading
Do we Cubans still need permission to enter state establishments?
Do we Cubans still need permission to enter state establishments? JORGE ENRIQUE RODRÍGUEZ | La Habana | 31 de Mayo de 2017 – 07:34 CEST. I recently went to buy cigarrettes at the Ruinas del Parque bar-restaurant, located on the corner of Obispo and Aguacate, in Old Havana. I said “good afternoon” to the doorman, […] Continue reading
Rice Without Pebbles For The Tourists
Rice Without Pebbles For The Tourists 14ymedio, Marta Requeiro, Miami, 13 April 2017 — I still have a clear memory of the Cuban TV show Cocina a minuto, every Sunday before noon. It disappeared, of course, when it was no longer possible to make the recipes with what the people had at their disposal in […] Continue reading
Cuban Customers – Collateral Damage In The Tourism Boom
Cuban Customers: Collateral Damage In The Tourism Boom / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar 14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 16 February 2017 – In the photo the couple smiles with one glass of beer in hand, all they were able to obtain after waiting in a long line at a Varadero resort. Nine years after the government allowed […] Continue reading
Travelling the dichotomy of Cuba, from the beautiful beaches to the mainland
Travelling the dichotomy of Cuba, from the beautiful beaches to the mainland Nancy Truman, Special to National Post | January 24, 2017 3:16 PM ET More from Special to National Post Just weeks after Cuba’s former president Fidel Castro was laid to rest on December 3, 2016, I found myself on the largest island in […] Continue reading
American Tourists Are Eating All of Cuba’s Already Scarce Food
American Tourists Are Eating All of Cuba’s Already Scarce Food By Clint Rainey While the idea of flying into Havana and bingeing on rum, cubanos, and ropa vieja sounds pretty satisfying, a long dive by the New York Times into the new situation down there points out there are actually consequences when so many tourists, […] Continue reading
Cuba’s Tourism Boom Is Causing Food Shortages
Cuba’s Tourism Boom Is Causing Food Shortages Privately-owned restaurants are gobbling up the country’s vegetables by Brenna Houck@EaterDetroit Dec 8, 2016, 12:30pm EST The warming of relations between the United States government and Cuba this year created a boom in tourism for the island country. Cruise liners traveling from Miami began docking in Havana in […] Continue reading
Cuba’s Surge in Tourism Keeps Food Off Residents’ Plates
Cuba’s Surge in Tourism Keeps Food Off Residents’ Plates By AZAM AHMEDDEC. 8, 2016 HAVANA — For Lisset Felipe, privation is a standard facet of Cuban life, a struggle shared by nearly all, whether they’re enduring blackouts or hunting for toilet paper. But this year has been different, in an even more fundamental way, she […] Continue reading
Gentrification – another face of Cuba’s socialist equality
Gentrification: another face of Cuba’s socialist equality JORGE ENRIQUE RODRÍGUEZ | La Habana | 10 de Octubre de 2016 – 09:25 CEST. If there is one issue the Cuban Government has failed to resolve in over 50 years it is, undoubtedly, that of residential spaces. Cuba’s “housing problems,” as Government officials refer to them, cut […] Continue reading
Five Nights in Cuba’s Tourist Apartheid
Five Nights in Cuba’s Tourist Apartheid / Iván García Ivan Garcia, 19 August 2016 — On a cloudy afternoon in early July, I went with my daughter to the reservation office in the basement of the Habana Libre hotel, to reserve for mid-August five nights in a hotel in Cayo Coco, in the north of […] Continue reading
Cruise ship from Miami arrives in Havana for historic trip to Cuba
Cruise ship from Miami arrives in Havana for historic trip to Cuba “We’ll never forget this day” Cubans along the shore whistled and waved First U.S. cruise ship to visit island in half a century BY MIMI WHITEFIELD mwhitefield@miamiherald.com HAVANA As passengers cheered, Carnival Corp.’s Fathom Adonia arrived at Havana harbor on Monday morning, officially […] Continue reading
Cuba is changing, more for some than others
Cuba is changing, more for some than others In the same week , Cubans saw President Obama and the Rolling Stones, a symbol of opening on the island. But while many talk about changes in Cuba, the private sector is still small and the government could react slowly to the U.S. offer to strengthen ties. […] Continue reading
Old Havana reflects a new era in Cuba
Old Havana reflects a new era in Cuba By Paul Guzzo | Tribune Staff Published: November 21, 2015 | Updated: November 21, 2015 at 09:02 AM HAVANA — Imagine block after block of buildings as grand and historic as the Cuban Club in Ybor City, except the verandas, balustrades and high-arched windows are crumbling and […] Continue reading
Cuba likely to end dual currency system
Cuba likely to end dual currency system Marc Franc Cuba is likely to eliminate its dual currency system by the end of this year in a first step to simplifying a multiple exchange system that investors view as a serious obstacle to business. Cuba currently operates two currencies: the peso (CUP), which largely circulates in […] Continue reading
Relaxed Cuba Welcomes Visitors as Locals Wait for Economic Improvement
Relaxed Cuba Welcomes Visitors as Locals Wait for Economic Improvement Anita Snow, Associated Press Feb 22, 2015 12:00 pm It’s not all rainbows and sunshine in Cuba, but it’s certainly the right environment for change. — Jason Clampet Rolling toward customs with a 60-pound suitcase filled with clothing and electronics for friends, my stomach clenched […] Continue reading
Return visit to Communist Cuba finds new hope amid change
Return visit to Communist Cuba finds new hope amid change BY ANITA SNOW ASSOCIATED PRESS 02/18/2015 12:11 AM 02/18/2015 12:12 AM HAVANA Rolling toward customs with a 60-pound suitcase filled with clothing and electronics for friends, my stomach clenched when a female agent in a light green uniform approached. As a former longtime Cuba correspondent […] Continue reading
The Truth About ‘Tourist Apartheid’ in Cuba
The Truth About ‘Tourist Apartheid’ in Cuba Kim-Marie Evans February 16, 2015 Contrary to recent headlines, Cuba is not flinging open its doors for tourist travel. Although there have been recent changes in U.S. regulations, it is still technically illegal for an American to be a tourist in Cuba. In fact, during a recent art-buying […] Continue reading
You Can’t Come In
You Can’t Come In / 14ymedio, Rosa Lopez Posted on August 28, 2014 14ymedio, Havana, Rosa Lopez, 27 August 2014 – “You can’t come in,” a young doorkeeper emphatically tells a young man, while gesturing for him to move away from the door. When the target protests, he receives the explanation that in this crowded […] Continue reading
An eyewitness account of Cuba’s shocking wretchedness
Michael J. Totten: An eyewitness account of Cuba’s shocking wretchedness Michael J. Totten, National Post | June 6, 2014 12:01 AM ET Neill Blomkamp’s 2013 science-fiction film Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, takes place in Los Angeles, circa 2154. The wealthy have moved into an orbiting luxury satellite — the Elysium of the […] Continue reading
The Last Communist City, A visit to the dystopian Havana that tourists never see
Cuba Brief: The Last Communist City, A visit to the dystopian Havana that tourists never see [02-06-2014 14:08:24] Cuba Transition Project (www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Neill Blomkamp’s 2013 science-fiction film Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, takes place in Los Angeles, circa 2154. The wealthy have moved into an orbiting luxury satellite—the Elysium of the title—while the […] Continue reading
In Cuba, Unequal Reform
In Cuba, Unequal Reform By JULIA COOKE APRIL 1, 2014 I caught a cab in Havana one afternoon a few years ago when I lived in Cuba. It was a gypsy cab, which is to say a man with a car who’d accept money to give me a ride. We settled on $3, and I […] Continue reading
A Miami Congressman Adamantly Defends Isolating Cuba
A Miami Congressman Adamantly Defends Isolating Cuba By DAMIEN CAVEMARCH 4, 2014 Representative Mario Díaz-Balart, the Republican congressman from Miami, has been a leader among the pro-embargo constituency for years, serving in Congress since 2003. His aunt, Mirta, was Fidel Castro’s first wife, leading many to argue that the divide between Cuba and the United […] Continue reading
Varadero is no longer a prohibited city, but…
Varadero is no longer a prohibited city, but… / Ivan Garcia Posted on August 24, 2013 In a country such as Cuba not known for its middle class, few are the families who can give themselves the luxury of paying between 300 and 800 convertible pesos for a three or four night package in an […] Continue reading
Our Poverty In Material Things… and in Phone Service
Our Poverty In Material Things… and in Phone Service
/ Yoani Sánchez
, Voices Magazine N. 15 Translator: Unstated, Voices Magazine, Yoani Sánchez Only since March of 2008 have Cuban citizens living on the island been able to contract for cellphone service. Before that it was the exclusive privilege of trusted officials and foreigners living on […] Continue reading