Highbrow Magazine - Fidel Castro https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/fidel-castro en Traveling to Cuba in the Era of Trump https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8498-traveling-cuba-era-trump <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/travel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Travel</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 09/24/2017 - 15:51</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1cuba_depositphotos.jpg?itok=SfF9T56_"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1cuba_depositphotos.jpg?itok=SfF9T56_" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>I’m sitting in my berth on the Celestyal Crystal, watching the velvety green cliffs of Cuba float by through the window. A historic fortification appears, which I know is the Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca. We had visited it earlier on shore, but from sea I see how it buttresses the cliffscape, protecting the land from ancient seafaring enemies.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s been a longtime dream to visit Cuba and I can’t believe I’m finally here. And, perhaps, in the nick of time. Just as Cuba was opening up to Americans, President Donald Trump unveiled last June new travel restrictions to Cuba, rolling back previous advances made by President Barack Obama. With the US administration watching Cuba with a wary eye, travel to Cuba for Americans remains in a state of flux.</p> <p> </p> <p>Americans are flat-out prohibited from freely traveling to Cuba like Europeans and Canadians. You can’t just plop down on a golden-sand beach and drink mojitos all day. And individual people-to-people education trips, one of the main ways that Americans previously could visit Cuba, have been scratched.</p> <p> </p> <p>That said, there are 12 categories of travel that still allow Americans to travel to Cuba, including family visits, and group people-to-people travel (including religious and educational trips). And people-to-people trips offered by cruise lines are one of the best ways to achieve this requirement.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/8cuba.jpg" style="height:469px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The thing is, I’m not a cruiser. I join the naysayers that cruise ships are merely floating hotels, seeing the world through the ship’s windows. Why visit a destination and then spend more time onboard than actually on land, experiencing the place? Why visit a destination and then eat onboard, missing out on the joys of sampling street food, wandering through markets, and discovering eateries where only the locals eat?</p> <p> </p> <p>I’ve seen how a place totally changes when the cruise ships dock. Locals come out in droves, selling their Chinese-made trinkets. And then, when the ship leaves, life goes back to normal. That’s the kind of travel I like to do -- the authentic, back-to-normal kind.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s what I thought, anyway, until I realized my best chance to visit Cuba was by cruise ship. A seven-day cruise aboard Celestyal Crystal, organized by Educational Opportunity Tours, made sense. And in retrospect, this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.</p> <p> </p> <p>First off, the ship satisfies the person-to-person educational component by offering a full schedule of onboard lectures, cooking and musical demonstrations, and documentary films, all presented by Cubans. At the end of the cruise, you are awarded a P2P certificate confirming you have successfully engaged in a full schedule of approved activities—which you must hold onto for five years per OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) rules.</p> <p> </p> <p>The cruise line also helps you negotiate all the required bureaucratic paperwork—your visa and mandatory Cuba health insurance, which are not fun to try to achieve on your own.</p> <p> </p> <p>And as far as cruise ships go, Celestyal Crystal is on the more intimate side, with 1,200 passengers on nine decks. It was easy to get on and off when in port, an endeavor that included having to go through customs each time; yet there was never a wait. The staff was friendly (except for the Russians working in the spa, who messed up my appointment so I never did get a massage). And if you prefer something larger, there are plenty of other ships that are now embarking to Cuba, including Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Sky, Royal Caribbean International’s Empress of the Seas, and Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Paradise.</p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2cuba_depositphotos.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p>But what about the actual travel part? Yes, it’s true I didn’t get to interact with locals as much as I normally do. </p> <p> </p> <p>Yes, we were constantly on tours, being shuffled down one picturesque cobblestone street to the next. We were herded into the most touristy spots possible—the Tropicana, the Floridita for daiquiris, the obligatory ride in a fifties car. Though, even though this was not the Cuba of locals, I have to admit it was fun to experience these icons anyway.</p> <p> </p> <p>And yes, two full days of the seven-day trip were spent at sea, as we traveled from one port to the next. This is the time, however, when we enjoyed presentations and shows that contributed to the educational requirements of the trip (and you have to admit that learning how to drink rum and listen to Cuban music are enjoyable ways to spend a day, education or no education).</p> <p> </p> <p>And I still managed to have some amazing experiences on land.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>I explored the Patio de los Artesanos on Calle Obispo in Havana, where local artisans purveyed their artwork, pottery and wooden carvings.</p> <p> </p> <p>I watched kids kick around a soccer ball on Havana’s Plaza de de San Francisco, oblivious to the crowds of tourists walking around with pointed cameras.</p> <p> </p> <p>I poked around a designer homeware shop straight out of Tribeca; but the handcrafted items—plates, lamps, pillows, clothes, all modern with a colorful Cuban flair—were created in the workshop out back, in the heart of Havana.</p> <p> </p> <p>I don’t profess I delved too deeply into the true Cuban situation, but I feel like I gleaned a tiny bit of insight. In one of the rare moments we had to freely wander around Havana, I noticed a ration’s store, barely stocked with some bags of rice and flour. No fruits or vegetables or coffee or cookies. It made me realize that dining on the ship wasn’t a bad thing, where I wouldn’t be taking food from the Cubans.</p> <p> </p> <p>We were able to ask our Cuban guides questions about anything (though not too loudly). We learned about the spies in each town who kept an eye on residents and snitched on anyone who was doing anything out of line. In Santiago de Cuba we actually saw a placard on a door marking the official informer’s home.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/9cuba.jpg" style="height:523px; width:393px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We asked if conditions are improving and what did the Cubans eat and how could five or eight families live in a house that once held just one? Our guides explained to some extent, providing a challenging but hopeful view, always ending with a shoulder shrug, “But it’s complicated.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The biggest question I had concerned religion. In communism there is no religion. And yet, Cuba is such a Catholic country. You can’t abolish religion just like that, can you?</p> <p> </p> <p>My guide whispered answers as we stood in the shadow of the giant Jesus statue overlooking Havana. “Religion is not outlawed,” she said, looking furtively around to make sure no one was listening. “Castro himself was a religious man. He even went to a Jesuit school.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The statue beneath we stood had been sponsored by Fugencio Batista, just before he was forced out of office by the revolutionaries in 1959. The incoming Fidel Castro never toppled it over.</p> <p> </p> <p>That said, religious Cubans were never allowed to join the Communist Party—meaning they might have very well found themselves without the rations they needed to feed their family. Or worse, they ended up in jail, or a labor camp.</p> <p> </p> <p>Our guide promised that religion has opened up recently. Cubans are allowed openly to attend church services—although my impression of Havana Cathedral is <a name="_GoBack" id="_GoBack"></a>more a museum full of tourists than a place of worship. Even if services are held on Sundays, which I was assured they were, I didn’t see anyone actually sitting in the pews and praying.</p> <p> </p> <p>I wanted to know more, but when I pushed further, the only response I got was, “It’s complicated.” And I couldn’t be there on Sunday to attend a service, to see for myself, since our ship was sailing.</p> <p> </p> <p>Cuba is still a cryptic country, no doubt, one that remains fascinating to Americans. It’s hard to get to know, and a cruise is a great place to start. You won’t be stuck in your berth, watching the country through the window, I promise.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Barbara Noe Kennedy worked as an editor at the National Geographic Book Division for more than 20 years. She has written four books, and her writings have also been published in National Geographic, The Daily Telegraph, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. She is a contributing writer at </em>Highbrow Magazine<em>.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Photo credits: Barbara Noe Kennedy; <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a>.</strong></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/traveling-cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">traveling to cuba</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/havana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Havana</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cruise-ships-cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cruise ships to cuba</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuban-culture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuban culture</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuban-food" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuban food</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuban-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuban artists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Barbara Noe Kennedy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Barbara Noe Kennedy; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 24 Sep 2017 19:51:32 +0000 tara 7727 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8498-traveling-cuba-era-trump#comments With Fidel Gone, Cubans Hope to Reclaim Assets https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6877-fidel-gone-cubans-hope-reclaim-assets <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sat, 12/17/2016 - 15:31</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcuba_2.jpg?itok=_poJTLYM"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcuba_2.jpg?itok=_poJTLYM" width="480" height="332" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/12/with-fidel-gone-new-hope-for-seized-properties-among-cuban-americans.php">New America Media</a>: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>When Zenaida Pantaleón left Cuba, she and her husband, a Mexican citizen, lost her home and business.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now 94, the great-grandmother, who uses a wheelchair, has no expectations of reclaiming those assets.</p> <p>       </p> <p>“That was a lifetime ago,” she says, hopeful that Cuba has a better future. “I have never returned, but my daughter went back 30 years ago. She says a doctor and his family are living in the home and have taken good care of it.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Having spent half a century in Mexico, she raised her daughter and seen her grandchildren become adults with their own families.</p> <p> </p> <p>Her serene attitude toward her losses as the Cuban Revolution became communist is not shared by all who have legal claims, or may have legal claims, to properties seized by the Cuban State.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We believe that the absence of Fidel Castro will facilitate the adoption, by part of his brother, of economic and social policies of greater opening, assuming forward steps in negotiations with the U.S.,” an “Extraordinary Communique” from the 1898 CRP issued this month, stated.</p> <p> </p> <p>The 1898 CRP, or 1898 Compañía de Recuperaciones Patrimonales, based in Spain, specializes in stating claims for individuals whose assets were seized by the Cuban State. They currently represent 280 families whose claims exceed $1.8 billion USD.</p> <p> </p> <p>Do individuals have a claim?</p> <p> </p> <p>Before that can be answered, it’s important to distinguish between companies and individuals. American companies that had their assets seized—from Citibank to Hilton Hotels—have long registered their losses with the appropriate authorities. Some, such as Bacardi Rum, have successfully sued—and won—for trademark violations.</p> <p> </p> <p>But what of individuals, the people who lost their homes, their companies, their interests?</p> <p> </p> <p>Zenaida Pantaleón’s husband, Rafael Romero, also owned a secretarial school, where, in the 1950s, young women learned typing, stenography, dictation, filing, and operating telex machines. That business was shut down and the building was seized. Currently it is being used as a Communist Party office.</p> <p> </p> <p>For these individuals, it’s complicated. The Cuban Government’s official position is that everyone who left did so voluntarily and abandoned their property. The position is that the Cuban State has a responsibility to occupy abandoned property and make use of it for the benefit of the community.</p> <p> </p> <p>In reality, however, the Cuban Government formally accepted a responsibility to reimburse individuals and companies whose properties and assets were seized.</p> <p> </p> <p>Cuba, being pragmatic, wants to work with other countries for better relations. In fact, Cuba entered into an agreement with Spain in 1986 in which it established a fund to reimburse Cubans exiled in Spain for their assets seized in Cuba after the revolution. The 1986 agreement stipulated that Cuba would pay, over a period of 15 years, almost $40 million in compensation for seized assets to Cubans who are also Spanish citizens. It is an imperfect agreement—and some Cuban families were excluded by name from this agreement—but it marked the first time Cuba accepted an obligation to Cuban exiles.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3fidelcastro_0.jpg" style="height:376px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>As for claims against Cuba by U.S. citizens and corporations, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, an independent agency at the Department of Justice, has almost 9,000 applications against Cuba on file. While most of these are by American corporations, including Coca-Cola, Citibank and Colgate-Palmolive, there are thousands of individuals who lost businesses, homes, and other properties after the revolution. Almost 6,000 of these claims had been certified as valid by 1971. The value, at the time, was $1.9 billion, which, with interest, is estimated to be $8 billion today.</p> <p> </p> <p>With Fidel Castro’s death, there is renewed interest in asserting claims and wondering if the “next step” in improved U.S.-Cuba relations is the establishment of a mechanism for settling claims.</p> <p> </p> <p>In Miami’s Little Havana—and swank Coral Gables—Cuban-Americans are rethinking what claims there might be.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The original owners are either dead, or very old,” María Linero, whose family fled in 1960, says. “It’s unrealistic for someone who left Cuba in 1961 to go back and reclaim anything.”</p> <p> </p> <p>What happened in Cuba—a revolution that seized assets of the vanquished and the bourgeois—is familiar enough. It also happened in East Germany, Nicaragua, China and Vietnam. In each of these cases there was a mechanism for processing claims and settling outstanding issues. In the case of East Germany, the German government took it upon itself to track down owners—or their heirs—and reach a settlement, an incredible task given the decades that had elapsed.</p> <p> </p> <p>When the Sandinistas were voted out of power, the time was short enough to be able to process claims quickly. For Vietnamese overseas, there were stringent requirements for those who sought physical possession of their properties, and so far only a handful successfully reclaimed their lost properties. The Vietnam War ended in 1975 and over 1 million refugees fled overseas.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s unclear what process might work for the Cuban situation.</p> <p> </p> <p>Zenaida Pantaleón’s grandchildren, who are adults and have their own families, have no illusion of reclaiming either their grandparents’ home or commercial building. “If you look at real estate prices back in the 1950s and 1960s, it wasn’t that much money,” Niurka Romero, Zenaida’s only child, now a grandmother, says. “And the government could say, ‘Your building is worth X, but you haven’t paid property taxes on it for 50 years, which are Y. And Y is greater than X.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Zenaida Pantaleón agrees. “All I remember is that our telephone number ended in 8652,” she says.</p> <p> </p> <p>And that brings us to the reference being used by Cuban-Americans—and their U.S.-born adult children—to jog memories, the telephone book.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Cuban Revolution triumphed on January 1, 1959. That means that the previous year’s Havana telephone directory documents Havana before the revolution. It is now being used to confirm addresses of the tens of thousands of Cubans who were forced to flee.</p> <p> </p> <p>And the searchable phone book is online.</p> <p> </p> <p>What was Zenaida Pantaleón’s telephone number, anyway?</p> <p> </p> <p>She was right, for there it is, on page 264 of the 1958 Havana Telephone Directory, Zenaida Pantaleón’s old telephone number, under her husband’s name, Rafael Romero, confirmed: 8-8652.</p> <p> </p> <p>“That was a lifetime ago,” she says, with a smile.</p> <p> </p> <p>She doesn’t have time to think about any of this. Her mind is on the birthday party for her great-granddaughter, the daughter of her Mexican grandson, an architect, and a French sociologist. The girl is turning 5.</p> <p> </p> <p>Of the doctor and his family who now live in her former home in Cuba, she says: “God bless them and God bless Cuba.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>NAM</em></strong><strong><em> contributor Louis Nevaer is a New York-based author and economist. His books include New Business Opportunities in Mexico (Quorum Books, 1995), New Business Opportunities in Latin America (Quorum Books, 1996), NAFTA'S Second Decade: Assessing Opportunities in the Mexican and Canadian Markets (South-Western Publishing, 2004), and The Best of Havana (2016).</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/12/with-fidel-gone-new-hope-for-seized-properties-among-cuban-americans.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/castros-death" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">castro&#039;s death</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cubans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cubans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuban-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuban americans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/havana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Havana</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/revolution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">revolution</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis E.V. Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sat, 17 Dec 2016 20:31:32 +0000 tara 7294 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6877-fidel-gone-cubans-hope-reclaim-assets#comments Fidel Castro’s Long Goodbye https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6085-fidel-castro-s-long-goodbye <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 11/29/2016 - 16:55</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1castrobrothers_0.jpg?itok=7Ys7yOBB"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1castrobrothers_0.jpg?itok=7Ys7yOBB" width="480" height="289" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://www.newamericamedia.org/">New America Media</a></strong></p> <p><br /> New York—I only met Fidel Castro once, in 1992, and I asked him only one question: “What will it take for Cuba to reconcile with the U.S.?”<br /> <br /> He didn’t hesitate to answer: “When the U.S. agrees to return Guantánamo Bay to Cuban sovereignty, then that will be proof that the U.S. has overcome its imperialism.”<br /> <br /> Decades later, when Havana and Washington were negotiating the re-establishment of diplomatic relations in Canada, the first thing the Cubans wanted was the return of Guantánamo Bay. That was the first thing the Obama administration swept off the table.<br /> <br /> Fidel was no longer in charge, and Raúl agreed to press forward nonetheless. But it came as no surprise when Fidel refused to meet Barack Obama in March 2016 when the American president visited Cuba; Fidel Castro was not prepared to shake hands with Obama who, by refusing to return that disputed speck of land to Cuban sovereignty, had proven to be a “false friend.”<br /> <br /> “No necesitamos que el imperio nos regale nada,” Fidel said, meaning, “We do not need the Empire to give us anything,” his final rejection of reconciliation with his enemy.<br /> <br /> And he was right: Guantánamo Bay rightfully belongs to Cuba.<br /> <br /> It was this adherence to his ideals that stood out, conviction without pragmatism becomes stagnation. And Cuba, under his care, stagnated. Admirers in the United States are quick to point to the public education system and national healthcare as achievements of his revolution. These admirers, however, have never been to a Cuban clinic or spent a day at a Cuban high school. Cubans have to wait months for a prescription medication and years for surgery; students are taught to read and write, but are forbidden to read or write what is not sanctioned by the state.<br /> <br /> These limitations, of course, Fidel blamed on the embargo: When Michael Moore traveled to Cuba for his documentary, <em>Sicko</em>, the non-Spanish-speaking American leftist didn’t fully understand that there are two healthcare systems in Cuba; one for Cubans and one foreigners with hard currency. What he was shown was the healthcare system for foreigners, not the one for the Cuban people.<br /> <br /> And so it goes: On every trip to Cuba, I have prescription medicines for relatives of friends who have been waiting for months, if not years. I have been approached on the streets of Havana by ordinary Cubans who ask me to enter hotels—which they are barred from entering—to purchase sundries in the lobby shops.<br /> <br /> And the crony communism and corruption continue: Raúl Castro has maneuvered to pass Cuba’s richest assets to a company controlled by his son-in-law; drug trafficking continues to be a source of income for the Cuban state—despite the “outraged” show trial of General Arnaldo Ochoa, who was sentenced to death by firing squad in 1989.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/castro_2.jpg" style="height:625px; width:561px" /></p> <p>Sixteen years after I met him, I received an invitation to travel to Cuba. No reason was given, but during the week I was there—February 20-27, 2008, it was announced that Fidel Castro was stepping down. I was one of the few journalists in Havana on February 23, 2008, his last full day in power.<br /> <br /> Now, eight years later, Fidel Castro has died.<br /> <br /> A feeling of ambivalence best characterizes the mood of those I know, Cubans both on and off the island. For the new generation, there is indifference; an old man, distant and aloof, is gone. For Cubans who lived—and suffered through the revolution—there is catharsis.<br /> <br /> It is ambivalence to experience this death, so long expected, so slow in coming; it’s been exactly one decade that Fidel Castro became too ill to continue in power. And this slow decline, demise, eclipsing also characterized the passions surrounding what he did and what he failed to do.<br /> <br /> There is, undeniably, exhaustion, a familiar exhaustion to anyone who has seen a relative die, finally, after a prolonged illness, whether it is Alzheimer’s or a protracted, and lost, battle against cancer. Fidel, as one of the principal figures on the world stage for the second half of the twentieth century—only Queen Elizabeth has ruled as sovereign longer than Fidel Castro did— outlived his time, and his own legend.<br /> <br /> He left many unanswerable questions.<br /> <br /> Can Raúl Castro hold it together? Without the forceful personality of Fidel Castro to bind the revolution to continual national sacrifice to the point of exhaustion, can the government continue to govern—and will Raúl Castro be able to ensure that the Cuban Communist Party remains in perpetual power?<br /> <br /> What will the incoming Trump administration’s policy toward Cuba be? Will it sever diplomatic relations? Will it let them continue to wither away, the way Obama has not made much of this missed opportunity? Will an indifferent stalemate across the Straits of Florida continue? Or will his revolution also, along with him, die?<br />  </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:<br /> <br /> <em>NAM contributor Louis Nevaer is a New York-based author and economist. His books include New Business Opportunities in Mexico (Quorum Books, 1995), New Business Opportunities in Latin America (Quorum Books, 1996), NAFTA'S Second Decade: Assessing Opportunities in the Mexican and Canadian Markets (South-Western Publishing, 2004), and The Best of Havana (2016). </em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://www.newamericamedia.org/">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro-dies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fidel castro dies</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cubans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cubans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/communism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">communism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/guantanamo-bay" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">guantanamo bay</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis E.V. Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 29 Nov 2016 21:55:39 +0000 tara 7264 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6085-fidel-castro-s-long-goodbye#comments How the U.S. Should Really View Cuba https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5698-how-us-should-really-view-cuba <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 03/23/2016 - 20:51</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2obamacuba.jpg?itok=v9paPJql"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2obamacuba.jpg?itok=v9paPJql" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From The Washington Informer and republished by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/03/jesse-jackson-americans-often-see-cuba-upside-down.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>President Obama’s historic trip to Havana, Cuba — the first American president to visit since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 — opens the door to a new era in relations not only with Cuba, but also with our neighbors across the hemisphere.</p> <p> </p> <p>Extensive press coverage of the trip will feature the president’s meeting with Cuban leader Raul Castro, the Tuesday baseball game pitting the Cuban national team against Tampa Bay, the president’s meetings with business leaders and with Cuban dissidents. We’ll get pictures of aged Chevy’s held together by duct tape, of lovely but crumbling Havana mansions, of Cuba’s lively culture and its widespread poverty.</p> <p> </p> <p>Cuba surely is a poor country. Its government, while still enjoying popular support, is a far remove from a democracy. Freedom of speech and assembly are greater than most realize, but still severely policed. But much of what we think about Cuba is upside down, and inside out.</p> <p> </p> <p>First, in many ways, the president’s initiative to normalize relations with Cuba isn’t so much ending their isolation as ending ours. Cuba has enjoyed good and growing relations with our neighbors across the hemisphere for years. In recent years, those countries have threatened to exclude the U.S. from hemispheric meetings if we continued to demand Cuba’s exclusion. We have sought to isolate Cuba for over 50 years; we ended up isolating ourselves.</p> <p> </p> <p>Second, for many across the world, Cuba, not the U.S., has been on the right side of history. Cuba stood with Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress while the U.S. was supporting the apartheid government and labeling Mandela a terrorist. When South Africa invaded Angola in the mid-1970s to block the independence movement there, it was Cuba, not the U.S. that sent troops to force South Africa’s withdrawal. One of the first visits Mandela made after he was freed was to Havana to thank Fidel Castro for his support, hailing the Cuban revolution as “a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving peoples.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Similarly, for many across Africa and Latin America, Cuba is known for supplying doctors and teachers, aiding in the development of nations emerging from colonialism. America, too often, has been either allied with the former colonialists or hostile to the emerging independent movements.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5cuba.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Third, while some of Cuba’s poverty is self-inflicted, some is also the direct result of 50 years of the embargo. Cuba is a small island, 90 miles off our coast, without its own oil. Before the revolution, tourism was a leading industry; foreign investors were central to the economy. The revolution upended that order. The embargo severed those and any new ties. In the Cold War years, the Soviet Union alone provided a lifeline for the regime. Since the end of the Cold War, more and more countries have chafed at the American embargo and begun to deal with Cuba.</p> <p> </p> <p>Fourth, most popular leaders in South America see Cuba as an example of proud, national independence. In many ways, our hostility to Castro elevated his stature across the world. Emerging populist leaders in South America don’t plan to imitate Cuban socialism, which is being slowly reformed. But they are envious of Cuba’s healthcare and education systems, which provide Cubans with a standard of health and educational opportunity far above most developing countries.</p> <p> </p> <p>Fifth, Cuba has not been closed to us; we have been closed to Cuba. The Cubans have been looking for a dialogue for years. When I went to Cuba in 1984, I met with Fidel Castro and even took him to church. We negotiated the release of 22 American and 26 Cuban political prisoners. He was ready for a dialogue then, but the U.S. continued its no-talk policy until President Obama finally launched his historic initiative.</p> <p> </p> <p>Reform will come slowly in a Cuba that is still proud of its revolution and anxious to preserve its gains in healthcare and education. Its foreign policy will remain proudly independent. The regime remains on guard against U.S. efforts to undermine it from within.</p> <p> </p> <p>But reform will come slowly here also. To this day, Congress refuses to lift an embargo that punishes a small neighbor off our coast. To this day, our arrogance and ideological blinders make it hard for us to see Cuba whole. The president has opened the door. Increased travel, cultural exchanges and the beginnings of business investment will push it open further. Most Americans already support normal relations and an end to a policy that has failed for over half a century. And one day, we can hope, even the ideologues and zealots in the Congress will get the message.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at <a href="http://www.rainbowpush.org/">www.rainbowpush.org</a>.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From The Washington Informer and republished by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/03/jesse-jackson-americans-often-see-cuba-upside-down.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jesse-jackson-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jesse jackson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michelle-obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Michelle Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/havana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Havana</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:51:40 +0000 tara 6767 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5698-how-us-should-really-view-cuba#comments Cuba in Waiting: Capitalism (and Reforms) Have Not Arrived https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5601-cuba-waiting-capitalism-and-reforms-have-not-arrived <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 02/07/2016 - 17:38</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcuba_1.jpg?itok=UJ8oW5LZ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcuba_1.jpg?itok=UJ8oW5LZ" width="480" height="332" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/02/cuba-in-waiting-capitalism-hasnt-arrived-but-frustration-is-rising.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Havana—Six months after the United States and Cuba resumed full diplomatic relations, the expectation that the resumption of ties would encourage changes in Cuban society has not been met.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the contrary, the Raúl Castro’s regime has increased arbitrary arrests of dissidents and brutal attacks on the Ladies in White, a pacifist group of wives and mothers of the arrested who march through the streets dressed in white and in silence, dampening hopes of the exhausted Cuban nation that change would finally arrive.</p> <p> </p> <p>The early entrepreneurs who set up business—taking advantage of the legalization of those who would work on their own, the cuentapropistas—are faltering.</p> <p> </p> <p>While their numbers are on the rise, there is mounting frustration that reforms have not been implemented that would allow them to flourish.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We have no access to loans of any kind,” said Jaime Martínez, an engineer by training who is a driver for hire today. “The most I can make is just me driving my car for one day.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The list of complaints is long: no access to small business loans, the inability to hire workers, lack of access to information (Internet), and capricious tax rules (and payoffs to officials).</p> <p> </p> <p>The result is a Cuba in waiting.</p> <p> </p> <p>“It’s not possible to speak what we every Cuban thinks,” the owner of one of the most popular paladar, or private restaurant, said. “We are waiting for the day it is announced that Raúl and Fidel have died. Only then will Cuba start a new chapter.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Among the young, there is dissatisfaction with the pace of change. A student at the University of Havana complained, “We all thought the Americans would [once diplomatic relations were renewed on July 20, 2015] bring the Internet with them, that there would be other newspapers, and reforms for legalizing private properties would follow.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3cuba%20%28enrique%20de%20la%20osa%20reuters%29_1.jpg" style="height:450px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Instead, the government only allows the Internet in certain locations, primarily hotels, and the monopoly on all media continues. Hundreds of Cubans linger around hotels and other places where WiFi hot spots have been set up, often hacking online.</p> <p> </p> <p>These frustrations against the pace of change is one of the reasons why record numbers of Cubans are leaving the island. More than 44,000 Cubans sought asylum in the U.S. in 2015, representing an 88% increase over 2014. These Cubans are voting with their feet, no longer willing to wait for Raúl Castro’s promise of “reforms”—they want material improvement now, and that means political asylum in the U.S.</p> <p> </p> <p>In fact, the only entrepreneurs who have succeeded are artists, chefs, and AirBNB hosts. The reasons are simple: Communists have no idea how art is valued or commercialized; everyone loves good food and the most ardent official is loath to shut down eateries that serve up good food; and most guesthouses are reserved and paid for via PayPal on the Internet—which is totally alien to Cuban officials.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/02/cuba-in-waiting-capitalism-hasnt-arrived-but-frustration-is-rising.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba-us-relations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuba us relations</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cubans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cubans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/havana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Havana</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 07 Feb 2016 22:38:14 +0000 tara 6654 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5601-cuba-waiting-capitalism-and-reforms-have-not-arrived#comments Capitalism Arrives in Cuba https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5146-capitalism-arrives-cuba <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 07/22/2015 - 14:05</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcuba_0.jpg?itok=bE8ITmvj"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcuba_0.jpg?itok=bE8ITmvj" width="480" height="332" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/07/in-cuba-creeping-capitalism-arrives.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>HAVANA—When the U.S. embassy reopened in Havana on Monday after more than 54 years, it signaled what Cubans have now accepted: creeping capitalism is the future.</p> <p> </p> <p>A stroll through Old Havana is enough to convince anyone that the entrepreneurial spirit that is fast-transforming this city into a nation of shopkeepers is in full swing. This isn’t to say that corporate America is about to descend on this island nation of 12 million people. Raúl Castro’s reforms place sharp restrictions on capitalism: one can work for one’s self, but only the state can hire more than two employees.</p> <p> </p> <p>For now, this is enough. Capitalism has arrived: families are running small restaurants called paladares; people are renting out rooms in their homes to foreign tourists; artists are inviting buyers into their studios and homes; and entrepreneurs are providing goods and services as best they can to all manner of buyers.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Capitalism Arrives</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Capitalism is creeping in—and there is nothing that the communist regime can do to prevent it. Not that the government wants to stop the changes.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Our task is to provide assistance to those who are working to make things better,” Eusebio Leal, who runs Office of the City Historian, said as he discussed the restoration of Old Havana—declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982 and being restored with funds provided by the international community, primarily the European Union. Along with Patricia Rodríguez, who is in charge of the Master Plan for the Integral Restoration of Old Havana, officials have encouraged entrepreneurs to forge ahead.</p> <p> </p> <p>They are – ever since the December 2014 announcement by the White House that it would normalize diplomatic relations – opening restaurants, gift stores, tattoo parlors, and spa centers. “Right now there is a boom in the private initiative in the area [of Old Havana], and it is good that it’s like this,” Rodríguez told Spain’s <em>El País.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>As of July, there are almost 100 independent restaurants and bars in Havana—and almost 2,000 listings on AirBNB.</p> <p> </p> <p>The excitement of the promise of being in on the ground floor is something that is attracting foreigners as well, particularly Spaniards and Mexicans.</p> <p> </p> <p>Andrés Buenfil, a Mexican living in Havana, opened the first Mexican restaurant—El Chile Habanero—in a district that caters primarily to Cubans, not tourists.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We Mexicans are very attached to our cuisine and, wherever we travel to in the world, we always try and seek out places that serve our favorite dishes,” he told <em>Havana Times</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>When asked how it’s going, he expressed delight: “Business is better than I had anticipated—and government officials have been only encouraging.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The nature of creeping capitalism, however, is different in Cuba. Unlike Mexico which, after the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, quickly became a nation obsessed with American franchises, the lack of capital in Cuba makes that possibility less likely.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4cuba.jpg" style="height:403px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In Mexico, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and Costco seem to be everywhere.</p> <p> </p> <p>In Cuba, on the other hand, by keeping multinationals out, there could be an opportunity for an organic, sustainable capitalism that may be healthier for the local economy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Within the next years there will be a dozen or so new coffee shops throughout Old Havana joining the ones now open—making Starbucks unnecessary.</p> <p> </p> <p>This possibility is not wishful thinking, but very likely because of the nature of U.S.-Cuba relations: While full diplomatic relations have been re-established, only the U.S. Congress can lift the embargo and currency controls remain in place. And Republicans are vowing to keep the punitive embargo in place.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s why neither McDonald’s nor Starbucks will be able to set up business in Havana in the near future.</p> <p> </p> <p>The good news? The absence of multinationals allows individual entrepreneurs the opportunity to set up shop and flourish. Buenfil, who runs the Mexican restaurant, laughs at the prospect that Taco Bell could be competition anytime soon. “I’m going to spoil Cubans into knowing what good Mexican food is, so if Taco Bell ever shows up, the only ones interested in them would be American tourists,” he said.</p> <p> </p> <p>If what is happening in Havana is a “softer, kinder” form of capitalism, then it is in keeping with current thinking.</p> <p> </p> <p>Pope Francis, two years ago, began to speak out against “savage capitalism,” a message he reinforced on his recent pilgrimage to South America where he called for a new world order.</p> <p> </p> <p>But whether this kind of "humanistic" capitalism can be sustainable remains to be seen.              </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/havana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Havana</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-cuba-relations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">us cuba relations</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/capitalism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">capitalism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tourists-cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tourists in cuba</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 22 Jul 2015 18:05:34 +0000 tara 6206 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5146-capitalism-arrives-cuba#comments Supporting Freedom in Cuba https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4552-supporting-freedom-cuba <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 01/07/2015 - 14:43</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1havana%20%28wiki%29.jpg?itok=PqENDr-4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1havana%20%28wiki%29.jpg?itok=PqENDr-4" width="480" height="318" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://punditwire.com/2014/12/28/supporting-freedom-in-cuba/">PunditWire.com</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>Unexpected jolts can quickly unravel authoritarian regimes.  Maybe 2015 will see Cubans responding en masse to the more flexible policy adopted by the Obama Administration, massing in the streets and forcing a showdown with the Castro regime.  If they succeed in breaking the back of the communist system, how might a new democratically elected government start to put things right?</p> <p> </p> <p>Any new leadership in Cuba will confront five decades of incompetent socialist rule that has turned the country into a staggering failure.  In 1958, Cuba had a per capita GDP of $3,200 — higher than any East Asian country or colony save Japan.     Singapore’s per capita GDP was below Cuba’s, at $2,300.  Singapore’s GDP per capita is now $55,000 while Cuba’s is a pitiful $5,000.  And, yes, Singapore has a fine health care system too.</p> <p> </p> <p>By now, countless thousands of Cubans have a stake in the old order.  On the day after liberation, bureaucrats, policemen and soldiers will still be there, expecting to be paid.  Murky interests that flourished under the Castro regime – some now greedy to benefit from the easing of U.S. sanctions – will have a powerful interest in manipulating the fledgling democracy.  Many Cubans involved in the outreach of the country’s healthcare arrangements will be wary of radical change.  In short, even with a strong popular mandate, Cuba’s new leaders will have difficulty in managing the expectations (and demands) of sullen or fearful legacy interests from the communist system.</p> <p> </p> <p>Recent turmoil in the greater Middle East may well make U.S. officials nervous about another revolution 90 miles off the coast of Florida.  But as the Arab upheavals show, a policy of promoting ‘stability’ based on extended authoritarian decay only makes the eventual collapse all the more unmanageable.  In Iraq, the failure of western governments actively to support opponents of Saddam’s regime by planning systematically for a transition to something resembling pluralism has created a grim situation.</p> <p> </p> <p>Western policy in the Balkans offers one impressive example of how outside powers can help prepare a country for democratic transition.  In 1999 the United Kingdom with the United States and key European partners made a strategic decision to prepare for the end of Serbia’s Milosevic regime.  British officials established in neighboring Budapest a base for post-regime planning and hosted seminars and workshops on practical policy themes: agriculture, water, taxation, education, environment, health, urban planning and so on.  The aim was to work up operational policy dossiers that might help Serbia’s eventual new democratic government get off to a strong start.  Enthusiastic young Serbs themselves took the lead in much of this work.</p> <p> </p> <p>When Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic was ousted in a popular rebellion in 2000, many of these experts went on to become Ministers and senior officials in the transitional government.  The new Serbian system alas could not make a clean break with Serbia’s criminalized political culture or its links to reactionary elements in Moscow.  The 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic dealt Serbia’s reform process a blow from which it has never recovered.  Nevertheless, thanks to this active support for creative practical policy thinking before Milosevic fell, Serbia’s democracy made an impressive start in the right direction.</p> <p> </p> <p>The United States and its allies should launch a similar process for Cuba.  An allocation of no more than a few millions dollars could establish a Cuba Transformation Initiative, based in a friendly Latin American country, to start planning for a new, democratic Cuba.</p> <p> </p> <p>This initiative sends all the right signals. It tells the Castro regime elite that their dreary game is up – western governments are now working on the assumption that sooner or later Cuba will have a government chosen through free elections that will build a society based on robust market principles.  It also sends a message to those who will comprise Cuba’s first post-communist leaders: western governments are on your side, and investing in your responsibility and patriotism. These two messages together underscore another message to potential waverers within the communist hierarchy: when the pivotal moment comes and the regime totters, side with the future, not the past.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/castro_0.jpg" style="height:625px; width:561px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In Serbia’s case, Milosevic did not care about any such future policy planning; he expected to stay in power indefinitely. The Castro regime of course will do all it can to stop Cubans within Cuba participating in this initiative (though, armed with the Internet, they increasingly will find ingenious ways to contribute anyway).  In the early stages, Cuba’s educated diaspora with experience in democratic values will need to take the lead.</p> <p> </p> <p>It will not be the job of the Cuba Transformation Initiative to anoint new leaders.  But it can set up policy “baskets” for each Ministry in a plausible new Cuban government and determine how to sequence key economic and social reforms.  It can draft rules for managing and targeting foreign assistance to help ensure that Cubans are not swept aside by the tsunami of well-funded foreign experts that will descend on Cuba when Castroism collapses.  It can draft options for a new democratic constitution and identify fair voting systems that suit Cuba’s geography and traditions.  It can make proposals for dealing with the sprawling communist-era archives, including secret police records. It can tackle difficult moral questions in the transition, drawing on best practice from South Africa, Poland and elsewhere. How should the new government balance reconciliation with human rights, transparency and justice for the regime’s worst elements?</p> <p> </p> <p>With a strong body of world-class professional analysis and insight already prepared, Cuba’s first democratic government will hit the ground running. Even those who oppose the Obama Administration’s new Cuba policy can agree that the time has come to start hard planning for a democratic transformation in Cuba. A transitional policy planning body, based near Cuba and led by the country’s own professionals and experts in exile, will make a lasting contribution by helping a free Cuba at last move forward strongly and on its own terms.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bios: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Charles Crawford was UK Ambassador in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Warsaw and worked to support democratic transformation in South Africa, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro. His ebook Speechwriting for Leaders will be published in early 2015.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Pratik Chougule was a speechwriter at the State Department in the Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security.  He has assisted a number of Bush Administration officials with the research and writing of their memoirs.</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/castro-regime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">castro regime</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/communism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">communism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba-policy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuba policy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/life-cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">life in cuba</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Charles Crawford and Pratik Chougule</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 07 Jan 2015 19:43:13 +0000 tara 5589 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4552-supporting-freedom-cuba#comments What’s Really Behind Obama’s Cuba Move https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4528-what-s-really-behind-obama-s-cuba-move <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 12/26/2014 - 10:48</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumobamademocrat%20%28NAM%29_4.jpg?itok=qKJaPcIf"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumobamademocrat%20%28NAM%29_4.jpg?itok=qKJaPcIf" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/12/whats-really-behind-obamas-cuba-move.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> <p> </p> <p>There were two big takeaways from President Obama’s Cuban opening. The first is obvious. After 55 years of U.S.-backed invasions, covert efforts to sabotage and overthrow Fidel Castro, an embargo, and a Cold War freeze in diplomatic relations, the U.S. policy toward Cuba has been an abject failure. Raul Castro remains the official government head, and Fidel, is still a presence in Cuban life and a bigger than ever figure internationally. Obama took the logical step that almost certainly would have been taken years ago, except for a politically retrograde GOP and older, politically connected Cuban Americans, and that is to normalize relations with the island.</p> <p> </p> <p>Obama pointed to the obvious when he said the old policies, meaning containment and subversion, didn’t “make sense.” More Cubans are travelling to wherever they can get a visa, political dissent and expression is more open than ever, and there are more private-owned businesses and farms in Cuba. While Cuba is still officially a one party-state, Cuban leaders have repeatedly made clear they are committed to real reforms. In an extended visit to Cuba a decade ago, I saw firsthand the changes in tourism, trade, and people-friendly relations in Havana and other cities that I visited.</p> <p> </p> <p>Given that, and the polls that show that a majority of Americans want an end to the embargo, Obama’s move was more a pragmatic than a bold step. Still, the devil is in the details about how quickly there will be full official diplomatic relations, free trade and free exchange of goods, services and technology, a formal lifting of the embargo, foreign investment, travel, and family relations restored between Cubans in the island and those living here.</p> <p> </p> <p>But the commonsense move to normalize relations is less important than the timing of the move and the domestic political consequences of it.</p> <p> </p> <p>The prolonged and outdated battering of Cuba was never because it posed any real military or economic threat to the U.S. It was about U.S. domestic politics. Ten presidents before Obama were held hostage to the GOP-Cuban lobby and the fear of being branded soft on Cuba. This was tossed at any president and seen as the political death knell for Democratic presidential contenders. This unremitting hostility has not abated. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have repeatedly spoken out against any normalization of relations. Rubio was even more strident on the pending thaw, calling it “disgraceful.” All have their eye on a 2016 White House bid. All, as in the past, were playing the anti-Castro card, to the conservative GOP base.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/castro.jpg" style="height:625px; width:561px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Obama’s Cuba initiative can’t be separated from his escalating defiance of the GOP. In the aftermath of its November mid-term election shellacking, the Democratic Party has been in a desperate search to find its legs. It has been denounced for not fighting back harder on issues from opposition to the Keystone pipeline, the relentless GOP assaults on the Affordable Care Act and the recent budget deal that was stuffed with financial giveaway goodies to Wall Street.</p> <p> </p> <p>With the White House and even more Senate and Congressional seats on the line in 2016, Obama is still the key to Democratic hopes for a strong comeback. Obama’s willingness to weld the executive pen on immigration reform and a defiant promise to use it whenever and wherever he can to push initiatives that a GOP -controlled House has stymied at every turn is crucial to the party.</p> <p> </p> <p>Possible 2016 Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders were quick to pick up on the significance of Obama’s Cuba normalization proposals and applaud them. It puts the Democratic Party firmly on record as reversing a failed, flawed policy that’s been an albatross around its neck for decades. Clinton, the presumptive favorite for the Democratic nomination, would be the first official presidential candidate to call for full normalization.</p> <p> </p> <p>Obama’s Cuba move can’t be considered on the groundbreaking magnitude of Nixon’s China opening or Reagan’s working both sides of the street with the Soviet Union, promoting exchanges between students, scientists, artists, and local officials while proclaiming the avowed intent to bring down the “evil empire.” But it sent a welcome signal that on a thorny foreign policy issue such as Cuba, Obama will not succumb to GOP mania and intimidation. This makes his Cuba opening more than just about Cuba.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network</em></strong><em>. </em></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/12/whats-really-behind-obamas-cuba-move.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama-administration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama administration</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba-policy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuba policy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/communism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">communism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jfk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jfk</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 26 Dec 2014 15:48:28 +0000 tara 5550 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4528-what-s-really-behind-obama-s-cuba-move#comments Recent Housing Boom Draws Exiles Back to Cuba https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2217-recent-housing-boom-draws-exiles-back-cuba <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 02/28/2013 - 11:00</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumhavana%20%28NAM%29.jpg?itok=uC4R0x9C"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumhavana%20%28NAM%29.jpg?itok=uC4R0x9C" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/02/havana-real-estate-boom-a-draw-for-investors-and-exiles.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> HAVANA — Just over a year after the Cuban government permitted the first sale of real estate between private parties, a housing boom is emerging in Havana. Fueled by an influx of foreign capital, much of it from Mexico, for Cuban exiles the boom is proving to be a major draw. It also comes amid signs that the Castro regime, which has ruled Cuba since 1959, may be nearing its end.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Since November of 2011, when the country saw its first real estate deal in half a century, there has been a sustained rise in housing prices, particularly in Havana. Asking prices have gained between 10-15 percent, while the number of properties -- some boasting "ocean views" or "panoramic vistas" of the Cuban capital -- coming to market keep rising.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And in a country with no formal advertising, such growth is being fueled by word of mouth – and the Internet. Two of the most popular sites are Revolico and DetrasDeLaFachada, both hosted outside Cuba and linking sellers and buyers with unexpected success.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Still, only Cuban citizens or foreigners lawfully residing in Cuba are allowed to buy or sell real estate. As a consequence, a brisk business in <em>prestanombres</em>, or name lenders, is emerging. The term is a reference to transactions in which a Cuban citizen acquires a property – on paper – while a contract with a foreigner, usually outside the country, establishes a separate ownership agreement.</p> <p>  </p> <p> At present, these arrangements are largely being carried out between Cuban citizens, who in January gained the right to travel abroad without an exit visa, and foreigners in Mexico, where prestanombres has a long tradition.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "For $10,000 USD, I'd be willing to be a prestanombre for anyone," said Joaquin Bustamente, who recently visited the southern Mexican city of Merida. "As long as it's someone who wants an investment in a residential building, I don't have a problem with that."</p> <p>  </p> <p> At the same time, officials at Cuba's consulate in Merida report "a substantial" increase in the number of Mexican citizens inquiring about residency requirements. "Suddenly,” noted one consular employee, “there's an increase in the number of Mexicans who want to go to Cuba to pursue their studies, as 'residents' in Havana."</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>From Exile to Investor</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> This latest development, which has further emboldened Cuba watchers, is also changing attitudes within Cuban exile communities where family ties to the island remain strong.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "I'd love to have a vacation house in the Vedado, or a beachfront property in Mirarmar," said David, a long-time California resident whose wife is Cuban. David, who asked that his last name not be used, added he is hopeful that through his wife's family in Cuba he will be able to find an investment property.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumcuba_0.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 415px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Bustamente has other plans. He is currently organizing a trip to Havana for a group of Mexicans and Cuban exiles under the euphemistically titled "Architectural Tours of Havana."  Those far-reaching entrepreneurial impulses are driven in part by economic limitations.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "Houses and family are in Cuba, but the money is abroad,” Alexis Aguilar, a Cuban exile living in Spain, told reporters at the Spanish news agency EFE. “For the majority of Cubans on the island, it's unreasonable to purchase a house on their salaries, [but] many people have relatives abroad who are willing to help them.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Unless of course those relatives live in the United States, where an ongoing embargo against Cuba can make money transfers that much more complicated.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “It's more difficult to send money to purchase real estate," said David, who explained that funds intended for family in Cuba must first be wired to a bank in Mexico, and then authorized for a subsequent transfer to Cuba’s Banco Internacional, the only bank there authorized to receive U.S. dollars.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Pressure to End the Embargo</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> On Feb. 20 the Cuba Study Group, a Washington, DC-based think tank made up largely of members from the exile community, called for a repeal of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which extended and strengthened the U.S. embargo.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Doing so, it argued, “would allow the Executive Branch the flexibility to use the entire range of foreign policy tools at its disposal – including diplomatic, economic, political, legal and cultural – to incentivize change in Cuba.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Carlos Saladrigas, the Group’s chairman, put it more bluntly. “This failed policy has only isolated the United States from Cuba,” he said in a press release. “Worst of all, it is now stifling an emerging class of private entrepreneurs and democracy advocates whose rise represents the best hope for a free and open society.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> The statement marks the first recognition by a leading Cuban exile organization in the United States that Helms-Burton has failed to secure international sanctions from other nations, such as Canada or Mexico.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It also points to the quickening pace of change happening within exile communities abroad and on the island.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "I am going to resign. I'm turning 82 years old, and I have a right to retire," announced Cuban president Raul Castro on Friday as the Cuban leader welcomed Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.</p> <p>  </p> <p> If that's the case, I know a splendid vacation home with sweeping views of downtown Havana.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/02/havana-real-estate-boom-a-draw-for-investors-and-exiles.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/havana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Havana</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/real-estate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">real estate</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/housing-boom-cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">housing boom in cuba</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuban-exiles" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuban exiles</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mexico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mexico</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuban-embargo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cuban embargo</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis E.V. Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:00:30 +0000 tara 2448 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2217-recent-housing-boom-draws-exiles-back-cuba#comments More Than 50 Years Later, the Spirit of Revolution Lives On in Cuba https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1271-more-50-years-later-spirit-revolution-lives-cuba <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 20:29</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/largecastrocuba.jpg?itok=pqpdewF5"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/largecastrocuba.jpg?itok=pqpdewF5" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/06/cubans-seek-change-not-end-to-revolution.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> In Cuba change is in the air. But such change should not be read as an end to the revolution.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The United States and the exile community are dead wrong if they think that regime change will take place at any time in the near future,” said Julio Diaz Vazquez, a professor at the Center for Investigations of the International Economy at the University of Havana.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Whether one talks to government and Communist Party officials, university professors, or simply to people on the street, it is clear that in Cuba, socialism is very much alive and well.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Consulting Cubans</strong></p> <p> The sixth Communist Party Congress of April 2011 proclaimed that Cuba is undertaking an “updating of the economic model,” a simple phrase that belies the <em>lineamientos </em>(guidelines) issued to move the country forward.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The call to update the economic model opens up a new scenario for… the Cuban economy,” said Vazquez. “Its concrete implementation will dramatically alter the national economic reality, fomenting strategic changes in the social order… and in the sociopolitical renewal of the country.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> This opening in Cuba began with the ascent of Raúl Castro, well before the 2011 party congress. Raúl became acting president in mid-2006 when his brother Fidel Castro fell ill. In February 2008, he was elected president by the National Assembly, Cuba’s legislative body. While Fidel is charismatic and perhaps the greatest revolutionary strategist of the late 20th century, Raúl has paid closer attention to organization, administration, and the rejuvenation of an economy that is largely moribund.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Already in mid-2007, as acting president, Raúl announced “the need to make structural and conceptual transformations” in Cuban socialism. Stymied by three devastating hurricanes that struck Cuba in the latter half of 2008, he assured the National Assembly at the end of that year that “none of the issues I have referred to recently have been shelved… Partial measures have been implemented as permitted by the circumstances, and progress will be made, without any hurry or excessive idealism.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Perhaps the most important early initiative of Raúl Castro was the call for a consulta (consultation) with the Cuban people. Barrio committees, factory workers, local party organizations, and others were encouraged to meet and register their thoughts and complaints. By August 2009, 5.1 million people out of a total Cuban population of 11.2 million had participated in the consultation. There were 3.3 million registered comments of which almost half were critical.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The most recurring criticism was of limited food production and the daily problems people faced in securing three meals a day for their families. Comments on corruption in government enterprises were also prevalent.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Patricia Groog, a long-time resident of Havana of Chilean descent who works for the Inter Press Service, a news agency based in Havana, noted that in her barrio “the spontaneity and wide-ranging comments were striking.” Some criticized deteriorating medical and educational facilities. One woman asserted that Cubans abroad should be able to invest in community projects. “People felt free to speak their minds without any fear of retribution,” said Groog.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Raúl Castro himself embraced the results of the consulta, saying it was an important “rehearsal” for shaping the proceedings of the 6th Party Congress.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>An ‘Agrarian Revolution’</strong></p> <p> A number of important changes have already been introduced.</p> <p>  </p> <p> People are being given title to the homes they reside in, which can be exchanged and sold on the market. Apartheid tourism has ended, meaning that Cubans can go to hotels, restaurants, clubs, and beaches once designated only for foreign tourists. One-hundred-and-eighty-one occupations such as food vendors, hair stylists, taxi drivers, tour guides, and shoe repairmen can now be licensed as trabajo por cuenta propria — self-employment or independent work.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumcuba.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 415px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> In addition, anyone can solicit the government for 10 hectares of idle land that can be held and farmed for personal profit for 10 years with the opportunity for renewal. Agricultural produce of just about every kind is now sold in open markets in urban and rural areas alike.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Almost from the start of his government, Raúl Castro has recognized that a transformation of the agricultural economy is the key to the survival and future of the Cuban revolution. In recent years, Cuba, a country rich in agricultural resources, has imported up to 70 percent of its food needs.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Accordingly Castro has issued an urgent call for increased agricultural production and announced the distribution of idle fields and forests so that “the lands and resources are in the hands of those who are capable of efficient production.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Under a law passed in July, 2008 more than 1.2 million hectares were distributed to more than 132,000 beneficiaries by mid-2011. There has even been a notable movement of people leaving the cities to take up farming. But the gains in production have been limited. Agricultural produce for the domestic market remained largely the same in 2010 and 2011.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Armando Nova, an agricultural economist at the Center for the Study of the of Cuban Economy, said in April in Havana, “the agricultural system remains in crisis.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> He added, “We need an agrarian revolution to drive the country forward and it is still blocked. The middle-level bureaucracy and even sectors of the party, particularly at the provincial level, are determined to prevent market innovations for fear of losing their status and privileges.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Within the Revolution</strong></p> <p> Still, major shifts are occurring within the political and state apparatus. One is that the “historic leadership” of the revolution is drawing to a close with the demise of Fidel and the limits of Raul, now an octogenarian.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “A new generation is coming to the fore and it will need to act more collectively than Fidel and Raul, who synthesized the debates and controversies, acting as the final arbitrators,” says Juan Valdes Paz, a sociologist who has written on the Cuban transition. “There will never again be such an entrenched leadership.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Legislation is now being advanced in the National Assembly that will limit all upper-level government positions to two five-year terms. The National Assembly itself will also become more important as a center of debate and discussion over policies while the election of delegates to the assembly will be more competitive than in the past.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But adherence to the one party state is still justified, in part, as a defensive strategy against U.S. intervention. “The Cuban leadership believes that if opposition political parties were permitted the U.S. government along with the Cuban exile community would rush in to back the opposition,” says Valdes Paz.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Nevertheless, as Harlan Abrahams and Arturo Lopez-Levy note in their recent book, <em>Raul Castro and the New Cuba</em>, “there is an emerging convergence of people who live within the system — workers, artists, intellectuals, and students — advocating for reform.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Such calls, according to a recent commentary by Aurelio Alonso, have led to “more discussion and polemics than ever before.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> The sub-director of the literary magazine, <em>Casa de las Americas</em>, Alonso added the conversation now taking place is “broader than even during the period of revolutionary fervor in the 1960s, when the slogan was everything within the revolution, nothing outside of it.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Roger Burbach is the director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) based in Berkeley, California. Along with Michael Fox and Federico Fuentes he is the co-author of the forthcoming book, </em>Latin America's Turbulent Transitions: The Future of Twenty-First Century Socialism<em>. </em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: New America Media; flippinyank, Creative Commons, Flickr.</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fidel-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fidel Castro</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raul-castro" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Raul Castro</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/communist-party" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Communist Party</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/havana" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Havana</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuban-revolution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuban revolution</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Roger Burbach</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:29:20 +0000 tara 1215 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1271-more-50-years-later-spirit-revolution-lives-cuba#comments