Cuban Vacations: An American Dream

[Japher]

I can finally get parts for my Edsel!

What do you think; drop the embargo? Will Che move there? What will happen to cigar prices? I hear it's a great vacation destination, how's the snorkeling? Will Hoffa's body finally be found?

[Zkribbler]

I hear it's a great vacation destination, how's the snorkeling?

A friend of mine was one of the last to get a license from the State Dept. to bring in medicine and food. His tales were illuminating:

(a) Havana airport is teeny. It will have to be greatly expanded in order to handle any kind of tourist trade.

(b) Because no one owns the buildings they live and work in, no one fixes them up. And so the nation has these magnificient old buildings that are falling apart.

(c) Because everyone gets the same wage, taxi drivers make more than doctors because taxi drivers get tips.

(d) Dogs are really skinny because there's so little food, no one would think of giving any to a dog.

[Dinner]

Screw the Edsel. I'm hoping to find parts for a Hudson Hornet or maybe a late model Studebaker Hawk.

[Zkribbler]

Ya probably can, and if not, they can build something.

Most of their cars are from the 50's. The fact that they're still running shows Cuba has the best auto machanics in the world.

[Wezil]

If you have a 50's vintage car that is.

[KrazyHorse]

Havana airport is teeny. It will have to be greatly expanded in order to handle any kind of tourist trade.

According to wikipedia Jose Marti Intl Airport in Havana is already one of the largest Caribbean airports by number of passengers per annum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_airport

3.5 million

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangster_International_Airport

3.4 million

The only ones significantly bigger than these two in the Carib are San Juan (puerto rico) and Cancun

[KrazyHorse]

By the way, the tourist trade to Cuba from Canada and Europe has been thriving for over a decade now.

[Zkribbler]

if you have a 50's vintage car that is.

..

[KrazyHorse]

Eventually Cuba would probably see a 3-5(?) fold increase in tourism if the US were to open up trade with them. This wouldn't happen overnight, however, and there is already a lot of infrastructure to support the tourist trade. It would have to be expanded, but they wouldn't be starting from scratch.

[chequita guevara]

This might be a way to avoid universal health care in the U.S. If you can buy tickets to Havana, any medical care you need is the cost of the tickets.

No I won't move there, but I'll likely visit.

[EPW]

You honestly think Cuba will be willing to provide free health care to potentially millions of Americans?

[chequita guevara]

You honestly think Cuba will be willing to provide free health care to potentially millions of Americans?

Why not? They do it for millions of people around the world. Cuba is very generous with health care. Plus, can you imagine the amount of good will that would generate for their country among Americans?

[EPW]

Because Cuba is a third world country that can barely feed and house its own people?

[KrazyHorse]

I don't know what gave you the idea that Cuba gives away medical care to all foreigners. They might donate some to people from poor countries, but people from developed nations are expected to pay for their own care. The prices are, of course, much lower than they would be for similar procedures in the US. Medical tourism to Cuba is a significant source of revenue for the island.

[Zkribbler]

Ta da!!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama lifted all restrictions Monday on the ability of individuals to visit relatives in Cuba, as well as to send them remittances.

The changes in Cuban policy was unveiled before President Obama's trip to the Summit of the Americas.

The move represents a significant shift in a U.S. policy that had remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century. It comes days before Obama leaves for a key meeting of hemispheric powers, the Summit of the Americas, in Trinidad and Tobago.

"President Obama has directed that a series of steps be taken to reach out to the Cuban people to support their desire to enjoy basic human rights and to freely determine their country's future," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Obama also ordered new steps to promote the "freer flow of information among the Cuban people and between those in Cuba and the rest of the world, as well as to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian items directly to the Cuban people," Gibbs added.

The president took "these steps [in part] to help bridge the gap among divided Cuban families."

Obama believes that the change in U.S. policy will ultimately help bring about a more tolerant, democratic Cuban government, noted White House Latin American policy adviser Dan Restrepo.

He thinks "that creating independence, creating space for the Cuban people to operate freely from the regime is the kind of space they need to start the process toward a more democratic Cuba," Restrepo said.

Several key components of America's embargo on the island nation will be preserved, however. Among other things, Americans will still be barred from sending gifts or other items to high-ranking Cuban government officials and Communist Party members.

Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent will also remain in place.

President Raúl Castro's "dictatorship is one of the most brutal in the world. The U.S. economic embargo must remain in place until tyranny gives way to freedom and democracy," Rep. Connie Mack, R-Florida, said in a written statement.

Obama "should not make any unilateral change in America's policy toward Cuba. Instead, Congress should vigorously debate these and other ideas before any substantive policy changes are implemented."

Reps. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, held a news conference last week urging Obama to refrain from easing trade embargo or travel restrictions until the Cuban government releases all "prisoners of conscience," shows greater respect for freedom of religion and speech, and holds "free and fair" elections.

"Over the past 50 years, the Castros and their secret police have been directly responsible for killing thousands of nonviolent, courageous pro-democracy activists and for jailing and torturing tens of thousands of others. And they continue to this day to perpetrate their brutal crimes," Smith said.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, responded that it makes no sense to continue what she characterized as a failed policy.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but by any objective standard, our current policy toward Cuba just hasn't worked. Simply put, it's time to open dialogue and discussion with Cuba," she said in a written statement.

Lee and other Congressional Black Caucus members met in Havana this month with Raúl Castro and his brother, former President Fidel Castro.

Several members of Congress see broader relations with Cuba as vital to U.S. interests. A group of senators and other supporters unveiled a bill March 31 to lift the 47-year-old travel ban to Cuba.

"I think that we finally reached a new watermark here on this issue," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, one of the bill's sponsors.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, another sponsor of the bill, issued a draft report in February that said it was time to reconsider the economic sanctions. Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sarah Stephens, director of the Cuba Travel Projects and one of the leading advocates pushing for an end to the embargo, said Monday that "these are welcome steps, but the right course is to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba, to open up commerce and to directly engage the Cuban government in diplomacy and solving problems in both countries' interests."

Obama "has a historic opportunity not to be the last president of the Cold War but the first president to turn the page in U.S.-Cuba relations," she argued.

Before he was elected president, Obama promised to lower some of the barriers in Cuban-American relations. Provisions attached to a $410 billion supplemental budget Obama signed in March also made it easier for Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba and to send money to family members on the island. In addition, they facilitated the permitted sales of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba.

The provisions loosened restrictions enacted by President George W. Bush after he came to office in 2001.

Obama's moves appear to be tracking the overall public sentiment on what has historically been a hot-button political issue.

Seventy-one percent of Americans think the United States should re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, according an April 3-5 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, and 64 percent think the United States should lift the travel ban to Cuba for all Americans. Sampling error for the poll was plus or minus 3 percentage points