Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

I got my bags packed and ready::banger

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a9otaD2tah2o

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Thanks for the link. :tu

I love this quote from the article,
“The gringos can’t help but spend their money,”.

I don't know if I should laugh or cry. lol

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

“They are the easiest tourists to sell to. They never ask for discounts.”

They haven't met my wife yet. :r

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

man if they do lift the ban... be prepared to get gouged for cigars for a while... supply and demand...

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

I hope they never lift the ban.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

On the flip side, I do hope they lift all restrictions. It would be nice for me to have legal access to Cuban travel and cigars.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Did you see the recent demonstration by Gloria Estafan in Miami and the reason for which she and her husband Emilio organized that? Google it. Quite interesting. One planned now for California.

Did you read the recent statement by Fidel that what he did in 50 years it has taken the US to do in 200?

As much as I would love to travel freely to my homeland again and as much as I agree the restrictions are senseless at this juncture or point in time, I can't help but see why some folks feel the way they do against such a thought.

Just food for thought on the the other side that is not worried about travel and cigars solely. They are worried about the atrocities to human rights and what is being done to those that oppose that regimen.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Yes Carlos, I can see how the prospect of this happening would be totally different for you and your family.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Tony,
As many know, I am not an old school Cuban relative to this concept. I am a more modern thinker and I see a need for change. However, I would like for us to establish relations but in exchange, compel them to bring about change. Let's not turn a blind eye to what goes on there relative to anyone wanting such change. There is a very large segment of that country that no longer wants their form of government and yearns for a new, free and open society. They are just not allowed to openly express that. Unfortunately, any organized efforts are quickly dealt with brutality and imprisonment.

Let's give them our dollars but let's use that as leverage to compel them to allow their people to express themselves and change if that is what they wish. Some may say why is it we don't do that with China? Well, quite simply put, Cuba doesn't fuel our spending as China does. I say that is a good thing as it least it doesn't enslave us to them and allows us to be able to deal with them with a stronger arm.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

:tpd: well said...

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Carlos, my brother, I don't think dollars can be used to "compel" political change, but I also do not believe it necessary for it to do so. Commerce tends to have that effect in any case. The Iron Curtain fell from the inside due to this, just as the Bamboo Curtain soon should. I don't believe a stranglehold on the minds and lives of the Cuban people would survive more than a year or two beyond the beginning of an American commercial invasion. Just my :2, and worth every penny.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Do you think open or semi-open travel/trade could be just another means to the same end of reform & change in Cuba? What we have tried for the last 50 years has not worked, why not try something new? We can always have the embargo again.

Personally, cash is king and when people are able to make it, reform happens like in China. Cubans are enslaved because they cannot create enough income on their own. Castro controls the distribution of wealth and open travel train is a deathblow to that. Keep the people poor and content, punish those who want to challenge has been a successful formula for Castro. Money corrupts the vanguard once they see everyone else making it. History has shown this cycle. The last epoch may well be Communism, but isn’t going to be for real long time.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Both of you make very compelling arguments.
As I said, I too believe the embargo is a waste of time and has more than proven itself to be that.

At the same time, I don't see our dollars alone being what will free the people there. Take China as an example. It has grown to be the worlds strongest financial power, all under Communism. Its people too suffer from lack of human rights and freedoms that have yet to be freed by growth and financial explosion.

In my estimation, two things would need to happen in Cuba via the US prior to the doors opening freely for us to share our dollars.
One: Allow the people to have a say in what government they want serving them.
Two: Allow the people the ability to travel abroad freely.

If the aforementioned two things come hand in hand with our dollars, I agree whole heartedly Communism there as it exists today will crumble.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

In China, the growth has been from large industrial corporate structures where the big wealth is still far from the common worker. In Cuba, relying on tourism, the people are closer to the money and the distribution is not as disparate like corporate wealth distribution.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

I think relative geography could play a significant effect here also. Let's face it - it's a lot easier for everything, including ideas, to cross the Florida Straits than cross the Pacific Ocean. Proximity lends itself to osmosis. Also, those ideas may have been denied to the Cuban people for 50 years, but they are not totally foreign to them. In China, democracy - even in a flawed, "Batista"-esque form - is historically unknown.

Re: Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Luxury Hotels
 

Very interesting posts, and very interesting thoughts by all. Blueface, you mentioned what you'd like to see in Cuba before the embargo was lifted:
"One: Allow the people to have a say in what government they want serving them."

That's Democracy. Most US Administrations (pre-Obama) have wanted that for Cuba since 1965 or thereabouts. Iran is another country where the people have begun speaking out and are demanding change. The massive protests in Iran and here in the US last summer were striking.