Not on my Bucket list for a cruise.

[ONT-CA]

Until recently any and all hotels in Cuba had a minimum 51% ownership by the government regardless of who managed and ran them. That is now changing. New ventures will be 100% privately owned. However I recently read that the government of Cuba wants to place restrictions on these new enterprises preventing them from firing or disciplining their employees. Understandably, any sound business could not abide by such a rule and negotiations on this issue continues.

[Chief Vette]

Join The Nation for a week of educational and cultural exchange in Havana, Cuba!

October 8-15th, 2016

 

Get it straight from the Cuban government mouthpieces!

[Pet Nit Noy]

Get it straight from the Cuban government mouthpieces!

 

FWIW, our People-to-People trip included visits to an elementary school in Havana, a school for the performing arts in the province of Villa Clara, a state-run clinic in Las Terrazas, a contemporary dance troupe in Havana, an organic farm, and two religious institutions along with the predictable tourist destinations. Only during the visit to the elementary school was a representative from the government present. Predictably, his presence made this visit the most stilted and least satisfying.

 

Some of the stops didn't lend themselves to comments about the government pro or con. Others did and during those visits, the presenters were surprisingly frank about their interactions with government policy. For example, when we visited the organic farm, the guide shared the story of the farm's run in with the Cuban government.

 

A few years ago, the guide traveled to the US to visit organic farms, and one of the stops was at Chez Panisse, Alice Water's pioneering restaurant featuring organic, locally grown food. The Cubans went home filled with enthusiasm and opened a cafe on the grounds of the farm intended to capture the lunch business from the groups of tourists who visited. Both farm and cafe were doing well until the government put the brakes on the restaurant. The explanation was as follows: The government had given the land to this organization for the purpose of farming and the cafe was outside the stated purpose. It didn't matter that the cafe had not diminished the productivity of the farm. It didn't matter that the farm was now giving more money to the government from this second profit center. Nothing mattered beyond the undeniable fact that the cafe was not in the original charter.

 

Chief Vette, you may not be interested in going to Cuba, but the reality of a visit there is far from an endless slog of meetings listening to government mouthpieces.