Sunday, April 27, 2008
After Fidel, will Cuba become the new Hawaii?
You read it here first.
Suppose a newly emergent Cuba earns the lifting of travel restrictions by the next US president. Suppose oil (and aviation fuel) prices continue to climb. Suppose Oahu continues to pave itself over and build until it resembles Los Angeles more than Paradise. Suppose food prices here go through the roof.
Guess what: Cuba is ready for an influx of tourists.
Guess what: Hawaii isn't ready for what it will lose.
That's just the high end from one particular reservation site on the Internet. That's right, you can reserve your luxury vacation spot in Cuba already. Beautiful, clean beaches and a reputation for fine service already await Europeans in the know.
At the low end there's competition also. So much so that Hawaii residents may be tempted to skip that trip to the Big Island in favor of exploring a reasonably priced exotic stay in Cuba.
Short travel distances, low cost, a growing reputation for service, world-class cuisine (not to mention after-dinner cigars) will surely attract the discerning Mainland vacationer. Curiosity could mean that even Japanese visitors might be tempted, which could quickly start a fad in that most faddish of countries.
Americans might want to visit Cuba for medical care. No joke.
Ian Lind cited this NPR snippet in his article yesterday:
From National Public Radio, April 24:
”If you’re dreaming of a spring vacation on the sandy beaches of Hawaii, think again. Rising fuel costs are making that sort of vacation a lot more expensive. And travel agents are seeing a slowdown in vacation bookings. Madeleine Brand speaks with Bruce Fisher, owner of the Hawaii Aloha Travel Company in Honolulu.”
That's only the beginning. Soon there will be similar articles in Japan and Europe.
We must either plan or be caught by surprise. Will we? We better. Or our kids may be looking for tourism jobs in Havana.
Update: Commenter Walter Lipmann mentioned the CubaNews list. Since not everyone may see comments, the list he mentioned (he's the moderator) can be found here. A free Yahoo Groups membership (which many people already have) is necessary to join or to view the database. Walter's personal blog is here.
My father and his parents lived in Cuba.
-Katy
: 4:30 PM HST Ok, I'm a poor sociologist. When I was studying at UH it was all about dead guys whose ideas were important then, but not much I could relate to.
As a young leftist I suppose I had glamorized and romanticized Cuba to some degree, of course. Perhaps the most valuable lesson for me was that I was able to see it first hand, and see it for what it is: a complex society like any other, with assets and liabilities, deep problems and creative solutions, and most of all, marvelous people.
No matter what you think about socialism and whether or not you think Cuba is actually a working example of socialism, there is something amazing about visiting a country which has completely rejected the US and its neoliberal capitalist agenda. It is fascinating to witness a population which takes as a great source of pride an open defiance of US hegemony. Sometimes we don't realize how smug we are in the US.
More than anything, I wish Cuba could be left alone by the US to do its best. We've been trying to undermine them for so long!
In the US, we live in a fishbowl, as a Peruvian acquaintance once told me. Everyone else can see in, but we can't see out.
Our coercive and mean-spirited campaign to bring sufffering to the Cuban people so that they will submit US control must end.
Que viva la revolucion.
-Katy
: 4:52 AM HST -Mimi
: 8:58 AM HST http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20080427/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/
cuban_bloggers
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/
stories/C/CUBAN_BLOGGERS?SITE=
WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=
DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-04-27-13-24-59
On the Net:
Generacion Y: http://www.desdecuba.com/
generaciony/
My Island at Midday:
http://isla12pm.blogspot.com
Potro Salvaje: http://www.desdecuba.com/potro/
Adios, Brad
Have been looking through this blog:
http://www.desdecuba.com/
generationy/
This is an awesome blog. It has clicks to translate the Spanish into English for those like me who never became fluent from Spanish classes. The young lady who writes it is getting 1000's of comments to some of her posts. She was written about in the past few days in Wired and by the AP. Here is a little about her blog:
"Generatión Y is a Blog inspired by people like me, with names that start or contain a "Y". Born in the Cuba of the 70s and the 80s, marked by the "schools to the countryside", the Russian cartoons, the illegal exits and the frustration. So, an invitation goes especially to Yanisleidi, Yoandri, Yusimí, Yuniesky and others that drag their Ys, to read me and write back."
By Yoani Sánchez (Born 1975)
yoanisanchez@desdecuba.com,
Licenciada en Filología. Reside en La Habana y combina su pasión por la informática con su trabajo en la Revista Digital Consenso.
Aloha, Brad
But Mimi and other commenters have correctly pointed out that most of us don't know much about Cuba, and that there is a lot to like.
Today I was thinking that wouldn't it be great if Hawaii gave up its poisonous relationship with Indonesia and set up a cooperative relationship with Cuba. Or Honolulu with Havana perhaps.
Well, I can dream. Perhaps that will be possible in the future.
In the meantime, commenters have left some great links, I plan to check them out and learn more.
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