Odds and ends

• Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage announced that investment projects will be delayed, and he exhorted everyone to work harder and more conscientiously in a speech to municipal council leaders. From the Reuters story:

“The country spent $1.47 billion last year to import 3.423 million tonnes of food and to import the same amount this year at current prices will cost $2.554 billion, a billion dollars more,” Lage said.

“The 158,000 barrels of oil per day that we consumed last year cost $8.7 million per day and this year costs 32 percent more, or $11.6 million per day,” he said.

• Last week there were stories in British newspapers, which I cited here, saying that a golf course/real estate development deal was about to be announced in Havana. A week passed, no announcement. My mistake, and I should have known; for a long time, the golf hype has been way ahead of the reality.

• Have you ever wondered about the guys in Havana with the red Havana Club vests with the words “parqueador estatal” across the back, the guys who charge you to park, and can never explain why you need to pay them to park on a public street? J.C. Orta Alonso wonders too, and wrote a letter about the issue that was published in Granma; I hope someone answers it.