Odds and ends
- Here’s an interesting look at China’s relationship with Cuba, including a discussion of the significance of the Chinese community in Cuba, from Yinghong Cheng, a professor at Delaware State University.
- In Diario las Americas, Jorge Sanguinetty comments on the implications and challenges of the new policy allowing Cuban Americans to visit and send remittances without restriction.
- “It is not acceptable for a government to abolish individual choice in matters of trade and travel,” says Alvaro Vargas Llosa as he changes his mind on the embargo, purely on the grounds of individual freedom.
- From USA Today, a look at the future of Cuba’s tourism sector. “Communism and good service don’t go together,” comments travel guide author Christopher Baker, noting that foreign hotel operators “don’t have free rein to manage as they wish.” And Florida’s tourism industry is looking ahead to the day when Americans can travel to Cuba freely, McClatchy reports.
- Fidel Castro responds to the State Department’s terrorism list designation by quoting at length Cuba’s foreign minister’s press conference remarks.
Professor Yinghong Cheng's article is good but in its historical sweep brushes over the 1960s when Fidel Castro was very much anti-PRC because of the Sino-Soviet rift. It also ignores possible use of Cuba as electronic spying platform. It is rather interesting that there has been cooperation on sismological research (China refursbished Cuba's sismographic equipment and stations). This allows the Chinese to develop techniques to hide nuclear testing' sismological signatures.
ReplyDeleteVecino de NF
The article by Vargas Llosa appeared locally here, published by Diario Las Americas and Libre Magazine, both conservative-leaning publications.
ReplyDeleteMore at my blog:
http://mambiwatch.blogspot.com/2009/05/vargas-llosa-changes-his-mind.html
[sigh], libertarians -- love ideas more than they do people....
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