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| Things in Cuba..... | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 31 2006, 07:36 PM (1,038 Views) | |
| George K | Aug 1 2006, 02:19 PM Post #51 |
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Finally
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(I love this place... carry on...) |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| TomK | Aug 1 2006, 02:26 PM Post #52 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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John, I travel to Cuba a couple of times a year--I love the place, and I would say that you're assessment is dead on. You know your stuff. |
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| AlbertaCrude | Aug 1 2006, 03:11 PM Post #53 |
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Bull-Carp
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I too am inclined to agree. |
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| John Jacob Jingoism Smith | Aug 1 2006, 07:01 PM Post #54 |
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Middle Aged Carp
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Of course first 'the Raul situation' must be felt out. I mean it's not like they don't still have a few guns of their own over there. TomK, I'd be interested to know do you go to Cuba on business or pleasure and if business what kind? I take it you are not coming from the US? And even though Castro is not dead yet...... http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15168654.htm |
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Jingoism You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. Anne Lamott | |
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| John Jacob Jingoism Smith | Aug 2 2006, 06:12 AM Post #55 |
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Middle Aged Carp
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Leaving Cuba alone? What they're saying now: Posted on Wed, Aug. 02, 2006 POST-CASTRO ERA Exiles' plans dependent on Cubans, Raúl's ouster South Florida's Cuban exile leaders reacted with grand plans for a post-Castro Cuba that would not include a succession of power for Raúl Castro. BY ELAINE DE VALLE edevalle@MiamiHerald.com South Florida's Cuban exile organizations, after waiting nearly a half-century hoping for a change in leadership in Cuba, reacted Tuesday with a mixture of wait-and-see optimism and no-holds-barred plans for firing up Cubans on the island. One mantra became increasingly clear throughout the day, however: No succession of power -- with Fidel Castro ceding control of the country to his brother, Raúl -- would be acceptable as real change. Some Cuban activists vowed they would head to Cuba and join dissidents who might seize the moment to try to bring real change to the island. ''We are preparing our boats and our planes to possibly send a contingency to Cuba, to unite with the internal movement,'' said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, the leader of the Democracy Movement, which has staged flotillas off the Cuban coast for more than 10 years. He is also concerned about dissidents on the island and has repeatedly asked that the foreign media keep an eye on them. ``The big danger here is that Raúl Castro tries to squash the dissident movement to send a clear message that there is no negotiating with him.'' Other exiles hoped to send clear messages back to those who already work within Cuba's communist system. OFFERS OF SUPPORT Alfredo Mesa, a spokesman with the Cuban American National Foundation said, ''We do have a strong message to people in a position of power inside of Cuba who have a genuine and transparent interest in a peaceful nonviolent transition to democracy: that they are not alone and that they have our support,'' Mesa said. CANF members in chapters all over the United States and in Europe spent the day calling contacts in Cuba and foreign diplomats who could deliver that message to the right people in the regime, Mesa added. ''We're in a position to help,'' he said, referring to the $80 million in post-Castro aid promised by the U.S. government to the Cuban people. ``Those who have a genuine interest need not go to [Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez for a financing plan for a succession of power. That is a very tangible sign of support.'' He said CANF is fighting 47 years of anti-exile propaganda. ''Fidel Castro has engrained in the minds of all Cubans that the Cuban American National Foundation wants to take away people's homes and go in there and boot people out of their jobs. That's a myth,'' Mesa said. By no means was CANF calling for the people in Cuba to revolt. ``We support how the day has gone today in Cuba because ultimately they will be the ones who suffer any repercussions. They need to be more careful on how they react to this news than we do.'' The organization -- once the most influential Cuban-American lobby in Washington -- was also preparing for further developments, Mesa said. ''We are in constant communication with folks inside Cuba to get our direction from them. At the end of the day, our job is not to dictate or to tell them how this will carry out. Our job is to support their efforts in Cuba, to break this succession and enjoy the liberties that you and I enjoy as free Cubans,'' Mesa said. The grandfather of Miami Cuban radio, Radio Mambí's Armando Perez Roura, also began to plan ahead Tuesday. He hopes news of Castro's death comes within days, not months. ''Our main focus will be to detoxify what communism has done to Cuba and, more importantly, reconstruct it,'' Pérez said. ``[Before Castro took power], Cuba was exporting a lot of products, including sugar and rice, industries the people no longer have.'' He told Cuban exile listeners not to worry. ``The end has to come. We need to be very clear in what we are going to do.'' Some groups -- including Mothers Against Repression and the Cuban Democratic Directorate -- hoped the situation would allow them to capitalize on the promotion of a ''noncooperation campaign,'' which political prisoners and dissidents on the island called for last month. ''We believe in the power of the Cuban people to change the government,'' said Javier de Cespedes, president of the directorate. If there were a time to stop cooperating with the government, he added, it is now. ''This opens new doors and opportunities for that campaign inside and outside the island,'' de Cespedes said. ``It gives them more international attention in which to do it and it also reveals that dictatorships do not last forever.'' But not everyone planned to join a peaceful transition. Members of Alpha 66 -- a hard-line paramilitary group that claims to have conducted sabotage missions on the island in the past and believes that change can only come from an armed conflict -- would conduct their training this weekend, as they do every Sunday, at their campground near the Everglades. THE WAIT GOES ON Some Cuban exiles were cautiously looking toward the island for a sign. ''Before implementing any plan, we are trying to wait out what is happening,'' said Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a popular radio host and spokeswoman for the Cuban Liberty Council, many of whose members left CANF after its leadership moved to the center. ''We have to wait and see how events unfold in the next few days. The next steps have to be based on whatever actions take place inside Cuba. Right now, the status quo is the same. It's still the same dictatorship, just with a different face,'' Pérez said. Miami Herald staff writers Susan Anasagasti and Oscar Corral contributed to this report. |
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Jingoism You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. Anne Lamott | |
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| lb1 | Aug 2 2006, 06:33 AM Post #56 |
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Fulla-Carp
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TomK takes pleasure in everything he does. lb |
| My position is simple: you jumped to an unwarranted conclusion and slung mud on an issue where none was deserved. Quirt 03/08/09 | |
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| Rick Zimmer | Aug 2 2006, 06:42 AM Post #57 |
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Fulla-Carp
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Do you think installing Cuban exiles to run things in Cuba will work as well as installng Iraqi exiles has worked in Iraq? And why does the US care about changing the government in Cuba? What business is it of ours? |
| [size=4]Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul -- Benedict XVI[/size] | |
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| AlbertaCrude | Aug 2 2006, 06:48 AM Post #58 |
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Bull-Carp
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There's also the Hugo Chavez factor: How Chavez complicates post-Castro transition STEPHEN HANDELMAN ANALYSIS: Havana, Washington have plans in the works, but Caracas holds the key to Cuba's future... NEW YORK -- The Cuban government has been preparing for the eclipse of Fidel Castro, either from death or disability, for almost as long as Washington has. "Things are all arranged, very well arranged," boasted Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother, in a July, 2001, interview with Spanish journalists. The latest headlines suggest the time for testing that proposition may soon be at hand. Of course the ailing Fidel, whose 80th birthday arrives later this month, has confounded his would-be obituary writers so often that the only rational response to those headlines is, as Cubans might say, vamos a ver (let's wait and see). Yet as the strength of the "Maximum Leader" continues to ebb, the hemisphere's longest running feud is indisputably edging closer to a resolution. And that is making both sides nervous. The United States, which has determinedly isolated the hemisphere's only Communist government for the past five decades, has been drawing up and then discarding "transition scenarios" with the frequency -- and predictability -- of weather reports. Last month, the Bush administration announced its newest transition strategy for Cuba, which involved spending $80-million on encouraging a peaceful evolution to democracy, and economic assistance "if requested by a new Cuban government." But privately, Washington policy makers fear a collapse of Fidel Castro's power could trigger a massive refugee crisis as Cubans flee in huge numbers from the disorder and economic chaos created by a struggle for supremacy inside the Communist leadership. That could turn into a perfect storm for a United States already saddled with a worsening crisis in the Middle East, should Washington find it necessary to deploy military "stabilization" forces in this hemisphere while American soldiers are already overstretched in Iraq. Why? The answer is contained in one word that appears in the 93-page transition plan issued by the White House: Venezuela. Since the emergence of that country's President, Hugo Chavez, as the latest and most provocative nemesis to Washington, American hopes that any fires triggered by a Cuban transfer of power could be contained to that Caribbean island alone have been dampened. The report charges that Venezuela has been conspiring with Fidel Castro "to build a network of political and financial support designed to forestall any external pressure to change." And behind that fear is the likelihood Mr. Chavez's oil wealth would be used to head off any serious accommodation with Washington on the part of a new Cuban government. So far, the Venezuelan President has made clear that he is watching events on the island with more than passing interest. "Waking up this morning and receiving that news, you may see what feeling one would have toward a good friend," Mr. Chavez, currently on a visit to Vietnam, said after the first reports of Mr. Castro's illness. "When there is such an announcement, it's worrisome." Venezuelan involvement in Cuba's succession battle would put an equally severe strain on the island's Communist leadership, despite the careful plans that have been, according to Raul Castro, "very well arranged." The 75-year-old Raul, in line with those plans, has already been given temporary power as head of government, party leader and armed forces chief while Fidel recovers from intestinal surgery. But while Cuba's leadership has publicly lined up behind the succession scenario, there is no guarantee of future solidarity. Political power inside Cuba is now largely held by allies of Raul (the so-called "Men of Raul), whom he has been quietly putting into key positions for the past several years. Many are in their 50s, but a restless generation of younger bureaucrats could challenge them as soon as the colourless Raul appears to falter. Although no one suggests these new aspirants to power are "men of Chavez," they are most likely to be attracted by Venezuela's hemispheric policies, which have already created a strong alliance across Latin America in favour of reducing economic dependence upon the United States. Until Mr. Chavez came along, Cuba had lacked a powerful patron to bolster its economy and anti-U.S. image since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ironically, the spectre of a Cuba taken under Venezuela's wing may force the United States to change its own approach to the island's post-Castro future. Officially, Washington is constrained from maintaining formal relations with Raul Castro's government by the infamous Helms-Burton act. Under the law, the United States cannot provide assistance or resume normal diplomatic relations with the Cuban government unless the island is radically transformed by democratic elections and property expropriated during the revolution is returned to its original owners. Moreover, even if these things should happen, relations would still be impossible if the government is led by Raul Castro (who is named in the law) or any of Fidel's relatives. Nevertheless, U.S. policy makers have quietly been seeking ways to free themselves from this ideological straitjacket even before Fidel's current health crisis, on the grounds that U.S. self-interest requires stability on the island before any radical changes could be made. Raul has already signalled that he's willing to provide those guarantees. Shortly after the United States turned part of its base at Guantanamo into a holding camp for prisoners taken in the war on terrorism, Mr. Castro, who is Defence Minister, promised that any detainees who escaped into Cuban territory would be "captured and returned." And such stability is clearly on the minds of Pentagon planners, whose private nightmare of a post-Castro Cuba includes its emergence as a major narcotics shipment centre in the Caribbean, and a centre for organized crime. But any hint that Washington could live with Raul Castro, even on a temporary basis, is sure to incense the vocal and politically powerful Cuban exile community centred in Miami. And as the United States approaches critical midterm elections this fall, that's a signal this Republican White House will be loathe to give. It would not be surprising to learn that in Washington as well as Havana this week, there are private prayers for Fidel Castro to hang on a bit longer. From: The Globe and Mail 8 August 2006 |
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| Optimistic | Aug 2 2006, 06:57 AM Post #59 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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(from the Miami article)
Hmmmmm. . . |
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PHOTOS I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up. - Mark Twain We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. -T. S. Eliot | |
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| taiwan_girl | Aug 2 2006, 07:49 AM Post #60 |
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Fulla-Carp
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I wonder if the Cuban exiles from the US would really be welcomed if the return to Cuba. I would think that there would be a bit of resentment towards them from the locals. As another thought, I am wondering how many of the exiles; once they got back to Cuba, would really stay for any length of time. They may have become too "spoiled" living in the US, and depending upon how long they have been in the US, there may be a reverse culture shock when the return to Cuba. |
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| Rick Zimmer | Aug 2 2006, 07:55 AM Post #61 |
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Fulla-Carp
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Point well taken, tg. Keep in mind too that so many of the Cubans in Florida (and elsewhere) who are lumped together as exiles, are not exiles but were born here in the US, are US citizens and the US is all they have known. The true exiles are for the most part all old men and women now. Moving back to Cuba? I don't see it happening. Wanting to exploit the situation to make money off their own people? Yep. that I see. However, to me the most interesting comment in the article AC posted was not about the Cubans going back but about the potential for a sudden rush of thousands more Cuban refugees to the US as soon as Fidel dies. Talk about an immigration problem! |
| [size=4]Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul -- Benedict XVI[/size] | |
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| AlbertaCrude | Aug 2 2006, 08:31 AM Post #62 |
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Bull-Carp
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Exactly why I mentioned the Ukraine example earlier in the thread. I observed precisely that local resentment towards the returning Ukrainian diaspora first hand while working in the FSU throughout the 1990's. Ukrainians for the most part saw them as monied foreigners who happened to have the good fortune of Ukrainian heritage but who spoke a dialect of the language laced with foreign words and bizarre syntax. |
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| TomK | Aug 2 2006, 11:37 AM Post #63 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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I have a place and a boat in the Keys. It tales about 5 1/2-6 hours to sail down to Havanna. There are no restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba. You just can't spend any money there (trading with the enemy or some such nonesense,) unless you get a if you get a license. Which I do, and I also get a permit from the Coast Guard to sail from a security zone, both not much of a problem. As to why,I go--I don't know you well enough------;) |
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| John Jacob Jingoism Smith | Aug 2 2006, 05:02 PM Post #64 |
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Middle Aged Carp
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TomK, I'm quite familiar with your terrain. Somewhere I may still even have my press pass from the Mariel Boatlift. 5 1/2 hours puts you roundabouts Marathon mayhaps? |
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Jingoism You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. Anne Lamott | |
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| TomK | Aug 3 2006, 03:00 AM Post #65 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Cudjoe. And for the Press Pass--I was wondering how you had the whacky world of Cuban ex-pats nailed down so well. I know a fair number of them and they look forward to Castro's death the same way an eight year old looks forward to Christmas morning. And why I visit?--cigars! All the best. Tom |
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| Larry | Aug 3 2006, 03:24 AM Post #66 |
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
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Gosh....... you'd think after reading this thread that Castro was really a nice guy, and the US was the real problem.... I may be just an ignorant redneck Injun from the South, but it seems to me that when Cubans risk their lives by the tens of thousands to sail that 90 miles in rickety rafts that barely float to get away from the place, there might just be more to the story than the one being told here. And if foreigners other than US citizens are free to go over and trade, spend money, etc. then there ought to be enough prosperity from that to kill the effects of a US embargo, so that isn't the reason 99% of the island lives in abject poverty. |
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Of the Pokatwat Tribe | |
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| AlbertaCrude | Aug 3 2006, 08:56 AM Post #67 |
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Bull-Carp
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It's not so much that people think Fidel is a really nice guy. He's not, in fact he is a thoroughly ruthless dictator. Rather it is that he has successfully made a mockery of the Monroe Doctrine for the last 40 odd years. |
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| lb1 | Aug 3 2006, 09:02 AM Post #68 |
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Fulla-Carp
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Tom, Ah, the pleasures deprived by politics. I bought some Havanas in Prague earlier this year, some great Iranian caviar also. Huge crisp golden nuggets that exploded with flavor. lb |
| My position is simple: you jumped to an unwarranted conclusion and slung mud on an issue where none was deserved. Quirt 03/08/09 | |
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| John D'Oh | Aug 3 2006, 09:03 AM Post #69 |
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MAMIL
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See my signature. |
| What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket? | |
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| John D'Oh | Aug 3 2006, 09:03 AM Post #70 |
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MAMIL
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[Edit - double post] |
| What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket? | |
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| AlbertaCrude | Aug 3 2006, 09:17 AM Post #71 |
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Bull-Carp
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That Winny!
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| dolmansaxlil | Aug 4 2006, 06:34 AM Post #72 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Since I posted about the whole US$ issue, I thought I'd post what I stumbled across today: ...the only currencies recognized in Cuba are the Cuban peso and the Cuban convertible peso. The peso (CUP) is used mainly by Cuban citizens for everyday expenses. The convertible peso (CUC) is known as the "tourist" peso and is used for luxury purchases and services. This can cause confusion since a Canadian dollar is worth about 24 CUP but only 0.8 CUC. Both currencies are known as the peso and both use the symbol $. The U.S. dollar was once a widely circulated currency is Cuba, but that ended in 2004 when the Castro government removed the dollar from circulation in reaction to tighter sanctions. There is a 10 per cent surcharge, applied only to U.S. dollars, to exchange greenbacks for convertible pesos. Tourists and Americans with relatives in Cuba are now advised to make use of euros. from cbc.ca |
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"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson My Flickr Photostream | |
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| AlbertaCrude | Aug 4 2006, 07:42 AM Post #73 |
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Bull-Carp
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From the same web page: FAQs on Canada Cuba Trade How much trade occurs between Cuba and Canada? Trade between Canada and Cuba totals almost $1 billion. About 22 per cent of Cuban exports go to Canada, second only to the Netherlands with about 24 per cent. Canada ranks fifth in exports to Cuba, behind Spain, Venezuela, the U.S. and China. (A U.S. law passed in October 2000 allowing Cuba to buy U.S. food products, provided Cuba pays cash. Cuba started purchasing food more than a year later after the damage caused by Hurricane Michelle.) What does Cuba export? Besides cigars? Sugar, nickel, fish and citrus, along with tobacco products, make up 80 per cent of Cuba's exports. Other exports include coffee and medical products. What does Cuba import? Oil and food, mostly, as well as machinery and equipment. Doesn't Cuba produce oil? Cuba does produce its own oil, mostly from a reservoir off the north coast, discovered with the Soviets in 1971, but that oil is poor-quality "sour" crude. However, Cuba's oil production has taken off in recent years, thanks to foreign investment from places like Spain and Canada. Spain's Repsol-YPF and Cuba's state-run oil company CUPET found large pockets of high-quality crude oil and natural gas off the coast near Havana in 2004. The U.S. Geological Survey later confirmed the find. Since then, companies from China, India, Canada and Norway have entered partnerships to drill for offshore oil in Cuba. The find has also sparked interest in the U.S. Two American congressmen have introduced bills in the U.S. House and Senate to exempt oil companies from the embargo on Cuba. What Canadian companies are operating in Cuba? There are about 85 Canadian companies operating in Cuba, including Labatt and Pizza Nova, which has six locations in Cuba. The largest foreign investor in Cuba is Sherritt International Corp., a natural resources company based in Toronto. State-owned Cubaniquel and Sherritt jointly operate a nickel and cobalt facility in Moa, Cuba. Other Canadian companies are more tight-lipped about their operations in Cuba. Under the American Helms-Burton Act, officials and major stockholders of Canadian companies that do business in Cuba can be barred from entering the U.S. How big is the Cuban economy? According to the CIA, Cuba's gross domestic product — the value of its annual production of goods and services — is about $44 billion. That's about the same as Kenya, Turkmenistan and Nepal. Isn't tourism a big part of that? Absolutely. Tourism is the country's largest source of foreign exchange. Canada is Cuba's largest source of tourism revenue and sends the largest number of tourists to the island, followed by Italy and France. |
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