travel to Cuba

------ Original Message ------
Received: 02:47 PM CDT, 06/30/2011
From: "ricardo calvo"

Subject: among marxists

THE SOCIALIST REGIMEN OF BHO HAS BEEN “FACILITATING” THE TRAVELING OF
“EDUCATIONAL GROUPS” TO THE MARXIST-RULED ISLAND OF CUBA. IN THIS ARTICLE
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES ONE CAN SEE THAT THERE AT LEAST FOUR ORGANIZATIONS
THAT ARE PLANNING TO TRAVEL TO CUBA TO FOMENT “PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE” CONTACT…



WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?..



WELL ACCORDING TO THE ARTICLE THE TRIPS INVOLVES MEETINGS WITH
PROFESSIONALS, LOCAL ARTISTS, ENJOY A PRIVATE CONCERT, VISIT TO AN
ORPHANAGE, VISIT TO A COMMUNITY PROJECT THAT PROMOTES CULTURE, NIGHTS
LISTENING TO PERCUSSION MUSIC AND DANCES, VISITS TO A VIOLIN MAKER AND A
DAIRY FARM OPERATOR… YOU CAN READ BY YOURSELF !



BESIDES THE FACT THAT THIS POLICY OF THE MARXIST REGIMEN OF BHO IS NOTHING
MORE THAN A MANEUVER TO HELP THE MARXIST GOVERNMENT OF CUBA TO REFILL ITS
COFFERS THAT ARE SOMEWHAT DEPLETED… BECAUSE AFTER ALL …AT A MUCH CHEAPER
COST ALL THE PARTICIPANTS OF THESE TRIPS CAN ENJOY CONCERTS, VISITS TO
ORPHANAGES, VISIT TO A VIOLIN MAKER AND A DAIRY FARM RIGHT HERE IN THE USA
(IOWA for example)….INCLUDING THE VISIT TO A “COMMUNNITY PROJECT AND
ORGANIZER” RIGHT IN WASHINGTON, DC AT THE WHITE HOUSE …WHAT COULD BE MORE
CONVENIENT ! !

_____



June 30, 2011


New Ways to Visit Cuba — Legally


By MICHELLE HIGGINS
ns/index.html?inline=nyt-per>


The New York Times


ALWAYS wanted to visit Cuba
.html?inline=nyt-geo> ? Well now you can — legally.



hammer sickle.jpg

Thanks to policy changes by President Obama earlier this year designed to
encourage more contact between Americans and citizens of the Communist-ruled
island, the Treasury Department is once again granting so-called
“people-to-people” licenses, which greatly expand travel opportunities for
Cuba-bound visitors.

· The licenses, created under President Bill Clinton in 1999,
stopped being issued in 2003 under travel restrictions imposed by President
George W. Bush. Subsequently, the number of travelers from the
< http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/north-america/united-states/overvie
w.html?inline=nyt-geo > United States visiting Cuba legally dropped from more
than 200,000 in 2003 to less than 50,000 in 2004, according to estimates by
Bob Guild, vice president of < http://marazul.com/ > Marazul Charters in
North Bergen, N.J., among the largest United States organizers of trips to
Cuba.

· The new changes, which come on top of loosened restrictions for
Cubans and Cuban-Americans visiting relatives in Cuba, are expected to push
the number of travelers visiting Cuba this year to 450,000 this year. “We
estimate 375,000 to 400,000 Cuban Americans will visit this year and another
50,000 in other categories of legal travel,” said Mr. Guild of Marazul.

To be clear, it is still illegal for ordinary American vacationers to hop on
a plane bound for Cuba, which has been under a United States economic
embargo for nearly 50 years with exceptions for students, journalists,
Cuban-Americans and others with legal reasons to travel there). And while
Washington has also expanded licensing for educational groups traveling to
Cuba by loosening requirements, travelers joining an educational trip must
still receive credit toward a degree.

But other organizations, including

· Collette Vacations,

· the National Geographic Society and

· the National Trust for Historic Preservation, are still waiting to
hear from Washington

· the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, which operated four
trips to Cuba between 2001 and 2003, has yet to receive theirs

· In all, only eight companies had been issued people-to-people
licenses by the end of June, according to the Treasury Department.
Thirty-five applications were still pending.

Guidelines published by the Treasury Department say the tours must “have a
full-time schedule of educational exchange activities that will result in
meaningful interaction between the travelers and individuals in Cuba.” In
terms of hotels, “service may not be quite as good and the Internet
connection is incredibly slow and frustrating,” said Ms. Moore of Distant
Horizons. But, she said, “they have all the facilities you’d expect:
swimming pools, little gyms. And there are a lot of very good private
restaurants.”

Demand for Cuba is so strong that tour operators say that many of the trips
already have long waiting lists.

· Learning in Retirement, an educational program associated with the
University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, which is offering a 10-day
people-to-people trip in April, said more than 65 people have already
expressed interest for its 35 spots. “That’s just through word of mouth,”
said Burt Altman, a retired professor who organized the trip. “We haven’t
even put out the itinerary.”

Following is a list of planned people-to-people trips to Cuba.

· HARVARD UNIVERSITY’S ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, alumni.harvard.edu, will
take a group of 35 to Havana for five days in late October, led by Julio
Cesar Pérez Hernández, the Cuban Loeb Fellow at Harvard University Graduate
School of Design, to explore the city and meet professionals, including
local artists and enjoy a private concert at the Ceramics Museum with
guitarist Luis Manuel Molina. Cost: $3,880 a person based on double
occupancy, including airfare from Miami
< http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/north-america/united-states/florida
/miami/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo > .

· INSIGHT CUBA, insightcuba.org , is
offering several trips that include a weekend in Havana that costs $1,795
and visits an orphanage; Callejon de Hammel, a community project promoting
art
< http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/art/overview.html?inline=nyt-classi
fier > , music
< http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/music/overview.html?inline=nyt-clas
sifier > and culture; the Instituto de Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos
(Cuban Institute of Friendship With the People), an international Cuban
organization that promotes cultural relations between the United States and
Cuba; and an eight-night Cuban Music and Art Experience ($4,095), where
visitors meet the staff at Egrem, the Cuban state record company,
participate in a percussion and dance workshop, visit local music schools
and talk to musicians during rehearsal at a famous Havana jazz club.

· LEARNING IN RETIREMENT, uwlax.edu/conted/lir/index.html
< http://www.uwlax.edu/conted/lir/index.html > , is offering a 10-day trip in
April 2012 visiting a range of professionals from Santiago de Cuba
< http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/caribbean-and-bermuda/cuba/santiago
-de-cuba/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo > to Trinidad
< http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/caribbean-and-bermuda/trinidad-and-
tobago/tobago/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo > including a violin maker and a
dairy farm operator. Cost: $4,300 for members who pay a $35 annual fee.

· CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART AND COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN,
corcoran.org, plans to offer an eight-day trip in November, pending a
license. The trip, led by Mario Ascencio, the museum’s library director,
will explore the art scenes of Havana and Trinidad, a Unesco World Heritage
Site. Guests will attend a cocktail reception at the Ludwig Foundation,
which promotes Cuban contemporary artists, and meet local curators, artists
and gallery owners. Cost: $3,700 a person, including round-trip airfare from
Miami for guests who pay $60 for a museum membership.

comerciar con Cuba

-----Original Message-----
From: Pedro Martori Jun 6, 2011 12:39 am
Subject: RE: Musical exchange benefits Tampa Bay, Cuba / Editorial, St. Petersburg Times


La situacion de los USA , en lo Economco, esta tan mal y degradandose por dias
que la ambicion de ganar mas , y el temor a no sobrevivir a la Crisis que sigue afectando
a ese pais y a otros mas , como lo es el caso Cuba, les hacen perder la nocion de Justicia
por un lado y por el otro la vision de negocios mas sustentables y de mucho mayor valor
o envergadura, cuando se prostituyen con una sangrienta dictadura por causa del desesperado
intento de ganar el excaso dinero que el regimen puede permitirse en sus gastos de importacion.

Pierden la vision de un futuro sin la dictadura, en que los negocios serian mucho mayores,
mucho mas amplios, y en mayor cantidad y continuidad al no ser un grupito de la cupula la que prioriza
y orienta que comprar, cuando y como y que siempre es segun las necesidades del regimen
y no segun las necesidades del pueblo.
O sea , es un comercio basado en las prioridades particulares o personales del tirano y en funcion siempre
de su perpetuacion en el Poder.
Estos idiotas , hambrientos de dineros y desesperados por hacer " negocios" con los Castros,
no piensan y ni se dan cuenta tal vez que de ser el pueblo cubano libre y bajo un regimen democratico
ya no serian los dos o tres en la cupula losque deciden que comprar, cuanto comprar y para que comprar.
sino que enel lugar de esos mafiosos, estarian cientos de comerciantes fuera de las esferas de gobierno
los que estarina comerciando, comprando a los negociantes o cias. norteamericanas sus productos
y que estos a su vez lo harian para satisfacer la demanda de millares de comercios privados ,
que servirian la demanda de los millones de consumidores cubanos.
O sea que no ven la enorme diferencia entre venderle a dos o tres dentro de la familia Castro
y venderle a cientos de comerciantes kibres y privados. Tal parece que el asesoramiento
que les haya podido dar el Sr. Kavulich, no hiciera efecto.
Y hasta el mismo Sr. Kavulich, se distancio del Grupo de Estudios para inversionistas en Cuba,
al darse cuenta que, en Cuba, no hay cambios, ni habran cambios mientras sigan
en el Poder los mafiosos hnos. Castros.


http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/

A Times Editorial
Musical exchange benefits Tampa Bay, Cuba

In Print: Monday, June 6, 2011
Polls show that most Americans — not to mention a majority of Miami's Cuban-American community — support normalizing relations. As the embargo slowly approaches its inevitable end, Tampa Bay should welcome exchange opportunities with Cuba. Critics should step out of the way, lest they jeopardize a rich cultural — and one day economic — partnership that is in the interest of both Tampa Bay and the Cuban people.
Copyright 2011 St. Petersburg Times