In December of 1999 I made my first trip down to Cuba. The University of Alaska, Southeast offered a month-long experiential learning class on the Language and Culture of Cuba. I went as a student and discovered that our media-inspired American fears about communist Cuba were completely unfounded. Just last month I completed my second UAS class in Cuba – going this time as a co-instructor. My second visit only confirmed what I already knew – Cuba is an amazing country; easily the most friendly and safest place I’ve ever been!
In the next few postings, I plan to use my weblog as travel guide of sorts for Cuba. If you have the opportunity to go, I hope that it will be useful. If you’re looking for a place to spend some vacation time, perhaps it will help you decide where. And maybe, just maybe, I can dispel some of our American propaganda against Cuba along the way...
...
Part the First: Getting Permission
Back in the 1950s, Fidel Castro looked to our government for help in overthrowing the Batista dictatorship. The United States was only too happy to lend a hand, but they took it as a slap in the face when, after taking control of Cuba, Castro opted to create a totalitarian communist government. Remember, this is in the late 50s / early 60s and communism wasn’t exactly popular. Things got worse when Russia moved in with their support.
Ever since those difficult political times, the U.S. has adhered to a strong economic embargo against Cuba. While seeing vintage American cars from the 40s and 50s on the streets of Havana is an amazing side effect to such tactics, it unfortunately means that traveling to Cuba for the average American has become rather more difficult.
The embargo doesn’t actually deny Americans access to Cuba – it just makes it so we can’t pay any money to any Cubans or any Cuban businesses. That makes it difficult to pay for a hotel, food, or for that matter, a plane ticket to get there.
Since the embargo (or El Bloqueo, as they call it in Cuba) is a trade embargo against Cuba, we have to petition The U.S. Department of the Treasury for permission to circumvent the regulations. Luckily, there are many reasons for which they’ll grant permission – humanitarian reasons, journalistic reasons, medical reasons, athletic reasons… and, of course, educational ones, too. Be prepared to wait awhile for them to make their decision, though. Apparently there’s a lot of red tape to get through. And hey, if after waiting a couple months, you get an unsatisfactory answer, don’t give up. It’s quite easy to get into Cuba illegally, too!
Many Americans are discovering Cuba right now simply by catching a flight from Mexico or Canada. Obviously those two countries don’t honor our embargo against our communist neighbors to the south and their airlines companies are more than happy to ferry you over for a reasonable price.
Just try not to get caught. I’ve heard a rumor that President Bush has started putting U.S. personnel in foreign airports just to stem the tide of vacationing Americans. If they get you, you can expect to pay fines up to $10,000 and/or face some prison time.
But seriously, it’s not as risky as all that makes it sound. Cuba will welcome you with open arms – they want your tourist dollars – and they know better than to do something obvious like stamp your passport. In fact, even if you ask them to stamp your passport they’ll look at you funny because the vast majority of Americans passing through their immigration counters are visiting Cuba illegally! I had to explain to them that I really did want a stamp because my own government had granted me permission to be there.
You shouldn’t have any problems returning to Mexico or Canada, either. Just make sure not to bring home any obvious giveaways when you cross back into the States. A box of Cohiba cigars or a bottle of Cuban rum will probably raise a few eyebrows on your way through the U.S. customs!
Next: Getting to Cuba
Arlo’s Guide to Traveling in Cuba
In December of 1999 I made my first trip down to Cuba. The University of Alaska, Southeast offered a month-long experiential learning class on the Language and Culture of Cuba. I went as a student and discovered that our media-inspired American fears about communist Cuba were completely unfounded. Just last month I completed my second UAS class in Cuba – going this time as a co-instructor. My second visit only confirmed what I already knew – Cuba is an amazing country; easily the most friendly and safest place I’ve ever been!
In the next few postings, I plan to use my weblog as travel guide of sorts for Cuba. If you have the opportunity to go, I hope that it will be useful. If you’re looking for a place to spend some vacation time, perhaps it will help you decide where. And maybe, just maybe, I can dispel some of our American propaganda against Cuba along the way...
Part the First: Getting Permission
Back in the 1950s, Fidel Castro looked to our government for help in overthrowing the Batista dictatorship. The United States was only too happy to lend a hand, but they took it as a slap in the face when, after taking control of Cuba, Castro opted to create a totalitarian communist government. Remember, this is in the late 50s / early 60s and communism wasn’t exactly popular. Things got worse when Russia moved in with their support.
Ever since those difficult political times, the U.S. has adhered to a strong economic embargo against Cuba. While seeing vintage American cars from the 40s and 50s on the streets of Havana is an amazing side effect to such tactics, it unfortunately means that traveling to Cuba for the average American has become rather more difficult.
The embargo doesn’t actually deny Americans access to Cuba – it just makes it so we can’t pay any money to any Cubans or any Cuban businesses. That makes it difficult to pay for a hotel, food, or for that matter, a plane ticket to get there.
Since the embargo (or El Bloqueo, as they call it in Cuba) is a trade embargo against Cuba, we have to petition The U.S. Department of the Treasury for permission to circumvent the regulations. Luckily, there are many reasons for which they’ll grant permission – humanitarian reasons, journalistic reasons, medical reasons, athletic reasons… and, of course, educational ones, too. Be prepared to wait awhile for them to make their decision, though. Apparently there’s a lot of red tape to get through. And hey, if after waiting a couple months, you get an unsatisfactory answer, don’t give up. It’s quite easy to get into Cuba illegally, too!
Many Americans are discovering Cuba right now simply by catching a flight from Mexico or Canada. Obviously those two countries don’t honor our embargo against our communist neighbors to the south and their airlines companies are more than happy to ferry you over for a reasonable price.
Just try not to get caught. I’ve heard a rumor that President Bush has started putting U.S. personnel in foreign airports just to stem the tide of vacationing Americans. If they get you, you can expect to pay fines up to $10,000 and/or face some prison time.
But seriously, it’s not as risky as all that makes it sound. Cuba will welcome you with open arms – they want your tourist dollars – and they know better than to do something obvious like stamp your passport. In fact, even if you ask them to stamp your passport they’ll look at you funny because the vast majority of Americans passing through their immigration counters are visiting Cuba illegally! I had to explain to them that I really did want a stamp because my own government had granted me permission to be there.
You shouldn’t have any problems returning to Mexico or Canada, either. Just make sure not to bring home any obvious giveaways when you cross back into the States. A box of Cohiba cigars or a bottle of Cuban rum will probably raise a few eyebrows on your way through the U.S. customs!
Next: Getting to Cuba
Replies: 5 Comments
A.,
Your comments are always greatly appreciated. It's good to see your blog back with a new entry! I look forward to the others.
-C.
Posted by C. @ 01/22/2004 05:32 PM ADST
Prison guards brutally beat jailed Cuban journalist
Reporters Without Borders ( www.rsf.org)
Reporters Without Borders has strongly condemned an assault against a journalist who was brutally beaten by prison guards in the provincial Guantánamo prison, eastern Cuba, and urged the authorities to punish his assailants and to protect prisoners from further harm.
Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona was taken from his cell by three prison guards on 31 December and dragged to room where they beat him about the face and body. They also deliberately shut his leg in a door. He told his wife Elsa González Padrón in a telephone call on 7 January that he was still suffering from the after effects of the attack.
"It is the second time in a month that a jailed journalist has been attacked," said Robert Ménard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders. "The Cuban authorities are responsible for the state of health of the 30 journalists imprisoned in Cuba for having exercised their right to freedom of opinion as guaranteed by several international treaties ratified by this country."
The journalist was attacked after complaining about being transferred to Building 4B of the prison where 235 common-law prisoners are locked up in appalling conditions. Common-law prisoners are often made use of by the authorities to harass political prisoners.
The journalist's wife said she was also very concerned about the state of health of her husband who suffers from heart and liver problems and whose blood pressure is unstable. He was put in solitary confinement during the summer of 2003 for protesting against ill treatment meted out to another prisoner.
Another independent imprisoned journalist Juan Adolfo Fernández Saínz was physically attacked by a common-law prisoner on 6 December as he tried to dissuade him from beating a fellow prisoner. No action was taken against his assailant.
Arroyo Carmona was arrested with 26 other independent journalists and 50 other dissidents in an unprecedented crackdown in March 2003. They were sentenced to terms from six to 28 years in prison.
More information about jailed journalists is available on http://ww.rsf.org, under "Cuba, the world's biggest prison for journalists".
05:04 AM EST, Jan 14 2004
here's the link:
http://invisiblog.com/16dc759c198de7c6/article/952c51d7f30f71901432c219db6a73fb
While you and Joe and the rest of your class were celebrating New Year's, this poor bastard was being beaten by 3 government agents. Instead of saying Cuba is the "safest place I've ever been" perhaps it'd be more accurate to say it's safe, but only for the people who don't live there.
Posted by Karl @ 02/13/2004 02:18 AM ADST
Isn’t the Internet great? It’s so easy to use that even kids in middle school are able to support their arguments with just a few minutes of online research.
So you think that perhaps Cuba isn’t safe for its own citizens because of an article you read about a prison beating. Well, then. I guess the United States isn’t safe for its citizens, either. Witness our "poor bastards:"
4 more charged in prison beating
US notches world's highest incarceration rate
Human's Rights Watch: U.S. Prisons
Ex-Intel VP Fights for Detainee
I’ve got to hand it to you, Karl, you’ve mastered the flamebait technique. Trolling for a flamewar might be par for the course in a chat room, but I think you’re mistaking my online journal as an open forum for your opinions.
If you had read further than my introduction before commenting, you’d have noticed that when talking about Cuba’s safety, I was comparing it to the places I’ve been… and that I was speaking for myself, not for Cuban journalists. For the record, that comparison was based on the experiences I’ve had in Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru (twice), Bolivia, Cuba (twice), Venezuela, Costa Rica, the Virgin Islands, and, of course, the United States.
And what about the United States? Living in Juneau is a fine way to reassure oneself in the personal safety afforded by our country, but I’ve lived in far less hospitable places, large urban areas such as Newport News, Virginia; Staten Island, New York; and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I know for a fact that the opinions of people living in bigger cities differ from our own on the topics of safety and friendliness. In the middle of the night people walk the streets in the heart of Cuba’s largest city without fear – we would be fools to do the same in any U.S. city of comparable size (over 2 million.)
Tell you what. You go to Cuba. Spend two months there, talk to the people, witness their daily life, live in their houses and talk politics with their families… If after doing that, you still come to the conclusion that Cuba is not safe (for you or for their own people), then I’ll respect your viewpoint. Until that happens, I view you as simply the middle man for someone else’s opinions.
That’s not to say that I don’t welcome your comments in my weblog, I do, but don’t you think we could have had a more productive discussion if you had typed something like:
“That’s interesting, Arlo, but I came across an article online that seemed to indicate that Cuba isn’t necessarily as safe as you believe. In your travels, did you ever notice instances where the Cuban government was trying to repress their people? For instance, the article talks about the jailing of journalists – do you know if they are entitled to the same rights (i.e., freedom of speech) as we are?”
Then I might have answered:
“No, certainly not. There were many instances where I noticed that the Cuban government tries desperately hard to control the information their people receive.
• Satellite TV is illegal.
• Until recently, the Internet was illegal.
• There are only two newspapers, and two television channels, all run by the state.
• I was told that in talking with tourists, Cubans can get in trouble by talking about two things: Business and Politics.
• Cubans are generally not allowed to travel outside the country, and in many cases it’s extremely difficult for them to even travel to a different province.
Procedures to limit information like these smack of a dictatorship struggling hard to maintain what control it has over their own people. It’s unfortunate that not every country enjoys the same freedoms that we do (though I think it’s arrogant to believe that we have the perfect system of rights and freedoms) but that, in itself, does not mean that they’re less safe.
I don’t have the statistics to back it up, but based on my experience in the U.S. and Cuba, I would hazard a guess that, despite not having the same rights that we do, per capita, the average Cuban citizen is safer than the average American.”
The fact of the matter is that there are many places in the world where free speech is not a right. Cuba’s one of them. I personally believe that the best thing we can do to help them out is to visit their country. With an influx of tourists comes an increase of attention from the world. (The cracks in their totalitarian government are beginning to show, too, with their concessions to the Internet.) If, indeed, the government is unjustly attacking its own people, the best chance we have at changing that is by visiting their country and giving the Cuban people a chance to interact with the outside world.
That or we can attack them, overthrow their government, and “help” them set up a new one, because that’s an option, too.
It's just not my opinion.
-A.
P.S. If it makes you feel better to read about the negative aspects of Cuba, I'm sure there are other online journals you could spend your time on.
Posted by Arlo @ 02/16/2004 10:07 AM ADST
Ace,
It's clear that your have the edge on me in sheer writing talent and in your ability to frame an argument. Congratulations. :)
(Smileys are silly but they seem to be the most efficient way to soften the perceived meaning of my words. Otherwise I'd be forced to write another few lines stating my respect for the person I'm replying to, despite any disagreement we might be involved in. Kinda like these.)
l4mer n33ds Word Perfect!
The decision to simply post an article came only after I accidently refreshed the comments page I was working in. Oops! You'd think I'd have learned to work in Word but I don't have it installed on this machine.
I disagree that citing a website rather than attempting to compose an essay as well written as yours means I'm attempting to bait you. (If that was the impression my post left then I apoligize. I did read your entire post but in my haste to refute what I thought was your main point I neglected the.. conditional modifiers, as it were.)
Google: l33t r3s3rch t00l?
I also disagree that it indicates I'm somehow unsophisticated or lazy simply because I use Google to search out information. It's a great research tool and I stumble across eye-opening topics all the time while using it. (In my research I found a United Nations report condemning the U.S. and our prison system. The topic didn't seem relevant because your piece was about Cuba.)
Karl: world traveller? ROFLMAO
You know as well as I do I've no desire to enroll in college for a student visa, spend a few thousand dollars on travel, and take 2 months leave from my job to visit a place that is almost as hot as the surface of the Sun. Sure Cuba is great cigar country, but that trip is never going to happen.
I don't accept that failing to travel to Cuba and spending time there automatically means my opinion has no value. Or that my opinion is not even mine; that I've adopted it whole-cloth from something I read online somewhere. Probably some site I found with Google. :) I read quite a lot, about all sorts of things. The fact that most of my associates are unaware of this is that most of them are uninterested.
Arlo writes Karl better'n Karl does
I was already aware of many of the bullets you've listed in your hypothetical exchange and in retrospect I wish I'd responded in that fashion. But my argument (such as it was) was aimed less at Freedom of Speech issues and more at Physical Safety issues. There are over 70 Cuban journalists in Prison for actions that we in the U.S. take for granted.
- peacable assembly to protest
- factual reporting of events
- right of government redress
In fact Cubans enjoy few of the rights that U.S. citizens do. I don't feel it's arrogant to point out the failures of a system which daily opresses the people it supposedly was put in place to protect. And I've never indicated that our system is perfect at least as far as I can remember.
A big differance between our system and the Cuban system is the amount of noise, disagreement, and complaining ours will tolerate as the price of liberty. You have to wonder about a group of guys who won't let anyone else talk for fear their ideas will seem silly in comparison. Why does anyone take them seriously? Guns.
Anyway, Here are a few more rights it'd be neat for Cuba to look into.
- right to speedy trial by jury
- immunity from double jepoardy (sp?)
- no cruel and unusual punishment
The last of which gets to the heart of the matter. One of the links you posted linked to an article about several prison guards who are on trial for the alleged beating death of an inmate in 1999. The irony is those guards will in fact be held accountable for the crimes they may have committed if they are convicted. If they did it I hope a jury convicts and sends em right back to the prison they used to guard. Our system, while not perfect, at least attempts to punish the folks who are holding the keys when they do wrong.
The future of Cuba
Maybe student visits will convince the Cuban people they are entitled to what so many of the rest of us enjoy now. But they will have to take it by force unless Castro dies and his successor allows a Berlin Wall event to happen instead of rolling the tanks. In fact that would be the best option we can hope for, since any outsider interfering risks being labeled a warmonger and then would taint any new government with toady status.
But that is even more off topic
k.
Posted by Karl @ 02/24/2004 06:15 AM ADST
Karl,
I don’t want to get into a prolonged argument, nor even a discussion, on what is and isn’t wrong with Cuba today. There are better forums than my blog for that.
What I do want to do is address some of the issues that have come out of our comments thus far.
I never truly believed that you were trying to bait me into an argument, but I think you now know that you struck a nerve. For the record, the posting of the article wasn’t what bothered me, it was the two sentences tagged on at the end: While you and Joe and the rest of your class were celebrating New Year's, this poor bastard was being beaten by 3 government agents. Instead of saying Cuba is the "safest place I've ever been" perhaps it'd be more accurate to say it's safe, but only for the people who don't live there. I spent New Year’s Eve with two very special families that made me feel like one of their own, had dinner with my own group of friends at a state-run restaurant, and celebrated the ringing in of the New Year on the crowded but exceedingly safe streets of Baracoa. When I inferred from your posting that I was doing all this at the expense of other Cubans who were being beaten… well, I took offense.
Within two hours of reading your comment, I had already composed my reply. I then purposely set it aside for a couple days and cooled down a bit before reading it over again. I’m glad I did: The second draft came out far less inflammatory. Still, perhaps because of the remaining heat, I believe you may have misinterpreted some of my points.
• Using Google for research is neither unsophisticated nor lazy. The problem I had with your posting of an Internet article was two-fold: 1) The Internet is not known for hosting the most reliable, unbiased information in the world today, and 2) You used only one article to support your argument. I know very well that you keep yourself highly informed through reading, television, and radio. In fact, I view you as probably the best informed, politically at least, among all my friends. My problem with your arguments is that they come across as extremely biased and consequently put me on my guard. Since high school, I’ve been taught that the best method to get someone to agree with your viewpoint is to demonstrate that you took the time to research both sides of the argument and have weighed the case carefully before coming to a conclusion. Unfortunately, and it pains me to say it, I never get the feeling that you do. I suspect it’s because you (understandably) frequent the news sources that are biased in some way towards your own beliefs, but I really don’t know.
(Tangent: You once told me about a particular college instructor you had in Anchorage whose political views rubbed you the wrong way. I may be remembering the telling wrong, but it is my impression that the reason you had a hard time seeing her side because she was so closed-minded in her political views. Years after, I see the irony in my viewing you in that same light.)
• I will admit to being overly harsh when casting aside your opinions on Cuba – certainly one can come to an informed decision on a country without visiting it. I would have served my own argument better to say what I really believed: That my opinion has more merit simply because I have been there and have interacted with the people. I’m sure you’d feel the same way about someone with a differing opinion about, say, Peru. Hands-on experience, in almost everything -- not just travel -- counts for more. (Parallels could be drawn to the general lack of respect given to a foreign policy backed by a president who had never left the country…)
• I would argue that Freedom of Speech lies at the very center of our discussion of personal safety in Cuba! We’re talking about jailed journalists – my assumption is that they are incarcerated precisely because they attempted to exercise rights that we enjoy here in the U.S. In fact, all of your three bullets (peaceable assembly to protest, factual reporting of events, and the right of government redress) are freedoms of speech. The truth of the matter is that every country in the world has laws by which their citizens must abide or face the consequences. Yes, Castro’s communist regime makes living in Cuba, in our opinions, less preferable than living in the States. But when you look at our own laws you can find instances where people have been punished unfairly (if not unjustly) – look to the recent RIAA lawsuits for an example. I don’t want to minimize the plight of the people in Cuba who are suffering in prison, but I want to point out that the laws in Cuba are not kept secret. They knew the risks they were taking when they decided to break the law and yet they still made the decision to do so. We’ve got a saying for that: If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. (And if they didn’t know they were breaking the law, we’ve got a saying for that, too: Ignorance does not equal innocence.)
You’re right. Cubans don’t enjoy many of the rights that we do. I really do think that’s unfortunate, but I also believe that they have it better under Castro than they did under Batista. Hopefully, once Castro is gone, the situation will improve even more. It’s my hope that some day, without our government’s intervention (which implies the removal of the trade embargo), their citizens will enjoy rights close to ours.
By the way, my digression about the arrogance of thinking our American system is perfect wasn’t directed at you. I believe that we still have many problems with our own legal system and it doesn’t take too much effort to find examples of what I would consider to be violations of the same rights you use as examples (right to speedy trial by jury, immunity from double jeopardy, no cruel and unusual punishment.) We agree that a Cuban citizen’s rights are less enviable than an American’s. I guess my point is that there is so much more to Cuba than that.
• It’s very interesting how we both take what we want from each other’s cited articles. After reading your article, you see the government sanctioning of cruel and unusual punishments while I see indications that allow me to remain optimistic and hope that the guards in Cuba will be held accountable for their actions. After reading my referenced article, I see the cruelty of being jailed in our prisons while you applaud the fact that U.S. guards caught beating prisoners will be punished. We’re both biased, and at some point I’m sure we’ll have to agree to disagree.
• I find it disheartening that you won’t consider visiting Cuba, especially since the reasons you state for not doing so are misrepresented. You don’t need to be a student to visit Cuba, I believe I mentioned other ways around that – not all of them illegal. Visiting Cuba in mid-December can be quite comfortable, climatically speaking. Sure, there are some places that are unbearably hot, but because Cuba is a geographically diverse country, there were plenty of places where my fellow Alaskans felt the need to put on a sweater, as well. Yes, taking significant time off from work and the costs of travel are the big hurdles, I agree, but the Whole Point of me writing about Cuba in my blog is to an attempt to show people that making the effort is worth it. Part of that is the cigars, yes. Rum and beautiful women, also. And sun, and beaches, and wonderful food, and music, and dancing, and yes, dammit: It’s safe and friendly, too! ;)
Someday I hope Cuba gets the benevolent leader its people so deserve. I can’t help but wonder, though, how that will change the country. Is it communism that makes the people come together and celebrate life through their dance and music? Is it the harsh conditions? Does the oppressive government and their stiff punishments for crimes against the State account for it? I don’t know. All I do know is that Cuba is a unique place and once Castro is gone, it’s going to change. I want them to find their own way, though (even if they have to go through a bloody, Haiti-like revolution), because if Capitalist America has her way, that unique Caribbean island will soon be filled with Citibank cards, Disney resorts, McDonald’s restaurants, and Hollywood movies. That’s only a bad thing, I suppose, if you’ve never left the United States.
You’ve got some very strong opinions that I think would make fascinating reading, Karl, but my web blog isn’t the place for discussions like this simply because I struggle with my own desire to delete whatever I don’t like. One could think of that as censorship, I suppose, but because this is my site I get to view it as editing. At any rate, don’t kid yourself into thinking that you can’t frame and argument as well as I can. As your second comment shows, when take the time to write it out, your points come across quite perspicaciously! I think you should give some serious thought to creating a web log of your own. If you’d like some help, I would be more than happy get you started!
-A.
Posted by Arlo @ 02/25/2004 01:25 PM ADST
