Live Learn Travel at Friendship Tours World Travel Blog: Peace Works

We've Moved!

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 18:58:00 +0000

Our blog can now be found on our new website, here. We hope to see you there!

JOHN LENNON | Dan Bull [spot the song titles]

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 23:42:00 +0000

Navigating Nicaragua: A Lesson In Getting Lost

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 13:50:00 +0000

A motorcyclist drives past a mural of revolutionary heroes in Managua, Nicaragua. Most streets in the country don't have names. People give directions by using reference points, mostly Lake Managua, when in the capital. Carrie Kahn/NPR

by CARRIE KAHN

August 16, 2014

One of the most popular songs by the Irish band U2 is about a place where the streets have no names. That place could be Nicaragua, the small Central American nation where I just got back from a reporting trip.

While major boulevards and highways do have names in Nicaragua, and some buildings even have numbers, no one uses them. So if you are trying to get around or find an office building, let's say to interview someone, then you're in trouble.

The way to navigate Nicaragua, I quickly learned, is by reference points. When in the capital, most involve the lago, Lake Managua. Two blocks to the lake, then go three blocks south and one down. Lost? I was, constantly.

But I had help from my Nicaraguan producer, Dorisell Blanco, who thankfully also did all the driving. Her address: Start from the place where all the journalists live, head south to the entrance, go two blocks down, one to the south, two more down and then almost to the corner to the green wall.

That address is what's written on all the bills that come to her house and in the phone book. "God help her the day they paint that wall a different color than green ... everyone is going to get lost," Blanco says.

But people don't seem to get lost, and the mail and pizzas get delivered. The firemen also get to the fires, insists fire chief Francisco Reyes.

"We're all used to it ... so it's hard just for the out-of-towners," Reyes says. Though he admits he has received some odd directions. Once a dispatcher gave him the reference point, and then said from there go three blocks down and three blocks up. He was back where he started.

If that isn't mind-numbing enough, there are two more complicating factors when getting directions: the vara and what I call the donde fue. Vara is an old Spanish measurement that turns out, depending where you are in the world, is about a yard. People will tell you often to go two varas south and then one vara north. It's used interchangeably with a block, but a much shorter distance.

The donde fue direction, now, that's the toughest. That's a reference for something that used to be there. For example, the church that fell in the 1972 earthquake or a supermarket long closed, but everyone used to go to.

But here's the best part of the system: It works. That's because everyone helps out. Once you get close to your reference point, you start asking for directions. Everyone we ever asked was very willing to help. The direction discussion usually turned into a five-minute ordeal, not efficient at all, but always, always, extremely friendly.

Friendship Tours' student brings clean water to Rwanda

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 17:10:00 +0000

Clean water for all.

In January sixteen-year-old Cole Kawana joined a school trip to visit Network for Africa’s projects in Rwanda. But before he left Los Angeles he spent months researching the everyday challenges faced by people in developing countries. One of those stumbling blocks, Cole knew, was lack of access to clean water.

Cole demonstrates his water filters to Aspire staff and participants.

Cole found a potential solution: a water filter that could serve 100 people for up to five years, removing 99.9% of harmful bacteria. It uses no chemicals, and relies on gravity to force the unclean water through the filter. Each filter costs £30/$50, which works out as 50 cents for five years’ worth of clean water for each person.

Cole asked Network for Africa if he could run a pilot project with our partner Aspire in Kigali. Cole then raised enough money to buy twelve filters, and warned us to have dirty water and five-gallon buckets at the ready. Once Cole was in Rwanda his school group spent time at Aspire, watching the Aspire team as they taught local women about health, hygiene, nutrition, First Aid, and about their legal rights. He also saw women being trained in hairdressing and cookery.

When Cole’s moment came, dozens of people gathered around to watch as he demonstrated how to use the filters. It took only 20 minutes to turn dirty, cloudy water into clear water suitable for drinking. Cole then trained several members of the Aspire staff to use the filters, and they have since taken them to schools in the area. The filters were so popular that when he returned to California, Cole raised money for a further twelve filters, which were taken to Kigali by representatives of Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation.

Cole holds a jar of dirty water next to a jar of purified water.

Cole is now setting up his own non-profit, Clean Water Ambassadors. He intends to produce an online demonstration, with Skype tuition sessions on the proper maintenance of the filters. His ethos is not to spend money on postage or air travel: he will rely on people traveling to parts of the world where the water filters are needed, and connecting with local non-profits they already know. Since his visit to Aspire earlier this year, Cole’s filters are now being used in Tanzania, Uganda, Belize and Fiji. Network for Africa is proud to have played a part in the birth of an smart solution to an age-old problem.

Nixon reframes Watergate scandal in rereleased 1983 interviews

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:24:00 +0000

President Nixon's farewell on Aug. 9, 1974, as he boards a helicopter at the White House. (Associated Press)

By MAEVE RESTON

On the eve of Richard Nixon's resignation 40 years ago, he could hear protesters chanting outside the White House as he retired to the Lincoln Sitting Room to make calls.

The distant shouting reminded him of the height of the Vietnam War protests. "Except this time," he recalled during the more than 30 hours of interviews that he did with his former aide Frank Gannon in 1983, "the chant was 'Jail the Chief! Jail the Chief!'"

But the 37th president was unmoved. "It didn't bother me," he said, smiling in his conversation with Gannon nearly a decade later. "You know, after all, I'd been heckled by experts."

Click to view video

It was that brazen side of Nixon — impervious to criticism and casting himself as a victim even as he stepped down — that infuriated millions of Americans during what became a moment of national shame. Nixon's deception and abuse of executive power stunned the nation.

The Gannon-Nixon tapes, part of Nixon's post-presidency attempt to rehabilitate his reputation, are being rereleased this week for a new generation by the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum and the Richard Nixon Foundation to mark the 40th anniversary of his resignation and the presidential scandal known as Watergate.

The clips in the series are appearing day by day through Saturday on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Sitting down with his longtime aide in a nonconfrontational setting — markedly different from the contentious Frost/Nixon interviews of 1977 — the former president frames one of the most famous political scandals in his own words.

The tapes are being billed by the library as revealing the former president's more emotional, candid and reflective side. They are at varying times maudlin, craven, emotional; even in 1983, Nixon appears to see himself as a man wronged, saying that he had resisted resigning because it would be an "admission of guilt" that would have set a bad example for future presidents.

While they do not provide new revelations about the Watergate affair, which began as a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, they do provide intimate details of the Nixon family's last hours at the White House and a powerful leader's gradual submission to the politically inevitable.

The damning revelations of his involvement in the Watergate coverup by then were rolling into public view. He had lost the three votes he was counting on in the House Judiciary Committee to protect him from impeachment. Key supporters were abandoning him. And he could not bear the spectacle of going on trial before the Senate as "a crippled, half-time president."

But in Nixon's mind, he was still a victim, the tapes indicate. Even in those final White House days, he was still defiant about what had "happened" to him, basking in the adulation of loyal aides, and nurturing his lingering hesitation with a note left in his bedroom by his daughter Julie, who begged him to "go through the fire," noting that millions still supported him.

Click to view video

"I'm a fighter; I just didn't want to quit," Nixon said. "Also, I thought it would be an admission of guilt, which of course it was," he added. "And ... it would set a terribly bad precedent for the future."

But the damning tape of the "smoking gun" conversation, recorded in the Oval Office only a few days after the break-in and firmly establishing his knowledge of the burglary and coverup, "was the final blow, the final nail in the coffin. Although you didn't need another nail if you were already in the coffin, which we were."

Nixon recalled calling his family together and bringing with him a transcript of the tape to convince them he had to resign.

After his televised address to the nation on the night of Aug. 8, 1974, Nixon walked back to the residence with top advisor Henry Kissinger. "He said, 'Mr. President, history is going to record that you were a great president."

"I thought it would be an admission of guilt, which of course it was,” former President Nixon said in a 1983 interview of his reluctance to resign. (Raiford Communications)

Nixon's version of events is once again stirring debate among historians, some of whom say it represents a misleading view of a crucial chapter in American history. Watergate historian Stanley Kutler described the videos as a desperate attempt to "rewrite history" and said he had urged the library to create a more informative exhibit. "This was Nixon carefully programmed.... This was Nixon in the middle of his last campaign."

Nixon asserted, for example, that he had already made up his mind to resign before the incriminating "smoking gun" tape was revealed.

"That's not true," said Kutler, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "He was still trying that day to stay in office — and finally one Republican congressman after another told him he had to quit."

In Yorba Linda on Tuesday, there was no rush of visitors to see the excerpts on display, selected from the interviews and played in a loop in a darkened theater.

For much of the day, the theater was nearly empty as a few older couples and the occasional family trickled in to watch them. Many visitors seemed oblivious to the anniversary and said they did not know that the tapes were new. Some said they were too young to remember Nixon's resignation; others said they had become more fond of him over the years.

For 81-year-old Nancy Jerdee of Chandler, Ariz., there was not much new, but it brought back her sadness from that day. "I lived through all of that," she said, describing Nixon as a great president. "It was such a stupid thing to have to resign over.... Presidents have done a lot worse than that."

Nixon recalled that he did not sleep much the night before his last day in the White House. When he awoke, he realized that the battery had worn out on his watch — it had stopped at 4 p.m. on his last day as president. "By that time," he said, "I was worn out too."

Nixon recalled how he closed his eyes as he stepped aboard the helicopter for the last time. "I heard Mrs. Nixon speaking to no one in particular, but to everyone," he said. "It's so sad," he remembered her saying. "It's so sad."

Cambodia Power-Sharing Deal Could Usher In Wider Democratic Reform

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 17:17:00 +0000

Last week, Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties agreed to a power-sharing arrangement, bringing an end to a political crisis dating back to the country’s July 2013 general elections. The year-long standoff included an opposition boycott of parliament and mass protests that recently culminated in violent clashes and the arrest of seven opposition lawmakers-elect for charges of “leading an insurrection.”

The opposition party, the National Rescue Party (CNRP), under the leadership of Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, had bitterly contested the results of last year’s polls, in which the National Election Committee (NEC) announced the long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen as the winner. The opposition alleged massive electoral fraud and demanded an independent investigation, a new election, an overhaul of the NEC and, at times, the resignation of Hun Sen. The government suppressed CNRP-led protests and ultimately imposed a ban on public demonstrations, including the January closure of Freedom Park, a state-designated space for public protest that had become the opposition party’s symbolic rallying point for its democratic struggle. ...

By Kheang Un, July 31, 2014, Briefing

Don’t Know Much About History

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:00:00 +0000

The architects of our foreign-policy disasters would prefer we simply forget the past.

Clockwise from top left: Elliott Abrams, Henry Kissinger, Bill Kristol, Dick Cheney
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta; Reuteres/Pascal Lauener; Gage Skidmore CC2.0;
AP Photo/Richard Drew)

I recently happened to be in the audience for a discussion on the legacy of World War I, held at the Thompson/Reuters headquarters in New York City, when Henry Kissinger made an amazing observation: of the five major wars that the United States has fought since World War II, all were entered on behalf of “idealistic principles.” No less surprising to me was the fact that nobody else in the crowded room of media and policy bigwigs appeared to find anything odd about that statement. Given what we now know about the lies, deception and corruption that preceded the most catastrophic of these wars—Vietnam and the second Iraq War—to call them “idealistic” is to purposely evade history at best, or (more accurately) to rewrite it purely on the basis of ideology rather than evidence.

Now Kissinger, at 91, may be pretty old and famously amoral, but he is not senile and has never been stupid. He offered his blinkered version of recent events before a room full of knowledgeable people because he figured nobody really cared one way or another. After all, it was “history”—which, in contemporary American political culture, is another word for “irrelevant.” And it is this contempt for history, as the cliché correctly advises, that condemns our nation to continually repeat it. The circumstances may differ, but the pathology remains unchanged.

Neocons are surpremely aware of this tendency and exploit it to the fullest. In fact, most of their careers would be impossible without it. Would Elliott Abrams be able to mouth off as a respected Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, attacking Barack Obama in a recent Politico piece as “The Man Who Broke the Middle East,” if his patrons took the time to consider that Abrams both enabled and ran political interference for what the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice has deemed a genocidal dictatorship? (Abrams also got himself disbarred in the District of Columbia for his lies to Congress about these and other crimes in which he participated while serving in the Reagan administration, both before and after the Iran/Contra affair.) Should that stretch American memory muscles beyond their breaking point, how about the fact that this criminal, while serving on the National Security Council during Bush II, himself helped to “break” the Middle East by undermining the 2006 Palestinian elections, which helped lead to the creation of a Hamas-run rump state in Gaza in the first place? And yet he somehow gets away with the crazy claim that “the Middle East that Obama inherited in 2009 was largely at peace” in order to blame its alleged collapse on the current president. (Politico is, conveniently, the ground zero of American political ahistoricity: virtually everything it publishes occurred during the previous twenty-four hours and will cease to matter within the next forty-eight.)

Numerous observers have expressed incredulity over the eagerness of so many media mavens to allow the discredited armchair warriors of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq to dominate discussion of the current crisis in that country—a crisis whose foundations they helped put in place. In a saner world, each one would, at a minimum, be required to answer the following question: “Given your record the last time this issue arose, why in the world should we listen to anything you have to say today?” But as the respective rehabilitations of Henry Kissinger and Elliott Abrams demonstrate, being a known liar and an arguable (Kissinger) or unarguable (Abrams) enabler of genocide is no barrier to career advancement in the American establishment, thanks to the collective amnesia of its most elite institutions, especially its elite media.

Sometimes they lie outright. Here are Dick and Liz Cheney writing in The Weekly Standardregarding the Iraq invasion: “It is undisputed, and has been confirmed repeatedly in Iraqi government documents captured after the invasion, that Saddam had deep, longstanding, far-reaching relationships with terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda and its affiliates.”

Undisputed? Really? How about, just for starters, the 9/11 Commission, before which Cheney testified. Its final report, as Warren Bass noted in The Wall Street Journal, states that the commission has “seen no evidence [of] a collaborative operational relationship. Nor have we seen evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States.”

William Kristol, perhaps the wrongest pundit in all of American history—and hence also the most sought-after by media institutions like The Washington Post, The New York Times,Time, ABC News, etc.—demonstrates a coy agnosticism when it comes to the choice between outright fabrication and contempt for the historical record. He doesn’t mind pretending, as he did on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos, that the current crisis was caused by what he termed “our ridiculous and total withdrawal from Iraq in 2011,” when in fact that withdrawal had been decided on in the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement negotiated with the Iraqi government by George W. Bush. But Kristol is just as comfortable asserting in The Weekly Standard (in an article written with Frederick Kagan), “Now is not the time to re-litigate either the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 or the decision to withdraw from it in 2011.” This is perhaps the only path available to someone with the chutzpah to insist, back in April 2003, that it was merely a “kind of pop sociology in America that, you know, somehow the Shia can’t get along with the Sunni,” when that same person today is calling for yet another attack on the country to deal with the Sunni/Shiite massacres inspired by the earlier one. But as Kristol, Cheney, Abrams and Kissinger demonstrate over and over, success within our political punditocracy means never having to say you’re sorry.

Eric Alterman

July 16, 2014

Laos, US Legacy, and Unexploded Ordnance

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:49:00 +0000

JULY 23, 2014 / PROSPERCSIS

For decades, Laos’ economic development and relationship with the United States has been strained by unexploded ordnance (UXO), a legacy of the Vietnam War.

Roughly 30 percent of the two million tons of bombs that the United States dropped in Laos during the Vietnam War failed to detonate on impact. To date, only about one percent of affected land has been cleared and over twenty-thousand people have been killed or injured by UXO since 1975.

However, in January 2014, Congress allocated $12 million in funding towards UXO assistance programs in Laos as part of the omnibus spending bill, four times the average annual UXO budget from 1995-2013. This creates an opportunity for the United States to address a key flashpoint in U.S.-Lao relations while making strategic development inroads with the largest single benefactor of Chinese investment in the region.

Since the end of the bombing in 1975, the United States has provided $74 million in UXO assistance in Laos, with forty-percent allocated in the last five years.

Laos receives an annual $4 billion from China in mining, hydropower, and agricultural investments.

U.S. assistance towards improving UXO clearance efficiency will focus on providing better technology and training programs, assistance for families and victims, as well as developing the capacity of national institutions to absorb this assistance.

In previous years, clearance operators reduced cluster bomb related casualties from an average of roughly 300 per year to 41 in 2013. The increase of resources, if leveraged efficiently, can bolster these efforts and set the stage for significant economic development in the country.

There is a long road ahead – or rather very little road. UXO cover half of the country, and as a result only about 53 percent of national roads and 3 percent of local roads are paved. Additionally, there is no national or transnational railway system, and roughly 40 percent of villages and 10 percent of district centers lack road access during the rainy season. Clearing land from UXOs alone add 30 to 40 cents in cost per square meter of road creation. As a result, large segments of the population remain isolated from basic social services.

UXO has also impacted critical investments in institutional infrastructure including schools, hospitals, water supply facilities, and power plants as scarce public funds are diverted to clearance efforts. The result has been a slew of development challenges that plague Laos, including falling literacy rates (from 89 percent in 2005 to 77 percent in 2012), poor access to clean water and sanitation, and an inconsistent supply of power.

The proliferation of UXO in Laos has stunted development efforts and prevented the creation of infrastructure needed to attract and absorb foreign investment. For example, the World Bank’s 2014 Doing Business Indicators estimates that it costs an additional $1,155 to ship a container across a border from Laos than it does to ship one from Cambodia. In addition, investors surveyed complained that even with low-wages, poor physical and institutional infrastructure, and a poorly educated workforce make the labor force uncompetitive compared to neighboring countries like Cambodia.

UXO also severely hampers Lao agricultural productivity and contributes to persistent food crises as farmers are unable to expand production onto otherwise fertile land. Although agriculture employs 76 percent of the population, it accounts for less than 1 percent of total GDP and as of 2011, only 7 percent of total land in Laos is being used for agriculture.

It is within the United States’ interest to ensure a prosperous Laos, and addressing the issue of UXOs is the first step toward this direction. Laos will ascend to the ASEAN chairmanship in 2016, and like its predecessors Brunei and Myanmar, will be well-poised to influence the agenda in the region. To this end, the UXO issue is low-hanging fruit that yields high dividends in terms of both developmental and political gains. The United States has the chance to construct a new legacy in Laos, and for a host of reasons, it should seize the opportunity.

Image courtesy of Flickr under creative commons license.

Elena Rosenblum is a researcher for the Project on U.S. Leadership in Development at CSIS

Press Conference: Advocates Call for End of U.S. Support of African Tyrants

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:52:00 +0000

IPS' Foreign Policy In Focus joins a diverse U.S. based activist coalition focusing on Africa is calling on U.S. leaders to cease their support and empowerment of brutal dictators across Africa.

A diverse U.S. based activist coalition focusing on Africa is calling on U.S. leaders to cease their support and empowerment of brutal dictators across Africa. The Coalition will host a press conference ahead of the first ever U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit to take place in Washington, DC in early August.

The Coalition will focus on U.S. support for strongmen in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The people of these countries have been caught in a dictatorial death trap since the Clinton Administration that has resulted in millions dead due to wars of aggression and internal repression. The U.S. has dubbed these tyrannical strongmen, a “new breed” of “Renaissance” leaders of Africa in spite of the havoc they have wreaked on the African continent. Other heads of state from Ethiopia, Egypt and elsewhere on the continent will also be addressed during the press conference. A special focus will be placed on heads of state who are seeking to change their constitutions to remove term limits so they can remain in power in perpetuity.

Paul Rusesabagina (who performed Raul Wallenberg-type heroics during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and whose story has been captured in the movie “Hotel Rwanda”) is expected to lead the appeal in calling for an end to the support the U.S. provides to these African strongmen. Other expected speakers include: Congolese human rights activist Nita Evele; genocide survivor Claude Gatebuke; and Ugandan Publisher Milton Allimadi.

Co-sponsors: Coalition members include: Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN); African Great Lakes Action Network (AGLAN); Don’t Be Blind This Time; Foreign Policy in Focus; Friends of the Congo (FOTC); Hope Congo (HC); Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF); Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Congo (MJPC) and la Fédération Internationale des Droits de l’Homme (FIDH).

Details

Date:

July 31

Time:

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Event Category:

Press Briefing

Venue

National Press Club

529 Fourteenth Street NW,Washington, DC 20045 United States

+ Google Map

MAG - Focus on Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 11:56:00 +0000

Two more children die 40 years later

I have worked for seven years for MAG in Quang Binh as a Community Liaison Officer, and have heard about so many accidents in the poor villages: two 14-year-old boys, one killed and one badly injured when they set off a submunition in the schoolyard; a man, who is still suffering from the ballbarings pinned in his body as a result of an explosion; three children, one killed and two injured when they were trying to help their poor parents by risking their lives to collect the scrap metal. I have never witnessed the accidents, but could feel how terrible they were through the conversations with the victims or their families. Yesterday, this changed when an accident occurred 2 km from where I was working - an accident that killed two children, aged 9 and 5, in front of their parents.

It was a hot summer day and our teams were collecting information about the location of unexploded ordnance in Dong Giang village, Hung Trach Commune when we received news that two brothers had been killed 2 km away - they had been tampering with a submunition in front of their house. We went to the site immediately. It was in a rundown house, surrounded by hundreds of people. I couldn’t tell who was the mother of the two kids, among the many crying women there, but one person pointed out the father, still recovering from a recent traffic accident. He couldn’t move, screaming on his knees: “Today is my sons’ first day of summer holiday. How painful! Why didn’t God let me die for my sons, why did he take my sons away? They were still so young.” I couldn’t stop the tears streaming down my face; my heart really hurt.

I saw the pliers and a pair of broken sunglasses that they used to tamper with the submunition, a pair of torn sandals, a hole on the floor, and the balls. I went closer to the bed in the center of the house where the remaining bodies of the two kids lay. Someone pulled the blanket up, revealing the two dead bodies - one had no head: legs and hands were smashed and blown away. People were picking up pieces of flesh stuck on the wall to put in a bowl, placing it beside the bodies. What a terrifying scene. I closed my eyes, felling breathless, and ran out. People were crying louder and louder.

Above: Tools the kids used to tamper with the submunition

Why did these innocent kids have to die? The older brother was a good pupil at school. He was just nine years old but always tried to help his parents. Every day he walked far to bring back some clean water for the family and took care of his five-year-old brother while their parents were out: a bright future was ahead of them. But the legacy of the war, which ended 40 years ago, has taken their lives away.

I informed a victim assistance organization of the accident, so they might provide support to the family. I left MAG’s hotline number there, in case they needed help. This village was on our list for operations next month. I wished MAG had been there earlier; maybe this accident could have been stopped.

I suddenly thought of my three-year-old son. This should never happen again - I have to do something. I will start teaching my son the first lesson of mine risk education today.

By Mai Chi

MAG Vietnam CLO

MAG - Focus on Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 22:13:00 +0000

For 25 years, MAG has been working to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance and, for 15 of those years, we have been in Vietnam. As a result, we have staff there who have spent their careers with MAG, working to make their country a safer place.

Most of the stories in this newsletter are written directly by those staff, so you can hear their voices as they represent MAG’s life-saving and life-changing two-fold approach – how we are the necessary first step in development for the poorest communities in Vietnam and how we represent hope for the wounded and families of the dead – hope that we can finally stop children from being killed from bombs from over 40 years ago.

Helping the Poorest Farmers in Vietnam

by Le Van Minh, Community Liaison Officer, MAG Vietnam

"I didn’t know what happened. There was a very big bang and I found myself covered in blood. I could hear people around me discussing how to take me to the hospital. The village was even poorer then: there was no ambulance, no taxi, no motorbike, not even a bicycle. They had to carry me in a hammock for 25 kilometers to the nearest medical facility. My hands had been blown off and my body was riddled with shrapnel.”

Pictured here is Nguyen Dinh Thu, whose family is one of 700 households in my home province of Quang Tri to benefit from a sustainable agriculture development project, undertaken by MAG and one of our development partners, Roots of Peace. Thu knows the danger of UXO very well. The above quotation describes his experience when he was 21, and his hoe struck a bomb that had stayed undisturbed for 13 years, since the end of the war.

MAG cleared Thu's land in Son Ha village in 2012, removing 11 unexploded ordnance (UXO) items, enabling him to plant pepper trees so that he can earn a living with his wife and two children.

Pepper is a traditional crop and an important industry here in Quang Tri, due to its suitability to the local weather and soil. Pepper from the province is prized in Vietnam and around the world, and has a high value on the market.

However, many of the most suitable areas for cultivating pepper remain contaminated by UXO left over from the Vietnam War and, due to the farming technique required (digging of trenches up to one metre deep), most pepper farmers underuse the land because of the high risk of UXO accidents.

"We will use the additional income to send our children to school"

MAG means farming and education - please donate.

Thu’s land was identified as a priority for the project that aims to produce commercial crops for the poorest farmers in the area. In total, MAG cleared 9,721m² of land at 17 pepper plantation areas, from May to August 2012, finding and destroying 69 UXO items.

Quang Tri Province, Vietnam

Roots of Peace then helped with seeds and fertilizer, as well as technical support to the farmers. On the cleared plantations, 1,043 one-year-old pepper plants are now growing well, and in two years, the first crop will be harvested.

"We will use the additional income to send our children to school," Thu told me.

MAG's work promotes development in Vietnam. New houses have been built, and new schools and roads constructed, on the land cleared by MAG.

June 2014

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7 Faces of Vietnam

All photos: Sean Sutton/MAG

The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but explosive weapons dropped on the country continue to devastate lives to this day.

Countless unexploded bombs, missiles, artillery shells, mortars and grenades still pose a risk of detonation [There is no precise estimate of how much contamination remains*] – killing and maiming men, women and children.

This unexploded ordnance (UXO) also restricts access to agricultural land, and affects the construction of housing, roads and other infrastructure – stifling development and keeping communities in poverty.

Hear from some of the people affected below...

* Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor

1) Eighty-year-old Mrs. Hoang remembers the Vietnam War and its aftermath well...

"I was here in this village 30 years ago," she said. "There were holes and craters everywhere. The authorities gave me a plot of land to grow rubber trees. When I went there I saw bombies [cluster submunitions] everywhere, so I asked for another plot.

"The other plot was much further away from the village and I discovered it was even worse! An old man helped me: he picked up all the bombs and buried them in a hole."

[Quang Binh province]

(2) A grieving mother...

Thai's son, Vu, was killed when he set off a BLU3/B cluster submunition in the schoolyard.

His friend, Nam, was injured in the same explosion: "Vu called me over to see something he had found. It was metal and was a yellow color. He started to poke it with a nail and there was a big explosion. I felt pain in my body. I didn’t know what had happened.

"Vu was on the ground with holes in him. I had blood coming out and was shocked. I arrived at hospital and, since then, it has been terrible. My friend is dead."

"It is so unfair," said Nam's mother. "He's just a boy and he didn’t know. He didn’t know it was a bomb. He didn't know it would blow up."

[Quang Binh province]

(3) Tung Van Duc used to collect scrap metal – a deadly business in Vietnam...

"The accident happened on December 13, 2004. I was a farmer, but found it hard to support my family, so I collected scrap metal as well. I knew the job could be dangerous, because I knew several people that had been killed [in unexploded ordnance accidents] doing it.

"On the day of my accident, I was working with my metal detector and found a grenade about 30cm deep in the ground. It was aluminium, so it was valuable. I didn’t know that this grenade was still dangerous.

"I brought it home and used my hammer to open it up, to get the aluminium. It exploded and the next thing I remember was being in hospital. I felt a lot of pain and couldn’t see.

“It wasn’t until a while later that I was told that my wife and one of my sons had also been injured. My wife had shrapnel in her lungs and legs. My son, who was 10, was less seriously injured.

"Since then, life has been very hard. We are the poorest family in the village. I can’t do anything. I can’t see. My wife can’t do heavy work and still suffers pain, but she has to do the farming.

"My son never went to school after the accident. He has never been the same since that day – he has been traumatized. He's able to do some laboring work, but he can’t do much.

"I still keep my detector: it is a reminder of that terrible day; a reminder that things will never be the same."

[Quang Nam province]

(4) Duong, mother of three, has been working for MAG for 13 years...

"I wanted to remove UXO [unexploded ordnance]. There is still so much UXO after the war, and we need to make land safe for families and for the country.

"Before working for MAG, life was very difficult for my family. I didn't have a job and my husband's work in a cement factory paid him very little. When I started this job, my family was very worried because of the danger, but now they understand and are very proud of me.

"We've been able to buy a small plot of land, and my children all go to school. They have notebooks and other things that they need. Life is good and I'm happy.

"I'm proud, as a woman, to do this work. After work, I have to go to the market and look after the children [her children are aged four, 12 and 16]. When I'm working, my grandmother looks after them."

[Quang Tri province]

5) Mrs. Nguyen's land was cleared by MAG...

This photo was taken shortly after MAG had checked Mrs Nguyen’s land to make sure it was clear of unexploded cluster submunitions ["bombies", to the locals].

"My son found bombies and mortars here, so I’m so happy that it’s safe and we can extend our house," she said.

[Quang Nam province]

(6) Mr. Nam found a mortar bomb in his garden...

He is convinced there are more bombs under the ground: "I am too frightened to use the land. When MAG has finished clearing it, I'll grow vegetables to begin with, and then extend my house. I have three children and when they get bigger, we'll need more space."

[Quang Nam province]

(7) One of the many beneficiaries of MAG's work in Vietnam...

More than 600,000 people directly benefited from our work to make lives and land safe in Vietnam, during 2013.

[Quang Nam province]

Online School for Girls puts focus on connection, collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 11:57:00 +0000

Xochitl Green in the computer lab at Marlborough School. She took an Online School for Girls class in Advanced Placement psychology, which was not offered at the school. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

By SARA HAYDEN

Much to English teacher Ed Raines' surprise, his students had never heard Puccini's soaring melodies that inspired David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," nor the way Louis Armstrong could make a trumpet talk in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man."

In the middle of a faculty meeting at Westridge School in Pasadena, he passed his colleague, a music teacher, a note. "What if we could build an entire curriculum based on pairing music and English together?" recalled Leo Kitajima, the music instructor who had visited Raines' classroom to discuss musical references in literature.

Last year, the teachers found a way to make their dream course a reality when Westridge became part of Online School for Girls, a nonprofit consortium of independent schools dedicated to educating girls. It's grown to include more than 80 schools that will offer about 1,050 enrollments this year to middle and high school students.

As educators, we need to decide where

we fit in that landscape. I felt like it was time to ante in

or we were going to fall behind.

- Director of Westridge's Upper School Margaret Shoemaker

Paid by the online school, Raines and Kitajima built the course on their own time. Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition: The Music of Literature will be offered for the first time this fall.

Westridge is one of eight schools in Los Angeles County offering the online classes. The others are Marlborough School, the Archer School for Girls, Campbell Hall, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Louisville High School, Marymount High School and Yeshiva of Los Angeles Girls High School. To join, schools pay a one-time fee that's adjusted according to their size, and some help students pay tuition, which costs $1,419.75. Students outside the consortium can take the classes by paying a fee of $1,577.50.

The schools say that the cost is worth it and that they chose the 5-year-old Online School for Girls over other online options because it shares the same philosophies in teaching girls through creativity, practical lessons and by building bonds.

"In so many instances, technology is a distraction to relationships," said Jemma Giddings, Westridge's assistant head of school, but with Online School for Girls, "the emphasis is on connection and the emphasis is on collaboration. That's the intersection right where Westridge lives."

Online School for Boys will launch this fall and will pair with independent boys schools that educate their students with a focus on trust, purpose and character.

Margaret Shoemaker, director of Westridge's Upper School, said she was excited to have more opportunities for blended learning, or a mix of digital and in-class instruction, after attending an education technology conference.

"As educators, we need to decide where we fit in that landscape," Shoemaker said. "I felt like it was time to ante in or we were going to fall behind."

By separating them according to sex

you're really acting as though all girls

are the same or all boys are the same.

- Diane Halpern

Westridge encourages its students to enroll in the online courses if they have a scheduling conflict or a special interest that's beyond the scope of its offerings on campus. They are taught by other independent, specially trained instructors from across the country and the world, including such places as Albania, Taiwan and Uganda. Classes are capped at 20 students each — setting the program apart from other online providers that don't limit enrollment.

Teachers upload lecture videos that students watch at their convenience. Girls complete homework assignments in a variety of formats such as audio, video or text, and upload them online. Classmates can share feedback on assignments in real time through a video chat, or by saving comments that can be accessed later.

In many cases, students take courses to "go beyond," says Online School for Girls Executive Director Brad Rathgeber. Courses such as psychology and computer science are especially popular among girls who are aiming to take Advanced Placement exams. Classes also prepare them for challenges outside of school.

Xochitl "Xochi" Green, an incoming senior at Marlborough School in Hancock Park, aspires to be a psychiatrist or neuroscientist. This summer, she said, she impressed her boss at a psychiatry internship with her newfound knowledge from an Online School for Girls AP psychology course.

"I really enjoyed the material in the class. I find myself talking about it all the time and using it," Xochi, 17, said. "Right away I could use some of the terminology I'd learned."

Online School for Girls stands out because it is specifically designed with girls in mind, Rathgeber said.

"It started with the idea that if you believe there's a power to creating single-gender classes on physical campuses, that could be translated to the online medium," Rathgeber said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.

Not all support a single-gender model. Diane Halpern, dean of the College of Social Sciences at the Minerva School at the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, coauthored a study that found academic performance is more closely aligned with socioeconomic circumstances, as opposed to whether a student is a boy or girl, and that single-sex education reinforces stereotypes.

"By separating them according to sex you're really acting as though all girls are the same or all boys are the same," Halpern said, adding that girls and boys alike can benefit from certain lessons. "Everyone needs to learn how to collaborate. Everyone needs to learn how to compete."

Erica Wu, who just graduated after supplementing her senior year with an Online School for Girls computer science class, said she appreciated having only female classmates at Westridge.

"The great thing about a girls-only school is that people are very open and not afraid to be judged by boys," Erica said.

But the 18-year-old didn't think it was essential to take the online classes with only girls; being behind a computer screen makes everyone more confident to share ideas regardless of gender, she said.

As a competitive athlete (she just returned from the U.S. Open for table tennis in Michigan and was one of the youngest athletes at the 2012 Olympics in London), she found the flexibility of the Online School for Girls to be invaluable.

"Online school worked perfectly with my schedule, because if I was out of the country, I could submit online. At school it fit in because if I didn't have class, I could go do computer science," Erica said.

She said the Online School for Girls enhanced her Westridge experience, but she wouldn't want it as a complete replacement.

"Online school is great," Erica said, "but there's also something to be said about being with your friends, having that face-to-face contact."

sara.hayden@latimes.com

Twitter: @haydensaraa

Statement by NSC Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden on U.S. Anti-Personnel Landmine Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:44:00 +0000

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

June 27, 2014

Statement by NSC Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden on U.S. Anti-Personnel Landmine Policy

Today at a review conference in Maputo, Mozambique, the United States took the step of declaring it will not produce or otherwise acquire any anti-personnel landmines (APL) in the future, including to replace existing stockpiles as they expire. Our delegation in Maputo made clear that we are diligently pursuing solutions that would be compliant with and ultimately allow the United States to accede to the Ottawa Convention—the treaty banning the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of APL. They also noted we are conducting a high fidelity modeling and simulation effort to ascertain how to mitigate the risks associated with the loss of APL. Other aspects of our landmine policy remain under consideration and we will share outcomes from that process as we are in a position to do so.

The United States shares the humanitarian goals of the Ottawa Convention, and is the world’s single largest financial supporter of humanitarian mine action, providing more than $2.3 billion in aid since 1993 in more than 90 countries for conventional weapons destruction programs. We will continue to support this important work, and remain committed to a continuing partnership with Ottawa States Parties and non-governmental organizations in addressing the humanitarian impact of APL.

U.S.-Cuban Relations on Higher Ed Level Continue to Grow

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 13:49:00 +0000

Something historic happened last January at Miami-Dade College. At a community college that stands as one of the nation’s largest institutions of higher education with approximately 170,000 students spread across seven campuses, 15 foreign exchange students from Cuba arrived at the school for a semester of study.

Despite the trade embargo and the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the United States and the communist island nation, American colleges have maintained relationships with Cuban universities for the last several decades. Many send professors and students to Cuba for study or research. But this was the first time in more than 50 years that the Cuban government had permitted students to come to the United States to study.

The student exchange is just one of several examples of change by the Cuban government in recent years. The government has relaxed some of its hardline policies and restrictions on issues like foreign travel by Cubans, as well as property and small business ownership. Political observers say some of these changes are driven by a need for a greater infusion of cash into the island nation. This way, a significant number of Cubans get to travel abroad. Some of these emigrants don’t return, but most send remittances back to relatives and friends at home, a move that significantly aids Cuba’s tattered economy.

This new form of openness by the Cuban government could lead to more bridge building between colleges and universities in both countries.

International students from Cuba are already studying at American colleges in small but slowly rising numbers. According to Open Doors data supplied by the Institute of International Education, 76 students from Cuba were enrolled in U.S. universities during the 2012-13 school year, up from 57 the previous year.

“There is a great desire from higher education institutions in both countries to see an increase and broadening of U.S.-Cuba exchanges,” IIE president Allan Goodman tells Diverse by email. “There are a number of U.S. college and university pioneers that have been bringing American students to Cuba for many years, but the opportunity for true mutual exchange remains challenging.”

Continues Goodman, “Despite a host of challenges, institutions in both countries have expressed the need to expand exchange opportunities; not only for students, but also for faculty and researchers. The potential for collaboration is clear and the motivation is high, but institutions will need to continue to navigate the ever-changing infrastructure to ultimately see any results.”

Some of the barriers to making programs like this happen are both financial and political. Most Cubans can’t afford the thousands of dollars (in some cases tens of thousands of dollars) to study at an American college. Moreover, many U.S. politicians still have tough attitudes about a communist regime that’s been running the Caribbean nation for 55 years. The state of Florida, for example, has a law that forbids public colleges from using state funds for Cuban-related programs or exchanges.

Most foreign exchange students pay their own way or get scholarships to come to the U.S. to study. The students’ tuition, travel and boarding expenses were paid for by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, which received a grant from a U.S. agency.

Students’ experiences

The students are a diverse mix of gender, race and age. While some of the students are teenagers, others have college degrees or law degrees, says Dr. Victor Vazquez-Hernandez, chair of the Social Sciences Department at the Miami-Dade Wolfson campus and the designated college official who oversaw the process of recommending courses for the students.

In addition to English language classes, the students, who are in the states on a six-month visa and are scheduled to return home in July, took courses in principles of business, psychology of personal effectiveness, introduction to computers and introduction to sociology. In all, they earned 12 credit hours apiece.

“The 12 credits are all transferrable,” says Vazquez-Hernandez. “They will transfer anywhere. The courses were chosen based on information we received about their needs.”

Vazquez-Hernandez says the campus and the community have embraced the students. “They’ve visited all campuses,” he notes. “They have had a chance to interact with students.”

Vazquez-Hernandez adds that the students met with a broad spectrum of the student body, including student leaders.

“One professor invited them to visit her history of Cuba class. They attended graduation on May 2. They were very taken by it. The faculty has indicated that the students have adapted well. They’ve been nothing but welcomed with open hands.”

As is typical with most international students, there have been some adjustments.

“It’s been intense for them because they have a schedule that is pretty full,” says Vazquez-Hernandez. “That took time to get used to. And the fact that they have free time — when you come from a system that is pretty regulated and no one is following you around — [that] took getting used to as well.”

Expanding exchange

The exchange program at Miami-Dade College has attracted the attention of other colleges.

Dr. Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, says his institution had been exploring the possibility of having a similar program at FIU, hoping to bring 15 to 20 students from Cuba.

He says he was pleasantly surprised to learn about the arrival of the Cuban exchange students at Miami-Dade College.

“I was disappointed we weren’t the first,” says Duany, a professor of anthropology.

He says FIU still plans to have an exchange program with a Cuban college. He says they would like to focus on specific areas like business administration, computer programming, English, hospitality and tourism management. Those latter areas, Duany says, are critical for the Cuban economy. He says these kinds of programs can be vital in erasing decades of enmity between the countries.

According to Duany, FIU is targeting next summer for the program, but admits pulling it off is complicated. He says university officials are trying to coordinate interdisciplinary faculty. The university has also identified private partners who would work with them and help fund the program since state law won’t permit the university to pay for it.

Duany says the academy is a great environment for bringing people of both nations together.

“The two countries don’t have diplomatic relations,” he notes. “So it is important to have this people-to-people contact. The university is probably the best place to have this happen.”

Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that has argued that the embargo is ineffective and counterproductive to U.S. interests, says the larger challenge moving forward will be how to expand programs like that at Miami-Dade College so it reaches a wider range of Cuban society and “not just singling out people because of their ideological beliefs.”

“It’s a great start,” he says. “The more people we have, the more diversity of opinion, race, geography and gender, the better. We can’t simply rely on one organization and one community college.”

Bilbao adds that, while he understands the natural affinity for Florida, he would like to see more exchange students from Cuba spread throughout the country.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies and a professor of history at the University of Miami, agrees that, for the program to have significant impact, it has to get bigger. But he says he’s not holding his breath.

“The Cuban government is not going to allow it on a large scale,” says Suchlicki, who left Cuba as a 19-year-old college student in 1960 and has not been back. “They are very concerned about penetrating influence. They are not going to allow it to happen on a large scale. There’s a reason why they’ve been in power for (55) years.”

by Lekan Oguntoyinbo

On Being Gay, And Socialist, In Cuba Today

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 21:03:00 +0000

by JASMINE GARSD

June 26, 2014 3:46 PM ET

Isbel Diaz Torres is an LGBT activist in Cuba. He sees his fight for equality as an extension of Cuba's socialist revolution.

David Gilkey/NPR

It was very late at night the last time Isbel Diaz Torres and his boyfriend were stopped by Cuban police.

"They asked for our IDs, which is a rare procedure," Diaz recalls.

The policeman then dropped the men's IDs on the floor.

" 'That's very funny for you, a very funny thing to do,' " Diaz, an LGBT activist, said to the policeman. " 'Because you want to humiliate me, that's right?' "

He took the policeman's information down and went to the station to report him.

"It wouldn't change anything, but it is my civic duty," the 38-year-old Diaz says.

There is a long history of homophobia on the island. "Sons of the bourgeois, they go around with their little pants that are too tight. ... They want to do their girlie scenes out in the open," is how former Cuban President Fidel Castro attacked the young opposition in a 1963 speech at the steps of the University of Havana.

During that time, gay people, along with other "counter-revolutionaries," were sent to forced labor camps.

Cuba's attitudes toward sexual orientation have changed a lot since then: There's been a recognition of LGBT rights, promoted in no small part by Castro's own niece, Mariela Castro. Fidel Castro himself has recently criticized the machismo culture of Cuba and urged for the acceptance of homosexuality.

Activists like Diaz acknowledge the importance of these changes, but say it's hardly enough. Diaz says it's happening mainly in Havana, the capital, where there are gay-friendly bars, for instance.

But Diaz says he wants to be more than just able to have a good time out in the open.

"We can socialize. We can be together and have fun together," he says. "But you cannot build political groups in those bars. You wouldn't be allowed."

Ultimately, Diaz wants concrete laws protecting the Cuban LGBT community.

"We recently have changes in the Communist Party where they included a clause claiming respect for people with different sexual orientation," he says. "But that is not enough, because most of the people here in Cuba are not part of the Communist Party. We need real laws."

The Young Cuban Who's Bringing Activism In Line With The Revolution

For example, if his boyfriend is in the hospital, Diaz wouldn't be able to visit him.

"Entrance to the hospital is limited to the familia, the close relatives," he says. "I wouldn't be allowed in ... even if we lived together for 13 years."

Attitudes toward the Cuban regime have traditionally been very polarized — split neatly between a right-leaning opposition and leftist supporters. But a new generation is changing that. Diaz represents a class of young socialists that is also highly critical of the government.

Diaz is a member of the group Observatorio Critico, or Critical Observatory, a network of collectives seeking a place in the Cuban political landscape. They have a blog, which they publish via email since Internet access is limited in Cuba. The activists aren't really able to see the final product, or the comments, but still like to have an online voice.

Staking a claim in cyberspace is difficult for these groups. Finding an actual physical meeting place is an even bigger challenge. Often, they meet in the park.

In fact, that's where we meet with Diaz; he says he doesn't feel safe bringing us to his house. But meeting in public to discuss discontent has its drawbacks — namely, unwelcome guests from the government listening in.

The Cuba Diaz envisions is one where everyone can be involved in the decision-making.

"We also are fighting for a country where all the differences can be shared," he says. "Racial differences or cultural differences or sexual differences can be, can live together, can find a space for themselves here."

It sounds utopian, but Diaz is OK with aiming high.

"Maybe centuries ago it was funny to talk about the eradication of slavery, and it happened," Diaz says. "I think utopia, that's what moves a lot of people and thinkers and people of action during the history of humankind. We don't have to be afraid of that."

Travel Freedom Raises Questions About U.S. Policies Toward Cuba

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 13:27:00 +0000

by GREG ALLEN

After being away for decades, many members of the first generation of Cuban-American exiles are returning to their native land. But there are still many uneasy with the relaxed travel restrictions.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene in Miami. We came here after a trip to Cuba. We visited the island now to try and understand how it's been evolving and what impact, if any, the changes have meant in people's lives. But one big change is actually playing out right here in Miami. We're going to talk about with NPR's Greg Allen who's based here. And I have the pleasure of sitting right next to him a park bench. Greg, it's good to see you.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hi, David.

GREENE: So we're in a neighborhood called Little Havana. Help us understand exactly what this place is.

ALLEN: Right, well, this was the neighborhood that was first settled by Cubans when they came to America, even before the Cuban revolution. In more recent years, though, many Cubans live, of course, throughout the entire state of Florida. This has remained, though, a cultural touchstone for Cuban-Americans. As you go up and down the street you see plenty of coffee shops - agencies where you can send money directly to Cuba - also botanicas, the little shops that have herbal remedies and religious paraphernalia. It's got a real feel, here, of Cuba.

GREENE: It does. I mean having just been in Havana, it's amazing how familiar it is. And you and I are actually sitting in a park looking at a huge map of Cuba, if we needed any help with the geography. But as important as the connections are - as important as Cuban culture is here, it's important to remember that a lot of people here in these neighborhoods around us, for a long time never traveled to the island even though it's so close.

ALLEN: Right, for many years - you had people who had arrived here, say, in the 1960s, and they wouldn't go back at all - refused to go back to the dictatorship, for one reason. Also, it was difficult. In recent years, though, we've had - the administration in Washington has lifted most of the restrictions on travel. So for Cuban-Americans, you can go to Cuba as much as you want. Also, even more surprisingly, we've had the Cuban government lift restrictions on their citizens in recent years. So now, for the first time, we've got Cubans traveling freely from the island - coming here and going back - coming on shopping trips and going back. You see it every day at Miami's airport.

GREENE: It's worth noting these changes - really recent. They're happening really quickly.

ALLEN: Right, I mean, traveling to Cuba was really controversial here for Cuban-Americans until fairly recently. Let me play you some tape from a news report from a TV station here in Miami.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Travel agents say that it was set on fire overnight, and investigators believe this was no accident.

ALLEN: And David, that was just two years ago. A travel agency run by Vivian Mannerud that operated charter flights to Cuba was firebombed. Investigators confirmed it was arson.

VIVIAN MANNERUD: It was sobering, but it was right after we had finished the papal visit.

ALLEN: Police still haven't made any arrests. Mannerud is convinced, though, that the firebombing was connected with work she did with Miami's Catholic archdiocese, helping fly some 600 people to Cuba to attend a mass celebrated by Pope Benedict the 16th.

MANNERUD: And we had taken many Cuban-Americans - many who had said they would never go back to Cuba - many prominent Cuban-Americans, many wealthy Cuban-Americans. There was a part of the community that was very upset that all these people went to Cuba for the Pope's visit.

ALLEN: Many see that papal visit as a turning point. Some prominent Cuban-American businessmen, long opposed to any opening to Cuba, planned return trips and began supporting economic and civic engagement. The most prominent was Alfonso Fanjul, billionaire head of Domino Sugar.

At Miami's airport, the charter flights that leave daily for Havana are mostly filled with Cubans returning home after a visit and Cuban-Americans who have arrived in recent decades. But you also find Cuban-Americans, like Irene Ruiz, who left Cuba nearly 50 years ago.

IRENE RUIZ: I get out in 1966, and I back in '96 or '97.

ALLEN: It's a familiar story. After being away for decades, in recent years many members of that first generation of Cuban-American exiles have been returning to their native land.

RUIZ: You have family, and then you need your family. You need that love - your family. And then I decide to go and see my family.

ALLEN: Changing attitudes toward Cuba also showing up in polls of Cuban-Americans. Support for the embargo is dropping. A majority of Cuban-Americans in South Florida now support unrestricted travel - also talks in trade between the U.S. and Cuba. Tomas Bilbao is with the Cuba Study Group, an organization founded by Cuban-American businessmen who favor engagement with the island. With the upswing travel, he believes Cuban-Americans are voting with their feet.

TOMAS BILBAO: And let me just be clear. I don't think anyone's saying that we need to reward the Cuban regime. I think that what we need to do is focus on helping the Cuban people, even if that provides a benefit to the Cuban regime.

ALLEN: But there are still many Cuban Americans uneasy with the relaxed travel restrictions. They include Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO: There are people that come here, and six months after they arrive - a year and half after they arrive, they're going back to Cuba 18 times a year. And I'm telling you, that's a problem.

ALLEN: That's Rubio speaking last year to U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC, a lobbying group that takes a hard line against any move to weaken sanctions on Cuba. Relaxed travel restrictions now allow Cuban entrepreneurs to travel back and forth, ferrying goods and remittances between Miami and Havana, which Rubio says helps the Castro regime. To counter that, he says the U.S. may want to revisit the special status Cubans have long enjoyed as political refugees.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RUBIO: People all over the country are turning to us and saying, well, why do you have a Cuban Adjustment Act? Cuban Adjustment Act exists for people that are refugees and exiles and that - of course there are refugees and exiles from Cuba. But if you're going back 18 times a year, we have to deal with that issue. That's a problem.

ALLEN: Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, after being here for a year Cubans receive permanent residency status and become eligible for government benefits, ranging from supplemental social security income to disability. Maurice Claver-Carone of U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC says there's evidence that some Cuban migrants are abusing their special status, qualifying for government benefits here and spending the money in Cuba.

MAURICE CLAVER-CARONE: In a country where the average salary is $18 a month, which is Cuba, you know, $200 per month is 10 times that. So you live comfortably in Cuba. So people are making the decision - hey, we essentially can live off the government here, but, you know, essentially living most of our time in Cuba.

ALLEN: And David, there has been some talking in Congress about amending the Cuban Adjustment Act to differentiate between political refugees and those who come here for economic reasons.

GREENE: Alright, NPR's Greg Allen with that report. We're sitting together in the little Havana neighborhood of Miami. And, you know any changes to the law I can imagine Greg, probably a pretty sensitive topic.

ALLEN: Right, I mean when you talk about Miami's Cuban Americans, you're talking about a very important voting bloc in the nation's largest swing state. So changes will be done very carefully if at all.

GREENE: All right that's the view of Cuba from Florida. I want to bring in one other voice here and it's the voice of the person sitting to your left on the park bench here Greg. Jasmine Garsd, our colleague who hosts NPR music's alt Latino and was the interpreter for our trip to Cuba. And Jasmine, you and I talked a lot during the trip about what you thought of Cuba growing up in Argentina. It had a resonance that's different than the one that's sort of Americans are familiar with. Explain to me what you're talking about.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Sure absolutely. Well I think it's important to understand that Latin America has a really different relationship with Cuba than the U.S. does. There's definitely a romantic vision of Cuba, a vision of Cuba as a paradise island, some of that is based in certain facts, I mean it is pretty impressive in a Latin American country to have achieved literacy and college education rates like Cuba has, universal healthcare. And there's definitely I think a sense in Latin America of Cuba as romantically feisty, you know, of a nation that was at some point exploited by foreign interests like so much of Latin America is and stood up for themselves. Of course, you know that vision is counterbalanced by directors who make legitimate points out human rights abuses, freedom of speech, all valid points. But there's definitely a very different perspective about Cuba in Latin America.

GREENE: Different perspective. OK, you grew up with that different perspective. Now that you've been for the first time what are your impressions?

GARSD: I think a lot of the great things I heard about Cuba are true. There is universal health. As we saw people are so educated on that island.

GREENE: Yeah.

GARSD: But they're also struggling with serious human rights issues. They're struggling with access to information; I mean we meet these highly educated people that don't have access to the Internet. So, I would just say some things are just so wonderful and some things are so disappointing. It's a complex story.

GREENE: All right, NPR's Jazmine Garsd and NPR's Greg Allen. Thank you both so much.

ALLEN: My pleasure.

GARSD: Thank you.

GREENE: We're sitting on a park bench in Little Havana, also sitting here - NPR's Nick Fountain, who did the fine production work for our trip to Cuba. You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.

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Cuba's Budding Entrepreneurs Travel A Rocky Road Toward Success

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 13:25:00 +0000

by DAVID GREENE and JASMINE GARSD

When Americans think of business in Cuba, they think of government-owned enterprise. And the vast majority of Cubans do work for the state.

But in recent years, private business owners known as cuentapropistas have flourished on the island.

Cuentapropismo literally means "on your own account." As far back as the 1970s, Fidel Castro was talking about how socialism and small business ownership could coexist. Today, they do so more than ever: Between 2010 and 2013, the Cuban government expanded the list of privately owned business ventures, such as construction work, restaurants and tailoring, that are legal on the island.

Franco says business was booming when she was able to import clothing from countries like Brazil and the U.S. Once the government cracked down on imports, she learned to sew.

David Gilkey/NPR

About 1 million people — or 20 percent of the Cuban workforce — can now be classified as wholly in the private sector,according to a report by Richard Feinberg of the Brookings Institution.

Barbara Fernandez Franco remembers being excited when that list of government-permitted businesses first came out. She combed through the 200-odd jobs, and thought carefully about which she could do. She decided on the "tailor and seamstress" category.

We met 28-year-old Barbara in one of the aging but gorgeous buildings that line the narrow colonial streets of central Havana, Cuba's capital. Sitting in the stairway, she tells us it's been a difficult road full of stumbles.

She started off reselling clothing a friend made, but the profit margins were very small. Then, she began buying clothing from abroad — from countries like Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico — which she then resold.

At first the project was as rocky as any startup business. But a few months down the line, she says, the profits were outstanding. Barbara was able to save a good amount of money — which today is helping her purchase a new home with her boyfriend, Michel Perez Casanova.

But that boom in business soon came to an end when the government announced that importing clothing for resale on the island would be illegal as of Dec. 31, 2013.

After Franco learned to sew, she started producing baby clothes and mosquito nets for cribs.

David Gilkey/NPR

Barbara was devastated by the news, she says, but while other businesses shut down, she chose to carry on as best she could: She learned how to sew and created her own line of baby clothing and mosquito netting for cribs.

At a small restaurant in the port city of Mariel, owner Onil Lemus told us everyone he knows is absolutely thrilled about the widening scope of legal business ventures. In fact, he jokes that he liked it better when there where fewer cuentapropistas —because he had less competition.

Even though business is good for Onil, he echoed what several other small enterprise owners said to us: One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of raw materials. In Mariel, for example, Onil said, there's no access to wholesale food markets, which are so important to the restaurant industry.

Pointing to the delicious lamb stew he'd prepared for us, he explained that he'd had to go to a farm to buy the meat, but foods like rice and beans — staples in Cuban cuisine — are hard to buy in large quantities at good prices.

Similarly, Barbara said certain fabrics and ornaments are so expensive, it would be impossible for her to make a profit if she were to use them.

The widespread sentiment here is that the U.S. embargo — which has been in place for more than 50 years and is known asel bloqueo, or "the blockade," on the island — is largely responsible for these kinds of difficulties.

Since taking over for his brother Fidel in 2008, Raul Castro has been pushing to modernize the economy. Onil said he's confident that as the number of private business owners grows, the government will address these issues.

Barbara's boyfriend, Michel, on the other hand, seemed more disheartened.

"Some tourists say that this country's growing up now and it's going to get better and better," he said. "But, you know, the system here is so slow. Step by step. Very, very, very slow."

Cuba's Mariel Port: Once An Escape, Now A Window To The Future

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:38:00 +0000

by DAVID GREENE and JASMINE GARSD

When you arrive at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, you're greeted with a barrage of billboards with the popular Cuban government slogan promoting tourism: "Cuba, where the past and the present converge."

Perhaps nowhere on the island is that statement more true than in the city of Mariel, about 30 miles from Havana on the northwestern coast.

Mariel port is strategically located at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, facing the United States. In the 1980s, it was the exit point for 125,000 Cubans who were desperately fleeing to Florida, some of them with assistance from the U.S. government. The Soviet Union was collapsing, and its aid to Cuba was withering. That, coupled with decades of U.S. embargo, was causing the island's economy to nosedive.

Today, the mood in Mariel is very different. It still has the feel of a sleepy, humble Caribbean town, but there's excitement, too: The Cuban government is currently building a special economic zone that, among other things, will be open to companies that have no Cuban government ownership.

Perhaps most important, Mariel is a deep-water port, and will be able to accommodate the world's largest cargo ships. If successful, it could mean big money for Cuba.

But it's more than just about the money, says Richard Feinberg of the Brookings Institution and a professor of international political economy at the University of California, San Diego.

"What Cuba hopes to do is regain their historical status as a major transshipment point," he says, "mediating international commerce traveling from the Americas and Asia and circling around the Caribbean as far as Europe and eventually the east coast of United States."

We arrived in Mariel on a hot summer day, and immediately headed down to the water, where we ran into a group of schoolboys getting ready for a cool dip. Off on the horizon, we could see the heavy construction of the port.

Even though these kids are more concerned with beisbol than with economics, they said they were excited about the port construction. A few of them dreamed of making it as a pelotero — or baseball player — in the national league, and one of them said he dreamed of going to the U.S.

But a couple of them — who weren't even born when rusty boats carried people out of Mariel toward Florida in 1980 — also said they'd love to work in the free trade zone when it opens.

As the boys dove in for their swim off the docks, we headed to Chin, a paladar, or restaurant, that serves typical Cuban food: pork, rice and beans, stewed goat, and a mean cup of coffee for dessert. The owner of Chin, Onil Lemus, has seen Mariel change dramatically over the past 30 years.

Lemus, like so many Cubans, has watched three of his siblings leave Cuba for the U.S. He described a childhood very different from the one the boys we just left on the docks are enjoying. He grew up in a Mariel where parents would guard their children closely, for fear of all the strangers coming into the town to escape through the port.

Onil Lemus is the owner of Chin, a small restaurant in Mariel. Three of his brothers left for the United States in the 1980s and '90s. He says the mood is changing for the better in Mariel, thanks to the construction of the port and the loosening of restrictions on private businesses.

David Gilkey/NPR

When his second brother left, he said, "it broke my soul." (He was too young to remember the first brother who left; ultimately, a third brother fled, too.) He said he thinks the pain of losing her children made his mother physically ill.

"She never got better," Lemus said. "This is something you eventually feel some type of relief from, but you don't recover from losing a son like that."

The mood in Mariel has certainly changed — but there will be hurdles to the new port's success. Among them, the future of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, which has been in place for more than 50 years, will be a crucial factor to the port's success. There has been much speculation on whether the embargo might be lifted.

"It would be very important," notes Hugo Pons Duarte of Cuba's National Economist and Accountant Association.

There's also the issue of sorting out how the Cuban workforce will participate in the free trade zone. Pons Duarte explained to us that multinational corporations will have to pay Cuban employees through a Cuban government contractor, rather than directly — which could make the option less attractive than other Caribbean ports.

Back at his restaurant, Lemus said he notices people are happier these days. He echoed a recent statement by Cuban President Raul Castro on the island's economic change when he told us: "I'm in no rush. Go slow, but go forward."

With Cash And Fat Fryers, Americans Feed Cuba's Growing Free Market

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 19:16:00 +0000

by Greg Allen

Every day, you can see signs of a subtle change in relations between Cuba and the U.S. at Miami International Airport.

More Cubans than ever before are coming to the U.S. to visit, and the number of Cuban-Americans traveling back to the island is also at record levels. With all the visitors, money and goods are now traveling to the island from the United States.

It's a legal loophole in the 50-year-old trade embargo — one that's having a real impact on Cuba's economy, and allowing Cuban-Americans to become investors in Cuba's emerging private sector.

'A Big Deal'

Shortly after taking office, President Obama made it possible for more Americans than ever before to travel to Cuba. He began by lifting restrictions on Cuban-Americans. Before the change, they could travel to Cuba only once every three years.

Last year, Cuba's government made an even more unexpected move: It began allowing its citizens to visit the U.S., with few restrictions.

Now, eight or nine regularly scheduled charter flights leave Miami daily for Havana and other Cuban cities. At the airport, nearly everyone waiting in line is carrying packages and large suitcases, even flat-screen TVs and other appliances.

Ana Dilla was waiting in line recently with her two in-laws, who were returning home to Cuba after a short visit. Their bags were full of goods they purchased to take home.

"Hair items, clothing, shoes, hygiene items, makeup," Dilla says — all items that are hard to get in Cuba.

Traveling from the U.S. to Cuba is still a hassle. There are restrictions on the type of goods you can bring and how much. Over a certain limit, and travelers pay a penalty. Cuba also assesses customs duties on some goods.

But Dilla says the new freedom to travel has made a big difference to her in-laws and others in Cuba.

"It was a big deal for them, absolutely," she says. "It was much easier than in the past, so it's a good thing. Things are getting a little bit better."

Because of the changes in regulations in both countries, travel between the U.S. and Cuba is at record levels — and growing. That includes so-called people-to-people travel, trips that are organized by groups for education or cultural exchange.

But by far, most of the travel to Cuba is by Cuban-Americans, and it's having an important economic impact on the island.

"The presence of the Cuban-Americans is just undeniable," says Joe Scarpaci, who heads the Center for the Study of Cuban Culture and the Economy and has co-authored a book on Cuba's emerging consumer culture.

Perhaps even more important than their travel are the unrestricted remittances Cuban-Americans can now send back to family on the island. Scarpaci estimates that goods and cash sent by Cuban-Americans now is in the range of $5 billion a year, making it the nation's second-largest source of income.

Using a Cuban slang term, he calls it, "Gusanos carrying gusanos."

"Gusano is the derogatory term that the folks of the island refer to when the Cubans left the revolution — they crawled away from the glories of the revolution. Now they're bringing back these duffel bags that are long and shaped like worms, or gusanos," Scarpaci says.

The goods carried in those duffels aren't just clothing and cologne. Deep-fat fryers, power saws, electric drills and soldering irons are in great demand in Cuba. Scarpaci says he knows of many small businesses there that have started up with goods and cash supplied by Cuban-Americans.

"From small restaurants to home body repairs to plastic-mold makers for use of children's toys. In every one of those instances, the capital for that has come from family members abroad," he says.

Free Market Activity

Nearly 600,000 U.S. travelers — mostly Cuban-Americans — visited Cuba last year. Polls show a majority of Cuban-Americans now support unrestricted travel to Cuba. A majority also believe Americans should be allowed to invest in Cuban businesses.

There are some, though, who believe unrestricted family travel has led to abuses. Mauricio Claver-Carone is the director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC, a lobbying group in Washington that takes a hard line against any move to weaken sanctions on Cuba. While he believes that taking a trip back to Cuba once a year to see family qualifies as humanitarian travel, he says others are gaming the system.

"People that are going back to Cuba more than once a year is not humanitarian. They're essentially residing in Cuba. They have some type of business practice that they've established by taking goods back and forth. They're called mulas," he says.

The Miami-to-Cuba "mules" carry goods and cash, and, at least for some Cuban-Americans, it's a legal end-run around the trade embargo.

"And essentially, they charge per pound or they charge per package, things that they take to Cuba, so they've established a business practice ... traveling to the island back and forth," Claver-Carone says. "That is not the purpose of the regulations. That's a business practice. And that should be illegal."

There are others, though, who say this is the kind of thing unrestricted travel and remittances were intended to accomplish. By traveling frequently to the island and helping — maybe even investing in — businesses run by family members, Cuban-Americans are helping spur the kind of free market activity long sought by the U.S.

Those who favor engagement between the U.S. and Cuba say the next steps should include lifting all restrictions on travel to the island and allowing U.S. visitors to use credit cards there.

Tourism Money Flows Into Cuba, Bringing Economic Hopes And Fears

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:27:00 +0000

Every morning, Manuel Landin Rodriguez walks past the luxurious state-owned Xanadu Mansion hotel and crosses its neatly trimmed golf course all the way to its edge. He camps out on the cliff overlooking the turquoise Caribbean waters that make the resort town of Varadero on Cuba's northern coast so famous.

Landin, a retired physical education teacher, comes to the spot to fish. When we meet him on the cliffs, he's trying to catch mojarras — small silver fish that hang out in the shallow waters to avoid sharks — which he will use to feed his family of five.

"I was born in 1947, under capitalism," Landin says. "(Cuba) used to be a pot of crickets. It was the saddest place on earth."

He wants to be sure we understand how Cuba was before the revolution.

"Have you been to Haiti? That's what Cuba used to look like. A few people were rich, and everyone else was starving."

In fact we're talking to Landin on the grounds of what once was a symbol of that opulence - this used to be the Xanadu mansion, which belonged to U.S. businessman Irenee du Pont.

Later, as we cool down with some fresh mango juice at hotel clubhouse, the waitress tells us proudly that the mansion was nationalized shortly after the revolution. She tells us she's thrilled to work here. At Xanadu Mansion, she can make as much as $15 a day in tips. Compare that to the $30 or so some Cuban doctors make on average in a month.

Tourism is essential to the Cuban economy, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the country's GDP in 2013, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. More than 2 million foreign tourists visit every year, and the Cuban Ministry of Tourism says the 2014 high season that just ended was the biggest on record — a 5 percent increase from the previous year.

The government is also hoping a possible lifting of the American embargo, which has economically squeezed the island for more than 50 years, would add to that growing revenue. Travel writer Christopher Barker says there is speculation that 1 million new American tourists would flood the country in the first year following the end of the embargo, and 2 to 3 million annually after that. Varadero, slightly more than 100 miles from Key West, Fla., is perfectly poised to absorb some of those tourist dollars.

But many wonder if the disparity between the pay for workers in the tourism industry — and the salaries for other professions on the island — might signal the return of the huge gap between the haves and have-nots that Landin, the former teacher, remembers with such displeasure.

To find out, we drive over to Cardenas, a dusty little town where many of the bartenders, maids and waiters at the fancy Varadero resorts live.

Cardenas is famous on the island for three things: lots of Cuban flags, bicycles and horse carts. We hop on one of those legendary buggies for a quick tour. This is a typical, quiet Caribbean small town: not much to see, rundown monuments, one or two nice new restaurants.

Yuyo Nandes, our horse cart driver, breaks down the Cardenas economy for us. People who work in nearby resorts at Varadero are bringing in some good cash, he says. According to him, that $15 in tips our waitress at Xanadu Mansion makes on a good night will get you "breakfast, lunch, dinner, pay the electricity, and buy a pair of shoes."

For Nandes, the booming business of tourism in Cuba is a sign of good things to come for everyone.

"You know I'm going to tell you one thing. We live off tourism. If there's no tourism, there's no life," he says. "Just look at the grocery stores here: They're empty because people have gone to other provinces."

He says the money generated by tourism will trickle back down: People working at the resorts will take his horse cart to get around town, he says.

Our next stop is a sugar cane town called Madruga, which literally means "wake up early." Inland Cuba is starkly different from the coastal towns: The luscious greenery often seems about to overtake the narrow roads, and there's no respite from the suffocating heat. Gone are the colorful oceanfront houses, the cute paladares, or restaurants.

We walk into a family's front yard to ask for a glass of water, or a place where we can get one. With customary Cuban warmth, the Cruz family invites us into their house for coffee.

Juanito Cruz tells us he's worked at the sugar mill for 31 years. In fact, the house was given to him by the mill. He's on a break now, since the mill doesn't operate this time of year. But he'll be back grinding the sugar in November, a job that lasts six or seven months, and requires about twelve hours of intensive labor every day.

Cruz makes about $40 a month. He shows us his government rations booklet, and tells us his sugar mill income, combined with his monthly rations of rice, beans, coffee and other staple foods, let him live comfortably in this three-bedroom house with his wife and five children.

It's not an easy living, though: He points to his new fridge and says he'd been saving for a very long time to buy it, since appliances are incredibly expensive in Cuba. Cruz is a sugar mill man, but he knows there's more money to be made in the tourism industry.

"You can make 10 or 15 (Cuban pesos, or roughly $10-$15) a night, and at the end of the month that adds up into a really nice income," he says.

One quick explanation. He said CUC, which is the Cuban convertible peso, one of two currencies in Cuba, and the one that was meant to replace U.S. dollars in the economy. They're exchanged at a near one-to-one ratio. It's all very confusing.

Looking around at the Cruz family's modest house, one can't help but think about the sprawling Xanadu Mansion, and the employees who have access to tourist tips. But Cruz says he doesn't resent those who make so much more than he does. He says he's actually excited about that money being reinvested in the economy, and he'll be benefiting from it soon enough. Plus, he adds, a Canadian company is investing in his sugar mill, and updating its technology, so he doesn't fear being left behind.

Cruz proudly shows us his backyard. It overlooks a sugarcane field and is home to a mango tree, which his son and daughter are climbing. As we finish our coffee, they hand us a bag — about 10 pounds of mangoes, a generous gift. We joke that under the embargo we can't take back any souvenirs, but they won't take no for an answer.

Cuba on the Horizon: The Caribbean’s Hidden Biological Treasure

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 12:53:00 +0000

The upside of minimal economic growth since the Cold War? Pristine environmental beauty. Cuba’s coral reefs, coastal regions and jungles are home to the most diverse range of species in the Caribbean. Unlike most of the islands in the warm-water region, Cuba’s coastal gems have been spared the ravages of over-fishing, pollution and habitat destruction which invariably accompanies economic development. Cuba’s slow-to-act government agencies and cultural commitment to scientific exploration work together – paradoxically – to keep their environment in a state of preservation: natural equilibrium, by inertia.

As access to the island increases for Americans, and the potential end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba looms ominously in the future, economic boom could mean environmental bust for the natural habitat. “You always have this feeling that it’s about to change—that you’ll be the last one there before it explodes,” observes travel writer Julian Smith. Read the full article from the Nature Conservancy June/July 2014 issue

Bill Clinton says travel industry is "good for the earth, the children, and the future"

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 04:15:00 +0000

The travel industry has the potential—and the responsibility—to spread peace and change the world, former US President Bill Clinton told a high-profile audience of travel executives.

Speaking at the World Travel & Tourism Council's 13th annual Global Summit in Abu Dhabi, he challenged travel leaders to assume a renewed sense of responsibility.

"I spent a lot of time when I was president, trying to end wars, prevent killing, and promote understanding. What I have seen is that peace works better than conflict, and one of the best manifestations of it is in travel and tourism," he said.

President Clinton cited the resurgence of Croatia, which saw a 50% increase in tourism revenues in the year following the Bosnian peace agreement, and 300% growth in the decade following.

He also cited the UNITAID project, where revenues raised in France from international air ticket taxes buys medicines for HIV-affected children in Africa.

(Coincidentally, new Amadeus software enables travel suppliers to easily collect small donations to UNICEF from online travel customers. See separate story on Travelmole today.)

Clinton urged the hotel industry to develop internship programs in every country in which they operate, so that young people can experience other cultures. "What you do for a living is good for the earth, the children and the future," he said.

By simply expanding tourism in ways that promote sustainability, he noted, the travel industry reminds people of our common humanity.

"One of the reasons that I'm glad to be here today," he said, "is because I think that just because of what you do and how you live, you will always be on the right side."

Travelmole yesterday reported unconfirmed rumors that President Clinton's wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, also will be a keynote speaker to the travel industry, at this year's ASTA convention.

By Cheryl Rosen

How many free-market reforms can Cuba make and still call itself Communist?

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 16:20:00 +0000

The world’s last relic of Marxist-style economies relaxed their policies yet again this week to allow the first wholesale agricultural market farmers have seen for generations. Since 2008, when the reforms of Fidel’s brother Raul began altering the economic legacy of the infamous Cold War Castro regime, over one-half million small businesses have been encouraged to innovate, employ and operate in the service sector. What impact will this incremental embrace of capitalism have upon the socio-political landscape? Can Cuba maintain a closed social order while it expands its economic principles and operations? Historians and culture-junkies, pundits and politicians, documentarians and artists speculate wildly divergent theories of the enchanted island’s future.

Upon one thing they all agree: Cuba will change. See it now, and be a measure of that transformation. Read on.

In Cuba, technology may beat censorship

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:12:00 +0000

BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
The Miami Herald
Published: May 30, 2014

Cuba’s first major independent newspaper in more than five decades — a digital
daily called 14ymedio — was quickly blocked within the island last week, but the
big question is for how long the country’s regime will be able to maintain its
monopoly on the news media.

Yoani Sanchez, the prominent Cuban blogger who launched the new digital paper
with her husband Reinaldo Escobar and a staff of about a dozen reporters, is
confident that ordinary Cubans will be able to bypass the government’s censorship
through a variety of technical gimmicks.

Right now, 14ymedio can be easily accessed overseas, but not in Cuba. Little more
than an hour after it appeared last Wednesday, its website was hacked and
redirected to a pro-government Web page called Yoani$landia, accusing Sanchez
of trying to enrich herself with her new venture.

But the Cuban regime’s attacks in the past have not prevented Sanchez from
becoming one of the world’s most admired journalists.

Sanchez has 609,000 followers on Twitter, compared with Cuban President
Gen. Raul Castro’s 130,000, and Cuba’s official Prensa Latina news agency’s
63,000. She has been awarded the world’s top journalism prizes, and Time
magazine has selected her as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

In an article titled “Our first day,” 14ymedio published among other things a
report on a public letter of support signed by intellectuals from throughout the
world, led by Nobel Prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa and Lech Walesa.

Minutes after its birth, the website was blocked to readers on the island, the
story recalled. But 12 hours later, the 14ymedio staff was celebrating. Staffers
had been able to access 14ymedio through a proxy server — a program that
allows people to conceal their computer’s identity, which allowed them to
access the website as if they were doing it from a foreign country.

“Censorship won’t be the most difficult obstacle we will have to breach,” the
14ymedio article said. “Blocking 14ymedio could become a failed tactic if they
want to silence us. There’s nothing more attractive than what is prohibited.”

In addition to “proxy” severs, 14ymedio will be distributed within Cuba
through the so-called memory stick “paquetes” (packages) or “combos”
that have become ubiquitous on the island.

Cubans buy memory sticks, also known as flash drives or pen drives, or
get them from the estimated 500,000 Cuban-Americans — mostly from
Miami — who visit the island every year. They use them to buy weekly
“paquetes” of foreign movies, music, or news, on the island’s black market.

Much like people in other countries subscribe to a cable TV company, Cubans
who want to circumvent the Communist Party-run media subscribe to weekly
“paquetes.” They take their pen driver to their supplier — a black market dealer
— and get a fresh package of movies, music or news every week.

“At the end of the day, the government will not be able to stop 14ymedio,”
says Raul Moas, executive director of Roots of Hope, a Miami-based group
that sends cellphones, flash drives and other computer devices to the island.
“Cubans are finding innovative ways to access and share information offline.”

Skeptics say Sanchez’s 14ymedio newspaper will be — like blog GenerationY
— much more popular abroad than in Cuba, for the simple reason that most
Cubans have never had access to her writings because of the island’s rigid
censorship, and highly restricted Internet access.

Cuba, alongside Haiti, Honduras and El Salvador, is one of the Latin
American countries with less access to the Internet, according to World
Bank figures. Only 25 of every 100,000 Cubans has access to the Web,
mostly at very slow speed and one of the world’s highest costs.

The black market pen drive “paquetes” will not topple the island dictatorship
any more than black market cassette tapes in the 1970s, videocassettes in the
1980s, or satellite cellphones paid by friends and relatives abroad most recently,
skeptics say.

My opinion: I have nothing but admiration for Sanchez, Escobar and their
team, who are pushing the limits of Cuba’s censorship like nobody has in
recent memory. They are true heroes of our times.

Sure, Cuba’s decrepit dictatorship will keep millions of Cubans on the island
from getting access to the website. But it’s fighting a losing battle: Today’s
memory sticks are much cheaper, smaller, and can store many more hours of
videos, music and news than the old cassettes.

The Cuban regime has shot itself in the foot by blocking 14ymedio at a time
when the government officials are trying to convince the world that they are
carrying out meaningful reforms in Cuba.

They would have been much smarter if they had allowed the website, because
as technology becomes cheaper, it will become increasingly more widespread,
and more likely to beat censorship.

Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for The Miami Herald. Email: aoppenheimermiamiherald.com.

Arn Chorn Pond - Everyone has a Story

noreply@blogger.com (Friendship Tours World Travel) — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 18:23:00 +0000

Most of Arn Chorn's family was killed during the Cambodian genocide. At age ten he had slaved in a work camp, witnessing wide-scale starvation and murder. When the North Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge forced him to become a soldier until he escaped on foot through the jungle in Thailand.

Watch the video here.