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Cuba 2017

Remember the Maine? I did…

“Remember the Maine” was a slogan coined by the “yellow journalists” of the 1890s to encourage American intervention in the (second) Cuban war for independence from Spain.  During that struggle, the United States government sent the battleship U.S.S. Maine to monitor conditions here. In February 1898, a mysterious explosion (probably caused by coal dust in … Continue reading »

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Fairview Stew (the song) debuts in Cuba

It’s hard encapsulate all that happened today (and it’s only 6 pm), which included a Scoutmaster from Normal Illinois attempting at lunch to top the performance last year of the Rolling Stones, who attracted one million Cubans; read to the end to get the exact admission (as if you didn’t guess).  And who knew there … Continue reading »

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A sweet day

The four visits today helped put a lot of things together about what we’ve seen in Cuba. Our first stop was at the US Embassy, a concrete 1950s blockhouse reopened after Obama’s visit, with the flag raised by some of the same marines who had taken the flag down in the early 1960s when we … Continue reading »

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I had a blast today

Read on to see why… It was a long day today, with ecotourism at the top.  Vinales, around 200 kilometers west of Havana, was our destination.  Part of it was designed to finish our look at the tobacco supply chain, the fourth most important revenue source for the Cuban government, and one of the first … Continue reading »

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Old Man and the See

The Old Man and the Sea (Hemmingway wrote that here, and I’ll get to him at the end) I mentioned yesterday that the other number that struck me as being important was 11000000. That’s the population of Cuba.  As much as the comparisons circle in my mind comparing my first visit to China (1990) or … Continue reading »

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Hi From Havana

May 22, 2017 Welcome to Havana I’m going to start with two numbers, and use them to talk about some of the things in Havana that we’ve learned in the last day or so.  The first is $750, and the second is 11 million. The first number refers to the published rate for the hotel … Continue reading »

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Havana Cuba

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