Red Corner: Go to Cuba, Go to Jail?

by Neil Woodburn on

The Bush Administration has just revoked the license of a Florida-based travel agency for arranging American tourists to visit Cuba.

Stop and think about this for a moment.

The democratically elected government of what is supposed to be the freest country on this planet is actually prosecuting people for traveling to a place they don’t want you to go. But that’s not all. In addition to suspending travel agency licenses, the government is also fining individuals up to $7500 for merely stepping foot in Cuba. In 2004 alone, when the Bush Administration stepped up efforts to curtail this “illegal” travel (and in the process, support Brother Jeb, governor of Florida), they fined 894 people a total of $1.5 million dollars for the heinous crime of vacationing on the Caribbean island.

The law that prevents Americans from traveling to Cuba is the Trading with the Enemy Act. Technically, one can still go to Cuba, but if more than $100 is spent while there, the person is financially supporting the enemy government of Cuba.

Oh come on!

Americans could travel to the Soviet Union and every other Warsaw Pact country during the height of the Cold War, they could travel to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya before we bombed them, and today can even travel to Iran, North Korea and every Middle Eastern country with whom America currently has problems. But, Americans can’t travel 50 miles off the coast of Florida to visit a harmless country of salsa-dancing, baseball-loving North Americans? Am I the only one that finds this crazy?

There certainly was a time when Cuba was a danger to the United States, but the Soviet Union is now dead and no longer supports Cuba with nukes, arms, fuel, and basic necessities. Today, Cuba is nothing but a destitute country desperately trying to survive on its own. Sure, there are horrible human rights violations occurring under the Castro regime, but the same abuses happened (and are still happening today in some cases), in every one of the countries listed above that Americans are free to visit and spend their dollars.

Preventing tourists from visiting Cuba isn’t going to bring down the Castro regime, nor is the economic blockade imposed by the United States (but virtually ignored by every other country in the world). No, the Castro regime will only fall when the locals get so fed-up they rebel. And what is the best way to sow such strong seeds of discontent? Look no further than East Germany. Overexposure to the West through relatives, tourists, and television broadcasts is what really taught East Germans how bad things really were. Otherwise, ignorance was bliss.

An invasion of Chatty American tourists is simply the best thing that can happen to Cuba. But in the meantime, don’t tread on my civil liberties and try to tell me where I can’t go.

New Seven Wonders?

by Erik Olsen on

There were a few stories out about this group, but I
figured I’d take a closer look, because the topic here is fascinating. Now, you’ve all heard of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, right? How many can you name?
Maybe three? OK, perhaps you’re a classics professor, a master of Trivial Pursuit and you get all 7. Whatever. I got
three. But, hey. Mr Trivia Wiz, did you know that the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, all man-made monuments, were
selected by Philon of Byzantium in 200 BC? He basically made these choices for fellow Athenians, as all the sites were
located around the Med. Here is the list of SAW2:
 

    * The Lighthouse of Alexandria
    * The Temple of Artemis
    * The Statue of Zeus
    * The Colossus of Rhodes
    * The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
    * The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
    * The
Pyramids of Egypt

Now, only a few of these still remain…or just one, um,
right? Well a new group is out to change all this and to create a
newer, more modern version of the World’s Greatest sites. From the Acropolis, to the Eiffel Tower to
the great Wall of China and more, he says that the list seriously needs to be updated. And what’s more YOU can go and vote for the places you believe deserve being given the N7W
distinction. Now, the voting scheme here is really kooky, and I honestly don’t quite get it. You may have to PAY to make
a phone call to vote. And they say the money goes to help the organization doing this… so I am totally dubious. But I
am  posting about the idea just because I think it’s interesting.

 

 

Pee? Oui!

by Neil Woodburn on

For most of my life, urinating has always been free.  It was something I took for granted and never really
thought about.

And then I went to Europe. 

That’s when I discovered a strange pee tax where I actually had to pay money to relieve my bladder. 
This was especially true in Eastern Europe where little bathroom ladies stood guard outside the facilities.  You
had to pay, or you didn’t get in.  For a few extra crowns or rubles, you could purchase 3-4 squares of
toilet paper off their little card table.  Otherwise it was just you and your Frommer’s. 

I was equally shocked to discover a pay-to-pee policy in parts of Western Europe as well.  This was truly
surprising in the oh-so-very-cultured city of Paris.   75 million tourists a year visit the city of
lights and most every one has had to reach deep into their fanny-packs to dig out 40 euro cents for the privilege of
peeing in this glamorous capital.

But now this is all about to
change.  Starting February 1, the city’s 200 public restrooms will now be free, thanks to homeless
advocates who really didn’t have tourists in mind when they pushed through this measure. 

The city hopes to compensate for the lost revenue by cutting back on street cleaning.  With less people now
urinating on the streets, this makes perfect sense to me. 

 

Frequent Flier Miles – What to Do?

by Erik Olsen on

I want to talk here briefly about frequent flier miles. You know what I’m talking about, that inflation-stricken
pseudo currency that the airlines use to get you to stay loyal and true to them. I am a member of some 5 frequent flier
mile programs, but I confess that I only really focus my efforts on two of them: JetBlue and United. I have a fair amount of miles on
these and have tried to figure out the best way to use them.

Well, it turns out that if, like me, you have
a ton of miles, you have several options how to use them, and you can do so right now without booking a flight just to
chew them up.

This is a particularly good strategy when you have lots of what are called orphan miles,
where you have a relatively small amount of miles on an airline you don’t fly so much. So here are some things
you can do.

Points.com: a company called points.com has
been around for a little while, and offers you the chance to sign up and spend your miles with all manner of vendors
from Amazon.com to certificates at giftcertificates.com…whch you can then use to buy stuff. You can also track all
your airline programs balances at ths site…which can be a useful way to keep track of where your miles are.

Will Fly for Food: United Airlines and restaurants.com have
teamed up to allow you to spend some of your miles to buy dining certificates. You can buy $100 certificate for
2,500 miles, and the list of places that will redeem those certificates is pretty long. The only catch is that many of
the places that will redeem them only allow you to spend $25 at a time, and some of them have a minimum charge (of say
$60) when you go. Still, if you eat out a lot or have a romantic dinner lined up with your spouse or significant other,
this could be a good way to go.

Magazines, Baby: Another idea, mentioned above, is to get
some magazine subscriptions. They are surprisingly cheap…or they can be, depending on which magazine you want.
But I got Wired using my American miles for just a few hundred miles. Not bad.

If you want to explore this
option of how to spend your miles, Milepoint.com is a great site to check out. There
you can spend frequent flier miles for reduced-cost cruises, magazine subscriptions, or even eBay accounts. Don’t
expect mind-blowing deals, but consider that if you weren’t going to use those miles in the first
place…hey whatever you get is gravy, my friend.

Another site: AirAwards.com is where you type in your mileage, and they respond with an offer to
purchase. The rule thumb is that a frequent flier mile is worth at least one U.S. cent. Again, not great. But
it’s still more than nothing.

Charity Miles: And finally, maybe you want to spend
those miles for something good…good-hearted I mean. Well, Delta has a program where you can spend miles to help
military staff hurt in Iraq. That’s a way to get ride of orphan miles and to smile when you look at yourself in
the mirror in the morning.

So that’s today’s frequent flier miles lesson. Do wht you will, but
given the state of things out there with  the airlines, I’d suggest you consider spending some of those
miles. Today they are worth something. Tomorrow they may be worth nothing at all.

For more information on
what to do with your miles, check out these links:

A list of all FF programs at various airlines and links to the
sites
Mileage Pro: A book about FF programs
WebFlyer: a useful site that explains mile programs and offfers advice on what to d
owith miles.