Red Corner: Bush Cracks Down Harder on Cuban Travel

by Neil Woodburn on

More trouble for those trying to travel to Cuba. The Bush Administration is cracking down even harder on agencies that specialize in travel to the forbidden island of Cuba. In the last few months, audit investigators from the U.S. Treasury Department suspended the licenses of four travel agencies and six religious organizations for illegally providing travel to Cuba. Religious organizations!?! Since when does the Bush Administration crack down on religious organizations? Old Jeb must really be courting that Cuban constituency hard!

Cuban-Americans who once supported the ban, however, are not as enthusiastic about it as they once were. Prior to 2004, they could legally travel back to Cuba to visit relatives. But then Bush tightened the reigns and passed legislature limiting the definition of “family” to exclude nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins. These relatives are no longer considered family and are prohibited from traveling to Cuba just like the rest of us. Only siblings, parents, grandparents and stem cells are allowed to visit.

And just how are these new sanctions affecting Castro’s authoritarian rule? Are they chipping away at his power and slowly toppling his regime as no doubt intended? Hardly. Check out this article in yesterday’s LA Times highlighting Castro’s recent crackdown on entrepreneurs and capitalism. Years of American sanctions haven’t done a bit of good.

Red Corner: Dubrovnik

by Neil Woodburn on

May is one of my favorite times to travel because the weather is starting to get warm, but the tourists haven’t begun swarming yet. Adrian Mourby of The Independent agrees with me and in a recent article tosses out a gem of a suggestion on where to head in the following month to take advantage of this unique window of travel time: Dubrovnik, Croatia.

48 Hours is a regular column in The Independent and Mourby takes advantage of its set-up to educate readers about what they can expect to see in Dubrovnik in just two days. I love such articles because they cut to the chase by succinctly providing highlights, practical travel and accommodation suggestions, great links, and where to eat. After just a few moments of reading Mourby’s article, I now have a good idea of where to go for brunch, where to shop, which cultural pursuits I want to pursue, and which hotel to check out (naturally the one with the quayside from which I can dive directly into the Adriatic). The only problem is that I’m going in June; I just hope it’s not going to be too packed.

Red Corner: Kiev gets Normal Hotel

by Neil Woodburn on

It has taken a long time, but Europe’s last remaining capital without an “internationally branded” hotel has finally joined the 21st century. Kiev has gotten itself a Radisson!

During communism, the only accommodations available to foreigners were dilapidated state run hotels, many of which lacked basic necessities such as toilet paper. After communism fell and economies began to finally improve, tourism and business prospects were promising enough for major hotel chains to invest in new projects from Moscow to Bulgaria. Even lowly Tirana, capital of the poorest country in Europe, can boast a Sheraton. But this was not the case in Ukraine where high inflation and a corrupt government scared many investors away.

Last September, however, Kiev celebrated the arrival of a 255-room Radisson SAS hotel. Five-star comfort has finally made it across the Ukrainian borders and boy are businessmen happy!

Red Corner: Tallinn holding it’s Own

by Neil Woodburn on

Apparently there is a scourge attacking Europe that is far worse than us loud-mouthed American tourists: British bachelor parties. I’ve seen their ilk last time I flew into Prague. Dressed up in costumes and drunk before clearing customs, these rowdy partiers seek out cheap cities where beer flows freely and the bachelor is guaranteed a good time-unlike locals and other tourists who have to put up with their obnoxiousness. Recently, we posted about the latest hot spot to hit the British bachelor party circuit: Tallinn, Estonia.

A recent article in The Independent written by Sankha Guha (who claims, tongue-in-cheek, to have put the capital of Estonia on the bachelor party radar), takes a look at how Tallinn has weathered the storm of inebriated Brits. His conclusion is that it has done so very well. Guha joins in a bit of the fun himself, while also taking time to introduce the readers to the other treasures Tallinn has to offer besides cheap beer.

Red Corner: Baikal Spared

by Neil Woodburn on

The likelihood of the Russian government making a pro-environmental decision is just as unlikely as the Bush administration making one. And yet, I was extraordinarily pleased to discover that Vladimir Putin himself has out-greened his American colleague with a very unexpected announcement yesterday.

Mr. Putin has finally listened to reason and rejected the decision to build an oil pipeline near Lake Baikal. We’ve posted many times about this majestic expanse of water in Siberia that is flush with endemic species and 20% of the world’s fresh water supply. As of last month, plans had been approved to move forward with a pipeline that if ruptured, could destroy the fragile ecosystem of one of this planet’s most unique bodies of water.

Fortunately, Putin had a little talk with Nikolai Laverov, the deputy head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who helped convince him to move the pipeline further north and spare this amazing resource the possibility of ecological catastrophe.

Do you think it was just coincidence that yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl? Hmmm… I don’t think so.