Landing on the green in Castro’s Cuba

[naaman fletcher]

But this month in Havana, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said the government plans to partner with foreign investors to lure those elites back to the Caribbean country, building luxury golf resorts as part of what the Communist official delicately called “a strategy of diversification.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/landing-on-the-green-in-castros-cuba/article2035180/

[flamingdem]

1. This seems like an okay avenue for tourism development

as long as the ecological considerations are at the front of their planning.

I think it fits with the notion of keeping aspects of tourism isolated from the population.

[joshcryer]

2. Next up, casinos.

They already have the prostitution.

[flamingdem]

3. Prostitution in Cuba is much, much less than other Caribbean islands

and there is no reason to assume casinos.

I'd say the golf idea gets them the income without the sleaze.

[Billy Burnett]

4. !

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x52901


:hi:

[flamingdem]

5. Hi! Yes, indeed but still it's kind of a hijack

to even answer Naaman's thread!

By the way I don't know what to make of your prostitution poll.

Is it in relation to an article, or many articles appearing in said papers?

Cuba is a destination for ... romance tourism. Let them handle that can of
worms, I'd like to see how they treat the subject. They'd offend many people
who have found their spouses there.

[Billy Burnett]

6. There's a DUer who met and married a Cuban woman in Cuba.

But he wasn't a tourist, so I guess that romance tourism doesn't apply in that case. Anyway, we should pick this up elsewhere, I don't want to hijack naaman's thread. :hi:

[joshcryer]

9. I enjoy the blatant hypocrisy at least.

"Don't troll!" ...here we go trollin'.

[Judi Lynn]

12. It was your post #2 which said "Next up, casinos. They already have the prostitution."

At least stay conscious enough to take responsibility for your own trolling.

[joshcryer]

13. I was not "trolling" or "hijacking" I was posting on topic in this thread.

It is others here who insist on posting off topic banter intended to ... do exactly what was so hypocritically mocked of others doing. It amuses me to say the least.

[joshcryer]

7. How is that comment a "thread hijack"? It's a fact that Cuba is open to more tourism.

And it's a fact that Cuba has prostitution.

[joshcryer]

8. It's an eventuallity. The Caribbean is rife with them, Cuba would be remiss to not have them.

Check out http://rose.casinocitytimes.com/article/gambling-and-the-law-cuba-will-have-casinos-again-59568">this editorial that shows how they're pressing for this. Cuba is going to be one hot ass destination in due course.

[flamingdem]

10. Ha ha, things move slowly there, try waiting 50 years nt

[joshcryer]

11. Cuba's former casino industry was mob-run, a state run casino industry would be lucrative.

There are no real downsides from it, particularly if US Americans are happy to throw their money away during a weekend visit.

[Bacchus39]

14. I wonder if that is how Hugo got his "pelvic" pus abscess n/t

s

[Mika]

15. One could get all the bait needed from this thread.

Lotta squirming here.

---

| | | | |

[joshcryer]

16. Don't mock worms, they'll be dining on the authoritiarians soon enough!

;)

[Bacchus39]

17. haha n/t

s

[dipsydoodle]

18. Subject came up some months ago

They're using 99 year leases for such developments.

Typical link here from August last year :

Foreign real estate investors are being granted leases on government land for up to 99 years in a move that could see a raft of luxury villas, holidays homes and golf courses being built.
Developers have been urging the Cuban government to open up to foreign investment and more and more tourists are arriving on the Caribbean island.

A new law published last week loosened property rules to allow 99 year leases for foreigners as part of a package of measures introduced by President Raul Castro to scale back the state’s near total dominance of the economy while attempting to generate new revenue for a government short on cash.

One developer, Canadian based Leisure Canada, is pleased by the move. It wants to build hotels, villas and two golf courses on a beach in Jibocoa, 40 miles east of the capital Havana.

Cuba already allowed leases of state land for up to 50 years with the option to extend them for an additional 25, but foreign investors had long pressed tourism officials to endorse the 99 year lease as norm to attract more investors.

http://www.propertywire.com/news/south-america/-cuba-real-estate-boost-201008314451.html

[joshcryer]

19. Thanks for the link. Why would investors want 99 as opposed to 50?

50 years is a long fucking time, the original investors would likely be dead by the time the lease was up, seems weird, to me. Possibly some sort of American-style inheritance logic going there, so that at least two generations can exploit the leases.

What's sad about this is that the government wasn't allowing such leases to individuals but yet again corporations get the rights that citizens should have. It's the same way here in the USA with BLM land. You can file for BLM land as an individual, but tough luck getting the lease rights (which is on the order of dollars an acre). A big corporation however gets all the rights in the world, and indeed, much of the Green River Formation is leased, tens of thousands of square miles of land leased to oil companies at cutthroat rates ($10-15 an acre since they're mineral leases, but still nothing for these corporations).

[flamingdem]

20. Cuba has to make $, they cannot cater to individuals, esp. right wing Cuban Americans nt

[joshcryer]

22. I consider leases to be exploitive whether they are to individuals or corporations.

[dipsydoodle]

21. That's a bit like saying

in the UK why would anyone want a 99 year lease on a house : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99-year_lease

Some other properties have 999 year leases : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999-year_lease

The longer the lease the better.

[joshcryer]

23. But why? Such long leases are only dynasty trusts in disguise and *only* benefit the leasor.

There's no future legal ability to rewrite the lease or allow others the opportunity to exploit it. Pure dynasty building, indeed, your second link only underscores the point.

999 year leases. :rofl:

Country clubs and royalty, god.