Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Broke in the Bahamas: Baha Mar, the Swiss guy and the Chinese

Baha Mar: The hotel that threatens to bankrupt the Bahamas. The Baha Mar resort was supposed to add 12 per cent to the Caribbean island’s GDP. But it has turned into the world’s biggest white elephant and the investors have gone to war. The case will soon hit the London courts. Michael Bow reports
Read the sad tale of too big a project, not enough funds, but this jumps out (emphasis added)

Mr Izmirlian, the son of commodity tycoon Dikran Izmirlian, who made his money cornering the global peanut market, was asked to try and revitalise the rundown area of Cable Beach, a dilapidated area of the island long overlooked in favour of other boltholes.

He bought land around Cable Beach and signed a deal with a US construction group in 2007 to develop the site. He securedfinancing for the project but the onset of the global financial crisis scuppered the plans.

But in March 2009 Mr Izmirlian got a break, thanks to the Chinese.

CSCEC, through its US arm CCA, agreed to come on board and construct the resort with the proviso that debt financing came from Cexim, which stumped up $2.45bn of secured credit.

CCA, led by president and chief executive Ning Yuan, is the largest division of CSCEC and has been operating in the US for 30 years. CSCEC added another $150m and Mr Izmirlian $850m.

The Chinese company was given the green light to start building in February 2011, with a completion scheduled in November 2014.

Despite the company’s size, the Baha Mar president Tom Dunlap said it had concerns about whether the Chinese could deliver such an ambitious construction project. CSCEC drafted around 5,000 migrant Chinese labourers on to the holiday island to build the resort, winning work permits for them from the Bahamian government.

“Although [CSCEC] is one of the world’s largest contractors, it had little experience in constructing single-phase resorts projects of [the] size and complexity of the [Baha Mar] project,” Mr Dunlap said in a statement filed as part of the bankruptcy proceedings.

Keep that in mind every time you read about the proposed Nicaragua Canal.

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Meanwhile, over in the country with the strictest gun control laws in our hemisphere,

Thousands of armed vigilantes takeover Mexican town, arrest police and shoot at tourists after ‘commander’ is killed and dumped in the street. Tierra Colorada is in the southern state of Guerrero on the way from Mexico City to Acapulco

‘Community police’ arrest former director of security in Tierra Colorado [sic]
They allege he took part in killing of their leader, 28, for criminal cartel
State prosecutors agree to investigate official’s links to organised crime
Vigilantes have been stopping traffic at checkpoints and searching homes
Tourist injured after vigilantes opened fire because he failed to stop his car
Takeover comes amid growing ‘self defence’ movement against cartels

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Fidel’s daughter favors “Dutch-style sex ed”

In a Communist country, with sex tourism, and where your children belong to the state, the dictator’s daughter talks about the latest plan (h/t Gates of Vienna),
Cuba embraces Dutch-style sex education
Cuba can learn a thing or two from Dutch-styled sex education. That’s the view of Mariele Castro Espín, daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro, espoused in an interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Mariela Castro is director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education, a government-funded body, whose aim is the development of the development of a culture of sexuality that is “full, pleasurable and responsible, as well as to promote the full exercise of sexual rights.” She will travel to the Netherlands in the near future to for discussions with institutions and government bodies related to sex education.

Cuba is a top destination for sex tourism. Maybe Mariela will have the whorehouses display their goods on shop windows as they do in Amsterdam.

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National Lampoon Caribbean Vacation: Venezuela edition

Dan Miller reports on his recent Bolivarian vacation experience:

Going on Vacation to Venezuela? What Could Go Wrong?
You will discover new ways to conserve water and electricity, the supplies of which a thoughtful and ever compassionate government has wisely limited by allowing the infrastructure to deteriorate naturally.
It’s not the Canyon Ranch, but, hey, you may still lose the pounds,

For the many health conscious tourists, Venezuela can’t be beat; indeed, one could drop ten pounds or more due to the massive food shortages obviously caused by capitalist greed, food hoarding, incompetence of a few petty officials, speculation, and the bourgeois nature of some union members.

Go read the rest – you’ll want to book the earliest flight available. As they said in Burn After Reading, “Put him on a plane to Venezuela!”

(Dan also forwarded the link.)

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Fly standing, my a**, part 2

Remember this?

I posted about this in April, 2006. The NYT article was titled Ready for takeoff? Even if it’s standing room? Back then the airlines involved vigorously denied that they were considering doing away with seats.

Well, three years later, the story is baaack:
Would You Stand on Short Flights if It Meant Cheaper Fares?

According to Marketwatch.com: A spokesman for Ryanair, Stephen McNamara, said the airline is looking to replace traditional seats with “vertical ones,” which on a typical flight would allow between 50 and 60 additional passengers.

The vertical seats

Oxymoron – Dude, if vertical, it’s not a seat!

sound like something you might find in an amusement park:

I’m not amused

Mr. McNamara said the airline envisages having the passengers supported and restrained,

Why does that bring to mind horror movies involving insane asylums?

and not simply holding a rail,

The screaming, floating strap hangers wouldn’t look so good to the rest of the passengers?

so they could handle turbulence or an emergency landing safely, Steve Gelsi reports.

Or perhaps the airline wants you to be on the misericord,

Helmsley Misericord seats St Aelred's Chapel

so you pray for mercy on your soul during a rough flight?

Ryanair would need approval both from U.S. and European Union authorities, as well as Boeing, which makes its aircraft. Mr. McNamara said it could take three years before they could even pilot the program, and then additional time to launch it.

Give the sadists enough time, and they’ll push it through, possibly even with a governmental bailout.

The thing is, once an arline reduces travel room, it later becomes a trend to all the airlines. When air travel first started, passengers were treated well, which later became first class (which is disappearing, fast), and now we’re all sardines in coach.

BUT

Yes, it CAN get worse!

Another controversial idea -– charging for toilet use on flights –- is “still under consideration,” according to Mr. McNamara.

There you are, catapulted into the upper atmosphere in an aluminum tube and they’re charging you to use the toilet.

What other humiliation will they think of next? Dare I ask?

Speaking of billing, how about allowing passengers to bill airlines for every minute of delays, at the passengers’ hourly wage rate, chums?

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I’ll be joining Jane and other friends at BlogHer09 later today. Blogging will take second place to socializing and fun.

bh09-125-uncensored

No, we didn’t have to stand through a flight to get here, perish the thought.

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Cuba: Fantasy island for Orbitz?

As I have mentioned before, I’m under the distinct impression that the Obama administration will water-down the Cuban embargo to the point where it becomes meaningless.

Orbitz, the travel people, are looking ahead to booking some vacations when that happens:

Cuba: Fantasy island for Orbitz?
Chicago-based travel site launches Web campaign seeking to overturn the U.S. government’s longtime travel restrictions to Cuba

Blending commerce with politics, Chicago’s Orbitz Worldwide is launching a campaign this week aimed at getting Congress to reverse a law that prohibits travel to Cuba for most U.S. citizens and green-card holders.

Starting Sunday through a Web site at www.opencuba.org, Orbitz visitors can petition the White House, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of Congress to eliminate the decades-old trade and travel restrictions.

They’re eager, alright,

Borrowing a page from the Obama presidential campaign, Orbitz is trying to build grass-roots support for opening travel to the island by appealing directly to the 14 million monthly visitors to its Web site.

“We want to organize our customers and other interested parties to reach out to Obama and other government officials,” said Barney Harford, 37, the energetic president and chief executive of Orbitz.

A British national, Harford became enamored with Cuban culture and music during a 1997 trip to Havana and surrounding areas. “This is a magical country,” he said.

Orbitz created its Cuba campaign in Internet speed. Energized by a White House visit with the president in March, Harford decided to rally his company behind a social cause and selected Cuba. His engineers built the Web site in just two weeks.

In its haste, Orbitz hasn’t solicited support from Cuban-American leaders, although Harford says that is next on its agenda.

It’s a bigger gamble than Orbitz probably suspects: first, the Cuban regime is going to continue to picture the US as the “enemy empire”. Additionally, it’s not in the regime’s interest to flood the country with Americans, particularly those who stand for freedom,

But even if the ban is abolished, Cuba is likely to constrict travel for the near term, experts said. Cuba’s leadership is likely to restrict travel visas in the hope of thwarting visitors who might foment discontent.

And then there’s the stark reality of Cuba itself.

But, as I said, the Obama administration is going to do what it’s going to do. Orbitz is just trying to fill a niche. Before you go, do drop by The Real Cuba and The Cuba Archive.

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While we wait for the Cuban Communist party to enact The Freedom to Travel From Cuba Act…

…the Dems are proposing a The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act:
Bill would drop travel restrictions to Cuba

While most of the nation focused on the stimulus bill winding through Congress, nine representatives introduced a bill calling for an end to the 46-year-old ban on travel to Cuba.

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 4 would allow American citizens unrestricted travel to Cuba for the first time since 1963. The bill by Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and eight co-sponsors would also lift limits on travel by Cuban exiles living in the United States. The president would not be able to regulate travel to the island unless an armed conflict or armed danger arises.
…
Co-sponsors to the bill include representatives Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Sam Farr, D-Calif., and Ron Paul, R- Texas.

So here’s the story:
By enacting this bill the US would be allowing a major shift in policy without demanding an equal, in-kind gesture from Cuba. Cubans (and foreign residents, as Roberto Ampuero found out to his dismay) residing in the island-prison are not allowed to travel without the direct permission of the Cuban government. Anyone else who leaves immediately loses everything they have, job and possessions.

A great deal of travel to Cuba is for sex tourism. Any other tourist activity is totally controlled by the Cuban government. Cubans, under this apartheid system, are not allowed into tourist-only areas unless they work there for a salary of $20/month.

Anyone traveling to Cuba for medical treatment also would continue to support the medical apartheid system, by which Cubans without foreign passports and dollars to pay with have to contend with a medical system so lacking that patients have to bring their own suture thread before a surgeon can operate on them.

Just so you know before you pack your bags.

More at Babalu

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