Obama Has Reshaped Cuba

Drastically!!

Photo credit: Valerio Berdin/REX/Shutterstock.

       This beautiful Cuban bartender has a problem, thanks to U. S. President Barack Obama. She simply doesn't have enough beer to handle the vast influx of American tourists since Obama's Dec.-2014 announcement that the U. S. is trying to normalize relations with the nearby island for the first time in over five decades. This weekend, London's The Guardian, which keeps a watchful eye on Cuba, made this revelation: "The ubiquitous fridges that dispense beer in Cuba's bars, cafes, and petrol stations are running out of the island's favorite brands of beer, Cristal and Bucanero. A surge in American tourists and the proliferation of new private watering holes put the nation's main brewery under strains. Bucanero, a joint venture between the Cuban government and Belgium's Anheuser Busch InBev, also makes the island's most widely consumed beer, Cristal. Bucanero is importing three million cases of beer from Dominica to meet the demand in Cuba." If you look closely, you may detect the worried look on this bartender's face, as if she is looking at the door hoping some cases of beer from Dominica will be added to her stocks of brew that very morning before her customers barge in.

       This weekend's article in The Guardian pointed out that, in a few days -- on May 1st -- Carnival Cruise Lines will greatly increase the influx of Americans to Cuba. That's when its Miami hub begins the first cruises from the U. S. to Cuba in over five decades. The Guardian wrote: "Beginning on May 1st Carnival cruise ships from Miami, for the very first time since 1959, will begin dropping off thousands of additional Americans in Cuba...thirsty Americans!" The London newspaper also pointed out that "U. S. visitors rose 77% in 2015 to 166,000 -- not counting hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans. It severely tests Cuba's hotels, rental cars and...beer."

Now you know why she is worried!!

        However, this weekend -- Saturday, April 9th -- Gene Sloan of USA Today reported that Pearl Seas Cruises in Miami is canceling its planned trips to Cuba apparently because the over-burdened island simply can't handle so many U. S. tourists.

      Pearl Sea Cruises had launched an expansive program of cruises to Cuba on its luxurious, 210-passenger Pearl Mist ship, according to USA Today. It had been taking bookings for cabins that started at a hefty $7,810 per passenger but Cuba itself has had to refuse the cruises and USA Today says, "The cancellations began."

      This is the map that Pearl Sea Cruises had advertised and sincerely hoped would reflect its cruises from Miami, all around the island of Cuba, and back to Miami. But for Cuba, President Obama's historic kindnesses are simply too much too soon.

&*************************&