50-year tax holiday coming to an end in Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">Agence France-Presse.Posted at 03/03/2011 11:56 AM | Updated as of 03/03/2011. HAVANA, Cuba - For years, Cubans trying to eke out a living have had one small comfort: that whatever income they managed to scrape together was entirely theirs. That's about to change.With 50 years of government paternalism coming to an end, Cubans will soon be introduced to the tax man. Read More

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Varadero's Architectural Charm Threatened by Tourism

<p style="text-align: justify;">HAVANA, Mar 2, 2011 (IPS) - Important architectural works from the Modern movement in Cuba appear to be doomed as a result of the expansion of massive hotel complexes, which threaten to take over the landscape in Varadero, this country's most famous beach resort.The alert was first sounded in 2010 when rumours began to spread about the demolition of the Hotel Internacional and the Hotel Club Cabañas del Sol, two 1950s structures located in a prime area of Varadero, which is 140 km east of Havana, in the province of Matanzas. Read More

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Cuba and the internet

<p style="text-align: justify;">Mar 3rd 2011.HAVANA. ACCORDING to government figures, only 3% of Cubans frequently use the internet, making the Caribbean island the least connected place in the Americas. Those that do require patience: according to an industry survey, Cuba’s dial-up internet access is the world’s second-slowest, after Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. Under the guise of rationing the use of bandwidth.For this sorry state of affairs, Cuba’s authorities have long blamed the United States’ trade embargo. They have a point. Read More

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Iconoclastic Young Filmmakers Look at Real Issues in Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">HAVANA, Mar 3, 2011 (IPS) - Lighting up dark areas of Cuban society with youthful vigour, Muestra Joven (the Young Cinema Exhibition), a local independent film event, reached its 10th anniversary characterised by experimentation and subjects that are both complex and invisible in the national media."The exhibition has earned a place for itself, against all the odds," Danae Diéguez, a member of the organising committee since 2006, told IPS about the festival that took place Feb. 22-27. Read More

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