Havana

For your viewing pleasure, some pictures of old Havana.

Single Parent Families have more Kids

http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/famil50a-eng.htm

Coincidence?

Atlas Shrugged in < 1000 words

The Abridged Atlas Shrugged
02.19.2001

"It sure is hard to find good men now-a-days. I wonder what the hell is going on," Dagny smirked to herself as she entered the towering monolith to capitalism that was the headquarters of Taggart Transcontinental. "There are so few men like Hank Rearden, the man who single handedly invented a new greenish tint metal that is far stronger than steel," she said bursting in on her brother. "There are too many like you, Jim," she mocked.

"Well, if that's the case, you so-not-a-woman-and-I-can't-believe-a-woman-wrote-this, why don't you go redeem yourself by sleeping with him. By being his servile little mistress you'll serve the cause of capitalism far better than you have," Jim mocked.

Dagny smirked in her mocking way. Yes, she thought, she had tried that with another man, and it seemed so right until he, gasp, went to the other side. He became a slacker. Hank. Hank, Hank, Hank. Don't you know you're all I dream about though I don't actually do anything about it until page five-hundred? "I know what I want Jim, but what do you want?"

"Who is John Galt?"

"Don't say that! It's people asking that question that leads me to believe something sinister is happening in society. I think he's the destroyer." She mocked herself silently inside. How could a grown woman think such a thing? Oh, who was she kidding? She knew that women weren't much better than children anyway. Everyone knew that. It was a fluke she had any position in the railroad at all.

"It is I, Francisco d'Anconia, of the oldest most wealthy copper fortune this side of the Atlantic, and don't I want you to know that I'm pissing it all away for a grand reason that I won't tell you!" His perfect physique burst through the door in a mocking manner few could achieve but which he achieved perfectly. He had seen someone do the act before and fail and, after a single try at six months old, he was better at mockingly bursting through doors than anyone on the planet.

"Slacker," Dagny screamed with indignation and a pointed finger.

"Yes Dagny, you silly silly woman, I may seem a slacker to you, but after ten pages of explanation you will know that it is you who slack and it is I who serve a higher cause which will not be explained for another seven hundred pages. Remember, I am a d'Anconia which goes without saying that I know what I am doing," he mocked. He was so perfect at mocking. No man mocked like Francisco. How she wanted to be back in his arms. Were it not for... no! He was a slacker! The very embodiment of slack yet... yet he slacked with purpose. Even that was perfect. No man slacked like Francisco.

"What in capitalism's name is going on here," Hank yelled with bursting anger from the bottom of his manly lungs as he lunged through the door. It wasn't as perfect as Francisco's mockery, no man could touch that, but it was with the kind of power only a capitalist could muster. Dagny fluttered with lust.

"What the hell are you all doing in my office," Jim demanded weekly, the only way a socialist could demand.

"Hank, we must talk," Francisco said in a softly mocking way. Hank's heart fluttered with love he suddenly felt for the man. Even if he was a slacker, could my heart be wrong, Hank asked himself. He reached for Francisco's hand, wanting to hold him close.

"No," Dagny screamed with indignation and a pointed finger. "Please, I want him to take me and show me what a weak little girl I really am! That's what all women want!" Hank looked torn.

"Hey everybody," said a quiet voice from behind Hank. Hank took up most of the doorway with his manly capitalistic bulk. The crowd parted like the sea and a well groomed handsome man with a shock of boyish blond hair stood at the foot of it.

"John, you're not supposed to show up for eight-hundred more pages," Francisco said mockingly.

"Well, I got bored with the wait and figured what the hell. So... who wants to know what this is all about?" John smiled and every man's heart in the room melted. Dagny felt the overwhelming urge to become his servant and to clean up after him. That's what all women wanted after all, she figured.

"I do," Rearden capitalistically demanded.

"Well, I couldn't deal with any government intervention in business and think that any kind of socialist tendency is kind of a bad idea, so me and my buddies, who all just happen to be the rich, powerful, and industrial, went on strike to bring the world to its knees." John said as he tossed back his blond hair with a light twitch of his head.

"For what purpose," Jim nearly cried. Socialists are such babies, thought John mockingly.

"Well, I don't like having to pay taxes or think about anything other than business. And, because I'm such an inexplicably charismatic guy, I figured I'd just get my industrialist buddies to back me," John said with a hint of mockery.

"Look," Jim sobbed. "The world is crumbling without you guys!"

"Well, once it's toast, we'll get to work but until then, who's up for some skiing in Colorado?"

Coming Home

Sunday morning I’ll fly from Cayo Santa Maria airport to Havana. On Tuesday I’ll catch a flight to Canada. The fact that no flights were available between the time things wrapped up here (today) and the day my visa expires (Tuesday) works out quite nicely as this way I’ll have about two days to see Havana.

The hotel population has increased dramatically in the last 2 weeks, coinciding with the end of hurricane season. This week we got a lot of tourists from Toronto, and the general tone has generally decreased. I’m glad to be leaving, and embarrassed on my countrymen’s behalf. They really are showcasing the worst that Canada has to offer. But then, who would come on a vacation like this anyway? It’s the travel equivalent of a TV dinner.

Hotel complaints:

-       My room was broken into while I was falling asleep last week. I woke up to see a guy 2m from my bed. When I yelled, he ran out through the patio door. Hotel security came within minutes, but the next day no report had been made nor any sort of apology issued.

-       No hot water on 6 days of my 27 day stay.

-       My room was not cleaned twice for no apparent reason.

-       I was forced to change rooms 3 times during my stay. On the second occasion, a Saturday, I eventually said “OK, I’ll take 2 hours of my time on my half day off to change rooms, but when I get to my new room, I expect to find a nice bottle for my troubles.” Their answer: “Why? We’re not mind readers.” This is a 5 star hotel.

-       Hotel front desk staff was generally unhelpful and even rude, and everything takes 4 times as long as it would anywhere else.

-       You have to pay for your room up front, unlike everywhere else in the world. When the money runs out, your room key stops working. If you do laundry, that money comes off your total, so your room is ‘checked out’ before you expect it to be. Stupid, stupid system.

-       Internet access sucked, and after multiple run-ins with the hotel IT staff, I dealt directly with the hotel manager who said “this is not a business hotel, it’s a tourist hotel. We are under no obligation to make things convenient for you.” Again, this is a 5 star hotel (here in Cuba at least, nowhere else I’m sure).

-       I had bugs in two my three rooms. I complained, the cleaning staff sprayed, the bugs would not die. Yuck.

-       The toilet in my third room filled continuously.

-       Hotel staff drive all over the grounds in oversized golf carts, shuttling people around. They drive like maniacs on the narrow paths.

-       I found it too cold in my room so I pasted a note to my air conditioning control asking cleaning staff to please not turn it on. The next day, the note was gone and the AC was on.

-       I tried to find out what it would cost for M to come for a week of my stay. After trying to negotiate with the front desk, it turned out that it would be cheaper for her to book a package trip from Canada with her own room than to stay in my room.

If I had to summarize the problem with Cuba, it’s that there is a complete lack of personal accountability. Thus, no one goes out of their way to be helpful or fix problems. Therefore, the situation only gets worse, or improves very slowly. Also, due to the messed up financial system they have, a hotel waitress earns in one day what an engineer at the power station earns in one month. No exaggeration. That figure, by the way, is about $60CAN.

Waitresses, cleaning staff, groundskeepers, etc. were all friendly and helpful. The workers at the plant were some of the most enthusiastic and eager operators I’ve ever worked with anywhere. They really want to learn everything they can about new projects, something which is very rare among North American operators I’ve worked with.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing a bit of Havana and then coming home.

Dumb eco-questions you were afraid to ask

"Over a 75-year lifespan, the average European will be responsible for
about 900 tonnes of CO2 emissions. For Americans and Australians, the
figure is more like 1500 tonnes. Add to that all of humanity's other
environmentally damaging activities and, draconian as it may sound,
the answer must surely be to avoid reproducing."

From http://www.newscientist.com/

Saturday

We worked a half day today. I had a bit of a crummy day, but it's
gotten better.

When we got back from work around noon, the internet access I've
gotten used to didn't work.

I went back to my room and my key wouldn't work. I knew what was going
on - I had paid until today (in stupid Cuba you pay hotels in advance)
and so the system shows me checking out of my room today. Hence no
key.

When I go to the front desk, it's the same song and dance that they do
about EVERY LITTLE THING. "Oh, you didn't tell us you were staying.
Now the room has new guests scheduled for tomorrow. You'll have to
move". Arg! This is the second time already. They want to put me in a
room far away. I argue. We finally settle on one. I say that when I
get to my new room I hope to find a nice bottle waiting for me. "Why?"
Well, to make up for the inconvenience to me of moving for the second
time. "Well, you didn't tell us you were staying. We're not mind
readers." Tell me what other 5 star hotel ANYWHERE in the world would
say something like that?? So after 20 minutes (at least!) that gets
sorted out and I go back to my room to pack.

This is the room that has bugs in it, that the girls came to spray and
the bugs wouldn't die. Great.

So I pack and move to my new room. it's fine, but all this uses about
an hour and a half of the first beautiful day I've had, and I'm also
hungry.

Then the laundry is broken I discover. The service just leaves your
dirty clothes bag in your room with a note. Ok, no problem. I'm not
desperate yet, and there is underwear for sale. So I go to the store, check out the boxers (they were in
a locked cabinet that I had to wait for, of course) and get ready to pay. Oops,
the credit card machine is broken. Oops, I don't have enough cash. Put
everything back. Does nothing work in what is supposedly the best part
of this country?

Then there was a hair in my glass at my late lunch. No apologies, they
just get me a new glass.

Then I go to the beach and I ask the guy about snorkeling. I was told
there were some rocks way to the left and I walked that way the other
night, but for like 4km and didn't see much. He says to go to the
lobby and ask about a bus to get there. I was apparently already in
the right place.

So I go to the lobby and right away I'm approached with a "you can't
be in the lobby with no shirt". Piss off. I'm just going to ask a
question and go back to the beach. Aside: everyone here is used to
following the rules because that's the way you do things here. As soon
as you show contempt for the rules, many are not sure how to react so
they leave you alone temporarily. I ask at the desk and they call and
basically they don't know what I'm talking about. Someone else
approaches and he says to rent a bike to go to the rocky area of the
beach.

So then that 'process' begins, renting (free) a bike "why don't you
have your bracelet?" I took it off 2 weeks ago. He gives me a bike
that would be small on a 10 year old, and I ask "what about that one?"
The bikes are locked on a single long chain, and the bike I pointed at
required removing four bikes. I get a long suffering look. "What about
this one?" he says pointing to the second bike in the line instead.
Fine, I'll take it. It's the most shattastic bike I've ever ridden,
but it gets me there. On the way I jump over a 1m wide open sewer. I
shit you not.

From there my day got better. Saw a lion fish in the wild, as well as
a school of needlefish.

And now internet is working, and I have ice cream, and things are looking up.

Jungle Adventure

I have heard that one is not compelled to tell the details of his stupidities to others. Today, I’m going to ignore that rule.

This morning I left the resort property for a run. While I had told two of my peers the night before that I’d be running the morning, nothing was definite including the direction, distance, or even certainty of my run. In other words, nobody really knew where I was. Mistake #1.

Soon after leaving the property, I passed a sign indicating there was a nature reserve 6km down the road. While I hadn’t really intended to run 12km, I figured that direction would be as good as any other. Because I had expected a short run, perhaps 5km or so, I ate no breakfast, brought no food, and carried a bottle with about a mouthful of water.

I ran in the direction of the nature reserve, passing a few construction vehicles on the way. The road is undergoing improvements in preparation for the building of a new resort. After approximately 5km, I passed the point where the road improvements were actually taking place, waited for a front end loader to dump its load, and continued on.

I next saw the entrance to the nature reserve on my right. A sign explained that the loop was approximately 1200m, would take 2 hours to complete, and was passage was completely forbidden without a guide. A phone number to arrange a guide was provided. At this point, I had not seen anyone since the construction site, and the road was dirt and clearly not often used. I decided that a 1.2km trail should take no more than 10 minutes to explore, and this time would allow me to rest enough for the run back.

The trail began as a well-defined path through some tall grass and tropical plants. Occasional yellow wooden posts marked the next bend. The scenery was beautiful, and despite the marked trail, the feeling of exploring something that not too many people before me had seen was strong.

While I would not consider myself an experienced woodsman or survivalist, I have spent significantly more time than the average person camping and hiking. I can follow a trail, have a descent sense of direction, am at least somewhat surefooted in the woods.

The trail quickly changed from an open grassy area to a more dense tropical forest. The ground was littered with rocks that required careful steps to avoid tripping. However, there were still wooden posts every 15m or so, and I was not having any trouble following the cleared trail.

The obvious wooden sign posts became sticks with yellow marks stuck in the rocks. The jungle became denser. As I continued, I came across a number of points where vines and tropical bushes had grown across or over the trial. In each case, I was able to crawl under, walk around, or somehow circumnavigate these obstacles.

At three of these points, I distinctly remember thinking ‘this is no longer a good idea’. However, I ignored that thought and chalked it up to my regular worrying personality and perhaps some fear of the unknown. Mistake #2. After what I would estimate was between 10 and 15 minutes of hiking, I crawled under a bush for about 2 meters. When I came out on the other side, I walked about 5m to an odd-shaped triple cactus and at that point I could no longer trick myself into thinking I was still on a trail. I decided to turn back.

I turned around and it was as if the trail had simply disappeared behind me. Until today I have never experienced this. Attempting to retrace my steps, I searched for the bush I had just crawled out from under but was unable to find it. Using the cactus as a home base, I walked in a large circle in an attempt to find the trail or the bush. After perhaps 5 minutes of searching, I returned to the cactus, reoriented myself, and again attempted to find the bush in the direction I knew I had come from, but again was unable to find it.

At this point, I felt I had two options. I was not disoriented. I knew I could begin walking back in the direction I had come from and I might find the trail. On the other hand, I the trail had twisted and I could find myself walking parallel to it through thick jungle. As I was perhaps 1km from the road by this point, this was not an appealing prospect. Furthermore, I might get disoriented without a trial to follow and end up walking in a different direction, not finding the road and no longer being able to find my way back.

My other option was to follow my ears to the ocean. For some time I could hear the waves at a distance I estimated to be about 200m. I figured that even without a trail I could walk through the bush in a constant direction until reaching the beach, and that that point reaching the hotel would be simply a matter of heading West along the beach.

After a last look around, I decided the later was the better course of action. I can say that leaving my cactus ‘home base’ was difficult, despite the fact that it afforded no real haven as I had already proven to myself. I set of in the direction from which I could hear the waves, and after perhaps 50m of bush I found a trail. I believe it was the same trail as it had the same yellow sticks, but I was unwilling to walk back along it to find out as by this point the noise of the waves had grown and I felt I would soon be out of the jungle.

Sure enough, I continued on the trail and eventually broke out onto a sand dune above the water. Walking only 5m or so from the trail head, I turned and looked back. Despite that I had been on a marked trail, there was, even at that distance, no obvious break in the jungle face. I turned towards the hotel and began the long walk back.

While this was an adventure, and everything ended well, I will definitely put more stock in warnings I hear about being prepared and about how easy it is to become lost in the woods. Getting lost in the jungle: Another life experience ticked off the list.

And now, a picture of a cat:

More Pictures from Cuba

I got stopped after taking one of these and asked what I thought I was doing, and was then told to delete that picture. These are the ones I didn’t delete.

Cayo Santa Maria

It's been a week so far here in Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba. Things at work are going well, and I expect to be here another 2 weeks or so.

It's definitely not the tourist season. The hotel is at about 1/5 of capacity, and the pools, restaurants, beach, and clubs are never crowded. Part of the reason is the weather. Hurricane season ended less than a month ago, but the wind is still strong (and thus the waves are large) and while it's certainly not cold, it's not too hot either. Mid to high 20s in the afternoon, and slightly overcast at best.

Nevertheless, this is the Caribbean (or at least a Disneyland version of it) so the music and dancing never stop. The hotel has a show every night, but once you're here over a week, they start to repeat. The ocean is closed for business with red flags posted everywhere indicating that you're not allowed so swim. Yesterday I managed to go for a long walk on the beach, basically until the fine white sand ended and the rock began.

It's been interesting working closely with Cubans so soon after coming back from St. Kitts. The attitudes are totally different. Many or most of the people we deal with here are very eager to learn new things. More eager, in fact, than most operators I've dealt with in North America. They are helpful, enthusiastic, and clever. Necessity is the mother of invention, and that should be the motto of this country.

On the other hand, it's very difficult to answer questions such as 'how much would someone with your degree earn in Canada?' (ie: 'how much are you getting paid?'). The average salary here is around 30CUC (40USD) per month. However, due to the fact that Cuba has two currencies (one for tourists, one for locals), things like food and locally-made (ie: very poor quality) clothing are quite affordable even with this salary. On the other hand, imported items (electronics, clothing, etc.) are difficult to impossible for locals to afford. For example, cell phones are available for purchase, but they cost on the order of 120CUC, or 3 months of an average local salary.

Below are some pictures...