Times Are A-Changin' In Havana -- Walter Mayr, Spiegel Online
A new law easing travel restrictions goes into effect on the Caribbean island of Cuba on Jan. 14. With tentative reforms, the Castro regime is preparing for the 55th anniversary of the country's revolution. A sea change is already on the horizon in the capital Havana.
The first building on Havana's seaside promenade, Malecón 13, lies between the old city and the ocean.
It's still inhabited. Behind a crumbling façade, there is an open passageway, with rusty iron bars under a starry sky, the sounds of salsa music and the clattering of plates. The back of the building faces Calle San Lázaro, with its opulent but decaying colonial buildings. Residents hoping to avoid the threat of being crushed to death by crumbling caryatids on the open street can duck into Los Borrachos, a local rum bar.
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My Comment: This is a major development. When the Soviet Union started to permit it's citizens to travel abroad, this produced a seismic change in people's altitudes within the Soviet Union. They saw how other people lived abroad, and when they came back they started to demand the same thing. I should know .... I am one of those travelers.
This is what I predict will also happen in Cuba. It's one thing to see on TV how other people lived, but when Cubans start to travel and witness what life is really like elsewhere, they will be demanding the same thing when they get back home .... and if they do not get it, even the Castro brothers will have trouble containing that hunger and need for that type of change.
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