Saturday, January 17th, 2015

New Rules for Travel to Cuba, a Destination Already in Transition

A state-run food market in Havana. The Treasury Department announced new, more flexible, regulations on Thursday that will make travel to Cuba easier for Americans. Related article. Credit Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press Estelle Grush sliced cucumber and guava in the busy kitchen one recent evening at Café Laurent, a small, privately owned restaurant in a 1950s penthouse a few blocks from… [Read Full Article]

Friday, January 09th, 2015

CUBA Four locals share in the high hopes of an island nation

By Michael Sullivan 01/08/2015 On Dec. 13, four Ventura locals — Patti Channer, community patroness and architect; William Hendricks, professor of photography at Ventura College; Ron Picciotti, retired engineer; and Susan Pollack, commercial interior designer, plus a few Brooks Institute students — flew into Cuba. Hendricks, who had visited the country 55 times before, and his fellow travelers were about… [Read Full Article]

Tuesday, January 06th, 2015

Lacking Internet, Cubans Rely On 'The Package' For Entertainment

Young Cubans prepare their sticks to charge the latest internet "package" with films, television series, software and other similar stuff from foreign origin downloaded from the web. AFP/Getty Images   Cuba has promised its citizens better Internet access in this New Year. The few Cubans who now manage to get online find it expensive and slow. Warming ties with the… [Read Full Article]

Tuesday, December 23th, 2014

As Obama makes history over Cuba, will the Castros be the real winners?

After 50 years of fractious hostility, America has thrown a dramatic lifeline to the island’s bankrupt economy   To the astonishment of even the most seasoned and wired-in of Cuba hands, the half century-long cold (and hot) war between the US and Cuba is over. In what will rank alongside Nixon’s opening to China and Reagan’s embrace of Gorbachev, Obama… [Read Full Article]

Tuesday, December 02th, 2014

Traveling Teaches Students in a Way Schools Can't

American education is largely limited to lessons about the West. AMANDA MACHADO  DEC 1 2014, 9:00 AM ET   When I turned 15, my parents sent me alone on a one-month trip to Ecuador, the country where my father was born. This was tradition in our family—for my parents to send their first-generation American kids to the country of their… [Read Full Article]