Trading With The Enemy

Oblivious to national borders, pigeons have long carried messages between Havana and Key West, the southernmost city in the continental United States. A well-trained pigeon can make the 100-mile journey in roughly four hours. A sailboat takes 24. People have used pigeons as messengers from the dawn of civilization in Sumer. The U.S. military used homing birds through the Vietnam War. But in the age of drones, a feather-and-bone messenger seems outdated, particularly when the U.S. government spends millions of dollars on surveillance blimps that drift over the Florida Straits looking for illicit traffic.

Despite a trade embargo and the Trading with the Enemy Act (which the United States only applies to Cuba), Havana and Key West have always had a close relationship. Their cultures have been shaped by a history of transporting illicit cargo, dating back to the rumrunners of the Prohibition era. They’re like sister cities, despite the barricade aimed at separating them.

Trading With The Enemy is a 2 minute film documenting pigeons transporting Cubn cigars from Havana to Key West...

Meeting Announcement

Cuban Hot Spots 2017
January 28 – 30, 2017
Havana and Beyond

We are in the early planning stages for a conference to be held in Cuba in late January 2017 and are inviting you to consider joining us.  This will be a person-to-person meeting between U.S. and Cuban dermatologists.  As you know, many CME meetings are underwritten by PhRMA.  The speakers are hired guns who preach the message of their handlers: usually, the use of branded, expensive products. Cuba, today, can not afford biologics for most patients.

We intend to gather a group of dermatologists (and a few others) who want to share some of their experiences with our Cuban colleagues.  While Cuba has many well-trained physicians, they have not had access to the technological tools that we utilize hourly in the U.S.  Our speakers will share their experience.

All participants (including the organizers) of Cuban Hot Spots will pay their own way.  We do not provide travel stipends or honoraria.  We have enlisted the help of Jose R. Ruiz, a young Cuban doctor, to coordinate the program with us.  He will help too make this symposium unique.

We will limit the size of our group to keep Cuban Hot Spots amiable.  If you wish to reserve a place for 2017 please let us know.  A $100 nonrefundable fee will reserve a spot. The deposit money will be used for textbooks and other supplies for physicians and clinics that we will send down to the island.

Abrazos,

David Elpern

Douglas Johnson

George Reizner

Close Encounters

encuentros breves

 crean 

 amistades duranderas

brief encounters

create

 lasting friendships 

Rosa Blanca Jose Marti

Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca

by Jose Marti

This is Jose Marti's most famous poem.

Cultivo una rosa blanca
en junio como enero
para el amigo sincero
que me da su mano franca. Y para el cruel que me arranca
el corazón con que vivo,
cardo ni ortiga cultivo;
cultivo la rosa blanca.

I have a white rose to tend
In July as in January;
I give it to the true friend
Who offers his frank hand to me.
And for the cruel one whose blows
Break the heart by which I live,
Thistle nor thorn do I give:
For him, too, I have a white rose.

Habana in Miami

In Miami’s adaptation of Havana, where the thrum of the old country persists, proposed zoning changes have led the National Trust for Historic Preservation to place a portion of Little Havana on its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2015.

See: Habana, Miami Style No Passport Required (NY Times, April 9, 2016)

Dining Out in Havana

Cubans sometimes joke that of all the lessons living under three generations of communism has taught them, by far the most important is learning how to wait.

So it’s a little surprising that as capitalism creeps in — the introduction of private ownership has created a thriving restaurant scene — people here are discovering, to their dismay, that they need to book reservations to get into their favorite places for dinner.

Reservations?  Cubans Confront a New Dining Culture -- N Times, April 6, 2016

Cuba - Not!

'Car Talk' in Cuba

Ray Magliozzi of ‘Car Talk’ Takes to the Road in Cuba  by Elaine Glusac, NY Times, April 3, 2016

Recently, Mr. Magliozzi took a trip to Cuba, where midcentury American cars famously rule the roads. Following are edited excerpts from a conversation with him.

Among other things, Ray found that “most streets in Havana are at least as good as the streets in Boston. They’re not ravaged by salt and ice.”