Cuba Update

To take the first step to a grand family travel time, the Park Service offers a helpful guide, Trip Planner, filled with general information starting with "Getting to the Grand Canyon," what weather to expect when there, plus lots of details and photos about the South and North Rim and more. Park Rangers know just about everything and anything to make your Grand Canyon visit all you could expect it to be. So they urge you to "get involved." Start now by obtaining the Grand Canyon Trip Planner. "Awesome" is an understatement! Audience: tourists to national parks, hikers, backpackers, National Park Rangers, travel agents, tour packagers, nature explorers, travel agents and companies, and more

How the Cuban health care system became the blueprint for accessible medical care around the world Quiet as it’s kept inside the United States, the Cuban revolution has achieved some phenomenal goals, reclaiming Cuba’s agriculture, advancing its literacy rate to nearly 100 percent – and remaking its medical system. Cuba has transformed its health care to the extent that this “third-world” country has been able to maintain a first-world medical system, whose health indicators surpass those of the United States at a fraction of the cost. Don Fitz combines his deep knowledge of Cuban history with his decades of on-the-ground experience in Cuba to bring us the story of how Cuba’s health care system evolved and how Cuba is tackling the daunting challenges to its revolution in this century. Fitz weaves together complex themes in Cuban history, moving the reader from one fascinating story to another. He describes how Cuba was able to create a unified system of clinics, and evolved the family doctor-nurse teams that became a model for poor countries throughout the world. How, in the 1980s and ‘90s, Cuba survived the encroachment of AIDS and increasing suffering that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and then went on to establish the Latin American School of Medicine, which still brings thousands of international students to the island. Deeply researched, recounted with compassion, Cuban Health Care tells a story you won’t find anywhere else, of how, in terms of caring for everyday people, Cuba’s revolution continues.

History is being made in U.S.-Cuban relations. Now in paperback and updated to tell the real story behind the stunning December 17, 2014, announcement by President Obama and President Castro of their move to restore full diplomatic relations, this powerful book is essential to understanding ongoing efforts toward normalization in a new era of engagement. Challenging the conventional wisdom of perpetual conflict and aggression between the United States and Cuba since 1959, Back Channel to Cuba chronicles a surprising, untold history of bilateral efforts toward rapprochement and reconciliation. William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh here present a remarkably new and relevant account, describing how, despite the intense political clamor surrounding efforts to improve relations with Havana, negotiations have been conducted by every presidential administration since Eisenhower's through secret, back-channel diplomacy. From John F. Kennedy's offering of an olive branch to Fidel Castro after the missile crisis, to Henry Kissinger's top secret quest for normalization, to Barack Obama's promise of a new approach, LeoGrande and Kornbluh uncovered hundreds of formerly secret U.S. documents and conducted interviews with dozens of negotiators, intermediaries, and policy makers, including Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter. They reveal a fifty-year record of dialogue and negotiations, both open and furtive, that provides the historical foundation for the dramatic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba ties.

A thorough examination of the history of the controversial island country looks at little-known aspects of its past, from its pre-Columbian origins to the fate of its native peoples, complete with up-to-date information on Cuba's place in a post-Soviet world.

Miller and Henthorne give U.S. investors and entrepreneurs the insights they need to capitalize upon the rapidly expanding, but still open, Cuban tourism industry—the island's major industry. This authoritative examination of the market for Cuban tourism provides comprehensive information on Cuban contacts and data sources that are accessible to foreigners; insights into the competition and possible competitive strategies, plus the general background on Cuba and its economy that investors must have for an understanding of Cuba's potential. With its lists of references and contacts, Miller and Henthorne's study will be invaluable to international tourism executives, particularly specialists in strategic planning and the development of strategic business alliances as well as international marketers and business development officers. Miller and Henthorne have written their book for the day when relations and travel ties are reestablished between Cuba and the United States—a day that in their opinion will soon come. From their personal visits and interviews with Cuban officials in banking, finance, investment, politics, and the tourist industry itself, Miller and Henthorne have compiled material that is unavailable from any other single source. Here is detailed, first hand, timely information on Cuba's tourism resources, opportunities, infrastructure, competitors and competition, peculiarities, and historical and regional background for the benefit of investors in the United States and worldwide.