Tag: Restricted Travel View All Tags
Web Censorship
Experience The Chinese Internet Without Leaving Home
October 29, 2008 at 10:30 AM | 0 Comments
Gearing up for a trip to post-Olympics China? Get a taste of the internet filtering you'll be experiencing with the China Channel Firefox Add-on.
The browser plug-in sets you up with an IP address on a proxy server in China, meaning that while you're surfing from Omaha, the websites you're trying to load think you're coming at them from, say, Guangzhou. An attempt to connect to pages on unsavory subjects will interrupt your connection for 15 minutes or so--though you can use the extension to immediately reconnect through another proxy.
The plug-in was created by a small group of edgy internet geeks-slash-artists hoping to spread the word about the ongoing web censorship in China. Among them? TSA antagonist Evan Roth.
Related Stories:
· China Channel Firefox Add-on [Official Site, via]
· X-Ray Machine Art: Lulz with the TSA [Jaunted]
· Prevention of Vice Travel: Beijing Putting Further Restrictions on Internet Cafes [Jaunted]
Cuba Travel
Cuba Travel: New Options for American Embargo Breakers
July 21, 2008 at 11:30 AM | 0 Comments
While the rest of the world enjoys famous golf courses and lovely beaches, most Americans are stuck dreaming of the day they'll be able to visit Cuba legally. We met a couple a few weeks back that made their illegal trip to Havana via a stop in the Bahamas, but Windsor, Ontario hopes to become the gateway to the forbidden island.
Starting December 18, Sunwing Airlines, which is like the Allegiant Air of Canada, will offer flights to Varadero, Cuba from Windsor Airport, about a 20-minute drive from downtown Detroit. And the airport manager is rolling out the welcome mat for Cuba-bound Americans:
On average, about 50 percent or more of passengers flying to Cuba from Canada are from the US. Given our unique geographic position near Metro Detroit, we're expecting at least that.
Another option will soon be Sunwing service out of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, just north of Michigan's UP. Of course, these new flights just add to Sunwing's existing Cuba route network, though they do make it even easier for Americans to skirt Treasury Department rules.
Related Stories:
· Boarding Soon: Cuba Flights from Windsor [Detroit News, via]
· Travel Ban Not Stopping Cuba Tourists [Jaunted]
· Cuba Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: hellosputnik]
Beijing Olympics
China Tells You What Not to Do at the Olympics
June 4, 2008 at 9:01 AM | 0 Comments
The best event of summer is undoubtedly going to be the Beijing Olympics. How do we know? China just released a fun "advisory to foreigners" telling visitors what they won't be allowed to do at the Olympic festivities in Beijing this August.
Though it's written for tourists, the advisory was only published in Chinese, so sadly we don't understand everything it says. The parts that have been translated are truly awesome examples of Chinese government strangeness.
The advisory is chock full of tips for optimal Olympic enjoyment. Among other things, it tells tourist what to do if they get "diarrhea or vomiting symptoms" at a Chinese restaurant. The advisory also contains stern warnings against insulting the Chinese flag or smuggling opium. Too bad: We were looking forward to those events!
Related Stories:
· China Lists Dos and Don'ts for Olympics-Bound Foreigners [NYT]
· Beijing Olympics coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Hunter Walker]
Barack Obama
2008 Candidates Travel: Obama Talks Cuba
May 23, 2008 at 4:15 PM | 0 Comments
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain has been stumping around America, and lately he's been slamming Barack Obama for his position on Cuba. (You'll remember that the Illinois senator wants to ease travel restrictions to the island.)
Hoping to set the record straight, Obama delivered a speech today to the Cuban American National Foundation:
Every four years, [politicians] come down to Miami, they talk tough, they go back to Washington and nothing changes in Cuba. That's what John McCain did the other day.
Obama then laid out his plan for dealing with the island, which isn't exactly what those of us who'd like to visit legally were hoping to hear:
I will immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances to the island ... [but] I will maintain the embargo.
Sounds like we'll be keeping our golf clubs in storage no matter who wins in November.
Related Stories:
· Obama Pledges New Approach to Latin America [Bloomberg]
· Barack Obama coverage [Jaunted]
· 2008 Candidates Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Obama '08]
Cuba Travel
Golf Travel: Swinging for Cuba
February 25, 2008 at 2:05 PM | 0 Comments
So Americans may be playing less golf, but that doesn't mean it's not a big, ahem, driver of tourism. And now that Fidel's on the way out--and Raul's in charge--at least a dozen golf-and-resort projects are underway around Cuba.
Seems the reason golf never caught on was Castro's taste in sports, though he did once play a game with Che Guevara, above:
Mr. Castro built a state-sponsored sports machine that produced world-famous boxers and baseball players, killer volleyball spikers and fleet-footed runners. But Mr. Castro was never keen on golfers, whose sport reeked of money and Yankee imperialism.
Today, there's only one nine-hole course in the capital, simply called the Havana Golf Club. Thanks to a pricey greens fee of 20 Cuban convertible pesos ($18) it draws more tourists than locals, and soccer great Diego Maradona has been spotted on the links. Also worth a trip is Varadero beach, where one 18-hole course is already open, and another resort is in the works.
Related Stories:
· Hooking Left: Cuba Tees Up Golf's Revival [WSJ]
· Castro Resignation Travel: Can We Go to Cuba Yet? [Jaunted]
· Travel Ban Not Stopping Cuba Tourists [Jaunted]
[Photo: Alberto Korda]
Cuba Travel
Castro Resignation Travel: Can We Go to Cuba Yet?
February 19, 2008 at 9:15 AM | 1 Comment
Fidel Castro announced overnight that he'd be stepping down as president of Cuba. After taking power in 1959, he's been the only leader the island has known and a continuous scourge to American presidents from Kennedy to Bush 2. Fidel's 76-year-old brother Raul will almost certainly take over the presidency.
That said, don't start planning your Cuban beach getaway just yet. (If you're American, that is.) President Bush, on a trip to Rwanda, isn't even pretending to be excited by this move:
Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections--and I mean free, and I mean fair--not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy.
We'll put away the sunscreen for now. Even American presidential contender Barack Obama, who's said he wants to change policy toward the island, won't go so far as to end the embargo. Fidel's resignation, then, has us wondering what comes not next week but in the next few years.
Will a cascade of power swaps destabilize Cuba, making it unappealing to even European tourists? Or will the nation finally welcome US tourists, who'll be gagging to make the short hop south from Miami to enjoy the once-forbidden island? And maybe more importantly than can we go, when will we be able to visit legally?
Related Stories:
· Fidel Castro Resigns as Cuba's President [AP, via Miami Herald]
· Is the Embargo Hurting the United States, Too? [Jaunted]
· Travel Ban Not Stopping Cuba Tourists [Jaunted]
· Can US Citizens Travel to Cuba? [Jaunted]
[Photo: jim snapper]
Cuba Travel
Cuba Travel: Is the Embargo Hurting the United States, Too?
December 19, 2007 at 12:00 PM | 1 Comment
Customs and Border Protection officers in Florida spend so much time searching passengers coming back from Cuba they may be missing actual threats to the country, says the Government Accountability Office. A report from the agency today says one in five passengers arriving in the States from Cuba are given intensive inspections, despite the fact that most of them have visited the island legally. (On average, customs officers put just three percent of international arrivals through the wringer.)
All the attention on enforcing the embargo on Cuba, says the GAO, keeps agents from other important work:
[Customs and Border Protection] data and interviews with agency officials suggest that the secondary inspections of Cuba arrivals at the airport may strain CBP's ability to carry out its mission of keeping terrorists, criminals and other inadmissible aliens from entering the country.
The report notwithstanding, the US State Department says that enforcing the embargo remains a priority. President Bush actually tightened sanctions on Cuba in 2004, but presidential hopefuls Ron Paul and Chris Dodd have both said they'd work to end the embargo if elected. Until then, Americans are stuck sneaking to the island and hoping they won't get caught coming home.
Related Stories:
· GAO Report on Embargo Enforcement [Official Site]
· Report Finds US Agencies Distracted by Focus on Cuba [NYT]
· Can US Citizens Travel to Cuba? [Jaunted]
[Photo: hellosputnik]
Cuba Travel
Travel Ban Not Stopping Cuba Tourists
September 11, 2007 at 4:20 PM | 0 Comments
While some Democratic presidential candidates have been discussing the US ban on travel to Cuba, a bunch of tourists are ignoring the talk and visiting the island. The trip may not be legal but that doesn't seem to bother the thousands of Americans--including Michael Moore--who risk big fines to check out Fidel's country.
In fact, one tourist says that's the point:
The fact that you're not supposed to be there, that was the top for me...You just don't know what Cuba will be like after Castro's gone.
The American Society of Travel Agents--a group that admittedly has an interest in more tourists--says millions of Americans would visit Cuba if restrictions were lifted. Would that ever happen? It might: Barack Obama says he wants to relax travel rules, and Chris Dodd says he'll end the US-Cuba embargo outright.
Related Stories:
· Thousands Flout Ban to See Cuba [AP, via CNN]
· 2008 Candidates Travel [Jaunted]
[Photo: malias]
Castro
Can U.S. Citizens Travel To Cuba?
May 10, 2007 at 10:11 AM | 4 Comments
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing September 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary SiCKO. SiCKO, coincidentally, premieres May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival and debuts in U.S. theaters June 29.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control recently informed Moore that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba.
According to Moore's website, he considers this incident an attack by the Bush Administration on his newest controversial film.
However, what is far more pertinent to us is the question of U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba. According to the U.S. government:
The Regulations require that persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction be licensed to engage in any travel-related transactions related to travel to, from, and within Cuba. Transactions related to tourist travel are not licensable. Travelers who fail to comply with Department of Treasury regulations will face civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States.
Underneath the restrictions section the document states that licenses are granted to "journalists and supporting broadcasting or technical personnel".
