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28/7/05
1:14 pm
Page 95
Survive Tomorrow?
culture have infiltrated Cuba’s borders. His view
mirrors that of many Cubans who, since the collapse
of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, have seen the
island open up to tourism and other outside
influences.
Tourism has unwittingly opened a window into a
lifestyle of carefree spending and material excess that
has been a catalyst to the massive public desire for
change. Many foreigners arrive with their disposable
incomes, spend extravagantly (in Cuban terms) and
tip wherever they go. This has led to an exodus from
the rural areas from where people flock to seek their
fortune around the tourist destinations and has led
to the Government stopping migration to the capital.
Joel James, a Marxist intellectual and Director of The
House of the Caribbean, a cultural centre situated in
Santiago on the eastern tip of Cuba, states: “The
development of tourism in Cuba has affected the
daily life of the Cuban. Tourism is an inevitable
misfortune. A misfortune because where there is
tourism, there is a modification of the customs and
traditions of culture. A tourist in Cuba enjoys the
nature and possibilities of Cuba much more than an
ordinary Cuban and the Cuban is aware of this.
Tourism has seriously hurt us; there has been a
political price to pay due to tourism.”
In a society where a doctor earns on average US $50
per month, it is easy to recognise the importance
and impact of tourism on the economy. Those who
work in the tourist industry can earn in daily tips
what the ordinary Cuban earns in a month. The
frightening reality of this economic infiltration ignites
a flood of comparisons to the social conditions that
the Revolution of 1959 sought to eradicate: an »