By Jacob Strangis |Staff Writer|
Cuba, once our enemy, can now be a place for American tourists to travel and for corporate interests to thrive.
“Touristic Nostalgia in Tomorrow’s Cuba” was a one hour event held on May 16 in the Santos Manuel Student Union hosted by Dr. Kaifa Roland.
The United States, along with other world super powers, have had very little influence on Cuba since it has been partly in isolation.
The event was primarily discussing how will Cuba as a country change and evolve over the years and progress with potential of increased American tourism and imperialism.
Even though it has been isolated to outside nations, Cuba holds a wide variety of culture within its realm.
“Cuba is a great example of cultures coming together and creating an environment of coexistence,” said Aaron Burgess, Intern Executive Director for the Student Union.
However, it is unclear how the cultures will interact with one another if the opportunity ever arises for Americans to bring economic views to the country.
The event informed that Cuba could potentially be an attractive tourist spot for Americans, but, at the same time tourists would have to do without American commodities such as Starbucks or McDonald’s on every corner since corporate interests have had no access to Cuba.
It is the norm to see American franchises outside of America so tourists can be accommodated with familiarity.
Not having this will force tourists to explore outside their comfort zone by having to indulge in the Cuban lifestyle.
This could preserve Cuba’s authenticity by not having American corporate interests get involved.
Dr. Roland, the speaker of the event, expressed her worry that American imperialism and capitalism would not be good for the country if it was as predominant as it is here.
If American corporate interests make their way into Cuba it could lead to a ripple effect that makes the country become another obsessive consumer culture and possibly skew their current socialism interests.
It is clear that there is a desire to limit American imperialism and influence on the Cuban nation.
“When you have American style capitalism, you can’t control it, if they want the money they do whatever they can to get the money, the government should try and remain in control of their country and not let corporate interests take over.” said Dr. Rowland.
Cuba has already changed in the fact that more of the citizens are now possessing more materialistic possessions such as cars that have been imported.
Cubans now have cars and smartphones more than ever before.
They are already experiencing a taste of capitalism and consumer behavior, but if American imperialism becomes a strong influence the country may begin to value money over its people.
It is uncertain what changes will occur in Cuba, but according to Dr. Roland they have talked about and appear to prefer the governmental systems of northern Europe which are socialist.
If Cuba becomes officially open to American tourists, there is only chance that corporations do not try and take power in Cuba’s government by offering them profit, but rather have Cuba become its own evolved independent country among the rest of the world.
The event brought to light that the resistance to corporate greed and imperialism could result in Cuba becoming their own unique and authentic nation with no American nostalgia for tourists traveling the country.
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