Dr Dushka H Saiyid

We took a Viazul coach from Trinidad to Santiago, which is at the eastern end of the island. A 10-hour journey was extended when the coach had a flat tyre, and we did not reach our hotel till midnight. Santiago de Cuba, like Salvador in Brazil, has a strong Afro-Caribbean culture, and is closer to […]

Within three hours we were in Cienfuegos, a stately town of about 150,000 people, often referred to as ‘the pearl of the south’ with its wide boulevards and elegant but homogenous architecture. It is different from other cities because it was founded and settled by the French, and not the Spanish, in the early 19th […]

With the US embargo in place, Cuba became economically dependent on the Soviet Union. However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Cuba entered a period of hardship, it has been taking small steps towards economic liberalisation and becoming more open for tourists. Despite a stagnant economy, Castro has been able to […]

The US Monroe Doctrine of 1823 stated that any attempt by a European power to colonise land in North or South America would be regarded as an act of aggression, and would require intervention by the US. This kept European powers out of South America while the commercial interests of the US increased, as did […]

The story of the revolution is a familiar one: an inept and corrupt dictatorship supported by the US, which allowed unrestrained exploitation by US companies of the country’s resources and its people. The majority of its six million population consisting of peasants lived in grinding poverty, while the middle classes and the Americans lived a […]

The minute you land in Cuba, you are transported to the 1950s; while the world has moved on, Cuba is frozen in time, in no small measure due to the trade embargo imposed on it by the US. While life might be a struggle in a stagnant state-run economy, the people are warm, helpful and […]