Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
AT the Conservative Party conference this week, David Cameron was chastised for taking a sip of champagne at the Spectator bash. . . .
So the image of David Cameron sipping a glass of bubbly at, roughly, £9 a glass is wrong, but few batted an eyelid at the sight of Peter Mandelson, the epitome of New Labour, delivering his speech the previous week, while wearing, as later reported, ...
Jump to full article »
Cash-short Cuba is slashing the amount of land devoted to growing its famous tobacco by more than 30 percent as the global recession and worldwide spread of smoking bans bite into sales of the country's prized cigars.
Demand for Cuba's cigars fell 3 percent in 2008 and earlier was reported down 15 percent in 2009 because of the recession and the smoking bans adopted in a growing number of places as a public health measure.
Cuba's National Statistics Office, in a report posted on its web page (www.one.cu), said land to be planted with tobacco for next year's crop had dropped to 49,000 acres, down from 70,000 acres, which was in turn less than 2008.
It said the coming crop was expected to be 22,500 tons, down from a planned 26,800 tons.
Cigar makers gave their opinions about the work of Cuban media while hand-rolling, shaping and packing their product according to varieties and brands, such as H.Upmann ( name given to the center years ago), Montecristi, Hoyos de Monterrey and Partagás, which are very prestigious all over the world. They also referred to the way journalists reflect — or don´t— everyday problems in the newspapers and called them to be more critical when approaching these issues. They also talked about the need to improve the quality of the Cuban newspapers, when it comes to printing and distribution.
The meeting enriched our background knowledge. Thanks to readers at the cigar factories, cigar makers are regular “listeners” of the news we read them from the newspapers. “We read newspapers, magazines, books, foreign and national publications every day. All the departments listen to us through a local audio system. Cigar makers pay close attention to every piece of news and are severe critics of these materials,” said Gricel Valdés-Lombillo Pérez, who has played this role for nearly two decades. . . .
No wonder, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Preservation of the Immaterial Heritage will evaluate late in September the Cuban experience of people employed as cigar factory readers
They're called "cigar-factory readers" and for almost 150 years they have entertained the workers who hand-roll cigars in factories all over Cuba.
The Cuban government has suggested that these unique readers be designated as part of the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage that the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will vote on, together with another 110 candidates, at a the meeting to be held in Abu Dhabi beginning next Monday. . . .
The readers nowadays are state employees with an enviable status: they read 90 minutes a day and spend the rest of the time preparing new readings or debating with the workers the meaning of what they have heard.
Amid the sweet cigar aromas and standing on a platform with a microphone heard throughout the factory, Jesus Pereira, 44, entertains his fellow-workers by reading to them in three sessions: the first two obligatorily dedicated to the press and the third to novels or self-help books.
It is Thursday and today it is time to read "40 Tips about Sex,"
But now a court in Miami may hand two of Cuba's most prized assets – the trademarks for Havana Club rum and Cohiba cigars – to the family of a man executed on the island half a century ago.
Bobby Fuller, a former US marine who owned a sugar plantation in Cuba, was shot by firing squad in October 1960, less than 24 hours after his arrest and trial for alleged disloyalty to Castro's communist revolution.
In 2007 his brothers and sisters were awarded a $100m settlement for wrongful death against the Castro regime by a Miami court.
Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo has kept Cuban products out of the U.S. — but hasn't prevented companies from using the communist island's brand names.
As the U.S. and Cuba consider better ties, such trademark issues would have be settled before any easing of the embargo. The fight between Bacardi and the Cuban government for the Havana Club name already has played out in the U.S. courts and Congress for more than a decade — and is now before Spain's high court. . . .
The thought of competing with Cuba is already keeping executives at Swedish Match North America up nights. The Richmond, Virginia-based company owns General Cigar Inc., which has sold Dominican Republic-made Cohiba cigars in the U.S. since 1997.
"It's not the brand that's going to make the difference, it's whether it's Cuban or not," said Gerry Roerty, the company's vice president and general counsel. And smokers are willing to pay a premium for Cuban, he said.
Cohiba was founded in Cuba to make cigars for Castro and visiting dignitaries. Today it is the flagship of 27 premium brands produced by Habanos, equally owned by the government and Madrid-based Altadis SA, which was acquired last year by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group PLC.
Cuba has decided to strengthen the fight against the counterfeiting of its famous cigars and require travelers they now include puros original boxes and sealed their exit.
Travelers since 2007 could leave the country without commercial purpose, up to 50 cigars in a box or not, without having to submit an invoice or other documents of original denomination. They can now do so, but in an original box and sealed for the purchase of over 20 cigars. There is also still no restrictions for buying the unit of 20 cigars or less, by this measure dated July 10 and must be implemented within 90 days.
Considered the best in the world, Habano suffers from counterfeiting and black market tobacco that developed in Cuba in the wake of the serious economic crisis of the 1990s and the influx of tourists.
The risk of cancer for Hispanics increases by 40% when they move to the U.S., according to a new study.
The risks of specific cancers, however, differ widely among the Hispanic subgroups of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, the researchers also found.
On the positive side, U.S. Hispanics generally have lower cancer incidence than non-Hispanic U.S. whites, says Paulo Pinheiro, MD, PhD, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and public health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida, who led the study.
"On the negative side, they increase their risk when they come here for the majority of the analyzed [in his study] cancers," Pinheiro tells WebMD. The study is published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &Prevention. . . .
* Cubans were comparable with whites in cancer rates, including low rates of cervical and stomach cancers. Cuban men were most afflicted by cancer associated with tobacco, such as lung and larynx, bladder, kidney, and pancreas.
Results of a new study confirm trends that different Hispanic population groups have higher incidence rates of certain cancers and worse cancer outcomes if they live in the United States, than they do if they live in their homelands.
"Hispanics are not all the same with regard to their cancer experience," said Paulo S. Pinheiro, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., researcher in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
"Targeted interventions for cancer prevention and control should take into account the specificity of each Hispanic subgroup: Cubans, Puerto Ricans or Mexicans," added Pinheiro, who is the study's lead researcher. Pinheiro received support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.
These results are published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. . . .
Cuban males had higher incidence of tobacco-related cancers; . . .
Patients should become better informed of some of the positive aspects of their original lifestyles and should be strongly discouraged from adopting unfavorable lifestyles that may be more common in the United States, such as unhealthy diets, smoking and alcohol use, according to Pinheiro and Ramirez.
the American trade embargo of the communist island, he sent out his press secretary to stock up on 1,000 to ensure that his personal supply was well supplied.
Forty-seven years later, as his successor begins to relax the blockade, tobacco companies are lining up to fight for the rights to cigars not sold or owned legally in the States since JFK's stash ran out.
Gordon Mott, the executive editor of Cigar Afficionado magazine, said that his readers were watching President Obama's overtures to Cuba with interest. "If the trade embargo is lifted, anyone who's a cigar connoisseur in this country will know about it," he said.
American smokers could soon have the chance to buy Cuban.
As President Barack Obama moves to ease restrictions on trade with Cuba, cigar lovers are savoring the prospect of legally lighting up a smoke that has long required a black- market connection and a willingness to flout the law. . . .
The possible end to the 47-year-old embargo on Cuba trade has intensified a legal and lobbying fight between cigar makers Swedish Match AB of Stockholm and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc of Bristol, England. Each wants exclusive rights to sell Cuban-made brands in the U.S., the world’s largest market for premium cigars.
Swedish Match sells cigars in the U.S. made in Honduras and the Dominican Republic under Cuban brand names. It bought the brands from families that fled Cuba after Fidel Castro seized their cigar companies in the 1960s. Imperial distributes Cuban- made cigars under many of the same names to the rest of the world through an agreement with the Cuban government monopoly, Cubatabaco.
“Before serious commerce resumes, this is going to have to be resolved,” said Robert Muse, a Washington lawyer who advises clients on Cuba-related issues.
A Cuban cigar roller broke his forth world record, creating a 43.38-meter-long (142-foot-long) stogie that doubled his previous best.
Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero (R), holds up the hand of the Cuban cigar roller Jose Castelar Cueto (L) who was awarded his fourth Guinness World Record for rolling a 45,38m (148ft, 11in) long cigar in Havana. [Agencies]
Sixty-five-year-old Jose Castelar smoked his own 2005 record of a 20.41-meter-long (67-foot-long) cigar, and vowed to continue to roll record-breaking creations.
Yes, John White [Letters, April 26], tobacco is really so dangerous when you burn it, inhale it and waft it around.
You are also misinformed about Cuba having the heaviest smokers in the world. Cuba has fewer smokers per capita than the USA. Smoking was banned in all public places in Cuba in 2005.
You are right about Cubans having a longer life expectancy than citizens of this great country. However the reason is not because they are puffing away on stogies. The people of Cuba may not enjoy much, but they have a universal health-care system with emphasis on prevention and maternal and child care. . . .
So now you have your answer, and it's not about a ruthless, misguided and cowardly majority lording it over a defenseless (and largely poor) minority. It's about getting the facts right. Smoking and secondhand smoke is dangerous to everyone's health.
As for the largely poor minority you speak of, they could be a whole lot richer if they kicked the habit.
"If you lift these restrictions, you increase the ability of the average person to interact with the outside world," he said. "Fifty years is long enough." . . . Not every business in Virginia would necessarily benefit from open trade with Cuba. U.S. cigar companies could be seriously hurt if the domestic market ends up being flooded with cigars produced by Cuba's government-controlled industry, said Gerry Roerty, vice president and general counsel at Swedish Match North America.
Chesterfield County-based Swedish Match, which sells cigars from the Dominican Republic and Honduras, wants lawmakers to ensure a competitive market if the embargo is lifted, perhaps by limiting imports of Cuban cigars for a certain time until U.S. companies can access Cuban tobacco leaf.
"We have been talking actively to members of Congress about this," Roerty said. . . .
"For about 50 years now, people have been waiting for the day when they can legally get their hands on Cuban cigars again," Roerty said.
As many as 80 percent of cigar consumers would do exactly that, Roerty said.
Congratulations, smokers: We did it. Several weeks ago, I published a column asking President Obama to ease travel and trade restrictions with Cuba. He apparently heard my call, sort of. . . .
President Obama, I do not have any family members in Cuba. Most who read this column do not have family members in Cuba. We do, however, share a familial bond with our Habanos. . . .
Mr. President, we cigar enthusiasts have needs. Our Dominican and Nicaraguan consorts simply do not satisfy us the way they once did; the magic is gone. When our Cuban lovers metaphorically call us at our proverbial houses, we don’t want to tell them anymore, “I told you never to call me here!”