Re: Truly Wierd

["Charles Jannuzi" <jannuzi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I know American and Canadian academics who, when they go to a conference in
Cuba, get the immigration officer there to stamp a removable piece of paper
rather than document in their passports any travel to Cuba. Americans can be
fined apparently. Canadians claim it's to avoid any hassles from US
authorities should they travel to the US--they don't want anything untoward
in their passports.

A few years back I was tempted to get involved in private relief efforts to
North Korea but decided, outside of money donations, it wasn't worth the
problems it created as an American citizen living in Japan (the two
countries with the worst relations with the place, though actually there are
Korean Japanese who travel back and forth to N. Korea and remit huge amounts
of money earned from things like running gaming businesses in Japan).

Oh, and an admission. Last week I bought juice imported from Cuba when I
picked up a six pack of German beer. It was delicious, ten times better than
the dreck US orange juice that floods the market here.

Charles Jannuzi