June 27, 2006
Forbes kicks billionaire castro harder
Hear how he screams!
The excellent Russell Flannery at Forbes in China has the latest news on tycoon castro's money-making ventures in glass-tower boomtown China, in this week's edition of Forbes magazine here.
All the bearded beast needs now are the spats.
Nice Timing, Comrade
While (f)idel (c)astro fumes to the world that he's a pauper (and that our $900 million net worth estimate is a fiction), his tightly controlled Cuban government is building a five-star hotel--in China. The 28-story Shanghai Xintian Havana is scheduled to open by year's end in the heart of Shanghai's ritzy Lujiazui district, where hotel rooms start at $300 a night--the average Cuban's income for two months. A Chinese-language sign erected in front of the site calls it Cuba's largest overseas investment project. A joint venture with China's Suntime Group, the $120 million hotel will sit on the Huangpu River overlooking the historic Bund, a magnet for luxury-goods outlets. Nearby property owners include Asian billionaires Li Ka-shing and Robert Kuok. The decidedly unbourgeois establishment should benefit from the economic boom in Shanghai and events like the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 World Expo. --Russell Flannery
Hat tip: Miguel
Posted by Mora at June 27, 2006 11:46 AM
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Comments
But the hotel is ultimately owned by the cuban people themselves. Although they'll never get to see it...or even hear of it for that matter.
Posted by: jsb ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 27, 2006 12:11 PM
whoa, average cuban income for two months??? sorry, more like two YEARS, since the average cuban makes only $12 a month... must be a typo???
Posted by: pkrupa at June 27, 2006 01:18 PM
Although I'm very glad that Forbes keeps slapping Castro in the face. The part about Cubans earning $300 in two months is very misleading.
Cubans' salaries are in Cuban National Currency, they range anywhere from 40 pesos to 400 pesos a month, maybe a little higher for some elite. The rate of exchange is 27 pesos for 1 US Dollar. If you make 400 pesos a month (very few Cubans do), you're making just under $15.00 USD per month.
When Cubans go to a national currency store they find very little articles for sale, and the prices don't match the income. That is one of the reasons that there are many Cubans trying to survive as entrepreneurs in the black market and prefer not to practice their professions, or they do both. This also explains why some professionals are jineteras/os.
Another thing is that one automatically assumes that this monthly "salary' is given once a month on a timely basis. This is also not true. Salaries are paid whenever. It is not uncommon to be waiting up to three weeks past payday for your salary check.
Posted by: Lori at June 27, 2006 01:27 PM
If the average Cuban made that kind of money each month, they wouldn't have such a strong motivation to take to the seas in rafts.
Posted by: Gigi at June 27, 2006 03:12 PM
I am wondering how much of that "capital" also comes from the pilfering of Venezuelas oil company?? That would be the perfect way to launder stolen oil money.
Posted by: Boli-Nica at June 28, 2006 09:29 AM
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