As the COVID-19 situation around the world remains volatile, further aggravated by the emergence of the new Omicron variant a few weeks ago, the recent move by the authorities to revoke green lane travel is commendable.
The global travel industry is in a fragile state, and health guidelines across nations seemingly change daily.
Thus, it incurs losses to those who have purchased air tickets and are seeking compensation.
The pandemic is here to stay; the virus will live among us for years to come.
Countries should not be in a hurry to open their borders for non-essential travel.
After all, surging cases in other parts of the world should be lesson for us that it is more challenging to control transmissions once we allow people to move freely across borders.
CNA – Thailand’s overall financial system is stable and the economy is gradually recovering, but rising household debt and an uneven recovery pose risks, the central bank said yesterday.
Household debt continued to rise, while the Omicron variant of the coronavirus casts doubt over the recovery, Bank of Thailand (BOT) senior director Don Nakornthab said.
The economic recovery remained uneven, especially in tourism-related sectors, Don said.
In our news item ‘Mosque’s funeral rites room completed’, published on Page 5 yesterday, the photo caption should have read “Commanding Officer of Combat Engineers Squadron, Support Battalion at the Royal Brunei Land Force and Chairman of Titian Amal Project for Diamond Jubilee Anniversary Major Muhammad Rafie bin Haji Abdul Wahid delivering a speech”, and not as stated.
Meanwhile, in our news item, ‘Nissan Terra 2021 unveiled’, published on Page 8 yesterday, the fourth paragraph should have read as “The new Nissan Terra is powered with a 2.5L turbo-charged diesel engine”, and not as stated.
HAVANA (AFP) – In its 91 years, Havana’s majestic Hotel Nacional has borne witness to some of the biggest events of Cuban history.
It was once bombed as part of a conflict between rival units of Cuba’s military, hosted a summit of mafia dons, was a key site of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a holiday jaunt for Hollywood’s most eccentric figures.
Yet for 20 months ending in mid-November, this building that mixes Art Deco and neoclassical elements along with Moorish tiles was deserted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Far from a death knell for the hotel, it was an opportunity to restore the facade, and put in new floors and windows in the rooms.
“A lot of work was done so that when the tourists returned they would find the 1930s hotel, although with greater comfort… reliving the past,” said specialist in the hotel’s history Arleen Ortiz.
Now guests will often specifically request to stay in certain rooms, like number 211 where the Italian-born gangster Lucky Luciano sojourned in December 1946 during the mafia bosses summit.
ABOVE & BELOW: Pool view of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, in Havana; and guests lounging in the gardens. PHOTOS: AFP
ABOVE & BELOW: View of the lobby; wall decoration at the hotel; and the entertainment hall
That was an incident immortalised in the 1974 film by Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather II.
As the mobsters meet on a terrace at the hotel, they divide up a cake in the shape of the island nation – a metaphor for their sharing out control of lucrative illicit businesses.
The real summit opened on December 22, 1946, with Luciano seated at the head of a large rectangular table.
“Las Vegas didn’t exist and Cuba was the perfect place for entertaining due to its proximity to the United States (US), the climate, the beaches,” said Ortiz.
The entire hotel had been booked by the dons for their families to spend the holidays in the city, with Frank Sinatra a special guest for the occasion.
Perched on a hill overlooking the Straits of Florida, the Hotel Nacional – with its brand new English china, clocks imported from Germany and chandeliers hanging from the ceilings – was opened on December 30, 1930, allegedly financed partly with mob money.
Just three years later, 400 army officers loyal to the deposed president Gerardo Machado hunkered down in the hotel as government troops bombarded it from land and sea.
Outnumbered and with ammunition running out, they were soon forced to surrender.
The hotel survived, bearing the pockmarked signs of the siege, but would soon be attracting a very different kind of attention.
The halls and rooms are filled with photos, objects and letters of the celebrities that have stayed at the hotel.
Five-time Olympic swimming champion and former Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller was one such guest, impressing staff by jumping from a second floor window into the swimming pool below.
In the 50s, Ava Gardner had a breakfast at the hotel after a night out in Havana’s cabarets alongside the likes of Ernest Hemingway.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Winston Churchill, Marlon Brando, Errol Flyn, Rita Hayworth and Nat King Cole all stayed at the hotel.
But following Fidel Castro’s communist revolution of 1959, the hotel was converted into a dormitory for 900 peasant women who went to the capital to learn to sew.
“Those young women, who had never before left their homes with no electricity and dirt floors,” suddenly found themselves in the plush hotel’s elegant rooms, said Ortiz.
Tensions would soon mount again with the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when soldiers dug trenches and tunnels underneath the hotel grounds as the US and Soviet Union teetered on the brink of nuclear war.
But it is for star-gazing that it is best known.
“The foreigners know this place and what they want is to sit where so many celebrities did before them,” said Cuban doctor from Sancti Espiritus province Tania Fernandez, who brought her children to explore the tunnels.
The hotel underwent another makeover in the 1990s, a time when the hardline communist regime barred locals from staying there.
“It’s beautiful, it’s magical being here. I love the Cuban people and I love the energy. It’s incredible,” Sierra, 39, an American teacher, said while sipping a drink with her boyfriend and looking out to sea.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – United States (US) President Joe Biden’s administration has asked the Supreme Court to end a Trump-era policy under which migrants seeking asylum in the US must wait in Mexico while their cases are being considered.
The Justice Department has asked the conservative-leaning high court to review decisions made by earlier courts that left the migration programme in place, according to legal documents reviewed by AFP on Thursday.
Under then-president Donald Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ programme, tens of thousands of non-Mexican asylum seekers – mostly from Central America – were sent back over the border pending the outcome of their applications.
Biden, a Democrat, has sought to dismantle the programme, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
Those efforts have faced setbacks in the US court system, and most recently an appeals court ruled this month that the programme should continue.
In a legal document filed on Wednesday, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to review the case, arguing that the programme “exposes migrants to unacceptable” risks and that previous court decisions were based on “erroneous interpretations” of the law.
His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam expressed concern that many government-owned buildings are abandoned and no longer in use. More details in Saturday’s Borneo Bulletin.
The recent telecommunications service outage in Kampong Rimba, Kampong Ayer and the Edinburgh Bridge area which impacted services for over 2,000 fixed and mobile network subscribers were caused by damaged fibre cables and cable cuts due to theft. According to the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI), the nation has recorded an estimated total of 85 cable theft cases from January to December 2021 causing disruption to telecommunication services. More details in Saturday’s Borneo Bulletin.
The Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) organised a recitation of the Surah Yaasiin and Doa Kesyukuran at Ash-Shaliheen Mosque, Jalan Perdana Mentiri, yesterday to commemorate the 101st anniversary of its establishment. More details in Saturday’s Borneo Bulletin.
Imams urged the Ummah to self-reflect and determine to excel and become more pious and loyal followers of the teachings of Allah the Almighty as the nation ushers in the new year. More details in Saturday’s Borneo Bulletin.
