el malecon, havana 1998. i wonder how much, if any, its changed. there were lots of half finished - or half demolished depending on how one looks at it - construction sites in havana. there was a small historic quarter that had been substantially renovated, but even there many buildings were incomplete. a cuban told me once a story behind this situation: since only the government can sell anything, and the government works on '5 year plans', one year people were given sand but not concrete or bricks. the next year they were given bricks, but by then the rain and the loiters had done away with the sand, and in any case there wasnt any concrete. and the following year they were given concrete but both the sand and the bricks were gone, so ... then the cycle begins again and in the end it can take 10 years to get anything done, and in many cases nothing ever changes...