Brooklyn Eagle’s Cuba Journal: Happy birthday, Judge Pesce

March 10, 2016 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Happy birthday, Judge Michael Pesce! Pictured from left: Pesce, Louis Aidala and Arthur Aidala. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese

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The Brooklyn Bar Association’s (BBA) second full day in Cuba was all about celebrating Justice Michael Pesce’s 73rd birthday. The group sang “happy birthday” to him on five separate occasions, starting the night before.

“I’ve celebrated quite a few birthdays in my life, and I’m sure that this will be one of the most memorable in my life,” Pesce said. “To show my appreciation for all of you, when I go to heaven and I don’t see any of you there, I’m going to carve your names on those golden stairs. And to prove to you that I’m a friend, I’ll go down to hell and hangout with all of you.”

Lecture on Foreign Investment

Over the last few years, Cuba has relaxed its rules when it comes to foreign investors. Changes are happening slowly, but the country is making an effort to balance foreign capital coming in with its own communist ideals. Attorney Lazaro Nunez Montero was brought in to explain these evolving rules.

Montero’s lecture covered Cuban investment law, the requirements for doing business in Cuba, the procedures for getting approval and legal protections for foreign business. For lawyers accustomed to living in a capitalist country, some of the tax laws seemed overly complicated, but they realized that Cuba is making strides.

“I get the feeling that the Cuban government has done all these changes because every year when the countries are ranked by the easiest places to do business, and it’s not the U.S., far from it, Cuba has always been at the bottom,” Pesce said. “I guess what they want to do is change the rules so that they can rise up to become a country that is better for business today than it was 10 years ago.”

Lecture from a Canadian Lawyer

After the morning lecture, the BBA traveled to Nazdarovie, a new Cuban-Soviet inspired restaurant that is run by Canadian attorney Gregory Biniowsky, who has lived in Cuba for the past 20 years.

Biniowsky gave the BBA a lecture on his experiences as an outsider in Cuba. He described his first year in detail — including waiting in many lines — described the things that negatively impact Cuba and then discussed the reasons he stayed. Essentially, he said, the positives outweigh the negatives.

“This is a country, a third-world country, that has managed to eliminate abject poverty,” Biniowsky said. “I’ve visited the Dominican Republic, I’ve traveled Central America, I’ve traveled throughout Africa, I have experience in the third world. And I’ve never in Cuba saw the poverty and total social abandonment that I’ve seen in Latin America and every third-world country that I’ve visited.

“People are living in homes that might not be adequate, they might struggle to make ends meet, but here nobody goes without food, nobody lives on the street, nobody who is sick doesn’t see a doctor and nobody who is poor doesn’t go to school,” Biniowsky said. “There are zero street children.”

Escape to the Beach

After a brief architectural tour and before going out to dinner, the members of the BBA got restless with the heat and humidity and escaped to the beach.

As American tourists on an educational tour, the Cuban government felt that a trip to the beach was not necessary, so one was never scheduled and trip organizers could not take the group. So the guides left a few hours open and dropped the group off near the beach with instructions to enjoy their free time as they pleased.

After a few days of mid-80-degree temperatures and high humidity, the turquoise water and white sandy beach was much needed. The BBA didn’t stay on the beach long, but the respite was much needed.