At a time of growing environmental and economic crisis the 'capitalist lunacy' of golf, in the words of Bernard Shaw, is becoming more evident. Ironically, in Cuba, Golf developers, encouraged by recent 'economic liberalisation' announcements are making their own plans...

In his regular weekly 'Alo Presidente' TV Show, Hugo Chavez has recently hinted that some of Venezuela's golf courses would be expropriated to be used for other purposes, along with 'good land' that has been abandoned. Stating the obvious, Chavez, who has in the past called golf a 'bourgeois sport' pointed out that it was "an injustice - that someone should have the luxury of having I don't know how many hectares to play golf and drink whiskey and, next door, there's misery and children dying when there are landslides". The comment followed the landslides of October where many people died in shanty towns and is also related to Venezuela's acute housing shortage with an estimated two million homes needed. 9 golf courses, many of which in oil-producing regions catering for Venezuela’s oil elite, have been shut down in Venezuela since 2006. Ironically, in Cuba foreign developers are planning more courses,  with some of the recent economic 'liberalisation' changes being linked to golf development. Indeed, according to reports, "the development of golf courses, marinas and luxury condominiums" is included in a draft 32-page economic policy proposal.

If anyone needs reminding of what is wrong with golf, they can visit:
http://www.antigolf.org/english.html

A video about a - currently blocked thanks to local protests - planed-mega golf development in arid Crete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&v=Qvh9zWWmLl4

and the latest about the controversial Trump Golf resort development in Aberdeen, Scotland and the ‘Tripping up Trump’ campaign, a local movement to save residents from eviction.

http://www.trippinguptrump.com/news/protesters-march-against-trump-golf-plans

As is well known, golf course construction is just a ruse for holiday home developments. No one is really interested in promoting this peculiar sport, which Churchill defined as "chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture".

Sources: Bloomberg, FT, Independent, Tripping Up Trump , Hospitality Times