travelling to Oslo? (with update)

If you are, I strongly recommend not staying at any Scandic hotel. Here's why...

The hotel discriminates against Cubans - article in Norwegian - article in English

So because the United States government has some kind of childish gripe with Cuba, a Cuban delegation to a conference in Norway was suddenly told they were not allowed to stay in a Norwegian hotel. In Norway. A country that does not have some kind of childish gripe with Cuba. How dignified and mature of the hotel owners and certain members of its staff (not). This group of Cubans had otherwise been using the hotel for the past five years for this conference, before the chain was bought up by Hilton...

All that the administrative director of the hotel, Geir Lundkvist, has to say is that he "regrets the situation." Wow. Regrets? What a spineless wanker! (I'll bet he's more sorry about this making Aftenposten and probably a few other blogs than my own than kicking out the Cubans.) He doesn't even have the balls to explain himself. Or tell big boss Hilton to piss off. I wonder what the deal is anyway, what kind of kickbacks he's getting... Then again, it could be a ploy to bring attention to the fact that the hotel owners are a bunch of twats...

Nonetheless, this kind of discrimination is unacceptable. And un-Norwegian. It is not normal to suddenly start banning specific nationalities from hotels or whatever here. I really hope that there is an investigation as to what extent this is legal in Norway. I hope Scandic gets sued for this. In the meantime, stay away from the hotels...

Update: Hah! Charges filed!