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Author
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Topic: Cuba permits sale of electronics, appliances
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Ghislaine
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14957
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posted 14 March 2008 10:06 AM
CBC: quote:
Cubans are no longer banned from buying computers and other electrical devices that were previously sold legally only to companies and foreigners in the communist country.The move is the first sign that Raul Castro is fulfilling a goal to improve the standard of living, something he talked about after he was formally installed as president last month. Restrictions on the sale of home computers, DVD players, rice cookers, electric bicycles and microwave ovens will be lifted, effective immediately, according to an internal government memo seen by the news agency Reuters on Thursday. The memo credits the "improved availability of electricity" as the reason for the change.
There was no mention in the article as to whether Cubans will be also be allowed uncensored internet access.
From: L'Î-P-É | Registered: Feb 2008
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kropotkin1951
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2732
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posted 14 March 2008 10:12 AM
quote:
Restrictions on the sale of home computers, DVD players, rice cookers, electric bicycles and microwave ovens will be lifted, effective immediately, according to an internal government memo seen by the news agency Reuters on Thursday.The memo credits the "improved availability of electricity" as the reason for the change. A relaxation of customs rules allowed some DVD players through airports last year. Much-needed air conditioners are to be sold in 2009. Toasters and electric ovens will join the list in 2010, if the island's limited power supply can keep up, the memo said.
Engaged in a little unnecessary Cuba bashing? They finally after getting aid from their socialist neighbours have regular power and you take a shot at them. Pathetic given the article is about electrical power.
From: North of Manifest Destiny | Registered: Jun 2002
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Fidel
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5594
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posted 14 March 2008 01:39 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Ghislaine:
CBC: There was no mention in the article as to whether Cubans will be also be allowed uncensored internet access.
It's not really censored now. The last I checked, all of Cuba shares internet bandwidth equivalent to about what one university and campus have to divide among a few thousand people. Cuba has one or two satellite links to the internet, and which they give access priority to Cuban students doing post-graduate work by remote links with Spanish universities. That, and they also allow tourists to pay for access. Cuba could connect to U.S. undersea fiber optic backbone, but the U.S. government has refused Cuban access. A Venezuelan company is now contracted to connect Cuba to their telecomminucations links by an undersea cable which will be laid on the ocean floor, but over a lot farther distance to South American access points. The project will take a couple of years apparently.
From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004
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Ibelongtonoone
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14539
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posted 14 March 2008 03:17 PM
I didn't say I blamed Cuba, did I? I think the fact the US trades with China and not Cuba is the most hypocritical thing going, to say the communist system has absolutely nothing to do with it, isn't totally true either. China once had much more widespread poverty and famine even, what changed there?Cuba seems locked in a time capsul and any talk of change from a grassroots movement inside Cuba is blasphemy it seems. Yes yes the US is doing it(all the negatives of life in Cuba that is, and I agree there are many positives as well, none from the US though) and only after the great satan is defeated and only then can talk of change in Cuba take place.
From: Canada | Registered: Sep 2007
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Fidel
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5594
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posted 14 March 2008 04:23 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Ibelongtonoone:
I didn't say I blamed Cuba, did I? I think the fact the US trades with China and not Cuba is the most hypocritical thing going, to say the communist system has absolutely nothing to do with it, isn't totally true either.
I would say the system in Cuba tends more toward socialism than communism. There are Canadian and other corporations doing business in Cuba. What they're doing in Cuba is sustainable over the long run. Globalization of "this" - which was essentially a colossal lie used to propagandize so many people into believing in middle class capitalism based on obscene rates of consumption - is not sustainable, either for us or the other 80 percent of humanity. The Cubans have certain sovereign rights to ban U.S.-managed elections in Cuba. During the cold war era, few people here would have agreed to KGB agents running for election in the former Soviet Union. But what about a "former" CIA official running for election in a Central American country? Why did the U.S. army and CIA invade Haiti over 26 times from last century to this one in order to put down people's rebellions against intolerable U.S.-backed regimes? Haiti is an island nation just 55 miles from Cuban shores. And like most of "the backyard" countries off Uncle Sam's backdoor steps, Haiti is a right shithole as far as grinding poverty, AIDS, and basic human rights violations are concerned. I think your closing comments are correct, and that the vicious, nuclear-powered empire should increasingly be made a target of pro-democracy campaigns from around the world as well as within. U.S. voter participation rates are even lower than Canada's on average. And voting is considered a basic human right in over 80 nations including Cuba but not the USSA. [ 14 March 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]
From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004
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