News Cuba sells its first PCs

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/05/cuba-sells-first-pcs/1

The communist island of Cuba has entered the 21st century by lifting a ban on the sale of personal computers - although Internet connectivity is still a privilege reserved for the ruling class.

 

"Raul Castro's more progressive regime"
you should become a politician... or a comedian. Cubans have the right to mobiles and computers now. It is a big step for them, is it forward? sideways? Does not matter, at least is the first step in a long time. Now if they only would not get arrested for eating meat or talking against the government.....

 

i believe universities and certain businesses are allowed internet access as well. however it is all by satellite only..

 

Sad to they're running Windows. Our Cuban comrades ought to be running GNU/Linux boxes surely.

 

And the reason for this change of heart? One of my lecturers has gone to Havana to lecture on Computing.

 

The reason is that Fidel is not in power anymore. If he is dead or not is not clear, but now his brother is president. All this democratically decided by Fidel of course.

 

I hope Raul Castro takes the country out of the dark ages....

 

Personally i think it is about time america stopped being an arse and lifted the trade restrictions.

The whole domino effect thing never happened and you really don't need to hate communism as is seen with the usa and china.

 

US people, can't hate comunism 'cause they dont know what it is

 

What an unfortunate first post.

And why should the US lift trade restrictions on communism dom_? The US stands for everything that communism hates. Communism is the antithesis of the ideals that the US was founded on - it's only natural that the US would refuse to support or allow the support of communist states by businesses operating under their law. Facism as an ideology resulted in the genocide of 11 million people or so, and it's justly hated by nearly everybody. Communism as an ideology results in the death of somewhere around 100 million people and everyone still treats it like a legitimate and valid political choice.

 

all these arseholes opinions... i'm going to cuba this summer, untill then i remain uninformed. The only thing i have to say about the cuban/US trade embargo is this:

As long as guantanomo bay remains in US hands and open for 'buisness', the US do not have the right to lecture anyone on ideologies, and least of all the Cubans.

Not that that makes Castro a saint though... i guess i'll see when i get there this summer

 

The way i see it, comunict country cannot exist in capitalist world. Russia understood that. And now they are going ahead well. China understood that. And now we see immense rise in their ecooomy through international trade. Now it's Cuba's turn. It was just a matter of time. Such a small country cannot be self sufficient and idealogy different to every one of it's neighbours definitely doesn't help to negotiate. I wouldn't expect a sudden change in the way things are done there, but this is definitely a long awaited step forward.

P.S. Xtrafresh - i totally agree. Castro is not a saint, but he was an excellent leader. His biography speaks for itself. 50 years in power.

 

yes america stands for freedom! McCarthy was a great freedom fighter - where would the western world be without his legacy..

The facism and communist ideoligies you refer to were different means to the same end - totalitarin dictatorships, Cuba is but one of them. American freedom is an illusion - a father and son were chucked out of a mall because they wore anti-iraq war t-shirts. Thats US freedom in action!

 

Ah, yet another person who does not live here that is more than happy to discuss what freedoms I have or do not have. While we're on the history books that are completely unrelated to Spec's (rather legitimate) question, shall I bring up the wonderful freedoms and democracy that the UK has had over its long ages? Wars, Kings, Monarchs, Dictators...But democracy is a rather new invention there, relatively speaking.

Surely, we can let past be past in this discussion - Americans learned quite a bit from McCarthyism (among other atrocities committed in the name of "Good"), which is why my country is quite divided about geopolitical issues now.

To imply that our freedoms are so stripped as your (rather unfortunate and off) example is as to say that the UK is no better than the kid who was killed for jumping a line at the tube because he was of mideastern heritage and carrying a rucksack.

With that said, perhaps we can move onto more current debates? After all, the "OMG da US sux0rz!!" discussion really doesn't need to take place again...

 

My only worry is that only the corrupt can afford the computers at their current prices, but I suppose you have to start somewhere. Piggybacking Venzuela will be a massive step, giving them affordable internet access.

 

Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, Skechers...

Fact is, Cuba doesn't have anything to offer bar cheap labour, and there's plenty of that available in countries that are worth dealing with;

And when mouthing off about the evils of communism from your comfortable middle-class existence, check out life in Russia, China, and Cuba before the revolutions. An absolute monarchy (or dictatorship) can be an extremely repressive society if you're not born to the ruling class.

 

I was born and have lived in the US my entire life and I can say that we are one of the most hypocritical countries on the planet. We scorn the "evil" ideologies of countries as long as we have nothing to gain by using them.

A perfect example of this is China a communist country that regularly murders and imprisons people for speaking what is on their mind. The exact thing Cuba does yet no trade embargoes. In fact they are our #1 importer of goods.

I find this sickening. I don't have a problem with chinese goods it means decent stuff cheap. (I like cheap.) What bothers me is how we chastise Cuba and keep ridiculous embargoes in place while doing business with China. Both countries have atrocious human rights records but we wouldn't make that much off of Cuba so we screw the poor people over. That's the only people the embargo hurts is the poor. The rich can afford to get the stuff they want including the Castros.

Anyways, I think it is great they have PCs now hopefully it is just the start of better things to come.

 

Yarg! another who has the most freedom debate, pointless. Nevertheless I believe we can all agree on the countries that have the least freedom "canada" and for now I'm hoping Raul will open up the internet gates to some people who are going to be very surprised once they have them.