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Cuba sells its first PCs
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 5th May 2008
Cubans would love to get their hands on cheap and cheerful Dells, but the trade embargo with the US means it's Chinese specials at massive markup.
According to an Associated Press article, Friday saw the lifting of a ban on the sale of evil capitalist personal computer systems under the new president of the island Raul Castro.
The £400 Qtech PCs aren't exactly going to set the world on fire, with Intel Celeron processors and 512MB of RAM running a Windows XP install and a good old fashioned CRT display – pretty weedy by our standards, but a revolution (sorry) for the locals. Interestingly, both Intel and Microsoft are forbidden to export goods to Cuba under the US trade embargoes in place against the communist nation – but that doesn't seem to be stopping Qtech.
The price might seem high for the spec, but it's even higher when you take into account the average wage for a Cuban worker – just £10 a month. Nevertheless, eager buyers have been queuing up to be the first on the island to own a legitimately bought PC.
One such individual is 14 year old Brian Brito, who saved up his pocket money for two years just so he could join the information revolution. AP quotes Brian as saying “It's good for playing games,”, whilst his mother rather hoped he would “use it for school, for learning.”
Although Raul Castro's more progressive regime means a reduction in the restrictions on daily life in Cuba, owners of freshly bought PCs won't be hooking them up to the Internet quite yet. With the exception of government employees, personal Internet access is still illegal in Cuba. Whether this restriction is likely to be lifted remains to be seen – let's hope COL (Cuba On-Line) CDs will join mobile phones, PCs, and plug-in pressure cookers on the shelves of Cuban stores soon.
Looking forward to the day when you can play Cubans at Team Fortress 2, or should the country be concentrating on sorting out more than just restrictions on consumer goods? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Comments (26)
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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.....
The whole domino effect thing never happened and you really don't need to hate communism as is seen with the usa and china.
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.
arseholesopinions... 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 :)
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!
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...
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;
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.
Meh, when it benefits them, they go for it. Maybe it has something to do with Vietnam being far away from home. What do people expect?
And you don't need to lecture me on pre-revolution Russia, I'm quite familiar with Russian history. But that doesn't change the fact that most if not all communist governments have systematically murdered their populations and abused their power. What came before modern democratic capitalism in the western world sucked too. We had monarchies, the church, serfdom in our own way. At one time or another, every country has had it bad. What messes things up isn't people like me sitting in my comfortable middle-class chair and saying how bad communism is. What messes things up is preachy philosophy students who think that their imaginary perfect idealisms can somehow be applied to an imperfect race (that is, humanity) and not **** up everything up.
Back to the subject at hand... I think this is good for Cuba. Even small steps are good. Sometimes small steps lead to a much easier transition than giant leaps.
The US don't suxOrz(current leadership not included) - and no fan of communism in real world enviroment but any claim about freedom regarding the current US leadership is baloney. Currently freedom US style seems to involve only the Dubya interpretation & as I doubt Dubya could spell it I don't want to trust freedom to the current US government (Not that I would trust Brown etc any more. UK most spied on population in world I gather ) I do know the US a bit, Daughter married to US guy & 2 dual citizen grandkids.. I think a difference needs to be noted between anti-US (gov vs people)
Bit like the very strong anti-french feelings in the US after Iraq ( liberty fries not French fries :( ) Oh and Carlos Mendes was a Brazilian shot in error as mistaken for a middle easter terrorist.
QFT.
Wow.
Don't want to enter a fight because i know you will enjoy it too much.
I know that communism does not work, it goes against human nature. I never said i agreed with it.
What i do disagree with is America taking one action on cuba and another on other countries. It has no real reason at all to keep the restricitons in place. What threat did cuba ever pose without russia and china behind it?