Cubans free at last!

Sort of. Strange, is it not, that the previous existence of these prohibitions went rather under-reported:

Communist Cuba has authorized the unrestricted sale of computers and DVD and video players in the first sign that its new president, Raul Castro, is moving to improve Cubans' access to consumer goods.

An internal government memo seen by Reuters on Thursday said the appliances long desired by Cubans can go on sale immediately, although air conditioners will not be available until next year and toasters until 2010 due to limited power supplies...

No toasters! Even yet! Fidel sure did run a workers' paradise. And, oops, there's still a catch in Raul's brave new Cuba:

Now Cubans will be able to buy them freely, paying for them in hard currency CUCs, or convertible pesos, worth 24 times more than the Cuban pesos state wages are paid in...

Another catch, even if you can come up with the loot:

...While they will now be able to buy computers, access to the Internet remains controlled by the government.

I await Barack Obama's reaction to all this--if he meets Raul will he come armed with air conditioners and toasters?

Mark C.

Posted by markc at March 13, 2008 09:14 PM