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Cuba Bans PC Sales, Greece Bans Video Games
GMontag writes: "From the Wired article -- 'The Cuban government has quietly banned the sale of computers and computer
accessories to the public, except in cases where the items are "indispensable" and
the purchase is authorized by the Ministry of Internal Commerce.'
Sounds like the MPAA is making inroads into Cuba. Opposition view at CubaNet." Greece, meanwhile, has banned all arcade games in an effort to stop illegal gambling." (Thanks, MediaBoy77.)
My god, the original submitter is an idiot. Cuba is a communist nation, arguably the closest thing to a pure Marxist state left in the world. Fidel isn't banning computers because they could be used for piracy. He's banning them for the same reason that China set up that nationwide firewall and proxy server: he doesn't want his people to communicate with the 'decadent' capitalist world.
I imagine that if he thought striking against the MPAA/RIAA would deal a blow to the US economic system, he would be encouraging his people to pirate.
I suspect he just forgot his smiley when he made the MPAA comment. Perhaps he just thought people would get the joke without needing tags.
Perhaps he
just thought people would get the joke without needing tags.
Nice to see that *someone* (post by Kanon) gets what I submitted!
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
I have to say that, while I am personally opposed to gambling in the traditional sense, I've never really understood why anyone would care if someone else out there in the wide world (or country, as may be appropriate) was gambling.
Of course, as John Stossel once pointed out, most state governments in the US heavily restrict gambling except under certain circumstances, then run lotteries and encourage their citizens to play. Silly and hypocritical, at best.
My Blog: http://nic.dreamhost.com/
It's sort of ironic that one of the last Marxist states is banning this technology -- 'cause for years the US jumped through hoops to keep technology "with military applications" out of the Soviet bloc. (Actually, in the case of Cuba, it still does.) At one time it was even illegal to sell them 16-bit computers! (Apple IIs apparently did not represent a security threat.) In hindsight this was just plain dumb. Information technology played a big role in the downfall of the left-wing dictatorships, and continues to make life difficult for autocracies of every stripe.
Stop and consider the discussion, debate, and even trolling that happens just on this site would be considered dangerous in Cuba. Your free speach is a rare and unique thing in the world.
Not only has Cuba banned computer sales to individuals, but the story say it's $260 dollars a month for an internet subscription. Annual saleries average $240 dollars. It sounds to me like the Cuban dictatorship has been unsuccessful in it's filtering of "enemy" web content. So they just make it too expensive to read.
There's a reason people are willing to float to the US on unsafe boats and rafts. Life sucks in Cuba. People disappear every day never to be seen again. The standard of living is terrible. School is nothing more than communist indoctrination.
The world will be a better place once Castro kicks off.
Janet Reno is a damn fool. I can't imagine the Cuban exile community in southern Florida ever forgivive Reno for deporting Elian Gonzolas.
"Movies and entertainment are almost nonexistent simply because they cant afford it."
...But it's the best place in the world for live music.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
- Telephones - main lines in use: 473,031 (2000)
- Telephones - mobile cellular: 2,994 (1997)
- domestic: principal trunk system, end to end of country, is coaxial cable; fiber-optic distribution in Havana and on Isla de la Juventud; 2 microwave radio relay installations (one is old, US-built; the other newer, built during the period of Soviet support); both analog and digital mobile cellular service established
- Internet country code:
.cu
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 4 (2001)
- Internet users: 60,000 (2000)
So they've got phones, ISPs, even celluar. In addition, it indicates a high literacy rate (95.7%) and long life expectancy (76.41 years, compared with 77.26 for the U.S.). The economy took a big hit when the Soviet Union broke up and stopped sending them $4-6 billion US a year, but has been slowly recovering, due to tourism and foreign investment.But obviously it's not a perfect place to live, otherwise so many people wouldn't risk their lives on makeshift rafts and boats trying to cross to the U.S.
And while PCs may be expensive compared to the per capita income, obviously some people have them and can connect the to Internet, and it would seem that is what the Cuban government is trying to limit.
But I agree, Castro and his cronies are trying to keep everyone under control, even if it also means keeping them in the 19th century.
Dyolf Knip
The most frequent response (defense of Castro) to the true statements you write is: "The USA embargo is keeping Cuba in poverty."
Never mind that the whole world besides the US trades with Cuba, the Castro supporters/America haters here just can't apply any objectivity to the situation.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Some people in other countries actually like it there better than they think they would like it here. It is their right to live in a different kind of society if they want to. It is not our right to tell parents in other countries what kind of society their children must endure.
It would have been a totally different story if Elian's father wanted to come and live in the U.S. with his son, away from horrible Cuba (and the U.S. wanted to let him come), but this was not the case.
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
That said, I think it is kinda stupid to maintain the embargo. It obviously hasn't ousted Castro and his oh-so humanitarian government and at this point the simplest way to undermine him is to get Cubans living well. Cuba is not much of a physical risk without the Soviet Union behind it.
Dyolf Knip
The embargo is the ONLY reason that I enjoy their cigars! If it were not for that I would be smoking Dominican Romeo y Juliettas!
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
1) Cuba was never a first world country. It was a colony under the Spanish and then the US. You can't compare it's level of development with that of the states. Why not compare to similar carribean nations? Or even latin American nations. Then it comes out pretty good. Not the best, certainly, but towards the top in terms of literacy, life expectancy, doctors/capita, immunization rates, calories/capita, etc.
2) Cuba is a carribean country, whose main income (under Batista) was from tourism and sugar sold to the US. So the effect of an embargo is greater than for other countries. But, yes, other nations still trade with it -- but that trade is not as economically efficient (transport costs + size of market) as trade with the US was in the 50's. US tourism, of course, is much harder to replace with the European market because of the distance.
3) It's not just trade, of course, but lack of investment which hurts Cuba quite a bit.
4) Despite this, Cuba, by most standards is much better off than Peru, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, and many other latin American countries. Politically, it's a harsh dictactorship with strict controls on the press and political speech. On the other hand, the level of murder and repression can't be compared to Central or Latin America as a whole. Castro, tyrannical as he is, is a pussycat compared to the generals and juntas which rule many of his neighbors, and there are no death squads roaming the streets in Cuba. There are several dozen dissidents in jail at anyone time in Cuba, wheras many latin american nations have hundreds of political murders every year, and Peru has several thousands of political prisoners.
5) The many thousands of refugees from Cuba wishing to come to the US to avoid persecution and for a better economic life gain much spotlight in the press, and are generally allowed to stay if they reach US soil. But don't forget the millions of political and economic refugees coming from Haiti, Central America, and the Dominican Republic. Now weigh that by the fact that Cuba is relatively close to Florida, and that cuban refugees know they will be granted asylum if they can make it here, and you'll find out that the refugee flows are about the same from Cuba as from the rest of Latin America.
6) Instead of bashing this country, why not trade with it, like we do with China or Peru, and try to make the life of it's people a bit better?
When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
I sure as hell got it -- but then, I already wrote to my Congregates comparing the Hollings Madness to the Cuban computer situation...
- Robin