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Cuban Government Toughens Internet Restrictions
edibleplastic writes "The BBC is reporting that the Cuban government is cutting off much of its citizens' access to the internet. 'The move clamps down on the thousands of Cubans who illegally access the internet from their homes.
From now on, it will not be possible to dial up the main government server from most domestic phone lines.
Only lines which are paid for in dollars will have direct access. These are usually restricted to foreigners.
Amnesty International says this is an attempt to shield Cubans from alternative views.'" This is a good time to revisit two earlier stories about Cuba's attitude toward modern communications.
Sending smoke singals with cigars is still legal!
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
HEY, some journalist put hard work into writing this article, and this issue is important, so the least you could do is read it. It says:
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of anti-spam measures.
Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear.
A friend of mine was in Cuba a few years ago, and he says it's a great place. A brilliant medical system which is government funded, the streets are absolutely safe at night, and the people are friendly and inviting (twice he was invited in for dinner at the houses of two families he met while there).
And then you hear about Cubans trying to get to the US on crappy rafts etc.
Maybe some want to leave because they see American TV shows or movies and they think the whole continent is safe, nice, accepting, etc. Maybe if the Cuban govt. let the population see what the rest of the world is really like, they'd be less enthusiastic to leave Cuba.
I'm not suggesting that Cuba is heaven, but from only looking at TV it would be easy for Cubans to have a romantic grass-is-much-greener vision of what the US is like.
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They have to connect to the internetional telecoms network, and need to pay for that. The Cuban Peso is not a freely exchnged currency, telcos won't take it as payment, they need dollars, so Cuba has to get them from somewhere. The internet is not very restricted if they pay in USD. I am sure this is not the only reason, but it is a major one, perhaps Amnesty International could get off the soap box and offer to subsidise bandwidth costs if they feel so strongly... the fact is most citizens of developing countries do not have access to the internet. The Soviet Union broke up without its citizens using the internet, China has embraced capitalism not due to the internet, the Berlin Wall fell in no part due to the internet. Infact as the internet has become so wide spread it has had little value-added effect other communication didn't already have in developing countries.
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FreeNET user? Comfortable with the adverse selection?
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 Internet access 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 was a damn fool. I can't imagine the Cuban exile community in southern Florida ever forgivive Reno for deporting Elian Gonzolas.
There are two ways to free the Cuban people.
1) Declare that they have Weapons of Mass Destruction. Invade. Cause massive damage and destruction and death. Set up a puppet government. Leave. Watch as the government fails within 50 years, just like every single time we do this.
2) Stop the trade restrictions. Let captitalism eat them away from the inside. Maybe fund a show on the WB about a wacky Cuban group of friends.
I have misplaced my pants.
2) Stop the trade restrictions. Let captitalism eat them away from the inside
The Cuban government is a fascist, totalitarian system where poverty is mandated by law. Anything more that is earned, the government takes away. Any increased prosperity ends up in Castro's hands (look at the hotel workers who pay 93% of their money in taxes to Castro). Then he goes and kills people, like when he invaded Africa to prop up the Angolan colonial regime in the 1980s, and when his Sandinista war against Nicaragua killed tens of thousands.
There can't be prosperity in Cuba until it abandons socialism.
It is not better than most Latin American countries. In fact, Cuba is the worst one.
Cuba has a better health service and under 18 education system than the US.
It has worse health care. The health care is controlled by the dictator, and the people have no say. Having HIV is a criminal offense. People flee Cuba because it is a prison. They know where they are coming from, and they know exactly where they are going.
You could ask the Cubans. Oh wait. They'll get killed or imprisoned for speaking your mind.
Castro is very well loved there: it is the law.
Don't forget that the Angola struggle was one of Africa's last fights for independence against a European colonial empire. Castro enslaved his people to go fight and kill Africans who were fighting for independence.
Cuba indeed have the best medical system and assistance in the world and an astonishing education system as well
The education system is pretty bad, actually: there is much censorship of ideas, and you only learn what the government wants you to. Literacy is high, yes: but it was high before the Soviet conquest. In fact, it has gone down a little since Cuban independence ended in the early 1960s.
The health care system is also Stalinist. All a government-controlled monopoly. HIV patients are treated as criminals. If you have the wrong political views, you are denied care. Health care is too important to leave to government. Remember, the Castro government actually proposed putting gays in death camps.
Don't we (who live in the fully capitalist world) have restrictions too in the name of our safety and of that we think worth ?
In the free world, we just have a lot less restrictions, overall, than in the (former) Soviet bloc. Another important point is that the Cuban people have never had a say in this: the Castro regime was forced on them by the USSR, and Castro has executed many thousands of Cubans for the problem of daring to speak out. Add onto this the death tolls of his Sandininsta and FMLN wars, and you have someone who has executed a couple hundred thousand civilians in his reign of terror and invasions.
Remember, also, that there is no "fully capitalist world". Even such places as the United States have parts of the economy where the elites control matters (socialism). While the people control most of the economy (i.e. capitalism) it is not ALL of the economy.
Reply as a coward and you have the opinion of a coward.
Reply as a god, and you have the opinion of someone with delusions of grandeur.
You think Cuba's a great place. Of course, you can leave it anytime you want.
They can't.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Eh, "growth" is a capitalist concept. In a command economy like Cuba's, there's really no purpose in capitalistic "growth" (which is sort of a placebo if you objectively analyze free market economies featuring capitalistic power relations).
;) things seem OK... but this has little tangible or progessive effect on the day to day lives of average lower to middle class workers (who are, of course, the vast, vast majority of American citizens and landed immigrants).
;) (It's also sad to point out to Castro, since it's not likely to emerge in a Soviet-inspired economy, either).
Cuba's economy is stagnant mostly because there's no self-management of workers and the real incentives the economies provides are mostly in terms of managers maintaining their positions. Interestingly, the US economy also suffers from such problems.
Suffice to say, you find issues in terms of actual progess, yes, (meaning, any number of things, but including: efficacy in allocation and distribution, diversity of outcomes, pleasant attitudes towards work, remuneration according to effort and sacrifice, and so on) but such issues also plague the United States.
The US simply masks these issues because of the feedback mechanism (the overaching "motivator" IOW) is this thing called "wealth accrual." Since, wealth is still accruing
Anyway, as you can see, there's really only a minute substantive difference between the malaise-inducing stagnation of the US vs. that of Cuba, economically speaking.
The real solutions inevitably involve of promoting classlessness, solidarity, efficiency and self-management on democratic, participatory terms. Sad to say, Mr. Conservative News & Views, this is unlikely to include something resembling laissez-faire free-market capitalism
As for an iron-fisted rule, well... yes, probably. This is the result of established heirarchies. From that perspective, the US has also been under the iron fisted rule of a few powerful property owners, as well. I mean, in Cuba, if you don't work or get AIDS, well... they jail or maybe execute you, if they don't like you. In the US, well, you starve to death or can't pay your HMO, so, it's pretty much jail in low-income project housing or de facto execution anyway.
It's really just a pot kettle black situation... maybe a bit worse on the American side, because, at least in Cuba there's the evil dictator you can topple. In America, these things are just the side-effects of an automated machine that hums along of its own volition.