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No OLPCs for Cuba, Ever
An anonymous reader writes "In a move going largely unnoticed by developers, the OLPC project now requires all submissions to be hosted in the RedHat Fedora project. While this may not seem like a big deal, the implications are interesting. First, contributors have to sign the Fedora Project Individual Contributor License Agreement. By being forced to submit contributions to the Fedora repository they automatically fall under the provisions of US export law. So, no OLPC for Cuba, Syria and the like. Ever."
I know we like to blame the UN for everything here at Slashdot, but the embargo against Cuba was enacted by President Kennedy in 1961, with the total travel ban enacted in 1963. The UN certainly has its hands in a lot of useless sanctions, but to pretend the UN is responsible for the Cuba situation, or that the US does not exert tremendous influence over the UN, is just flat wrong.
No. Not necessarely at least.
When Castro dies, his brother Ramon will take over. And he is a stalinist-type communist.
Fidel himself was not a (pure) communist from the beginning, but as Cuba was isolated by USA after the revolution he had to go to Soviet for help (economical and other).
And by that the regime went to communism.
Mundus Vult Decipi
lol, you do realize Castro's family was rich and was part of the ruling class in Cuba BEFORE the revolution. Same with Che Guevara's. Guess what plantation was the first one given over to the "people" Castro's mother's. Castro gave everything his family owned to the people.
Castro lives in a shack compared to the average upper middle class in the US.
When I say that children will get the best first in Cuba its just a continuation of their philosophy. Schools have better computers than banks in Cuba. If you aren't working you are in school in Cuba. They know its the best defense against being exploited again. You can't exploit a society thats smarter than yours.
What you need to do is assume everything you hear on Fox news is the opposite of how it is in Cuba.
The Cuba embargo is mostly around because fanatics in Florida take it very personally, and there are enough votes in Florida that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are willing to mess with it.
Florida has 25 elecotoral votes, 4th behind California (54), New York (33) and Texas (32).
The US Electoral College is a winner takes all system, so the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in any state, no matter how small the margin, gets all the electoral votes for that state. In 2000 Bush beat Gore in FL by a tiny fraction of a percent, winning all 25 of FL's electoral votes, and thus the election. Anti-Castro Cubans are not a big group, but they are concentrated in FL and they are single issue voters (whereas anti-embargo voters are neither), so they can swing a close presidential election. So their influence on Cuba policy is disproportionate.
Something that is overlooked is that even if Castro lives to be 120, the US policy will change eventually because the Anti-Castro Cubans are getting older too, and their children are more moderate. And a lot of them would like to visit their homeland some day.