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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."
They probably won't change during the useful life of the OLPC. The US still is under the impression that sanctions and trade embargoes will actually cause regime change in these countries. Even though they haven't worked at all (and in fact have only served to further entrench the regimes in question) over the more than 40 years they've been in place, we're still convinced that if we keep them around just a little bit longer, democracy will flourish.
Like John Stewart said, we've given up trying to kill Castro with food poison, now we're trying to kill him with "old age poison." If we wait long enough, the regimes will eventually fall, and we can then claim it was all because of the embargo.
Well, initially it was the upper and middle classes that stood to loose their wealth due to redistribution and probably some due to their assistance to the people who were at the receiving end of the revolution. Now, after 30+ years of sanctions there are people who wish for more money and the things that accompany it, the same as immigrants from other countries.
I have spent some time in Cuba and have had many interesting conversations regarding the revolution. The funny thing is that many seem to think the embargo is funny. A cigar that sells for 5 Euros in Europe sells for 5 times than on the US market. It is always fun to watch US tourist queue up to purchase them wherever they are available.
Not everyone in the world is dying to leave their country and move to the US, no matter what the boys at Fox say. Rupert is not even there most of the time.
"If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!" -- "Ma" Ferguson, Governor of Texas (circa
It means there's a nice warm international vacation destination with no Americans.
We're not so bad...
So by your logic George Bush is the richest man in the world...or I should say Dick Cheney is.
Castro built the system, he dosen't walk around and point to 18 year old girls and say "come with me" and they have to. No, it dosen't work that way. Castro believes in Communism because his early adult life showed him that capitalism (owning of property, having people indebted..etc) lead to nothing but misery for Cuba. Cubans were second class citizens in their own country under American rule (everything owned by US companies). Hell, Cuban military had orders to shoot at any United Fruit ships dared to even come close to Cuba. If you don't know who United Fruit was then google it.
The system dictates how Cubans behave, not Castro. when Castro dies, nothing will change unless the system(the people) decide. But a lot of Cubans like feeling safe, like have 100% employment, like having free education/healthcare. The big complaint I ever hear from Cubans is about censoring/controlling of media/information and travel.
Without the US embargo Cuba would probably move towards socialism. The people that are against the lifting of the embargo are the exiled(rich or formely) Cuban families and US trade companies that want to sweep in when Castro dies and "Claim" their family plantations and rule the lowerclasses like their parents/grandparents did. US will back their claims, they'll say Cuba "owes" 50 years of lost revenue and then legally fengshwei a debt to the world bank for said lost revenue...then begin to claim other aspects of Cuba as "debt reclamation". Or some other dumbfuck capitalist scheme like that.
That is why Castro is so strict when it comes to ANYTHING that in his mind may lead to a returning to the way they were; 90% illiteracy and a population enslaved(indebted) to foreign interests. Is it justified?
So ya, to sum: up Castro isn't an asshole dictator like any number of banana republics. He contributes more doctors/medicine to impoverished spanish colonies than anyone in the world. And he also happend to be a good friend of my hero Pierre Trudeau.
Oh, and the banks are really for us tourists/foreign nations. Communists don't need banks.