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China Beats US In Early Cuban Internet Infrastructure Investment

Posted by timothy on from the who-is-this-us-you-speak-of? dept.

lpress writes: The US would like to sell Cuba Internet service and equipment, but we have had little success so far. China has won the first round — they financed and installed Cuba's undersea cable, supplied backbone equipment and public WiFi access centers and will provide equipment for the forthcoming home DSL rollout. That being said, Cuba has very little connectivity today and most of what they have and plan to install is already obsolete by today's standards, so they will be buying a lot of equipment in the future.

10 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. O Rly? by Andreas+Mayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So you hold an embargo against a nation for decades and now they don't fall over themselves to buy from you?

    What an ungrateful bunch!

    1. Re:O Rly? by hij · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Meh, if they had purchased it from the US the actual equipment would have been made in China anyway. The only difference is which set of suits gets to skim the profits off the back of which Chinese workers.

      --
      Believe nothing -- Buddha
    2. Re:O Rly? by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > They (the "supporting" communist countries) abandoned that shithole and let it rot for many years.

      For decades, the Soviet Union in particular kept their economy afloat. They were an absolutely critical Atlantic Ocean seaport for the Soviet navy, a treasured vacation for Communist Party leadership, and and a critical source of sugar and tobacco luxury goods in an increasingly desperate Soviet economy. They were also an invaluable electronic listening post, an embarrassing counter-example to American and western democracy's political claims against communism, and a critical exporter of communist ideology to all of Latin America.

      Then they Soviet Empire went bankrupt, and the economy tanked. But they've still managed to avoid the boom-bust and destructive mismanagement of Haiti, and the third class US protectorate status of Puerto Rico, and they've managed to survive the devastation to their most critical trade good, tobacco, as worldwide smoking habits shifted. They still have one of the highest literacy rates in the world and lowest lower infant mortality rates, both notably better than the USA or Canada. They're making do with an economy that is stretched very, very thin, but give credit where it's due. They've avoided the murderous puppet governments of other desperate Caribbean islands such as Haiti and Jamaica.

    3. Re: O Rly? by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Well, yes, everyone is making the same salary...of course, Fidel and Raul Castro are both worth millions. I wonder how that happened?

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    4. Re:O Rly? by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > I really can't argue anything else in your post, but I can't help but wonder how Cuba was supposed to be an embarrassment vis a vis political systems.

      There's a lot of sources of embarrassment, from the ineffectiveness of the US embargo in collapsing their economy, to the demonstrably stable Communist regime, in the USA's back yard, one that countered the claims that the only way for Latin American nations to survive was as as US puppets, to Castro's ongoing political friendships with other Latin American countries. The living counterexample to claims of Communist enforced starvation and economic despair.

      Do understand that they're quite poor, but for most of them it's still much better than it was under Batista when stunning corruption, death gangs, and US organized crime controlled the island. The revolution there was inevitable: it's amazing that it worked so well, and that they have any economy left after 50 years of murderous anger from the nearest superpower.

    5. Re:O Rly? by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1, Insightful

      They were also an invaluable electronic listening post, an embarrassing counter-example to American and western democracy's political claims against communism

      You're kidding, right? The only embarrassment here is that somebody would suggest that Cubans have a good life. As has been noted elsewhere, you can read up on slaves' rations in the writings of Frederick Douglass (as I have) and you'll find that slaves in the antebellum American South ate better than modern day Cubans.

      Well, except for the Castros. I'm sure they're eating well.

      , and a critical exporter of communist ideology to all of Latin America.

      Then they Soviet Empire went bankrupt, and the economy tanked.

      In other words, the "economy" was simply a sham that was exposed when the Soviet Union quit pumping money into the island. The Soviet Union - with the Castros - spent as much money destroying Cuba as the US spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after WWII. Think about that.

      But they've still managed to avoid the boom-bust and destructive mismanagement of Haiti, and the third class US protectorate status of Puerto Rico, and they've managed to survive the devastation to their most critical trade good, tobacco, as worldwide smoking habits shifted. They still have one of the highest literacy rates in the world and lowest lower infant mortality rates, both notably better than the USA or Canada. They're making do with an economy that is stretched very, very thin, but give credit where it's due. They've avoided the murderous puppet governments of other desperate Caribbean islands such as Haiti and Jamaica.

      Yeah, they've avoided "murderous puppet governments" while maintaining what simply a "murderous government". Lovely. I'm sure the dead people are grateful that the word "puppet" wasn't in there.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
  2. Communism or Capitalism by Roodvlees · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They probably agree on communistic principles. But currently China is more competitive than the USA, since that market is divided in monopolies by bought politicians.

    --
    Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
  3. Re:Obama loses even when he wins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So it is Pres. Obama's fault that it is not any easier to do business in Cuba? Who was it again that turned Cuba into a testosterone test of who can be meaner and thus a bigger "man?" I seem to recall it was a different party who was howling at any mention of doing any sort of business with Cuba. Now it is Obama's fault that the US cannot sell anything to Cuba. Right.

  4. What will be funny... by Drakonblayde · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is when the average Cuban has better bandwidth than the average US Citizen because they actually decided to build infrastructure

    1. Re:What will be funny... by dave420 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If size is the problem, then why aren't US cities the best in the world for internet access? They have lots of money, many subscribers, and manageable amounts of space.

      Stop making excuses for the chain cluster-fuck that is US internet infrastructure. The more you keep hand-waiving it away the longer it will exist.