[Marxism] REUTERS: Cuba lifts ban on computer and DVD sales

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cuba lifts ban on computer and DVD sales
By Marc Frank

Reuters
Mar 13, 2008

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1329909720080313?feedType=RSS\
&feedName=technologyNews&rpc=22&sp=true

HAVANA - Communist Cuba has authorized the unrestricted sale of computers
and DVD and video players in the first sign that President Raul Castro is
moving to improve Cubans' access to consumer goods.

An internal government memo seen by Reuters on Thursday said the appliances
long desired by Cubans can go on sale immediately, although air conditioners
will not be available until next year and toasters until 2010 due to limited
power supplies.

Only foreigners and companies can buy computers in Cuba at present, while
DVD players were seized at the airport until last year, when customs rules
were eased.

Now Cubans will be able to buy them freely, paying for them in hard currency
CUCs, or convertible pesos, worth 24 times more than the Cuban pesos state
wages are paid in.

"Based on the improved availability of electricity, the government at the
highest level has approved the sale of some equipment which was prohibited,"
the memo said.

It listed 19-inch (48-cm) and 24-inch (61-cm) television sets, electric
pressure cookers and rice cookers, electric bicycles, car alarms and
microwaves.

Raul Castro, 76, has led Cuba since July 2006 when his older brother Fidel
Castro provisionally handed over power after intestinal surgery from which
he has not fully recovered.

The younger Castro was named president on February 24, formally becoming
Cuba's first new leader in almost half a century, and he promised to ease
some of the restrictions on daily life.

"The country's priority will be to meet the basic needs of the population,
both material and spiritual," Raul Castro said as he replaced Fidel Castro,
a staunch critic of capitalist consumer society.

Last year, under Raul Castro's provisional government, customs regulations
were eased to allow Cubans to bring in some electronic equipment and car
parts.

AIR CONDITIONERS AND TOASTERS

The new memo circulated within the state-run retail system said Cubans will
have access to a second group of products in 2009, including air
conditioners, which are much in demand to help endure the hot summer days in
the tropical country.

If Cuba's electricity supplies permit, additional appliances to be sold
freely in 2010 include toasters and electric ovens, the memo said.

The sale of many electric appliances was banned in the 1990s when the
collapse of the Soviet Union deprived Cuba of billions of dollars in
subsidies and oil supplies, resulting in an energy crunch and daily
blackouts of as long as 18 hours.

Cuba put an end to power cuts in 2006 by importing hundreds of electricity
generators run on fuel supplied by Venezuela, its main foreign ally.

Raul Castro has encouraged debate of Cuba's economic woes and has received a
torrent of complaints focusing mainly on poor wages and limited access to
consumer goods that are priced in hard currency.

In December, he said Cuba had too many restrictions and last month, formally
assuming leadership, he vowed "in the next few weeks we shall start removing
the most simple of them."

Many Cubans expect the state to soon allow them to buy cellular telephones.
While they will now be able to buy computers, access to the Internet remains
controlled by the government.

(Reporting by Marc Frank, Editing by Kieran Murray)

=========================================
     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un ParaÃso bajo el bloqueo"
=========================================

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