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Castro rings changes as Cubans get mobile phones

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Published Date: 29 March 2008
CUBANS will be allowed to buy mobile phones for the first time in the latest step by Raul Castro, the new president, to improve access to consumer goods.
Cuba has the lowest rate of mobile phone use in Latin America. The service had been restricted to foreigners or government officials and employees.

The Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA, a joint venture with Telecom Italia, would begin selling the service to the general public within days, it said in a statement published in the communist party newspaper Granma.

Many Cubans have long wanted access to mobile phones and were hopeful that such a service would be among the first steps taken by the president, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel Castro as Cuba's first new leader in almost half a century on 24 February.

"This shows there is a change in mentality at the top and recognition that Cuba has to move into the 21st century," a young computer technician said, asking not to be named.

The president began lifting some of the many restrictions on the daily life of Cubans when he took office last month, as he tries to meet popular demands for better living standards in the socialist state.





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  • Last Updated: 28 March 2008 10:24 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Cuba
 
1

Conan,

Chile 29/03/2008 00:23:26
Castro - poor chap ..... poisoned early in life by a deluded idea that 'communism' was a good idea, then morphed into the very ememy he despised ..... and in the end became the very epitome of the classic national socialist. Cuba will be well rid of him, his ilk, and their ideas and the sooner the better. OTH, can't take issue with the 'revolution's' achievements in limited social services, literacy, public health, sending docors where needed - give him a thumb's-up for some of that. point being - he and his communist mafia are like a man trying to juggle an ever-increasing number of balls, or spinning plates, at some point the unchangeable laws of human nature and physics will win and they will be remembered as someone who tried and failed to something that really didn't need doing, after all.
2

,

29/03/2008 01:02:47
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
3

Siroos,

UK 29/03/2008 04:23:58
Mobile Phones? It maybe a big thing for a Cuban, but when will the real deal happen - talking to the US?
Cuba is the next heaven for foreign investment. It will not be long.
4

Guga II,

Rockall 29/03/2008 04:39:45
#2 No doubt the ruling clique would have had acccess to mobile phones if the Batista regime had stayed in power, backed as it was by the Mafia and the CIA. The people would not have had any rights, mark you, and would still be living in abject poverty, with no education, no health service or anything else. Batista and his criminal cronies in the Mafia and the CIA would still have been ripping all the money out of the country.
5

Jim A,

29/03/2008 05:37:48
#1 &4 Conan & Guga, both you folks make some good points there in your posts. The people were abused under the Batista regime and apart from some points like health etc that Conan points out they weren't that much better off under Castro's regime. Time to start again I think and hope this time the lot of the Cuban people improves in all areas of life.
6

Dáithí,

San Jose 29/03/2008 16:07:06
#4 - Guga

>No doubt the ruling clique would have had acccess to mobile phones if the Batista regime had stayed in power..."

Again you argue against yourself, Guga. Since you constantly portray Batista as a 'Capitalist pawn', clearly Batista would have used Capitalism to his profit.

Everyone would have cell phones and Batista would not only own the rights to the 'air time', but he would also be taking a large share of the profits from the carriers for the 'privelege' of doing business in Cuba.

Your effort here to claim that 'even though the people have nothing under Communism, they wouldn't have had anything under the dead guy either' flies in the face of the image of crass consumerism and profit that you Lefties constantly portray as the evils of 'capitalistic consumerism'.

Although, of course - everyone sees that you really can't explain why they have no cell phones under Castro and are merely trying to avoid mentioning that.
7

Gramma Kitty,

portage lakes, OH USA 30/03/2008 10:57:57
High hopes

 

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