NEWS.i.e. Let there be cellphones - Cuba

To everyone's surprise, Raul Castro of Cuba, is not as harsh as he was presumed to be. He's so cool, that he's letting his citizens to have the right to have a cellphone, if they can afford it. Not only that, but now you're allowed to have a microwave, DVD player, computers, and the right to stay at tourist hotels on the island. On a salary that averages $20 a month, I'm not sure how it's possible to afford such necessary products. However, it's the first step of loosening the tight restrictions, that makes people see the light at the end of the tunnel and welcome the change. It will take a whole lot more to fix Cuba, then a lift on a microwave.

"Cuba's government had previously forbidden the sale of consumer products under the argument that they consumed too much electricity." -CNN

Here are the opinions on this subject from major commentators:

The Miami Herald - Carlos Alberto Montaner

“Raúl understands the importance of material incentives” to make people work harder. But he will still “fail as a leader.” Brother Fidel just exercised his “permanent veto” over a “minor” proposal to facilitate Cuban travel abroad, and he will use it on other “sensible” reforms, too. The larger problem, though, is that Cuba’s economic system is “intrinsically unproductive.”

Investor’s Business Daily

Cellphones and toasters aren’t going to give Cubans what they really need. They need “real economic freedom.” Even poor people in India and Indonesia have access to “consumer technology,” because they have the “economic liberty” to earn real cash. Dangling generally unaffordable “consumer offerings” before the people is merely the act of “a new dictator seeking to win some popularity.”

The Atlantic - Matthew Yglesias

Allowing cellphones and other goods is "hardly the last word in fixing Cuba’s screwed-up economic system,” said . But it’s “certainly a step in the right direction.” In order to “alleviate the sorry conditions of the Cuban people,” however, the U.S. will have to “take a step in the right direction of our own” and lift at least part of our “draconian” embargo.

via TheWeek