Cubans line up to buy their first legal PCs
UPDATED at 1:25 p.m. PDT to clarify RAM in the computer is measured in megabytes.
Perhaps the days of looking at Cuba as the island that technology forgot are beginning to wane.
Late last month, President Raul Castro's government lifted the ban on ordinary citizens from owning a cell phone and getting cell service, a right previously limited to executives working for foreign companies or high communist party officials. DVD players, motorbikes, and plug-in pressure cookers also went on sale for the first time.
Now, citizens of the communist-controlled country can for the first time be the proud legal owners of a desktop computer, according to an Associated Press report. More than a dozen prospective buyers were lined up Friday outside Havana's state-run Carlos III shopping center for a chance to buy the tower-style Qtech PC and CRT monitor for $780, according to the report.
However, like the 50-year-old cars that roam Cuba's streets, the PCs are near relics of yesteryear, boasting Intel Celeron processors with a 80GB hard drive and 512MB of RAM and running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. (However, I know a few people who would call the Cubans lucky for not being subjected to Windows Vista.) The report notes that buyers in the U.S. can buy a computer with twice the memory, a 80GB SATA hard drive, and 22-inch LCD flat-screen monitor for less money.
But don't expect to start surfing Cubans' blogs about what it's like to collect a state monthly salary of about $20 anytime soon; most of these PCs will not be allowed connections to the Internet, according to the report. Only trusted officials and state journalists are allowed access to the Web.
However, like many things forbidden by the state, computers and even e-mail services have been available to Cubans on the black market, according to the report.
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven.
80 gigs of ram for only $780... zomg I think the Cubans are getting a much better deal - time to move!
/sarcasm i know reporters love when we point out their errors :D
If you read about a second more you would see how much RAM is included. :)
I'm not sure which I love more, American ignorance, or their arrogance.
Cuba has free trade with Canada, Mexico, Japan, France, Britain, Spain, Portugal, and South Korea.
Yes, much has been controlled, but this crap about it being the land that technology forgot is just that. I personally know two computer graphic designers in Havana.
Los Van Van have been recording digitally for years.
But, yes, let's trot out the ignorant clichés, and talk about an embargo that is anachronistic, and kept in place because some rich exploitative Cubans who were propped up by the Batista (American funded) dictatorship were stripped of their il-gotten gains, and fled offshore to a political lynchpin state.
WTV.
It's a pretty tried & true formula - Big Country with Big Military intimidates Small Country, Small Country Peasants lose rights to their land, get the *****, revolt against Big Country backed Dictator, Big Country not good at handling rejection, declares them an Enemy, all the while
steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the truth of the whole situation ie: we acted like complete ********!
As for your assertions regarding American ignorance & arrogance, these are attributes common to most current or former Colonial Powers.
On the positive side, I think I stand to make a tidy profit on my 1.6 P4, 80gb, 512mb, XP machine in the Cuban computer market!
Kind Regards.......
The Cuban ruling class has as much free trade as they wants, but the prolotariate has none; witness the very recent permission for them to own cell phones.
How many of those murdered by Fidel and Raul Castro did not support Batista, but just realized how horrible conditions would be under a power hungry micro manager like Fidel? They had to chose between the jackels in the grass and the crocodiles in the river.
If they are anything like the Russians were. There is probably some interesting stuff on that little island.
I also don't think there will be a rush to get a computer down there. 1000$ USD might as well be a million dollars.
However, creativity is born of hope. Castro did not allow anyone to benifit from their creativity, except in very narrow fields by a very tiny number of select individuals, so no one held hope for their inspirations.
Cuba gave up technology -among many precious things, like freedom, democracy and dignity- when they embraced an unsustainable system.
The only reason the Cuban system still exists is because it is based on charity. First from the URSS, then China, and currently from Venezuela.
I can only think of one country more technologically behind that Cuba. It is not a coincidence that it is also communist and therefore dictatorial: North Korea.
I know this is a cliche and decadent, but nonetheless it is accurate: if you like Cuba so much, you know how to contact a travel agency. Just make sure you get a one way ticket.
-Ramon from Venezuela
> 1000$ USD might as well be a million dollars.
There is a lot of corruption and some money in Cuba.
It is not only the central government which lives off charity from other "generous countries" (such the as the Chavez regime). Many of its citizens also receive charity money (US dollars) from their relatives in successful countries.
-Ramon
Wow. That's a lot.
Better restock the shelves.
I detect a revolution.
Cuba bad as it is at times is one of the few places that made Communism work to a degree (they didnt do it well but they made it survive longer then Russia and other countries due to them being more Facist then communist...)
Apple's business plan. Convince people how cool you are, then charge them 3x what the hardware is worth!
formula mixed in Redmond?
Based on some of your other contributions to this site, I know exactly what you would have written.
It's so predictable, I don't even have to take the trouble to type it out.
You probably would have made some childish reference to the "iMuck" or something.
You can use that if you like. iMuck, that is. The more you use childish names for consumer electronics (of all things!) and their users, the faster smart people can skip over your comment. And you know how Mac users value efficiency.
> a money pit of foreign aid, it is Africa.
At least the quality of being a basket case is not inherent in Africa. They can always take steps to become more modern countries, with better economies.
In the case of communist regimes, they are necessarily basket cases.
China became successful as soon as it adopted steps towards capitalism.
-RFH
- Should work with US first
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by sanenazok
May 6, 2008 11:38 AM PDT
- This is a extremely wasteful. The reason why people in Cuba can only buy overpriced and bad second-hand PC's is because of the embargo. Rather than trying to get consumer goods to the Cubans, their government should work to lift the embargo by doing something radical like releasing some political prisoners.
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