Into the 20th Century

There is something new going on in Cuba. This past Friday computers went on sale in the newest move by Raul Castro to bring the country into the modern age. The computers were big, clunky things and most people can't have access to the Internet, but it is start. Amazing how quickly it's happening. Here from the Yahoo! News item:

Raul Castro promised to eliminate many ... prohibitions when he assumed the presidency on Feb. 24, after his ailing 81-year-old brother Fidel resigned. Besides selling consumer goods, he has ended bans that kept most Cubans from having cell phones, staying in luxury hotels or renting cars.

An internal government memo had indicated that PCs, DVD players, motorbikes and plug-in pressure cookers would be sold for the first time in April. Everything but the computers made it to the shelves last month.

And now in May the computers. Interesting note- the computers use Intel Celeron processors and Microsoft XP which is a violation of the US embargo against Cube. But since we do not have any dimplomatic relations nothing can be done. Perhaps now that business is involved the embargo and lack of relations can also begin to thaw.