Castro reforms: DVDs, farms for Cubans

[Mugu]

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer

HAVANA - Cubans snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time Tuesday as Raul Castro's new government loosened controls on consumer goods and invited private farmers to plant tobacco, coffee and other crops on unused state land.

Combined with other reforms announced in recent days, the measures suggest real changes are being driven by the new president, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans. Analysts wondered how far the communist government is willing to go.

"Cuban people can't survive on the salaries people are paying them. Average men and women have been screaming that at the top of their lungs for many years," said Felix Masud-Piloto, director of the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University. "Now after many years, the government is listening."

Many of the shoppers filling stores Tuesday lamented the fact that the goods are unaffordable on the government salaries they earn. But that didn't stop them from lining up to see electronic gadgets previously available only to foreigners and companies.


Complete article at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_consumer_goods;_ylt=AgtX2IqnMAYWjxL8G14XHEsDW7oF

[bbinacan]

1. Glad to hear it.

It's about time Cubans were afforded some basic freedoms.

[walldude]

2. Didn't take him long...

Baby steps in the right direction. Couldn't ask for more.

[keep_it_real]

3. Human beings reduced to $19.50 in worth a month? America or Cubas Fault?

Or both? I don't know. But it's 2008 and these people, human beings on planet earth are living like they were in centuries past. Not to think there are other people on this planet worth less than $19.50 a month. This is a sick planet and world system.

" . . . the average state salary is just 408 regular pesos a month, about $19.50."

God help us? Makes one wonder is there really a God?

[roody]

4. In centuries past, did all citizens have access to health care?

And elder care, a home, and a good education? These things are priceless.