Cuba Puts First Computers on Sale to the Public: Restrictions on daily life falling away

Source: WP/AP

By WILL WEISSERT
The Associated Press

HAVANA -- Cubans are getting wired. The island's communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro.

A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind....

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Except for some trusted officials and state journalists, most Cubans are banned from accessing the Internet at home. So many of these new computers may never be connected to the Web.

Some people buy limited e-mail access on the black market, usually sharing an account with the authorized holder, who usually works for the state. Even if they could access the Web, Cubans can't shop on line because they don't have credit cards.

Raul Castro promised to eliminate many of these 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....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/03/AR2008050300569.html?hpid=sec-tech

It'll be loltacular.