For all those gushing Che lefties who so adore Fidel and co. (what the hell — you younger lefties who romanticize Cuban culture can listen in, too), here’s a li’l newsflash: “Cuba Bans PC Sales to Public.”

The Cuban government has quietly banned the sale of computers and computer accessories to the public, except in cases where the items are ‘indispensable’ and the purchase is authorized by the Ministry of Internal Commerce.

News of the ban was first reported by CubaNet, an anti-Castro site based in Miami. According to the organization’s correspondent in Havana, the merchandise — which had been sold freely in the capital since mid-2001 — was yanked off store shelves in January.

Well, this is hardly surprising, is it? What possible egalitarian good can come from a computer literate public, after all?

Here’s another bit that falls into the category of “hardly surprising”:

Early attempts to confirm the information independently were unsuccessful. Dozens of messages to Cuban retailers and government officials in Cuba went unanswered. Cuba’s spokesman in Washington, Luis Fernandez, was consistently evasive.

[…] The rise of independent journalists in Cuba, who published articles on the Internet criticizing the Castro regime, may have something to do with it. The correspondents, who risk jail time for their ‘subversive’ reports, send their stories by fax, e-mail or phone dictation to supporters in Miami.

‘We believe our website had something to do with it,’ said Manrique Iriarte Sr., who helps run the website for the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists, which launched a few weeks before the ban was passed in late December.

[…] The government has also admitted to monitoring e-mail. To circumvent such spying, residents use Web-based e-mail accounts and chat services to make their communication harder to trace. Indeed, the Cuban source used a Web-based account to reply to a message sent to the person’s government account.

Well, there’s only one thing we in the “West” can do then, really: Convince a larger number of western universities to set up learning “exchange” programs with Communist Cuba! Clearly, what we need from the western academy is a steadier stream of glowing reports on Communist Cuba’s myriad charms (if we ever hope to tickle Castro’s oppressive regime into crying “Uncle,” that is).

Remember: Only after we convince budding young capitalists to look lovingly upon the Castro regime (a glorious testament to the benefits of centralized paternalism!), will imprisoned anti-Communist dissidents ever really truly be free…

[link via The Rallying Point]

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