"Cuba to work around US embargo via undersea cable to Venezuela"

[LtPage1]

I found the article off Slashdot.

According to the Vice Minister of Telecommunication, Boris Moreno, the government is unable to offer Cubans comprehensive Internet for their new Pcs because the American embargo prevents it from getting service directly from the United States nearby through underwater cables. Instead, Cuba gets Internet service through less reliable satellite connections, usually from faraway countries including Italy and Canada.

Embargoing the single greatest technology for encouraging pluralism, free speech, and democracy is silly. Additional evidence.

Let's not let this turn into a flamefest over the embargo in general. Shouldn't we be giving Cuba as much Internet as possible?

 

[Colt45]

The embargo is stupid in general.

 

[dahunan]

should be a flamefest over the disgusting pigs we vote for

Cuba... is so scary.. and we bitch about china.. wtf are we doing.. like we own cuba???

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: dahunan
should be a flamefest over the disgusting pigs we vote for

Cuba... is so scary.. and we bitch about china.. wtf are we doing.. like we own cuba???

Yeah, why do we care about that pathetic little island. I mean nothing they could do would cause us to like enter DEFCON 2 or anything like that.

 

[Capt Caveman]

The embargo covers everything I believe, so why would we give them internet?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: Colt45
The embargo is stupid in general.

I agree with this 100%. I'd love to be able to vacation there, to enjoy Cubano cigars legally within the USA, and many other side benefits of eliminating the embargo, but, the embargo does exist, and it IS the law, so...no US intarwebs for them...yet.

Seriously, I don't know why the fuck we continue our ridiculous stance against Cuba, yet we have granted China (a MUCH worse version of communism IMO) favored nation status, and are even normalizing relations with Vietnam...a country we warred with for well over 10 years. (that one really pisses me off)

Yet tiny little Cuba gets a near total boycott/embargo.


Seems silly as hell to me.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: dahunan
should be a flamefest over the disgusting pigs we vote for

Cuba... is so scary.. and we bitch about china.. wtf are we doing.. like we own cuba???

Yeah, why do we care about that pathetic little island. I mean nothing they could do would cause us to like enter DEFCON 2 or anything like that.

Naa that would never happen!

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Colt45
The embargo is stupid in general.

 

[dmcowen674]

Convenient Political Pawn

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Colt45
The embargo is stupid in general.

 

[Jaskalas]

After considering our dealings with China, (flip over the nearest object in your house) a cold war era embargo makes no sense. Does anyone still support it, and if so how the hell do you explain everything made in China?

 

[maddogchen]

they have money to afford new PCs? Shens!!

 

[Lemon law]

The point being, its stupid and counterproductive in the extreme. Cuba is anything but democratic, Raul Castro is still a dictator, and they do not have a truly free press in Cuba. And the internet is simply a part of a world wide free press no government can control. But an isolated people can be dumbed down by government control of information.

And if anything, the internet is a free press that opens up Cuba to the larger world. And an informed populations tends to be a democratic population. Its true in Iran, its true in China, and to some extent their governments are moving fast to censor their own links to the internet.

So if we, meaning the USA, don't like the present Cuban government and want to throw in monkey wrenches and make their wheels fall off, what better tactic than to give the Cuban people the best internet access possible from our end. Then let the Cuban government worry about how to censor parts of it.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: dahunan
should be a flamefest over the disgusting pigs we vote for

Cuba... is so scary.. and we bitch about china.. wtf are we doing.. like we own cuba???

Yeah, why do we care about that pathetic little island. I mean nothing they could do would cause us to like enter DEFCON 2 or anything like that.

So. let's let their leader know we're trying to assassinate him, send an invasion force, send saboteurs and terrorists, and drive him, furious, to our arch-enemy nuclear power.

Let's make him economically dependent on that arch-enemy nuclear power. That should reduce the risk of any nuclear cooperation causing a Defcon 2.

Indeed, when he visits the US to try to establish friendly relations, let's grab a few cheap political points and treat him like crap, the president refusing to meet with him.

It's not as if having them dependent on us for trade would do anything to establish better relations and dissuade them from hostile acts.

 

[WHAMPOM]

AH! The Cuban embargo, the most precious political gift the USA could have given to bolster a dictator's power. Someone buy our politicians a clue!

 

[jpeyton]

Obama is ready to sit down and talk with Raul, and hopefully end this relic of the cold war.