January 7, 2009
Viva la Revolucion!
Things have really loosened up since Raul Castro came into power. He famously made cell phones legal -- imagine that! Of course, they're not really affordable:
Tatiana González stood transfixed before the glass display case watching a single cellphone spin around and around on a carousel at the government-run store. It was a Nokia 1112, a simple, boxy gray workhorse of mobile telecommunications technology--and González was in love.She coveted that phone. She confessed she had dreamed of that phone. But she would have to wait just a little longer before she could cradle it to her ear. How much longer? "I hope a year, no more," said González, who toils as a manager of medical records in a hospital, earning $21.44 a month.
Tatiana (is that not the prettiest name?) has the satisfaction of providing that great health care that Michael Moore raves about -- I'm sure that's consoling. And the famed Cuban literacy rates come in to play too as lucky cell phone owners text to avoid 65 cents a minute charges on voice. Tatiana will be able to buy 33 minutes of local service with her month's salary or three-and-a-half minutes to Europe!
Yet the incoming administration still claims that free-market capitalism has been discredited.
Rules & citations & recursive hat-tips: the excerpt is from the Washington Post, it is included in a Reason Hit&Run post (linked) and was linked by Instapundit. Got it? Good.