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The inalienable right to a toaster=E2=80=94but not quite yet

WHEN Ra=C3=BAl Castro took over the presidency of Cuba from his ailing brot=
her, Fidel,
last month his acceptance speech to the National Assembly included a teasin=
g hint.
=E2=80=9CWithin weeks=E2=80=9D, he promised, some of the restrictions that =
circumscribe Cubans'
daily lives would be lifted. That set off a public guessing game. Would an =
unpopular
dual-currency system be modified and the local Cuban peso, in which wages a=
re paid,
be revalued? Long queues formed at exchange houses as Cubans rushed to swap=
 =E2=80=9Cconvertible=E2=80=9D
pesos for their lowlier counterpart. Others hoped for a lifting of curbs on=
 foreign
travel, or at least for permission for Cubans to stay in tourist hotels in =
their
own country.

But Mr Castro's plans have so far been more modest. According to an officia=
l
memo, the government is to lift a ban on the purchase of computers, DVD pla=
yers=20
and microwaves. Next year, air conditioners should be available. Cubans can=
 also
look forward to the right to buy an electric toaster by 2010. Days later ne=
ws broke
that private farmers will be allowed to buy their own supplies, rather than=
 these
being assigned by the state.

The government is able to widen access to consumer electronics because Vene=
zuelan
aid has allowed it to overhaul the electricity grid. Officials also know th=
at the
grid will not immediately be overwhelmed: monthly wages average $17. For th=
ose who
don't receive remittances from relatives abroad, electronic gadgets will re=
main
unaffordable. Even for those who do they will be expensive: they will only =
be available
in state-owned shops that apply a mark-up of around 200%.

Nevertheless, lifting the ban on buying computers came as a surprise. Offic=
ials=20
have long regarded the internet with suspicion. The government has set up a=
 Cuban
intranet, which is all that is available in schools and universities. Inter=
net accounts
are available only to foreigners, or to favoured Cubans for research purpos=
es. Officials
blame this on a lack of bandwidth. They have a point: the United States gov=
ernment
has blocked plans for a fibre-optic link to an undersea cable in American w=
aters
(so Venezuela's Hugo Ch=C3=A1vez is now building a similar link to his coun=
try).

But the official mood might be changing. =E2=80=9CI think the leadership no=
w recognises=20
that when it comes to the internet the genie is out of the bottle, and they=
 have
to live with it,=E2=80=9D says a foreign diplomat in Havana. Cubans have be=
come remarkably
inventive at getting online. Doctors and academics with internet access ren=
t their
passwords so that others can use them after office hours. Some entrepreneur=
s have
smuggled in satellite receivers to connect to the internet; they then sell =
accounts
to their neighbours.

The digital age has opened the odd crack in the state's information monopol=
y.
At a meeting in January Ricardo Alarc=C3=B3n, the assembly president, strug=
gled to explain
to computer-science students why Cubans should be banned from travelling ab=
road.
A video of the meeting was promptly posted on YouTube.

Another small sign that Ra=C3=BAl Castro is probably prepared to tolerate m=
ore debate
than his brother did is the survival of Generaci=C3=B3n Y, a blog written i=
n Havana by
Yoani S=C3=A1nchez, a young Cuban woman who posts her entries from tourist =
hotels or=20
from one of Havana's few internet caf=C3=A9s. In a post this week she predi=
cted that
at the current rate of progress, by 2050 Cubans might be allowed satellite =
television.


Copyright =C2=A9 2008 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All =
rights reserved.


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     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un Para=C3=ADso bajo el bloqueo"
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