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Again and again I've been arguing for access to information. Let Cuba land an underwater cable in Miami. Ever since I was young I was fed this line 'Glasnost he

Again and again I've been arguing for access to information. Let Cuba land an underwater cable in Miami. Ever since I was young I was fed this line 'Glasnost helped accelerate the collapse of the Soviet Union, people wanted things their government wouldn't give them... free access to information not filtered by their government', but the US argues for some reason that Cubans can't have this. Is it fear of an even bigger migration? Why? Is it expat Cubans looking to kick out the ladder?

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nradov 2y ago
I agree with you, but if Cuba wants better Internet access there's nothing stopping them from landing an underwater cable in Mexico. It's about the same distance.
- joecool1029 2y ago
  Except Mexican government has a relationship with the US government and if US says 'don't do this' to Mexico there's not much upside to them going through with it. Also maybe consider this? A substantial amount of news/rhetoric in the US revolves around US/Mexico border problems. Do you think Cuban expats want Cuba to be associated with Mexico in any way?
  - nradov 2y ago
    Nonsense. Mexico already has an active trade relationship with Cuba. The US hasn't done anything about it.
epolanski 2y ago
Russians didn't give two shits about "free access to information", they cared to see that people in US lived richer lives that's it. Russians in Soviet union had to illegally trade and commit felonies to get their hands on some Italian mortadella. They had to go through insane lengths to buy a new tv. It wasn't glasnost but the oil crisis that ultimately killed the SU's economy and made people think that in democracy it was gonna be better. Is it better? In absolute terms, yes, but so is virtually everyone in the world compared to 1989. In terms of gdp per capita Soviet russia was 33rd in the world in that year. Modern Russia is 52nd. But you wouldn't be able to say that such a massive decline happened when modern Russia is far cleaner, richer and very low unemployment. Modern Russians are richer in absolute terms, but poorer in relative ones.
- abernard1 2y ago
  > In terms of gdp per capita Soviet russia was 33rd in the world in that year. Modern Russia is 52nd. GDP was also calculated based upon prices in a free market. The problem being, if you don't have a free market, you don't have an efficient way of knowing if the "value" of the goods produced actually mattered. The Soviet Union massively overproduced goods that nobody wanted, as this was efficient for production. But in terms of quality of life, it didn't matter. Overabundances and shortages were the norm.
- gottorf 2y ago
  > richer in absolute terms, but poorer in relative ones. Off topic, but it's funny how big of a problem this turns out to be in real life.
- nradov 2y ago
  GDP calculations for the Soviet Union were bullshit and not to be relied upon. The numbers were heavily manipulated, and much of the country ran on a command economy where money didn't even mean much because you couldn't buy things with it.
crngefest 2y ago
Cubans have fairly free access to the internet through mobile phones and VPN. So it’s not like cut off or anything just internet is really slow and expensive. But you can get a “download” of many sites including popular YouTube/Netflix etc from a neighbourhood dealer. Source: visited a couple months ago.

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nradov 2y ago

I agree with you, but if Cuba wants better Internet access there's nothing stopping them from landing an underwater cable in Mexico. It's about the same distance.

joecool1029 2y ago
Except Mexican government has a relationship with the US government and if US says 'don't do this' to Mexico there's not much upside to them going through with it. Also maybe consider this? A substantial amount of news/rhetoric in the US revolves around US/Mexico border problems. Do you think Cuban expats want Cuba to be associated with Mexico in any way?
- nradov 2y ago
  Nonsense. Mexico already has an active trade relationship with Cuba. The US hasn't done anything about it.

epolanski 2y ago

Russians didn't give two shits about "free access to information", they cared to see that people in US lived richer lives that's it. Russians in Soviet union had to illegally trade and commit felonies to get their hands on some Italian mortadella. They had to go through insane lengths to buy a new tv. It wasn't glasnost but the oil crisis that ultimately killed the SU's economy and made people think that in democracy it was gonna be better. Is it better? In absolute terms, yes, but so is virtually everyone in the world compared to 1989. In terms of gdp per capita Soviet russia was 33rd in the world in that year. Modern Russia is 52nd. But you wouldn't be able to say that such a massive decline happened when modern Russia is far cleaner, richer and very low unemployment. Modern Russians are richer in absolute terms, but poorer in relative ones.

abernard1 2y ago
> In terms of gdp per capita Soviet russia was 33rd in the world in that year. Modern Russia is 52nd. GDP was also calculated based upon prices in a free market. The problem being, if you don't have a free market, you don't have an efficient way of knowing if the "value" of the goods produced actually mattered. The Soviet Union massively overproduced goods that nobody wanted, as this was efficient for production. But in terms of quality of life, it didn't matter. Overabundances and shortages were the norm.
gottorf 2y ago
> richer in absolute terms, but poorer in relative ones. Off topic, but it's funny how big of a problem this turns out to be in real life.
nradov 2y ago
GDP calculations for the Soviet Union were bullshit and not to be relied upon. The numbers were heavily manipulated, and much of the country ran on a command economy where money didn't even mean much because you couldn't buy things with it.

crngefest 2y ago

Cubans have fairly free access to the internet through mobile phones and VPN. So it’s not like cut off or anything just internet is really slow and expensive. But you can get a “download” of many sites including popular YouTube/Netflix etc from a neighbourhood dealer. Source: visited a couple months ago.