A couple of days ago, I noted that I believed, that a country that doesn't allow mobile phones is "odd." I was put down for stating this by a poster, who went off topic and started talking about "weird Americans."

Well, sorry. I still think it's odd for a country to ban mobile phones among citizens.

Why is this the case?

updated 5:25 p.m. PT, Wed., April. 2, 2008

HAVANA - It's not the stuff of Lenin or Marx, or even of Fidel Castro, but it's hardly free-market capitalism, either. In fact, steps to encourage a Cuban spending spree may help the communist system and its new president survive.


In rapid-fire decrees over the past week, Raul Castro's government has done away with some despised restrictions, lifting bans on electric appliances, microwaves and computers, inviting average citizens to enter long-forbidden resorts and declaring they can even legally have their own cell phones.


More could be on the way. Rumors are rampant the government could ease travel restrictions and tolerate free enterprise that would let more people start their own small businesses. And hopes that it will tweak the dual-currency system that puts foreign products out of reach for most Cubans have sparked a run on the peso.


Cubans taste new kind of communism - Americas - MSNBC.com