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A day using money in Cuba

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Re: A day using money in Cuba

#131

Post by teruakohatu »

Mengkudulangsat wrote: post #115
teruakohatu wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they have outright said that they will only operate through local resellers and local ground stations, so all laws will need to be complied with. Even then I think US-hostile nations would ban starlink on suspicious of eavesdropping, or simply because they don't want everyone connected to the internet.

What about resellers on a boat? You can set up the business in Panama, sign the the Starlink contract, dock in Havana and just share your wifi password.

I suspect Starlink modems upload their coordinates. The modem would also need to know its correct GPS location to operate, they mechanically orientate themselves, so faking a GPS signal would not be enough. You would need to modify the firmware.

And even if this was possible, I am sure the Cuban government would not be happy with you providing ISP services at the local dock.

I am sure there are alphabet soup agencies that will get "unlocked" starlinks, but the rest of us will need a local groundstation.

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#132

Post by vishnugupta »

empath75 wrote: post #67
fennecfoxen wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Random over-generosity is not a particularly effective charity pattern. If you feel that Hacker News denizens like ourselves happen to have too much money, there are a variety of organizations which can transmit sums of money to those in need: not just a one-time $15 at random with a special tax diverted to prop up the Cuban government, but on a recurring basis, every month, as part of a program to help eliminate wor…

Who cares if it’s an effective form of charity. It’s nothing for you and a big deal for that person. Not everything needs to be minimaxed to death. Same deal with haggling in the developing world. It’s just a gross thing to do when there is a big wealth inequality.

> Same deal with haggling in the developing world.

This bugs me too. I’m from a developing world but have a well paying job thanks to IT. It’s quite funny seeing colleagues haggle with auto rickshaw (three wheeled taxis) for 10Rs ($0.12) but part with 200Rs at Starbucks for a coffee without batting an eyelid.

Not that I wasn’t like this before, but once the severity of income inequality hit me I stopped doing such pity things. It’s not that I’m doing it out of charity but rather the whole situation reeks of injustice so it’s my way of respecting their dignity of labor.

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#133

Post by [deleted] »

riffic wrote: post #33
lordnacho wrote: post #11

I actually went to Cuba on holiday, and I used the tourist dollars. It's incredible how this separates society into haves and have-nots. Basically everyone wants to be near the tourists. They'll invite you into their homes for food, they'll offer to take you around town, sell you some cigars, and so on. Since you have tourist bucks, you also have access to the tourist nightclubs, where you run into some regional cele…

> most of the island is mired in poverty the elephant in the room is the 60 year old embargo and its third-rail effect on American politics.

[deleted]

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#134

Post by [deleted] »

tacon wrote: post #101
smnrchrds wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The police arrest those who spend too much time with foreigners. This is news to me. Do you have a source for this claim?

A female Spanish friend and I spent 11 days in Cuba in 2004. The overwhelming presence of security forces (secret police) made me feel the safest I have ever felt while traveling, even while being slightly drunk walking down a back alley at 2am, where two out of three street lights were broken and odd young men were sitting in the doorways of buildings with tons of ancient exposed wiring hanging down visible. There i…

[deleted]

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#135

Post by unnouinceput »

Mengkudulangsat wrote: post #115
teruakohatu wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they have outright said that they will only operate through local resellers and local ground stations, so all laws will need to be complied with. Even then I think US-hostile nations would ban starlink on suspicious of eavesdropping, or simply because they don't want everyone connected to the internet.

What about resellers on a boat? You can set up the business in Panama, sign the the Starlink contract, dock in Havana and just share your wifi password.

Good luck with that. If local government don't want you, I bet you'll end up in jail and your fancy boat in the country's dictator collection.

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#136

Post by farcitizen »

smnrchrds wrote: post #24
graeme wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that this separation is more due to the fact that you’re rich, than any formal currency arrangement. Foreigners in the 1990s got the same treatment, before any formal dollarization or dual currency system existed. Cubans who make their money only from official sources are desperately poor. Those with connections abroad, connections to tourism or to the black market are richer. The money difference merely makes i…

> The police arrest those who spend too much time with foreigners. This is news to me. Do you have a source for this claim?

I got a source. My ex-Gf who was scrambling to get her brother to contact a family friend to make sure she didn’t get on a government list for being caught with me. The police stoped us when she was on the back of my scooter.

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#137

Post by rajlego »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #59
guythedudebro wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid either of you let them keep the change

Random over-generosity is not a particularly effective charity pattern. If you feel that Hacker News denizens like ourselves happen to have too much money, there are a variety of organizations which can transmit sums of money to those in need: not just a one-time $15 at random with a special tax diverted to prop up the Cuban government, but on a recurring basis, every month, as part of a program to help eliminate wor…

Have you heard of effective altruism and givewell?

If you want to maximize benefit per dollar I don't think there's a better way.

https://www.givewell.org/ https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#138

Post by bawolff »

emmelaich wrote: post #125
bawolff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because its an irrelavent inflamatory political dig. How true it is is beside the point. As an example with a different context, if someone was talking about the efforts of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to eliminate malaria, and then in the middle randomly added a dig about how MS had mean bussiness practises in the 90s, i would also downvote them, regardless of how true that might be.

It's not irrelevant. Dual classes of citizenry will give you two types of currency.

Almost all societies have multiple classes of citizens. Significantly less have multiple currencies.

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#139

Post by bonzini »

robocat wrote: post #128
frandroid wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think normal salary was USD5 per week, so they would have taken ages to pay it. Pretty sure they would have made that money and more with just one foreign client for whom they were the scene

AFAIK you could go to jail for having tourist money or USD if you did not have an official reason for having it (or it probably would get “confiscated” by police if they found it). That said, virtually anyone you met in Havana would be after something from you, even if just a drink. It seemed cultural, far beyond the normal percentage of hucksters a tourist might expect to find in a tourist area of a foreign country.…

> AFAIK you could go to jail for having tourist money or USD if you did not have an official reason for having it (or it probably would get “confiscated” by police if they found it).

That's the theory, in practice see the article.

One thing to know is that owners of private houses with tourist guestrooms will make you huge portions so that their family can eat some yummy CUC food, even if they are leftovers, rather than the state rations. So it's absolutely not bad manners to finish everything!

Re: A day using money in Cuba

#140

Post by fetbaffe »

thiagoharry wrote: post #91
VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual elephant in the room is 60 years of brutal communist dictatorship.

Good old times of right wing dictatorship, when cuban dictator was USA friendly. No embargo. Nobody cared.

Not true, US had a weapons embargo against the Batista regime in 1958, this helped Castro to oust Batista.
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