Cuba and Linux: a natural fit

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:42

Opinion and Analysis

It is amusing to see the way the story has been reported. The Associated Press has injected its typical bias that accompanies any report about the country. Take a look at this for starters: "Cuba's communist government is trying to shake off the yoke of at least one capitalist empire - Microsoft - by joining with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to open-source software."

The same AP is rather gun-shy when it comes to describing its own turf. Would the US of A be described as "a capitalist nation" which "illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq?" Out of the question. (Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, even Argentina and Brazil, are presumed to be America's backyard. It must be somewhat galling when Venezuela's Hugo Chavez goes to the UN and, on the day after George Bush spoke, refers to the US president as "the devil.")

If you don't see references to Red China or Communist China on AP any more, it is evidence that China is now a country which no longer dances to the American tune and, increasingly, is seen as a threat to the US.

When a Western news agency reports on Cuba, there is always a hint of condescension. I wonder why. The country may be poor but as far as some indicators go, it is far ahead of the rest of its neighbours. For example, while the nurse to patient ratio for the Americas region is 414 to 100,000 patients, in Cuba there are 795 nurses for every 100,000 patients.

And as of June 2006, there were 28,664 Cuban health professionals working overseas in 68 countries. Venezuela, another of the countries which America now finds an irritant, funds some of the training schools for health professionals in Cuba.

Havana's move towards free software is a natural one for a poor country. It is also good politics and will play well with the people.