Cuba shuts down private cinemas and video-game salons

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

2 November 2013 Last updated at 18:46 GMT

Cuba shuts down private cinemas and video-game salons

Cuba has ordered the immediate closure of dozens of privately-run cinemas and video-game salons.

The government said they were never authorised, and that it needed to bring "order" to the management of independent businesses.

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The closure is a huge blow to those entrepreneurial Cubans who invested heavily, especially in 3D cinemas, importing equipment at considerable cost from abroad, says the BBC correspondent in Havana, Sarah Rainsford.

There had been hints this crackdown was coming. Cuban Culture Ministry officials talked of the "banality" and "frivolity" of films on offer, mostly produced in America, and out of line, they complained, with the cultural policy of the revolution.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24790569

[dipsydoodle]

1. I have a feeling there's more to it than that.

Like for example a complete absence of paper trail of turnover which was one of the conditions of private enterprise. Tax is a subject which many Cubans have no real concept of.

[Mika]

2. Its called code enforcement.

I can't just open up a movie theatre or video game shop w/o proper permitting, licensing, and code compliance in the bastion of freedom™ - the USA - either.

[Judi Lynn]

3. You make sense! Not that this will make any difference to the trolls. n/t

[Mika]

4. Did you see Ms Wasserman Schultz on Bill Maher last night?

Spewing all of the RW Miami Cubano exile talking points... Oh my. The pretzel "logic" was astounding.

[mitchtv]

6. Dino, she makes me sick

refusing to endorse Dems against her Rino friend is anothe one of her stunts

[Judi Lynn]

7. Wasn't capable of seeing both Debbie AND Ann Counter at once!

It was far more than I could tackle!

What a shame she got the chance to lay out the exile views for the world to hear!
It's not as if we all didn't know, by now!

There is no daylight between her and Diaz-Balarts, and the "She Wolf." That wouldn't seem too strange until you learn she claims to be a Democrat. She and Robert Menendez must have had a lot to talk about when he was in the House.

No doubt she and Ann Coulter see eye to eye on Cuba and the Americas, too. <shudder>

[Judi Lynn]

9. After reading your post, broke down and watched the show. How can she do it?

When she entirely switched voices, and persona, and started chanting the "exile" hardliner shop-worn, absurd, twisted "take" on Cuba, I could hardly believe my eyes and ears. It was as if the "Great Exile" had taken over her body and was spewing through her.

Already knew she was under their thumb all this time, but I never really heard HER speaking on TV about it. That was truly spooky. Not a pretty thing to see, was it? So soon to Halloween, too.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Yes

That's the correct expression.

[Socialistlemur]

8. The question is whether the permits and controls are normal

The question in these cases is whether the red tape and censorship are normal or intended to censor. For example, if I could I would like to open an educational theater teaching history, economics and political science. But I wouldn't teach the material they have been taught under the Fidel Castro regime. I think I could charge and people would come in large numbers. But if its forbidden then I'd say it remains a dictatorship, which I classify as a fascist regime.

[Bacchus4.0]

11. It doesn't sound like its a permitted activity at all. So its kind of hard to get a permit

for such activities when the activity itself is unlawful. With the apparent exception of Cuba, private movie theaters in throughout Latin America are widespread and well attended even in Venezuela. While Spider Man has been implicated for causing social problems in Venezuela, Hollywood movies appear to not have much of a negative impact in Latin America. Cubans must be shielded from images showing the relative opulence of the US compared to themselves. Could they even comprehend that toilet paper is used to decorate trees?

[Bacchus4.0]

10. What an unbelievably backward nation

I wonder if they believe showing US programs and movies will make the people believe things like the internet, soap, and toilet paper are common. Ironically, Cuba will likely be a prime destination for filming once the anachronistic dinosaurs in power finally are extinct.