Window Dressing

That's what Raul Castro is doing - playing with the window dressings - while his supporters point to these tweaks as the sign that Cuba is moving away from the Communist system that has decimated the country since Fidel took power with an iron fist in 1959.

The media made a big deal of Castro's pronouncements that he'll allow average Cubans access to the hotels meant for foreigners, plus giving them the right to own cellphones and DVD players.

Big deal.

The average Cuban, who works for the government and is paid an average of $19.50 a month, can't afford to buy a cellphone, let alone a DVD player. They don't make enough, and often rely on relatives living in the states to supplement their incomes to make ends meet. What would take an American making minimum wage several hours to buy a low end DVD player, would take a Cuban five months. It would take two years for a Cuban to afford a microwave oven.

In other words, Raul's given Cubans the freedom to buy basic items that they could never afford.

Raul Castro is simply making a show of changes, but the real change will come when Cuba's political prisoners are freed from jail for doing nothing more than criticizing the Communist regime in Havana.