News from an embargoed island?

You know that “immoral” US embargo on commercial and trade links with Cuba?

Sure you do.

It’s the same embargo that is always used by Fidel Castro and his apologists to explain what’s wrong with the Cuban economy. Which is plenty.

Well, here is a different perspective on the American embargo.

According to the Associated Press, American brands such as Nikes, Marlboro, Jordache and even Bausch & Lomb are freely available in Cuba, despite all the huffing and puffing in Havana.

And they are not on sale in some black-market back alley, either.

As the article reveals, all these capitalist goods are on sale in the lobbies of “gleaming Government-run hotels” and in "supermarkets and pharmacies that answer to the Communist government”.

There is one glitch, though: the goodies are out of reach of ordinary Cubans, who get paid an average wage of just USD15.00 a month.

Instead, they are available to tourists carrying hard currency - and to those Cubans with access to the so-called convertible pesos.

You know, like regime officials and senior Communist Party functionaries.