Cuba reforms bring shrugs and expectations

"I can't afford to buy food to cook in pots," Idelma, who like most Cubans questioned by foreigners doesn't want to give her full name, said with a dismissive laugh when asked whether she's eyeing a microwave to make her domestic life easier.

It's the same for cellphones, which cost a new subscriber $137 for activation and a minimum of $20 in prepaid minutes every two months to maintain the account. The average Cuban worker at state-run enterprises, which still constitute 90% of the economy, earns just $17 a month.

President Raul Castro's decision to rescind prohibitions against Cubans owning high-tech and energy-consuming appliances has sparked expectations here, and abroad, that more fundamental change is on the horizon aimed at freeing Cubans from the shackles of a planned economy that imposes on most a daily struggle for subsistence.

But for workers such as Idelma, a $300 microwave represents a year and a half's income and is another reminder that those without U.S. currency are second-class citizens here. About one-third of Cuban households benefit from monthly remittances from relatives abroad, and growing numbers get dollars from tourist tips or joint-venture employment, but state employees are no more likely to buy the newly available baubles than when the items were forbidden.

Urban workers unable to afford the long-banned luxuries contend that the government is just eliminating the foreign middlemen who have long obtained cellphones and other electronics for Cubans -- for a fee.

"These aren't changes to our system. They are indications the government recognizes it was losing money to the black markets," said Eduardo, who works nights at a warehouse but drives a friend's car as a taxi to earn most of his income.

At ETECSA, the Cuban-Italian joint venture that operates cellphone service in Cuba out of a modern office in the leafy Miramar district, dozens of blue-uniformed sales agents review contracts for cellphone service in air-conditioned comfort. Cubans previously had to bring a foreign "friend" to sign up for the service. Payment was in advance and in hard-currency cash for all equipment and services, the same conditions that will apply to Cubans who want service.