Somerset Shop Threatened Over Cuban Products

somerset | globalisation | news report Saturday June 21, 2008 11:59 by Emma

Shop's UK Bank Told by US to Stop Selling Cuban Goods

This is crazy; A shop in Somerset is one of a number of businesses that sells Cuban goods and has been told by their bank to stop because the US has a trade embargo with Cuba and if you do business in the US (as the shop's bank does) you can't do anything with Cuba.

I quote,
"A Somerset health shop selling Cuban sugar and a London tobacconist dealing in Habanos cigars are among British businesses told by a bank to cut their ties with the island or move their accounts.

Lloyds TSB has written to customers who have dealings with Cuba saying they will have take their accounts elsewhere, apparently in the wake of threats by the US government, which operates an embargo against Cuba.

The US has said it will prosecute any businesses that have any dealings with Cuba and also have a branch in the US."

I suggest the shop in question drops Lloyds TSB and moves to an ethical bank like the Triodos or Co-op. But contrast the US action with this;

"The security cameras are just one part of a much broader high-tech surveillance and censorship program known in China as "Golden Shield." The end goal is to use the latest people-tracking technology — thoughtfully supplied by American giants like IBM, Honeywell and General Electric — to create an airtight consumer cocoon: a place where Visa cards, Adidas sneakers, China Mobile cellphones, McDonald's Happy Meals, Tsingtao beer and UPS delivery (to name just a few of the official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics) can be enjoyed under the unblinking eye of the state, without the threat of democracy breaking out. With political unrest on the rise across China, the government hopes to use the surveillance shield to identify and counteract dissent before it explodes into a mass movement like the one that grabbed the world's attention at Tiananmen Square....The police also used the surveillance footage [from recent protests in Tibet] to extract mug shots of the demonstrators and rioters. Photos of the 21 "most wanted" Tibetans, many taken from that distinctive "streetlamp" view of the domed cameras, were immediately circulated to all of China's major news portals, which obediently posted them to help out with the manhunt. The Internet became the most powerful police tool. Within days, several of the men on the posters were in custody, along with hundreds of others."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chi...print

It is truly a crazy world!