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From: nmm@ers.UUCP (Neil McCulloch)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Ho-hum
Message-ID: <248@ers.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Oct-87 04:28:05 EST
Article-I.D.: ers.248
Posted: Fri Oct 23 04:28:05 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Oct-87 03:47:13 EST
References: <8710220138.AA09366@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <869@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Organization: Alberta Public Safety Services
Lines: 24
Summary: Exagerration

In article <869@cod.NOSC.MIL>, rupp@cod.NOSC.MIL (William L. Rupp) writes:
> This nonsense of saying "Well, we
> can't travel to Cuba" as a response to the fact that Soviet citizens can't,
> apart from Soviet government business, travel *anywhere*, is getting a bit
> old.  By the way, it seems to me that a lot of Americans *have* gone to Cuba
> lately.)

It's not nonsense. The point is that your government passed a law forbidding
travel to Cuba. The fact that they passed the law should tell you that
you don't have any freedom but what the government permits. The only 
restriction a state can reasonably make is to withdraw its protection if
such travel is made.

But let's get it straight, Soviet citizens do travel anywhere, for all
kinds of reasons, not simply Soviet Government business. The fact that
you must apply for a passport which has limited applicability differs only
in degree from the procedures in the West.

Given the state of the Soviet economy, the number of people able to
travel is perhaps low. I suspect also that controlling foreign exchange
is a major reason why foreign travel is closely controlled. Many non
communist countries also impose foreign travel controls.

Neil