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Moving home, they say, is one of life's five most stressful experiences. It comes in at number three. Ranked a bit below bereavement, a bit above divorce.

But in Cuba it is different. Packing up a home in Cuba is easy.

The reason is that you do not have to go through that agonising problem of wondering about what to do with all your junk. You can sell it, or give it away. All of it. In a matter of hours.

Cuba is a place where almost all consumer items are prohibitively expensive, or, more likely, not available. And scarcity breeds desire.

Most Cubans, and plenty of foreigners living on the island, spend the majority of their time not thinking about the country's future, or transitional governments, or the health of Fidel Castro, but on rather more mundane things. Like how to find a square meal, a fridge that works, or an electric fan.

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I had a first-hand glimpse of all this when I returned to my home in Old Havana, just days after hearing the disappointing news that I was one of three foreign correspondents to be stripped of their press accreditation by the Cuban government. Our reporting was deemed "negative" by a nameless committee.

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As the news spread that I was on my way out, my Cuban neighbours congratulated me on what they saw as a promotion. Sadly, and often inaccurately, many Cubans assume that anyone who is leaving the island is going on to better things.

Then came the not-so-subtle requests for a farewell present. I soon realised that anything would do. A broken watch, a 2005 calendar, all were received with embarrassing gratitude.

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It was a DVD of the film Hotel Rwanda.

One Saturday night, a couple of years ago, the Oscar-nominated film was put on Cuban state television.

I was at home watching it, when, a few minutes after the opening titles, I noticed that some shots had been clumsily repeated. It had been edited.

I happened to have a DVD of the original version. I put it on to compare the two.

It became obvious that the Cuban censors had gone to the trouble of cutting out a 30 second portion of the film. The banned images contained a couple of harmless jokes about Cuban cigars.

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But still I wonder whether all the control is necessary. One of the side effects of 48 years with the same leader is an extraordinary degree of resignation amongst the people. It works both ways.

Those that support the revolution believe that their future is in good hands. Those that yearn for change feel that things are out of their hands.

Given that, would it really threaten the status quo if you could buy a foreign paper in the streets of Havana? Or if the foreign press in Cuba were able to act a little more freely?

I doubt it. But clearly someone right at the top feels that such an experiment is not worth the risk.

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