Blogging Aint Easy In Cuba

It's still absolutely fascinating that in the year 2007, we still have societies that won't allow citizens to use the internet, or fellow countrymen beat and kill Monks and protesters, or kids hang noose's from trees. Okay, off topic but it is really all the same. The so called "War on Terrorism" is so flawed and limited in it's scope that it can't see beyond the turban to see the oppression right up in it's face. And in my world, oppression is the cruelist form of terrorism.

The free expression of ideas is what has kept this world moving since human's began to speak. Even the most oppressed of the oppressed found ways to tell their stories under dire circumstances. Some without even realizing they were doing it, wittness the Myans.

And that spirit hasn't changed today. October 9th, being the day Che Guevera died, a man who fought alongside Castro to overthrough what they deemed an oppressive government, cast a heavy shadow over Cuba's citizens who seek to tell of their tales on the internet.

On a tiny Island a short distance from American shores, folks go to great lengths to do what we Americans take for granted, and often chide each other for doing, blogging. Expressing idea's and information from one's own personal point of view is risky, costly and a very daunting task. ---When 32-year-old Yoani Sanchez wants to update her blog about daily life in Cuba, she dresses like a tourist and strides confidently into a Havana hotel, greeting the staff in German. Once inside the hotel, Sanchez has to write fast. Not because she fears getting caught, but because online access is prohibitively expensive. An hour online costs about $6, the equivalent of two weeks' pay for the average Cuban.

Independent bloggers like Sanchez have to build their sites on servers outside Cuba, and they have more readers outside Cuba than inside.

Cuba's independent bloggers take a very different line, and prefer to remain anonymous or use pseudonyms in order to protect themselves. A blogger who goes by the name of "Tension Lia" posts photographs of the ruinous state of Havana's architectural treasures on blog called Havanascity (http://havanascity.blogspot.com).

The creator of "My island at midday" told Reuters by e-mail that the anonymity of the blog has allowed him to say some things that nobody has dared write about. "Dissent has always been frowned upon. Intolerance is still the rule in Cuba, even though Cuban society is starting to adapt to diversity of opinions."---

Read the entire article

Comments

[Walter Lippmannn]

There is no question but that Internet access in Cuba, like many other things, isn't easily accessed. But the Reuters reporter here completely omits any mention of the fact that there is only limited bandwidth which Cuba as a whole has access to because the United States government, as a part of its blockade of the island, refuses to allow Cuba to purchase its access to the internet via fiber-optic lines which are right there under the Caribbean sea. Cuba is forced to purchase Internet access FROM THE US, via the slower and much more expensive satellite connection. Given that fact, and that Washington is doing every other thing that it can to destabilize, disrupt and overthrow the Cuban system, it should come as no surprise that Internet access is limited on the island. Those who do sincerely want Cuba and the Cuban people to have more access to all of the wonderful things the Internet makes possible must, first of all demand and end to Washington's blockade of Cuba, from the Internet to the travel and remittance bans. If Cuba were able to have the same ability to access the internet which every other country on earth has, then it might be possible to have another discussion about Internet access on the island. Now the Cuban government has to make choices and it chooses to allow internet access more to doctors, scientists and to institutions. There's much more to be said on this subject, but one place the interested reader could start would be to check this out:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/23064

Walter Lippmann Los Angeles, California
p.s., don't forget about Washington's program to disrupt, destabilize and destroy Cuba's medical diplomacy program that was published earlier today. Washington is similarly bound an determined to use every mechanism it can to bring the Cuban government down. Given that fact, Cuba's defensive efforts make perfectly understandable sense.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM TO DESTABILIZE CUBA'S MEDICAL DIPLOMACY PROGRAM:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/73744

[AV2TS]

Also, if you read this poor blogger's own blog (Generation Y) you can find a post from a few days ago that describes how she does not HAVE to go to hotels disguised as a German tourist, she most often goes to her local Cyber Cafe, presents her Cuban passport, and is seated. She uploads the posts she writes from home on her PC from her flash drive and posts them 1005 legally in a public Cuban cyber cafe. It is ridiculous that this Rueters piece would choose to just ignore the rality of Cyber Cafes, that are 100% open to the World Wide Web (ie. no censorship).

The problem, and it is a real one, is of cost and efficiency. Connection speeds are terribly slow so the net must be regulated for highest social purposes first - the health system, University system, Govt., libraries, etc. Private acces, if subsidized and given free like most services in Cuba, would overwhelm an already slow system.

So the root of the problem is the US embargo, which amongst other terrible things, does not allow Cuba to hook into a international fiber optics cable 12 miles away (like Walter mentioned above). It also restricts a lot of the software and equipment Cuba needs to import from US companies.

Fortunately Cuba is builing its own fiber optics line to Venezuela, which will be the fastest in the world. Then there will be no excuses and all Cubans can jump online. Of course, this was alost conveniently not mentioned in this article.

[Emily Coffey - Denver, Colorado]

As Walter mentioned the real problem stems from the blockade. That is why we need to END THE BLOCKADE against Cuba now. It is not an embargo but a BLOCKADE.