The Out-of-Date Updating
Alfredo Fernandez Rodriguez
HAVANA TIMES — Recently, I read with amazement about the news of Professor Elaine Diaz announcing the “farewell” of her blog.
The fact somewhat dismayed me, because — though I don’t share her faith in the salvation of the Cuban regime — I do respect her for the seriousness with which she generally presented her writings, well removed from the rigidity of the national press.
Just over a month ago we witnessed the “death” of the website Joven Cuba, run by pro-government young academics who also said they “decided” to shut down their blog.
However shortly after they said they’d be reopening it with new opportunities for access. After six weeks though, there’s still no trace of Joven Cuba. Hopefully it will reopen when their new school year begins.
There’s an old saying that goes: “In politics, what’s real is unseen.” If that’s so, then we can speculate about the closing of these two sites where young government supporters felt freer than in the written press.
There they criticized real things, though without going into too much depth into the causes, while defending the revolution as a viable system as long as the necessary changes are made.
Things must be going pretty bad for the Cuban government if it has to pressure even its younger defenders to give up their efforts on the Internet.
If there’s anything indisputable about the “updating of the Cuban model,” it’s that its essential to maintain people out-of-touch such as always occurs with censorship and the abduction of words, all of this in order to survive.
I should reiterate that I have no evidence that Joven Cuba or Elaine Daiz were pressured by the agencies of state security to close their respective blogs, but I find it all too suspicious.
Now that it seems that Raulism can’t even put up with its “independent defenders” in a medium such as the Internet — with very low impact on Cuban public opinion — it seems logical to speculate on who will be the next pro-government blogger to “say farewell.”
OK, after 9 months, seems a fact can be added here. If you have been reading these comments and find the doggedly negative attitude toward anything good every happening in Cuba a bit irritating, here is a small alternative view.
I just now (5-14-2013, 9 months later than Moses’ last jab) went and did a quick Google for a Joven blog – and viola! There it is, like a newborn after a healthy gestation with lots of photos and dated contributions: http://tinyurl.com/d6hwbb5
Check it out and then think back on not why Alfredo would worry, but why Moses and the other haters of revolution look only for failure and gloom and don’t offer anything better than let’s go “back to the rule of the rich.” After all wasn’t everything so great for the deserving back then?
The rumor is that the call came from Cuba to the CIA as to the whereabouts of Che. Without Che around to foment revolutions all over Latin America (since he was shown the door in Africa), the regime could focus on Cuba. Besides, Cuba did not want to share their Soviet subsidy with lesser lights like Bolivia. Anyway, just a rumor…
I agree with Luis – lots of supposition and no hard facts. I’m a bit disappointed in Havana Times for printing it. I have plenty of opportunities to read junk journalism in the mainstream media here.
‘Moses’ asks if we really know what happened to Che Guevara. Sure, he’s buried in Santa Clara. It’s quite a tourist destination. Earlier this year Democracy Now interviewed the authors of “Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away with Murder” where one of the authors stated, “This whole operation was organized out of the White House by Walt Whitman Rostow. And the CIA, by this time, had become a paramilitary organization. They were told, “We’ll give you the broad outlines on what to do, but don’t tell the president, because we don’t want to embarrass him.” And the indication was: get Che. And that’s what was organized right out of the White House.”
He also noted that “the CIA had tried to kill Che before. They tried to kill Castro 602 times. They killed Lumumba.” And today we learn from a just published book written by an ex-Navy Seal who was present when Bin Laden was murdered that he was shot point blank deliberately and was not going for a weapon as claimed.
LOL at burrgess’s comment. Let’s ask ‘Moses’ to ask his buddies at CIA about Che at the same time.
Still, ‘strangeness’ isn’t evidence. An example: we could spend hours talking about what happened beneath the curtains in Kennedy’s assassination, and it would most likely lead to nowhere. That’s the same about Camilo. They’re dead, and that’s all we know. At least we have footage showing that Kennedy was shot. Why? By whose orders? Nobody really knows. So in those cases we’re better off to be quiet.
Moses,do you not have any buddies in the cIA who could give you this information?
Evidence? You mean like CSI:Miami stuff? Nope, afraid not. But, consider this: Technology has assisted in locating the Titanic which was lost deep in the frigid North Atlantic ocean yet no one has yet to discover the whereabouts of the plane that Camilo was a passenger in believed to have been lost only a few miles offshore in warm Cuban caribbean waters. Strange isn’t it?
Do you have any evidence that Camilo has ‘disappeared’ like the dissidents of, let’s say, Argentina in the famous ‘vuelos de la muerte’?
If not, shut up.
Luis, far more innocuous critics of the regime have suffered far worse fates for speaking out opinions far less critical. Remember this is Cuba. Heck, some of the regime’s most popular and most ardent supporters have gone missing or died under at least questionable circumstances. Do you really know what happened to Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara?
“I should reiterate that I have no evidence that Joven Cuba or Elaine Daiz were pressured by the agencies of state security to close their respective blogs, but I find it all too suspicious.
Now that it seems that Raulism can’t even put up with its “independent defenders” in a medium such as the Internet — with very low impact on Cuban public opinion — it seems logical to speculate on who will be the next pro-government blogger to “say farewell.””
Blogs of all types and nature come on go, for several reasons. It happens all the time. The most famous political Brazilian blog, “O Biscoito Fino e a Massa (http://www.idelberavelar.com)” close because its author started to work for a magazine. Another one, “Todos os Fogos o Fogo (http://todososfogos.blogspot.com.br)” also stopped because of work-related activities of its author.
For this all I can say to you is: stop freaking conspiracy theories if you assume that you don’t have a single evidence these bloggers received any kind of pressure from anybody!!!