Cuban YouTubers
Kabir Vega
HAVANA TIMES — Today, the Internet is even accessible in our backward country.
Of course, everybody knows that the connection isn’t always stable, it’s mysteriously slow, with closed areas, and it’s very expensive relative to people’s incomes.
Even with all of these disadvantages, many people have incorporated it into their everyday lives. But, Cubans not only access the Internet, they are also leaving their mark on it.
YouTube, the great entertainment website, thanks to the famous “Package” (a compilation which is made up of 1000 GB approx of what came out on the Internet during the week), is accessible to the Cuban people in fragments.
Videos in the “Package” deal with the most serious subjects to the most absurd; they give information to suit everyone’s tastes.
Summaries of young people showing off their physical skills in dynamic edited shots and contagious music under the title “People are awesome”; sickly-sweet videos of cute little animals; others aren’t so well-intentioned such as jokes and bullying…
On YouTube, we are used to seeing people from everywhere but here, but it turns out that we Cubans are also participating.
It’s easy to pick up on who is imitating multi-award winning German or Rubius, trying to talk in front of the camera displaying personal charisma or a sense of humor.
Some YouTubers are maybe a little shyer, but they enjoy sharing their videos all the same and like the Pichy Boys, they dub fragments of movies with mocking jokes or satire.
Other less sophisticated YouTubers such as Vegetta, simply record the videogame they are playing, while you can hear their voice commentating to the viewer, thereby winning over lots of gamers.
Lastly, and in the same vein as “Alan around the world”, there are some YouTubers here whose subject matter focuses on things that have to do with their country, they tell you about typical things here in Cuba and even film while they walk through Havana’s neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, not all of them have access to a decent camera and microphone. Some of them upload videos of a pathetic quality, which, combined with the impoverishment of Cuba’s general landscape and the terrible way they talk about them (without eloquence not to mention diction), end up being really depressing.
And that’s because, even though we Cubans have finally immersed ourselves into cyberspace, when we try to compete with the first world, what we come up with is nothing short of our reality.
Your desire is in the right direction bjmack, but I think that apart from a privileged well connected few in Havana, the percentage having access to the Internet is much lower than 5%. There is also the question – as there is for example in China of limiting the information on the Internet. The major activity which I observe is University students making full use of cell-phones. Information gets transferred from one to the other. The kids in the US could demonstrate against government. Kids in Cuba can’t.
I’m going off on a limb but assume 5% have access. Also, if one is a child of the powers to be, probably has high speed access and even that’s dangerous. It was the kids of privilege who caused the sixties rebellions, in the US
Good to know you’re able to connect and see what’s going on in the world.
One can assess the percentage of Cubans with access to the Internet, by the number of Cuban residents able to participate in discussion here.