More on Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez
Vicente Morín Aguado
HAVANA TIMES — After reading the numerous comments written in response to my article “Yoani Sanchez Launches Virtual Realism in Cuba”, I must concede that some of the criticisms leveled at a number of ideas in the piece are valid. Nevertheless, I continue to stand by my fundamental concerns and arguments, about which our habitual commentators say nothing, namely:
1- In view of Sanchez’ important individual contribution to the current struggle for greater freedom of expression in Cuba – a right that continues to be curtailed in the country – I again want to pose a very concrete question: What specific contribution to Cuba’s future, to an economic and political vision for the country in the coming years, can the blog Generation Y make? What is Yoani’s proposal?
2- There is an evident and unacknowledged contradiction in the fact that the most popular blogger of our troubled world emerged from a country where Internet access is markedly limited.
Simply attempting to use official servers in Cuba to email journalistic pieces is, in and of itself, a serious issue. These servers are closely monitored and strict regulations apply to all users.
Of course, there are journalists with due authorization to do this, whose articles are sent to sites that have also been reviewed and approved by the pertinent authorities.
Like any Cuban you might run into in the street, struck by an obvious contradiction, I can only say: I’m totally confused! Are we or are we not living in a virtual reality world?
—–
Vicente Morín Aguado: [email protected]
what has one thing to do with the other?
Personal attacks again? Well, you are at least consistent.
Moses, as an obsessive troll you have the copyright on boring.
I note that your reply didn’t address the points I made and instead just sprayed out risible, infantile US regime talking points to divert attention.
Perhaps my comparison of Ms Sánchez to you was indeed unfair, given the sharp differences between you in quality terms.
Her slimy, faux-modest right-wingery at least shows a degree of literary invention and some propaganda ability, whereas your utterly mindless, relentlessly trivial blather (exemplified by your “Castro operative! Granma is toilet paper and defend a building collapse!” imbecilities above) comes across with all the intelligence and sophistication of Fox News.
Certainly I would not want to suggest that you are a US regime operative, Moses. The crass hypocrisy of your US chauvinism, your crude imperialism and the sheer banality of your entire prolific posting record together demonstrate your amateur status all too clearly. If the empire were looking to hire, it would definitely want something better than you.
Oh please Friedrich! There are laptops and smart phones all over Cuba now but there is no way to connect them to internet. If the people can buy a phone why should the government not facilitate them to connect to the internet? Were is the famous cable from Venezuela? Also the US has on more than one occasion offered Cuba to connect itself to the cable running outside of Florida.
Yeah right. But if they choose to remain socialist policies and not to sell out the country at banana prices, the CIA will happily arrange a coup like they always do.
That’s the ‘freedom’ Amerikkka offers.
“Just tell me with whom you go and I tell you who you are.”
Like the photo with the fascist Jair Bolsonaro, yeah she’s really ‘progressive’.
You seem confused. On the one hand you blame the US for the lack of internet access in Cuba and in the same comment you write the problem is infrastructure. Which is it? Besides, now that the fiber optic cable from Venezuela is in operation, the US embargo excuse is just stupid. If it is infrastructure, then why isn’t even wireless access near where the cable reaches Cuba high-functioning either? This would be quicker, easier and cheaper to build than burying fiber-optic cable throughout the island. Like I said before, the Castros don’t want Cubans on the WWW period.
The access to the internet indeed is for Cubans difficult to afford yet, as the will have to go to Ectecsa shops or hotels, which is very costy for a Cuban. But still, the problem is in the infrastructure. If Cuba had been allowed to connect to the cable going by more or less off shore, it would have been much further. But I gueess you can imagine how long it will take and how much it will cost, to provide the necessary infrastructure to the majority of people. It is still the question of years, although Cuban presence in the internet is much stronger today than some years ago. Something that bothers the US a lot. And due to the embargo lots of the services can`t be offered in Cuba.
guess it`s one more of your very scientific and objective statements. maybe blame it more on your beloved governments doing everything to avoid Cubas full access to the internet. And, when your are talking bout having enough laptops and smartphones: are you going to pay for them?
Here is the critical distinction: In most poor third world countries, internet access is largely a function of poverty. That is to say, a lack of computers, high-speed servers and internet infrastructure are the limiting obstacles to greater internet penetration. In Cuba, the greatest obstacle to internet access is the lack of will of the Castro regime to extend universal high-speed access. There are enough laptops and smartphones to dramatically improve Cuba’s ranking in the world. What is lacking is the green light from the Castros.
While your claim may have been true a few years ago, it is less true today. Many third world countries are making rapid progress in terms of improving internet, wireless and cellular connectivity for average citizens.
I don’t think this website allows links in reader comments. But credible sources confirming my information are not hard to find. Below is a brief excerpt from the Freedom House 2012 Freedom on the Net report for Cuba: “According to the National Statistics Office, there were 2.6 million internet users in Cuba in 2011, representing 23.2 percent of the population. However, the vast majority of internet users are only able to connect to a government intranet rather than the internet proper. Experts estimate that about 5 percent of Cubans periodically have access to the worldwide web via black market sales of minutes by those permitted to have such accounts.”
Larry Press allows run a blog called ‘The Internet in Cuba’ with useful information and statistics.
Where have I heard these criticisms before? I remember now, EVERYWHERE! You guys should at least be more original. Yoani is indeed a media darling. Why not? She is the perfect mouthpiece for expressing the everyday struggles of life under Castro’s dictatorship. As I have mentioned here on HT before, Castro operatives never address the real issues being discussed. You would rather attack the messengers. Which part of her blog, Generation Y is untrue? What is it that I say in my support for her that is untrue? Defend the food shortages, the power outages and the lack of internet access. Why attack me? My ‘imperialist’ propoganda is not the reason that for the last few days that there has been no toilet paper in Guantanamo and the newspaper Granma is the appropriate substitute. Yoani did not cause that either, the Castros did. Defend the building that collapsed at the corner of Infanta y Peligrino on Saturday in central Havana. I did not cause that, the Castros did. Your tactics are boring and ineffective.
Where do you get your data from? Have a look at IIASA reports, than you`ll find out that Cuba is not alone. It`s simply a question of being a third world country.
Cuba has never had a future, before Castro they had future for ten percent of the rich Cubans, the American government said, we are helping the Cubans, but they forgot to say, we are helping 10 percent of the rich Cubans, the Cubans that we call Batista people. I have never been sarcastic, but I going to start today(what a future).
The pseudo-popularity of this international corporate media darling, who is a nonentity within Cuba itself, is entirely because Sánchez has been chosen by the imperialist foreign governments and media to receive massive funding and publicity. That personal funding amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars so far in prizes and salary for her professional anti-socialism and the huge and relentlessly sycophantic promotional campaign in corporate media would have cost millions to buy.
The only political significance of “her” ideas is that they represent the wishes for Cuba’s future of her foreign owners, i.e. the imperialist governments and corporations of the United States and its European vassals like Spain. Her dependence on the empire is total and her supposed support for Cuban sovereignty utterly spurious, exactly resembling the propaganda of her chief booster on this site, Moses, the resident US imperialist troll.
To treat the Generation Y phenomenon as based on Sánchez herself is to treat a puppet show as being about the puppet. She was deliberately manufactured as a celebrity by the US regime’s diplomacy and its corporate media machine to give a spurious “Cuban” coloration to a particular strand of the empire’s anti-socialist propaganda. She is just a weapon in the permanent information war against Cuba, selected because her right wing politics made her fit for purpose.
If she didn’t exist the empire would have found it necessary to create her.
A more realistic question is why the empire has recently been choosing to promote her rather more than its traditional Cuban political clients, the Miami mafia controlled mercenary dissidents. These reasons for her imperial preference over the traditional dissident hirelings are well documented via Wikileaks and are based on the trendier, less openly anti-patriotic and less nakedly fascistic face she puts on her employers’ demand for a Cuban return to capitalism and US imperial control.
Her concept is exposing the lies and informing people about reality in Cuba. Mrs. Sanchez never demanded a “restoration” if you are referring to the Batsita era of corrupt dictatorship. She rejects all dictators.
Mrs. Sanchez ideas are in line with the goals of the anti-Batista revolution: a democracy and restoration of the 1940’s constitution. A dream Castro stole from the Cuban people when he seized power from what Che called a “nationalistic” and certainly not communist revolution.
My Cuban family and most of my Cuban friends completely agree with Yoani and admire her courage. Who do you know? As far as my proposal for Cuba, it’s simple: Legalize political parties other than the PCC. Legalize independent media. Set a date for a Presidential election. Retire the Castros. If this happens, everything will fall into place as CUBANS choose it to be.
Going round and round, just like her. You too propose absolutely nothing for Cuba’s political and economic future, with the exception of your disgusting necrophilia on ‘the Castros’ and immoral defense of the embargo and the aggressive US policy towards Cuba. That just doesn’t work.
She speaks for nobody except for the Miami mafia and reactionaries alike.
She has no concept. Pretendin having one, pretendin caring for Cuba, in fact she wants a complete restauration. Just tell me with whom you go and I tell you who you are. Easy enough to know what she wants.
The ignorance of global telecommunications infrastructure (including cellular and internet networks) in point 2 above is pretty astounding. But then I remembered that Cubans are the second least connected people in the world, with only North Koreans being less connected.
First of all, Yoani’s greatest contribution to moving Cuba towards a better future is owed to her simply drawing international attention to the daily struggles that average Cubans face. It is not her role to develop economic principals or political reforms. There are other Cubans better suited to those tasks. Fidel would have done well to have followed this line of thinking. He was the perfect figurehead to lead the revolution but was obviously ill-suited to run the country. Yoani is opening the door to allow others to walk through. On your second point, where have you been? Have you not been listening? Yoani uses her cell phone to send her Tweets. She writes her blogs two and three at a time and stores them on her flash drive. She then goes to a hotel and uploads the blogs to her VOLUNTEERS in Germany(?). No mystery here.