To become a real blogger in Cuba, you need to be creative.
When 32-year-old Yoani Sanchez wants to update her daily blog about life in Cuba, she dresses up as a tourist and goes to the Hotel Havana, welcoming the staff in German. It is necessary to use such tricks because Cubans cannot use the Network in hotels - these are the privileges of foreigners.
In her recent post Generacion Y, Sanchez wrote about how police officers patrolled the streets of Havana, checking documents and the contents of bags in search of prohibited goods.
She and the community of other independent bloggers allow the rest of the world to look at real life in a one-party communist state that is carefully hidden. Cyberspace is perhaps the only place that the state cannot control.
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Although on the Web, they face many difficulties.
Once in the hotel, Sanchez should write quickly - an hour of access to the web costs about $ 6, and this is the average two-week salary in Cuba!
In addition, independent bloggers must maintain their sites on servers that are outside of Cuba. They are also read mainly abroad. Although this is not surprising - less than 2% of the country's population have access to the Network - Cuba occupies the bottom line in the number of Network users in Latin America. Only public servants, scientists and researchers can use the Network - access is provided by the state.
Residents of Cuba can only access e-mail and Cuban sites, but only from Internet terminals in post offices.
For Cuban free bloggers, difficulties in accessing the Internet can mean publication intervals ranging in days, weeks, or even months!
The author of the blog My island at midday says that his “access to the network is very irregular” ... “All things in Cuba (where there is a shortage of them), be it access to the Net or toilet paper, are obtained by deception, cheating.”
The Cuban government accuses US sanctions of restricting access to the Internet, for which Cuba cannot connect to a submarine fiber-optic cable providing broadband. Therefore, Cuba should resort to the use of expensive satellite channels to connect to the Internet through countries such as Canada, Chile and Brazil.
Critics say that this is only a pretext to control the Internet - a powerful tool for disseminating "incorrect" information, which, as some believe, can destroy a country like the USSR.
Cuba already felt a taste of openness when the unhealthy Fidel Castro transferred his authority to his brother Raul last year, who supported the debate at all levels of Cuban society about the country's unproductive economy.
But the reaction to television programs in December, which have been censoring since the early seventies, has shown the potential of the Internet to effect change.
There was such a flow of e-mail from the Cuban intelligentsia, scientists and other people provided with Internet access that the government was forced to meet with them and apologize for the program.
Dozens of supporters of the government, consisting mainly of government-hired journalists with access to the Web, have blogs. But most of them avoid expressing their own opinions about everyday life in Cuba and adhere to the official course.
Basically, these blogs contain criticism of the ideological enemy of Cuba - the United States, and indeed completely duplicate the content of the state-run press.
The only exception is the Lewis Sexto blog . Lewis, a columnist for the youth communist newspaper Juventud Rebelde, recently published an entry criticizing the state bureaucracy. Sextto wrote last month that "without public criticism, mistakes will continue to damage the country."
Others prefer to bypass politics and discuss films and literature, or to yearn for Soviet cartoons, as is done in this blog .
But independent Cuban bloggers take a different course and prefer to remain anonymous and use pseudonyms for the benefit of their own protection.
A blogger who introduces himself as Tension Lia publishes photographs of the destroyed Havana architectural treasures on the Havanascity blog.
The author of the blog My island at midday said that only the anonymity of his blog allows him to tell things that others would not dare to write about. “A divergence of views has always generated disapproval. Intolerance still prevails in Cuba, although Cuban society is beginning to get used to the diversity of opinions. ”
In her recent post Generacion Y, Sanchez wrote about how police officers patrolled the streets of Havana, checking documents and the contents of bags in search of prohibited goods.
She and the community of other independent bloggers allow the rest of the world to look at real life in a one-party communist state that is carefully hidden. Cyberspace is perhaps the only place that the state cannot control.
')
Although on the Web, they face many difficulties.
Once in the hotel, Sanchez should write quickly - an hour of access to the web costs about $ 6, and this is the average two-week salary in Cuba!
In addition, independent bloggers must maintain their sites on servers that are outside of Cuba. They are also read mainly abroad. Although this is not surprising - less than 2% of the country's population have access to the Network - Cuba occupies the bottom line in the number of Network users in Latin America. Only public servants, scientists and researchers can use the Network - access is provided by the state.
Residents of Cuba can only access e-mail and Cuban sites, but only from Internet terminals in post offices.
Rare as toilet paper
For Cuban free bloggers, difficulties in accessing the Internet can mean publication intervals ranging in days, weeks, or even months!
The author of the blog My island at midday says that his “access to the network is very irregular” ... “All things in Cuba (where there is a shortage of them), be it access to the Net or toilet paper, are obtained by deception, cheating.”
The Cuban government accuses US sanctions of restricting access to the Internet, for which Cuba cannot connect to a submarine fiber-optic cable providing broadband. Therefore, Cuba should resort to the use of expensive satellite channels to connect to the Internet through countries such as Canada, Chile and Brazil.
Critics say that this is only a pretext to control the Internet - a powerful tool for disseminating "incorrect" information, which, as some believe, can destroy a country like the USSR.
Cuba already felt a taste of openness when the unhealthy Fidel Castro transferred his authority to his brother Raul last year, who supported the debate at all levels of Cuban society about the country's unproductive economy.
But the reaction to television programs in December, which have been censoring since the early seventies, has shown the potential of the Internet to effect change.
There was such a flow of e-mail from the Cuban intelligentsia, scientists and other people provided with Internet access that the government was forced to meet with them and apologize for the program.
Pro-government blogs
Dozens of supporters of the government, consisting mainly of government-hired journalists with access to the Web, have blogs. But most of them avoid expressing their own opinions about everyday life in Cuba and adhere to the official course.
Basically, these blogs contain criticism of the ideological enemy of Cuba - the United States, and indeed completely duplicate the content of the state-run press.
The only exception is the Lewis Sexto blog . Lewis, a columnist for the youth communist newspaper Juventud Rebelde, recently published an entry criticizing the state bureaucracy. Sextto wrote last month that "without public criticism, mistakes will continue to damage the country."
Others prefer to bypass politics and discuss films and literature, or to yearn for Soviet cartoons, as is done in this blog .
But independent Cuban bloggers take a different course and prefer to remain anonymous and use pseudonyms for the benefit of their own protection.
A blogger who introduces himself as Tension Lia publishes photographs of the destroyed Havana architectural treasures on the Havanascity blog.
The author of the blog My island at midday said that only the anonymity of his blog allows him to tell things that others would not dare to write about. “A divergence of views has always generated disapproval. Intolerance still prevails in Cuba, although Cuban society is beginning to get used to the diversity of opinions. ”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/288720/
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