Cuba's blogosphere has developed a sharper edge
Cuba's blogosphere has taken on a decidedly harsher face in recent
months, an act of online defiance in the face of government retribution.
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
When a dozen Cuban bloggers wanted to stage a protest last month, they
simultaneously tweeted, texted and posted messages like ``Freedom.''
One later used a blond wig to sneak into a government building and
complain against censorship of the Internet. And the next day, she
posted a video of her complaint on her blog.
Carefully, but with daring determination, some Cubans whose blogs once
focused largely on the frustrations of daily life are moving toward
sharp-edged commentaries and activities that some fear will eventually
lead to a crackdown by the communist government.
``We do not have a common position . . . but yes, some people have been
doing actions that go beyond the click and the keyboard and try to
exercise the rights of a free person,'' said Reynaldo Escobar of the
Havana blog Desde Aquí (From Here).
Some bloggers indeed have become ``more assertive, more confrontational,
more pushing the limits -- and pushing their luck,'' said Ted Henken, a
Baruch College professor who is writing a paper on the social
implications of the Cuban blogosphere's growth.
In fact, on Friday the best known of the Cuban bloggers, Yoani Sánchez,
reported that she and another blogger were detained and beaten severely
by state security agents, apparently to keep them from joining a
peaceful march in Havana organized by young musicians.
Cuba's blogosphere is tiny for an island of 11.5 million people. About
200 blogs have official approval and 100 don't, among them dissident
journalists and human rights activists, according to a recent report by
the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
But about 15 bloggers have captured widespread attention at home and
abroad -- sometimes becoming better known than political dissidents --
with posts that challenge the government and break its monopoly on
information entering and leaving the island.
While human rights activists report ``the sufferings on the island,
which are indeed tragic,'' said Henken, the usually younger bloggers
tend to use more humor and nonpolitical language to connect with young
Cubans and foreigners.
``They appeal to a new generation that speaks their language, the
language of social networks'' like blogs and Facebook, he added. ``They
appeal to people like my students, who have no politics.''
Escobar said some of the bloggers -- sometimes called alternative
bloggers to differentiate them from government-approved and dissident
writers -- have now decided ``their purpose is not just to be on the Web
but to express their individual will to come together in a place, on an
issue.''
They have arranged three ``virtual protests'' since May, but their
largest came on Oct. 20, the anniversary of the day the Cuban national
anthem was first sung, when a dozen Cuban bloggers and about 100 other
sites coordinated their posts, text messages, tweets and other Web
activities for Blogacción -- Blog Action.
Escobar wrote that if he had a microphone for only two seconds he would
ask for ``freedom.'' Myriam Celaya blogged demanding Internet access for
all. Claudia Cadelo wrote that she dreamed of the release of blogger
Pablo Pacheco, who has been jailed since 2003 but dictates his post to
Cadelo, who then arranges to have them posted on Voz Tras Las Rejas --
Voice from behind Bars.
``It's a matter of trying to grease the machinery for online protests,''
Sánchez, 34, wrote about the Oct. 20 event in her blog Generación Y. The
total number of participants is unknown, but Google reported 22,000
searches for the words ``Blogacción'' and ``Cuba.''
Six days later, Escobar and Sánchez, who are married, hosted the first
session of the Bloggers Academy of Cuba, a series of training sessions
for some 30 would-be bloggers in their Havana apartment that includes
technology, photography, ethics and the legalities of the Internet.
And three days after that, Sánchez sneaked into a government-run
cultural center that was hosting a discussion on the Internet. While
other cyberactivists were barred from entering, Sánchez took off her wig
and launched a withering critique of the government's ``ideological
filter'' on the Internet. A video of her comments -- and the thin
applause she received -- was posted on her blog hours later.
The government has long tried to control Cubans' access to the Internet,
putting restrictions on computers and subscriptions, keeping prices high
and blocking access to unfriendly sites, including most alternative
blogs. It also has assigned university students of computer sciences to
post comments supporting the government and attacking its critics.
But Cubans have found myriad ways to get around the roadblocks:
Passwords for Internet access sell on the black market for $10 a month.
People with access download information to CDs and USB thumb drives and
pass them on to others, who then copy the data and pass it further on.
One file being passed around instructs cybernauts on how to get around
government blocks on the unfriendly blogs and other websites.
Yosvani Anzardo, a young engineer from the eastern province of Holguín,
even established the digital newspaper Covadonga and an private e-mail
system called Red Libertad -- Liberty Net -- by reprogramming his laptop
to work as a much more powerful server.
Then there's Bluetooth, which allows the rapid transfer of files such as
forbidden books, songs and foreign news reports between cellphones that
are near each other, without going through telephone or computer lines.
Security agents probably don't realize the impact of Bluetooth, Escobar
said. ``Those people studied in the KGB and maybe now they are studying
in China, but their knowledge is antiquated,'' he said in a telephone
interview from Havana.
Cuba's blogosphere has developed a sharper edge - Americas -
MiamiHerald.com (10 November 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/v-fullstory/story/1325230.html
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