To the trolls "not one inch"*

About a year ago I devoted a few lines to the trolls. For you, my commentators, I now dedicate some more. Obviously the trolls in Octavo Cerco are not exercising freedom of expression, they want to intimidate, insult and threaten. To write in Persian on a Spanish blog and repeat the same nonsense hundreds of times is not a sign of freedom, it is simply verbal violence or virtual sabotage.

Because of all these things to which my readers and I are condemned, I feel I have to explain my reasons for not moderating comments, or more to the point my reasons for not eliminating the trolls, which is the same thing. I ask for your understanding, I know that solidarity is the force that most unites us.

- I have no access to the Internet that would allow me to systematically moderate comments, it is a slow process and requires a lot of connectivity, time and money.

- I do not want to ask anyone else to moderate the blog, I consider it my responsibility.

- In the last months I have experienced several “repudiation rallies” in my real life. Depending on the level of excitement of the primal horde representing the Cuban government, I emerge more or less affected; that is the reality of my life, that is the daily life of those who think differently.

The trolls in my blog exist in the same way that the so-called “rapid response brigades” exist in my reality. It may not be obvious to every web-surfer, but for me they are the way the government has found to contain the tired voices of the longest revolution in the world: insults, threats and punishment.

I have listed my explanations according to their level of importance: perhaps if I could spend more time on the network the third reason wouldn’t even exist. However, for every difficulty that presents itself so that I continue writing, a new idea pops into to my brain and meets the objective part, to say it in another way. I know I am asking you to live every day in a repudiation rally, I know it’s too much.

I apologize and ask you to have the tolerance that neither they nor the government they represent will ever have for any of us.

Translator’s note: Claudia’s original phrase is “ni un tantico asi” which is a phrase used by Che Guevara with regards to the United States: To imperialism… give not one tiny bit… nothing, not a single concession.

Indolence

Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan

Despite all the times I wrote the word “solidarity” in my elementary school notebook, and how often they told me at home that, “in this society we are concerned about everyone,” and the multiple occasions on which I heard, “in Cuba we help each other,” I could never, in real life, perceive this generalization about the goodness of my fellow human beings; quite the opposite.

I have seen pregnant women standing on the bus while those seated fix their gaze on some distant point far beyond the glass; once I even heard a conductor spend half an hour arguing “why” pregnant women had no right to claim a seat: they had enjoyed getting in that state, now put up with it. Every day when I walk by 23rd and 12th I hear the dying cries of an ancient woman covered in filth, trying to sell her toothpaste from the ration and her little bags. It’s normal to walk in Central Havana and collide with barefoot children asking for money. I have to close my eyes when a doctor relates how a patient died in the emergency room because no one realized how gravely ill they were. A few months ago I decided never to go to the zoo again, the image of the emaciated and imprisoned animals reminded me that there is always someone who pays more dearly than men for the imbecility of humans.

It may be that there is no selfish act that I haven’t witnessed on the streets of Havana: robbery and assault without anyone getting involved, police abusing their positions with impunity, State Security taking over the streets and relocating people like it’s a chess game, the repudiation rallies, the streetwalkers who suffer the abuse from their pimps and the authorities, without the power to complain about the misery of being returned to the provinces.

I have contemplated the victims and the victimizers, I have even seen them change their dress and exchange their papers. I have seen people, and I have seen myself as well, turning our faces away from the pain and poverty, blaming the poor for being poor and the rich for being rich. I have seen this “valiant people who have resisted for 50 years,” drowning themselves in alcohol and bathing afterward in the mud of envy and misery. I don’t know if this can be defined as “to resist,” but I have the impression that on balance it has turned out very badly.

The Media War Against Whom?

“I don’t like to say countries, I prefer to say governments”

Reinaldo Talarid, Roundtable TV show of April 15, 2010

Like Talarid, I also prefer to say governments and not countries, particularly when talking about my government but not my country. Such is the argument of the so-called “Media war against Cuba,” which in reality would be, in this case, “against the Cuban government.” I don’t know how this subtlety could elude the select panel. I swear I would prefer to respond with serious arguments, vehemently denying the sleights-of-hand, shouting the truths that they can’t even rebut with lies – even falsifying, distorting and manipulating they are tongue-tied – but I can’t do it, I find it too ridiculous.

Beyond the crazy twists of the “money trail” – obviously very difficult to follow because, according to Lázaro Barredo himself we don’t know the “final destination” of the U.S. subsidies – the conspiracy theories about the “cyber-dissident command” and the absurd hypothesis about the existence of the Ladies in White, I managed to watch an hour and a half of the Roundtable all the way to the end.

To my surprise I learned several new things:

- The television program gives me a headache.

- Rosa Miriam Elizalde is not allowed to explain her theories because she can’t name names.

- Barredo is ambiguous, saying that “the industry of evil has been operating for fifty years,” but he can’t tell us where it is headquartered.

- It makes Randy nervous when he hears someone mention “Berta Soler.”

- There is a nostalgic group in Spain – supportive of the Cuban government – called the “26 of July Association.”

- It is now officially allowed to use the words blog and blogger.

- A Frenchman, it seems, is famous for publishing a manipulated interview, but he can’t give us the details of it because it is strictly forbidden to say “Yoani Sánchez” on Cuban television.

The Epistolary Debate

Photo: Generation Y

I read the first reply of Carlos Alberto Montaner to Silvio Rodriguez like I read the intelligent answers that many intellectuals often give to the defenders of the Cuban government. What I could never imagine was the reply from Silvio; it is not typical of the “representatives” of my country to respond with civilized arguments.

Since April 9, the first thing I do when I connect to the Internet – and this is quite unusual since I always open my blog first – is to see who responded to whom.  This exchange of letters has excited me to the point where I see myself “clicking” on sites I’ve banned myself from, in the interest of my mental hygiene, such as Chaos on the Web, and Rebellion. The singer-songwriter made me break the wall of my own intolerance with a simple answer, which although fanatical in its content was very open by the mere fact of its existence.

I can’t say that by closing the debate Silvio Rodriguez, former deputy of the National Assembly of Popular Power, has disappointed me. There can be no disappointment where there is no Faith. However, a naiveté long dormant in me has revived during this exchange, a pity that has been crushed by his third terse response. I looked at the computer screen and, coming back down to earth, asked myself, “How could you be so deluded, Girl? How could you believe that there could be any movement?”

Caring for the Brain

Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan

It’s worth it to exercise, not smoke, not drink, not worry too much about the things of life and not obsess about tomorrow. Although I don’t comply with any of these premises, I have a recipe – not all that healthy for the body but extremely so for the head – which has saved me time and again: I will not be brainwashed, I prefer to yearn for the truth, rather than to live sleeping with the lie.

Memory is treacherous and I can’t remember the exact moment when, probably in front of the television, I said, “These gentleman, it’s a fact, they’re lying to me.” On the other hand, and completely against my will, I have stuck in my mind like hieroglyphics the numerous communications I read when I was an exemplary pioneer, the posters I pasted, “I did vote for ALL,” even the tears I cried for that stranger Che assassinated – according to my elementary school studies – so I could be happy.

After these strange evocations about myself – another unknown me and luckily quite small – I have a black hole the size of the universe and my next scene is quite antagonistic with respect to the previous chapter, a perfect example of the mishmash of images of a traumatic memory:

I am in the hallway at the technical school where I studied, talking to a group of professors and there is the president of FEEM, the Federation of Secondary School Students. The conversation is tense, but the character is affable, she says to me:

“I think things can improve, in meetings I say what I think, I try to do what I can.”

“You will be like that, but it seems to me that to be in the Youth is, for the most part, pure opportunism.”

I would like to know what happened exactly, in the middle. What I read, what I lived, what I saw? I try and try but I can’t remember.  Maybe I will never manage to see anything, but I learned something: we are what we think, we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of forgetting.


Song “Maniobras” by Ciro from the disc, “When The Day Dawns”

End of the Course

I know it sounds trite but when I started my blog I never imagined I would meet such wonderful people. I don’t remember the first time I went to Yoani Sanchez’s house, but I could never forget the four months of the Blogger Academy, I despair because the courts starts again, I plan to attend and listen at the next one. The classes of the lawyer Vallín, the conferences of Dagoberto Valdes, Cuban Culture from Miriam Celaya, Journalism from Reinaldo Escobar, in short, the space for interchange that Yoani Sanchez has created has marked me for life.

I know everything passes, the Cuba I was born in will be a different country, the people will be able to express themselves freely and these fifty years of secrecy will be studied in school like we study the Middle Ages today. Maybe the friends of my grandchildren will be board when I sound like a tape recorder, repeating the stories that today have defined my path through life, when I tell them there was only one president, only one party, only one news source… However, I will determinedly repeat the anecdotes of that fourteenth floor where for the first time I saw people be free, where for the first time I spoke without fear, where undoubtedly I felt the enormous joy of expressing myself without being judged.

I will show my diploma and it will make me happy that they will think I am crazy, that they don’t remember, that they aren’t afraid, that they don’t carry in their genes the memory of the time when thinking was a crime.

Sticks, Iron Bars and Cables?

contrarrevolu      

I read a document that calls for a “Plan against order and counterrevolutionary disturbances,” a call for the creation of rapid response brigades in workplaces. Fortunately for us, the civilians, the document has been leaked and I have been able to learn that, officially, I can be attacked by a “worker” with an iron bar.

I try to keep my sanity, this horrible call to civil lynching reminds me, despite the low level of the approaches if we compare it, of that poster I came across in The Polynesian restaurant titled, “Philosophy of Struggle of Our People.”

I wonder how it is possible that these gentlemen who today rule my country are capable of authorizing people to beat, abuse and even kill – more than authorizing, even exhorting them to kill, I cannot get the horrible combination of letters out of my head: i-r-o-n-b-a-r-s in order to s-m-a-s-h-m-e all to remain in power, to achieve what is denied them by the nature of man: eternity, divinity, absolute power.

Has the president gone mad? Who wrote this call to civil war in the name of the Cuban government? Is it the Communist Party that urges its members to physically attack other human beings?  Who – good God call me naïve – has the courage, the shamelessness and the bestiality to be a part, or even to subscribe to this “post-modern” body of volunteers?

**Following is a Translation of the Document Posted Above**

PLAN TO DEAL WITH THE DISTURBANCES OF PUBLIC ORDER AND COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY RIOTS

UNIT X:

I. Objective: To take all necessary measures, directed at repudiating the disturbances of public order and counterrevolutionary riots that could begin nearby the Unit.

II. Brief appreciation of the possible disturbances of public order and counterrevolutionary actions:

It’s known that counterrevolutionary demonstrations can occur, without taking into account the possibility of actions against them, with the objective of harming or acting against the integral security of our workers and our customers, with the goals of causing uncertainty and affecting our economy.

III. Missions to repudiate the disturbances of public order and counterrevolutionary riots:

1. Observe without interruption the areas of possible disturbances of public order and counterrevolutionary riots.

2. Determine and maintain the organization of Unit forces with simple weapons that are available nearby, in accordance with the location of personnel.

3. Repudiate the disturbances and riots that originate.

4. Extinguish fires that are ignited and provide first aid to anyone injured as a consequence of the confrontations.

5. Keep the Command Post of the top organization you belong to informed, and also MININT [Ministry of the Interior], about the situation as it develops.

Military Sector OG….
Central Administration – MININT PNR
Command Post of Businesses and Corporations
Firemen
OLPP PM….

IV. Structure of the Forces:

To accomplish their mission, the workers will organize if they are at work, and if the situation requires it, if possible, they will alert the rest of the workers who are off duty.

V. Weapons:

Sticks.
Iron bars.
Cables (electrical cords).

APPENDICES

1. Plan for the protection and defense of the Unit.

2. Methods for repudiating the disturbances of public order and counterrevolutionary riots, and for the protection of the Unit.

3. Plan for warning the Units.

4. Acts of cooperation.

Appendix I: Plan of ways to repudiate the disturbances of public order and counterrevolutionary riots, and for the protection of the Units.

Number 1:

Type of Demonstration: Disturbances of the public order by taunts

Actions to be Implemented: Don’t let the participants use part of the Unit to demonstrate.

Collect and guard in secure places the cash received and the fund for change.
Repudiate the disorders and riots together as a Unit.

Put out fires and give first aid to the injured.

Immediately find the Administrator.

Perform complementary actions as necessary.

Immediately inform higher organizations.

Performers: Workers on shift at work.

Person in Charge: Administrator.

Date: When they [the disturbances and riots] occur.

Number 2:

Type of Demonstration: Actions or expressions against the Revolution, Party cadres, or the Government on any level.

Actions to be Implemented: Respond with arguments, convincing strength and energy to such demonstrations and make it very clear that such things are not permitted in our centers. Immediately find the Administrator. Perform complementary actions as necessary. If necessary, immediately inform the PNR, PCC, OLPP.

Performers: Workers on shift at work.

Person in Charge: Administrator.

Date: When they [the disturbances and riots] occur.

Number 3:

Type of Demonstration: Performance of actions that can be qualified as counterrevolutionary.


Actions to be Implemented: Respond with actions and in ways that are necessary to accomplish the goal of impeding at all cost that these performances materialize. Immediately inform the PNR, PCC, OLPP.

Immediately find the Administrator.

Performers: Workers on shift at work.

Person in Charge: Administrator.

Date: When they [the disturbances and riots] occur.

ACT OF THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CREATION

OF RAPID RESPONSE BRIGADES (RRB) OF UNIT X

At ____o’clock, in the month of ____, on the day of ____, “Year 52 of the Revolution” is raised the present Act with the objective of leaving constituted the Creation of Rapid Response Brigades.

Disturbances of public order and counterrevolutionary riots will never be permitted by our working people. The streets belong to the revolutionaries. This declaration that we will never permit these acts will be retroactive.

As part of this people, we, the directors, civil servants, and workers of this unit declare ourselves in solidarity with the Rapid Response Brigade and will act unconditionally in defense of our Revolution without regard to the sacrifices we must make.

We demonstrate the aforesaid by signing here and now what from this moment constitutes a pledge for all of us to resolutely repudiate whatever counterrevolutionary riot or disturbance of the public order shall happen, wherever it happens, and no matter what its extent.

Translated from the Spanish by Regina Anavy

What I Don't Want

Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan

It’s surprising that in a secular society killing a cow is punished by eighteen years in prison, and even more absurd that to kill a man is only punished with ten; meanwhile an independent journalist can be looking at twenty-five.

Based on these absurd laws, then, we all live in the absurdity of everyday life: to buy meat on the black market can be more dangerous for a citizen than witnessing a murder, a person reading an independent blog assumes a risk equal to that of eating beef.

Could we say that a person who reads the international press – known by the official media as the enemy press – while putting a piece of red meat in their mouth is a reckless citizen? According to the law there is no doubt about it, and may the lawyers forgive my saying so, it is extremely hilarious to imagine it.

I don’t want to reach old age living this foolishness, I don’t want to die with a pension of two hundred pesos while my children break their backs as illegal immigrants in the world, I don’t want to turn on the TV and see the face of Randy Alonso on The Roundtable, I don’t want my neighbor caring about whether or not I vote, I don’t want my friends to tell me over and over on the phone: I told you in person that I can’t make it here, I don’t want to – I sincerely do no

Less Than a Minute

This short film by Orlando Luis Pardo and his girlfriend leaves me speechless.  When they showed it to me they said, "We don't really know what it means."

I don't know either but I'm sure that's the least important.

Industriales Champions!

Photo taken from havanajournal

To come up in my building you have to shout from the sidewalk.  There’s no way all the neighbors managed to install doorbells for each apartment and an intercom is a semi-utopian object barely known in Cuba. Sometimes I hear my visitors, sometimes not.

The other day a familiar voice rang out several times under my window: “Industriales Champions! Industriales Champions!”

It was a friend for whom, I know, baseball has the same importance as the theory of antimatter. When I opened the door, very surprised, I asked her, “Why are you shouting ‘Industriales Champions’?”

Her answer made me laugh, “That’s the only thing I can shout without them arresting you, so I took advantage of it.”

When I learned of Generation Y I immediately became a fan and translated some entries into French; I still remember the first one: “Posters yes, but only about baseball.” Three years have passed since that play-off Yoani spoke to us about, the posters continue, the slogans are allowed, as long as we’re talking about baseball.

Translator’s note:
Los Industriales is Havana’s baseball team, winners, yesterday, of the National Championship.