Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Burdens of the Cold War

After the Odyssey required to connect to the Internet, you have four or five proxies to avoid the censorship imposed by the government, having given up on Skype some months ago and navigating literally against the current (50kb a second maximum); then you find yourself looking at screens like that posted here which is quite disappointing.

That is why the lifting of some of the sanctions imposed on Cuba, Iran and Sudan to ease citizens’ access to the Web – as announced by the U.S. Department of State –  turns out to be, in my opinion, essential. The voice of the people, not that of governments, is struggling to open up the Web: the Internet is the place for those with scarce freedoms of expression or of the press.

There is also the issue of the justifications: in Cuban there is no Internet because of the blockade. Why give the State this alibi? I am convinced that every sanction imposed on Cuba is a weapon used to justify the lack of freedoms for the people. Access to information is a danger to the Cuban government; restricting it simplifies their work and lessens the small sources of freedom for the Cubans.
On this island there is no Internet because the government fears it, as proven by the multiple sites they block, the difficulties of access and the information police. Any gesture that helps to cover up this sad reality, I believe, makes no sense. In any event, time will tell if my skepticism is valid, as we will have the cable from Venezuela, in which I can’t help but find a certain mythological analogy to Ariadne’s thread, which saved her from the claws of the Minotaur.

1 comment:

david.rohm said...

ariadne's thread? please enighten me in your next blog.

el thread de ariadne? por favor ayudame con los detales de este obra greco en tu blog tras de este. me gusteria lear tus thoughts.