I knew about the “Cuban Bloggers” event on the night of April 27th, briefly, late and on the last Cuban TV newscast of the day, which provided some information they didn’t offer in prime time or that they rejected to make more time for criticisms of capitalism and praises of the raised-to-mythical-status Cuban tyranny and that of their Latin American friends. They probably didn’t want to give too much media attention to the event, but they wanted to stay on the good side of the forum organizers and attendees.
They referred to the “First National Meeting of Cuban Bloggers in Revolution,” held in Matanzas with representation from all provinces. Once again the alternative blogosphere, as usually happens with the independent Cuban society, was ignored by the totalitarian government and its media officials.
Three days alter the journalistic gloss of the event appeared on page 2 of Juventud Rebelde. It summarized the themes such as the inclusion of the universities in the official blog horizon, which promotes the image of Cuba in cyberspace “as diverse” and so on; and went on and on about the main purposes being to “share experiences, create horizontal mechanisms of integration, achieve complementarity without falling into dogmas and preconceived themes, and promoting critical analysis from the blogs.”
We find there Mrs. Mariela Castro — I don’t know if she has a blog — who was, of course, interviewed about the meeting and probably had the implicit mission of mediated at the highest levels for the facilities and essential tools for this new militia of letters.
I wonder what they will offer university students — who have to spend much of their time studying in order to do well academically — in exchange for creating blogs obedient to the totalitarian model and facing off against the independents. What diversity are they referring to? In Cuba, the concept is flawed due to the single-party interests of the government, which takes forceps to diverse political opinions and mutilates the aspirations and legitimate rights of Cubans to a multi-color pluralism.
Will they ever respect the right of everyone to access the Internet or will they continue to use that tool as a device in exchange for loyalty? It seems they intend to “lower the profile” of the Cuban independent blogosphere as they did with the alternative political society.
There is a clear design oriented to this end. I don’t expect they that will use the power of manu militari* to redeem us from the attacks of fear and double standards that they themselves delineate to divide us with their a unified and virtual propaganda.
What I do expect and will continue to modestly cultivate, is that we reach the stage where they don’t muzzle those who think differently and they respect the right to freedom as an attribute inherent to human nature. This is something very natural for democratic societies which I hope for, but it for the ancient Caesarian government it is too much.
*By force of arms.
May 8 2012
