How Huff Post Readers Can Help Cuban Bloggers

Every week I receive hundreds of emails, which I can hardly respond due to my limited ability to connect to the Internet. So I am taking the opportunity of this post to answer the question: How can I help the alternative blogosphere in Cuba?

I will detail the resources or the type of collaboration that can help bloggers in creating and updating their blogs. This list is not in any priority order and should be interpreted simply as suggestions. It's a request to citizens of the whole world and rests on the solidarity among people that has nothing to do with political stripes or ideological preferences. So here goes:

• Link to the blogs and place them on the search engines or platforms where they can have greater visibility. Each person who reads us, protects us, so we need to strengthen the shield formed by readers and commentators.
• Spread the contents of the blogs, especially to the interior of Cuba. This can be done by sending our posts to friends and relatives on the Island, to share with them the opinions that come from right here, but which are not disclosed in the official media.
• Invite alternative bloggers to participate in events, whether virtual or real. This can be done through voice recordings, home made videos or telephone calls that help spread their opinions.
• Lend a hand in the administration of blogs, especially to those bloggers who have very limited access to the Internet. For this you only need the will to collaborate, a minimal understanding of Wordpress or Blogger.com and the honesty to not add or change any content that has been authorized by the author of the site.
• Avoid the cult of personality of a single emblematic blogger and take the alternative blogosphere as a phenomenon in which a growing number of Cubans are participating. Don't repeat in the virtual world the adoration of individuals that does so much damage in the real world.
• Buy cards for accessing the internet in public places. Remember that many of us are obligated to play the high prices in the cybercafes or the hotels to access the net. So if you're a tourist visiting the island, collaborate with us to acquire a few hours of connection in these places.
• Every kind of information media is helpful to us, from the tiny flash drives to the most sophisticated external hard drives. A great number of the bloggers I know distribute their texts to the interior of the Island on these storage devices.
• Mobile phones and economic aid to open and maintain accounts. I have been in the position where I frequently post by sending text messages to people outside Cuba who later put my texts on the net. So providing a blogger a cell phone is a way to open a parallel path to the traditional Internet access.
• Laptops or any kind of accessory to build a PC. My experience tells me that an old laptop brought to the island and given to a possible blogger can be the spark for the emergence of a new opinion. Look in your office or your house for everything that's been scrapped but that might be useful for assembling a computer, and add it to your suitcase when you are vacationing in Cuba. And please, don't even think of sending it by mail.
• Software both free and licensed. Especially those programs that are used to process images, audio, and video and that optimize internet connection time. I want to remind you that we cannot buy these programs in any store or purchase them through online transactions.
• Digital cameras and video recorders, especially the little Flip camcorder that lets us discretely film situations in our everyday lives.
• Digital recorders for interviews and telephone recorders to capture the voices of those who call from the provinces to dictate their texts. An example of this is the blog of the political prisoner Pablo Pacheco, whose texts are read over the telephone.
• Books about citizen journalism, manuals and programs and every kind of documentation that can help us to better understand the blogger phenomenon.

The path for channeling this aid is directly to each blogger. Write an email message that appears in the blogs from within Cuba -- see the list of links in my sidebar -- and organize, without intermediaries, this type of solidarity. The slogan of this help movement could well be: "Oxygen for the Cuban blogosphere!"

Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.

Comments

[sandokan1]

This is a simple message that cuts strait to the heart of things. Everyone here, “right” or “left” should be able to get behind it. For our brothers and sisters whose voices are muzzled by the regime, we must shout. For those we live amongst who do not hear and can not see, we must break the silence and help open their eyes.

[Jose Quiles]

To understand Cuba today, one must be aware of the policies of United States government in latin america in the 50's . Fuljencio Batista a sergeant in the Cuban military,who took power with the help of the CIA. The mafia controlled casinos, gambling, prostitution and every illegal activity in the island, Of course for them to operate there they needed to pay a special type of tax to the head of the government and associates. All the mayor industries in the island were own by U.S. companies. The standard of living of the average Cuban was similar to the people of Haiti. illiteracy was high. There was no health care. When Fidel came to power with some help of the CIA, of course the CIA wants to be on the winning side. Fidel asked the US government to be treated as a sovereign state. Which US corporations would not agreed to. And thus the Cuban sought help. Thats when the Soviet Union jumped at the chance. p.s. . Any criticism of my grammar is well taken . But I'm sure the reader understand my thoughts.

[karenlee]

The "alternative bloggers" perform at the service of US and European interests. We all want people to have more information via the internet -- but Cuba is attempting this in a responsible way, providing FREE access for as many people as possible, via their work places (be it academic, sports, culture, medicine, journalism.
Someone has to pay for the satellite links. If it's not the individual paying a private for-profit ISP, as we do in the US, it's the government. So Cuba prioritizes: eg, a medical network that downloads all new medical information daily and makes it available to all medical personnel around the country.
The bloggers we hear about are in it for themselves, receiving income via PayPal (they ask for donations on their blogs) and hidden contributions (Yoani's blog is backed by a neo-Nazi group in Germany, and probably USAID).
Do you ever see the same media talking about the dozens of REVOLUTIONARY bloggers on the island, or even those solely focused on ecology or art? No, we are only asked to support "alternative" bloggers. Alternative to what? Alternative to free quality healthcare as a human right? to the right of a woman to get equal pay for equal work, to have children when she decides? To the right of every person to equal education at all levels?
THINK before you support these "alternative" bloggers. You might not like the world that would be created in Cuba if they (and the US) got their way.

[camia3]

Why do people always have to judge Cuban dissidents and exiles on a HOW AMERICA HAS SCREWED UP AROUND THE WORLD curve? Enough! The US and Cuba are two completely different countries and should be judged by their own merits and not on scale. The Castro regime has been more maniacal and brutal than any American administration--and I DETEST what many American administrations have done-but you cannot justify the human rights violations that are POLICY in Cuba by saying America is worse. Get over yourselves. If you love freedom and human rights then you should follow Yoani's amazing advice and help people that cannot help themselves, get it. I know who the US would be without fidel--who would fidel be without the US to blame for everything--oh yeah--just another vicious sociopath in power in the Carribean.

DEMAN HUMAN RIGHTS, END THE EMBARGO and HELP MY PEOPLE OR GET OUT OF THE WAY.

[karenlee]

Which "human rights" are you referring to? The RIGHT to have at least a roof over your head and food in your stomach? To consider health care a fundamental human right, not a commodity for those who can pay for it? The right to all levels of education (even post-graduate) based on your ability, not on your parents' income or unpayable loans? The right of a woman to control her own body without fear her doctor may be shot by some crazed religious fundamentalist?
While you are talking about rights, why not look at Articles 22-26 of the UN Charter on Human Rights -- the articles never mentioned by people in the US because they are not considered rights here, but rather commodities. Sorry to mention the US, but if we are talking about "rights" we need to look at which ones are put into effect in Cuba that are not granted in our own country.

[vinny]

If I were managing your blog, I would honestly change this sentence: "It's a request to citizens of the whole world and rests on the solidarity among people that has nothing to do with political stripes or ideological preference­s."

As you might know, solidarity is fundamentally political / ideological, achieved through a realization of shared, mutual interests.

So... I am seeing a long list of fun revolutionary blogging stuff that you want from me; I guess what I'm curious how are you going to help me fight my own tyrannical government? We Americans aren't philanthropists, you know? Taken as a collective group of taxpayers, we are a hegemonic "superpower" barely in control of our own government. We like to think the blogosphere allows us to protect our rights, but it really is only a form of mind control, a way of keeping the masses in their homes, sedated, and alienated from their interests and from each other. Blogging is just another tool the Huffington's of the world can use to box up the opinions, and keep folks from critically naming the underlying relations that limit their freedoms and sap their hard earned wealth. So I'm reading your list, and thinking blogging is not going to get your cause anywhere in the long run. Those Marxists in Cuba, and the Fascists here in the States, know their powers can only be wrested away if people are willing to Fight for their common interests. So what do we have in common?

[Guitarsandmore]

I think a healthy exchange of ideas is always a good idea. Intellectual stimulation can inspire and mobilize people to do great things. A sense of belonging to a group with focused energy on a good cause can relieve some of the stress and tension from a bad situation.

Yes, I think this is what we should do:

First we close GITMO as a prison for terror suspects and then convert it into a giant internet cafe free of charge for all to use complete with all of the equipment that Sanchez believes she needs. It could stand as a new statue of liberty in our Southern Hemisphere.

This way we get rid of the stigma of GITMO and we create a new sense of freedom and liberty for all.

Yes, let them all speak their minds and be heard. What could be more democratic?

[LMPE]

The #1 thing that American citizens can do to help Cubans is to make the US government lift the the blockade. Without that, the Castro brothers wouldn't last long.

[Ulises Bidó]

Agreed....

[karenlee]

I agree that making the US government end their blockade should be the number one priority, but it would not be because that way "the Castro brothers wouldn't last long". Why should that be our goal? They have done a tremendous amount of good for their country, and realistically statistics indicate that they can't live much longer anyway. That's not the question. There are eleven million people in Cuba, not just two men. The blockade hurts the 11 million, not the two. Blocking food and medicine and the amenities of life of 11 million people in a vain attempt to get them to overthrow their chosen form of government is unbecoming a country that calls itself "democratic".