Iranians Denounce Injustice, Provide Lessons to Cuban Bloggers [VIDEO]
What is happening in Iran and its dissemination through the Internet is a lesson for Cuban bloggers. The authoritarians of the court also must be taking note of what great dangers result from--in these events--Twitter, Facebook, and mobile phones. Seeing those young Iranians use all the technology to denounce the injustice, I notice everything that we lack to support those who maintain blogs from the island. The acid test of our incipient virtual community has not yet arrived, but maybe it will surprise us tomorrow... with the aggravation of low connectivity.
In our blogger meetings, which we hold every week, we watched a small video about the Iranian cybernauts. I watched it again today in lieu of the images of the demonstrations that our official television refuses to show. I haven't contemplated the faces painted green, nor heard any announcer speak of the seven dead, but with this brief animated short I can imagine everything. I visualize an entire generation weary of old structures that it wants to change, a people--like me--who has ceased to believe in enlightened leaders who lead us like cattle. In the midst of all this, to our satisfaction, are the bytes and screens modifying the form of protest.
On days like this I greatly regret not being able to be online; I feel like I'm choking having to wait to hear all the news. If there's still time for me to extend my solidarity to the Iranian bloggers, then here is a post to tell them: "Today it's you, tomorrow it could well be us."
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How come the Cubans didn't learn anything from the break up of the Soviet Union and Tianamen Square? I doubt you need Twitter to just open your eyes and see the writing on the wall.
I am all for freedom for the Cubans, and I despise Castro, but the Cubans left there have been dumbed down by 50 years of Fidel.
It's a hopeless situation there unless the exiles are allowed to go back and help rebuild that mess.
Cuban Americans along with their Scot Irish, German, Irish, Anglo, Scandanavian, Jewish, Italian and Polish in laws are ready to invest in Cuba once it becomes a democratic market economy having property rights, transparency and rule of law.
But for Castro, Cuba today would be the 51st state as well as one of the ten wealthiest states in the US.
Like Puerto Rico?
Puerto Rico is not a state nor has it had any desire to become a state. That is up to the Puerto Rican people to decide.
Google the name of FRANK STURGIIS.
Batista was a puppet of the CIA and the Mafia. That is a fact. When Fidel came into power without the help of anyone. even thought the CIA had a men with him in the Cierra Maestra to try to controlled him, Fidel was his own man. All he asked was for Cuba to be respected as a sovereign country. That was something that U.S. corporations , the CIA and the Mafia could not agreed to. He was pushed towards the USSR. and thus began the propaganda war. Lets not forget who has benefited more with the status quo for the 50 years since Fidel defeated the Batista regime. The republican and the far right. Promising the Cuban "en Miami" and illusion that was never come to pass. As long as the republican got the votes. What if the US. had pursuit a different policy towards Cuba lets say 50,40, 30, years ago. The time is now, Lets not wasted it.
Let's be honest here eh? The only reason Americans are opposed to government of Cuba, is that the American approved dictator Batista was overthrown, and now the American mob have no patsy they can control. Do you really believe the people of Cuba were better off under the brutality of Batista? Do you know anything about Batista and his goons?
Maybe it's time for America to look at the number of reprehensible dictators your country supports. Saddam was one of your American backed dictators by the way!
What the hell does Batista have to do with this?
You're presenting the Cuban people with a false choice between Batista, a brutal dictator, and Castro, another brutal dictator.
They're both SOB's in my book.
The choice is between AIG or Castro. Do you want free healthcare and education or the "freedom" to go into debt for the rest of your life if you need either? Bautista is just represents very well what is wrong with capitalism.
Yoani, el dia llegara en que ustedes los cubanos puedan liberarse de la opresion en la que viven. Su momento llegara...
So an idea makes an article? How about removing the embargo?
What embargo?
I'm all for a change in US-Cuba policy, but the fact is that the United States is already Cuba's fifth largest commercial partner. When you include humanitarian aid, we're their first.
Again, we need to change US-Cuba policy, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking Cuba's problems are a result of our pseudo-embargo. They're self-inflicted.
Communists who live in the West like to think of themselves as edgy by supporting totalitarianism, they fail to realise that repression is repression regardless of the ideology behind it. Extremists will always tend toward authoritarianism, whether that is religious or political, left or right. Sadly, the people who should be supporting the Cuban artists, writers, poets, human rights activists etc in the West are too busy chumming up to Castro because he is to the left. In their eyes everybody who challenges dictatorship must be a CIA agent or right winger.
They like to think that because it is their chosen ideology or a dictator they like to admire (from thousands of miles away) that everybody must love being enslaved under it and who cares if they don't.
There were many who supported Ceausescu, talking about how it was a wonderful Romania was because he was communist, when the people overthrew him they all pretended never to have heard of the place. Same people who said the Soviet union was heaven, Yugoslavia was heaven, Cuba is still heaven to them.
I hope all goes well for the bloggers in Cuba, I'm excited for the Iranians, I hope their revolution succeeds and inspires every oppressed people to rise up.
And sadly, you see nothing wrong with Cuba before Castro and unfettered capitalism as the highest form of freedom. Ceausescu called himself a communist in the same way Hitler called himself a socialist. Neither had anything to do with those ideologies. And it is you who seem to believe that ALL Cuban people must feel "enslaved" by their government (who cares if they don't). It's the trade embargo that is the true cause of suffering in Cuba.
It doesn't matter whether it is capitalist or communist, what is important is civil liberties. Putting people in prison for speaking out against the government is criminal whoever is doing it. Collectivism is a great system when it is democratic and allows all voices to be heard, nothing wrong with Scandinavia.
Regarding the trade embargo, it is abhorrent, I agree that causes many problems. That does not justify the government controlling speech and imprisoning dissenters. Which was my point.
I was thinking this is more a lesson for we should have done in 2000. How much better would the world be today?
You're kidding right? Castro is comparable to Achmedinejad? LOL. Bautista, yes but not Fidel.
Castro is far worse.
The Cuban people haven't had an election in fifty years. The Iranians just had one last week.
The Iranian regime's censoring of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites isn't just a temporary, week-long reaction from the Cuban regime to news it doesn't like; it is its modus operandi.
And George W. Bush was "elected" twice, much like Achmedinejad. There were lots of voting irregularities in '00 and 04', lost votes, and many people (predominantly minorities) who were purposely discouraged from voting. Bush just had a different set of Mullahs - the Supreme Court. Democracy isn't as great as you think. Plato called it "mob rule".
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