The same thing is happening with the blogosphere as happens with other phenomena of our reality: they try to divide and separate us, throwing out epithets of "pro-government" here and "mercenaries" there, failing to realize that a common factor unites us all: the desire to express ourselves. I dream of the time when Elaine Diaz can come and give a class at the Blogger Academy without losing her job, and when Claudia Cadelo -- spared from a repudiation rally -- gives a seminar in Twitter at the Journalism School. I imagine the discussion table where independent journalist sit together with those affiliated with the state media, if the first would have their very existence recognized and the second would not pay, with their jobs, for such a gesture.
Can you imagine Esteban Morales, the academic who some weeks ago wrote an article against corruption debating with Oscar Espinosa Chepe how to find solutions to the Cuban economic catastrophe? Think for a minute if Alfredo Guevara himself, who gave a lecture to university students, sat on a panel discussion next to Rafael Rojas or Emilio Ichikawa. Or I could go even further and place Ricardo Alarcon face-to-face once more with the young man Eliecer Avila to hear how the national situation has advanced -- or regressed -- since January 2008 when they had their famous dialog. All of this -- I'm starting to become delirious -- could be enlivened by a song from Pablo Milanes with a montuno refrain in the warm voice of Albita Rodriguez.
You will think I'm delusional, but I feel that this slice of land we inhabit cannot tolerate too many divisions. Grids, fences, parcels, fractions, have ended up jeopardizing and marking a space and time that belongs to all of us. I don't know what others are waiting for, but at least Yoani Sanchez has put the coffee pot on and set the table for a conversation that must start somewhere.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.