Finally we are beginning the planned journey of the bloggers. The shouts delivered at the police station, the constant agent we’ve had with us since last Thursday, and the prohibition on travel to Pinar del Río weren’t much use. We ended up finding the cracks between the fingers of the censors, between which the fine sand of information and knowledge has managed to slip through.
The start of this encounter, which none of the participants wanted to call an event, has happened quietly, without any fuss in the media or clandestine pretensions. In no way has it been similar to those congresses, conferences and symposia where a table is placed before a presidential backdrop. We haven’t stooped to creating one of those cardboard signs that lists the rules to be followed, nor do we wear credentials or special pins.
We managed to take the first step because “they” just waited for the challenge or the cancellation, but did not anticipate that in the blogger phenomenon there are a thousand ways to camouflage oneself. They used their old methods of coercion without realizing that nobody can put real reins on virtual creatures. By prohibiting the inaugural session, they’ve only managed to unveil how many possibilities there are to blur the itinerary without the need of moving from one province to another.
In a few days a website will be inaugurated to host the discussions that have been happening and to launch a blog contest for 2009. These tiny particles of cyberspace that are our blogs have already opened channels in the hands of the intransigents; particles so small that they haven’t even seen them pass.
Here is the press release drafted jointly by all the participants.
That’s some of the best news I’ve heard this week. Go ahead with the meetings. Alone we are all like twigs that are easy to snap, but together we become strong and unbreakable!
Super! Sharing knowledge is the beginning of beauty. And thanks for the English translation on the same day!
Exelent! this proofs that the communists trollers and the cyber brigades can’t stop the free information that this and other blogs offer about the true Cuba today. We must educate world opinion about Cuba under communism.
In a place more distant than you’ll know, more distant than you can imagine, we hear you. We hear you as we as easily as we know about the shifting tides of history, and the weight of ineluctable change.
So we’ll listen. Eagerly. No one truly alive ever doubted the rebirth of the better angels of Cuba’s nature-it was foreclosed merely as the sea forecloses on your reach, until the time came when new visions and voices would sail.
Sail on with calm. You have the winds of truth and dignity on your side. No need to pause or delay. No more. We’ll be here to greet you once you arrive, whether you come in spirit or in person. Our only pity is that we’ve waited so long.
hola yoani: eres mi inspiración. te admiro muchísimo y me has servido de ejemplo para comenzar el mío pronto, aunque no en condiciones tan difíciles, pues pa’ allá como que vamos… te mando mi blog cuando ya tenga el título, dos preguntas y creo que una está ya respondida.
a) tu haces el blog en español y también lo traduces paralelamente al inglés? esa era una de mis dudas. si lo escribo sólo en español entonces no me pueden leer sino los hispanoahablantes.
b) cómo hiciste para publicar en el huffington post? te invitó arianna?
bueno querida, siga la brega… de veras se te admira y considera ( salió en versito) una voz desde venezuela.lavici
si tienes chance y me puedes contestar se me olvidó actualizar mi correo pues el primero lo bloqueó la empresa estatal. el que te mando con este si es. ya ví que traducen voluntarios al inglés, bueno… todavía me falta la pregunta sobre el huffington post. un abrazo hermano desde venezuela… lavici
Boo Hoo! In Colombia you would be dragged into the bush and shot by paramilitaries in the employ of the Yanquis.
Fools! Americans enjoy the fine “free” life because they rob everybody else.
Cuba is a shining example to the rest of the world and that’s why the Yanquis hate it.
Did you know that the man who murdered 27 Cubans is walking around Miami today, a free man?
Yet more constructive comments from stringball.
Everyone here is entitled to their opinions. But you really don’t have to call people fools. If anything insulting people makes your arguments weak and childish. Perhaps your point would be better proven were you make proper sentences and back up your points with some verifiable facts. It’s just a friendly suggestion.
Marcha por el dia de los derechos humanos, en el parque Villalón (Calzada entre D y E, Vedado, La Habana)
celebrar “la vigencia del 10 de diciembre”.
Si estas en Cuba participa, unete. va a ser algo grande, estamos avisando a toda la prensa Internacional.
Marcha por el dia de los derechos humanos, en el parque Villalón (Calzada entre D y E, Vedado, La Habana)
celebrar “la vigencia del 10 de diciembre”.
Si estas en Cuba participa, unete. va a ser algo grande, estamos avisando a toda la prensa Internacional.
nor do we wear credentials or special pins.
For some reason this makes me think of Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas, in which she scorns all distinctions of this type. Not sure how far she actually lived it, though. Best of luck continuing.
Do these people really think that we are fooled. One minute they say people are thrown in jail for not supporting the revolution. However, these bloggers we only summoned and warned, not punished.
But now they will find out the consequences for not obeying the law. I was in Cuba a few weeks ago and spoke to a few Unionized leaders. It will not be long before this blog goes silent and you will all have to search for a new place to hand out.
Your blogger convention was a great accomplishment but you should nver brag about undermining the law.
Have fun in lock down. Maybe I will visit you when I return with my members next month.
My friends are the Cuban people who know who are the real thieves and liars and won’t kiss their rear-ends for a few extra mangoes.
The Yanquis are like lizards: their smiles are kindly but their hearts are cold.
Look at George Bush. See how he walks. He thinks he’s a cowboy gunfighter. The Yanquis are maniacs!
stringball dice: 7 Diciembre 2008 a las 23:06
Americans enjoy the fine “free” life because they rob everybody else.
Not so “fine” nor so “free” as others imagine. How many Cubans have lost most of their teeth by age 25 for lack of dental care? How many have had to leave school for lack of money?
Up here, neurosurgeons, engineers, physicists and philosophers also sweep floors and clean toilets, and for more disturbing and less easily addressed reasons than in Cuba.
Despite all their education, Cubans appear to have a very naive concept of democracy, and I fear that when it arrives, they will be as devastated by it as the Soviet “Republics” were.
If, like the Russians, you fail to treasure and protect what was good in the last 50 years, you will get a choice of three bananas in the morning and two in the afternoon, or vice versa. And all five will be poisoned.
Whoa! Cool the Bold!
Who hasn’t preserved Cuba for the last 50 yrs if not Cubans?
Preseved what exactly – the entire country is overun by “marabu” – you can’t even sell (if you had means) an egg – the street and roads have more sink wholes than a slice of swiss cheese – houses are crumbling – water and electric service comes & goes – and it’s gotten even worse since the hurricanes – there’s no real socialism – those in power have the amenities – while the rest is fend for themselves – but don’t get caught. PLEASE GET REAL!! Yoani adelante, sigue pa lante y para tra ni para coger impulso!! Suerte mi hermana.
Stringball, I suspect very few citizens in the former Soviet republics that have adopted multiparty democracy support returning to one party rule and dictatorship. In fact, this is so unpopular that the Communist parties in these countries don’t even advocate it, choosing instead to compete for power at the ballot box.
And Yoani and her fellow bloggers are way less naive about democracy than you are about Cuban style tyranny.
“Americans enjoy the fine “free” life because they rob everybody else.
Not so “fine” nor so “free” as others imagine. How many Cubans have lost most of their teeth by age 25 for lack of dental care? How many have had to leave school for lack of money? ”
Rob everybody else? Ahaha. Try working for a living, instead of waiting around for a subsidized pound of meat and potatoes.
Your dopey leader robbed the Cubans of their self-determination, you idiot. You pat yourself on the back because you can go to the dentist or college, yet you’re too stupid or too much of a kneejerk party loyalist to admit you can’t even leave your island. Your clean teeth and education has gotten you what, exactly? The knowledge that your bright smile is a sham?
You live on an island of pretense, dude. Get in the modern world. Not even the Soviet satellites were dumb enough to cling to communism once the iron curtain fell. Let me break the news to you: your little world of denial is coming to an end. Castro is over. He’s yesterday’s news. The revolution is dead. Take off your blinders. The internet, like the truth, is swiiming to your shores.
And there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it.
Did you really think that living a lie was going to go on forever?
Thank-you Generation Y. You are so courageous. As long as there are people like you, there is hope
Ignorance will always show itself, it cannot hide from the light of truth. Those who oppress and intimidate through fear will always be hiding from that light. Shine on!