Lack of a civilian network, without interference from the State, has made us, as Cubans, like loose strands in a weave that each day is more frayed. It is difficult to call us together for a citizen project precisely because the means to do so belong to those who prefer to keep us scattered. The ingenuous idea of organizing a flea market, where everyone may sell what they like and buy second hand products, falls into the category of “illicit association.” For this reason, finding that reality does not seem to be the filed where we can connect civically, we have begun to use the Internet for this purpose.
Reaching this virtual ground, that allows us to connect with others, is very difficult, but we are sneaky. Here we can find, hiding under a nickname, the neighbor whom we dare not meet in the real world. This virtual society has begun to find itself loaded with all the vices of our civic actions. People shout, there are personal attacks and intolerance, but at least we cannot be shut up by “them.”
The internet today is the tapestry where we try to restitch the threads of our civil society. There are no scissors, no patches… we try to make a resistant weave that transcends us.