“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” (source)
Or in this case, on the Internet Fidel Castro’s son wouldn’t know you’re actually a male Cuban living in exile posing as a woman just to play a number on you. Apparently, Miami-based Luis Dominguez has duped 40-year old Antonio Castro into believing that he was chatting with a 27-year old female sports journalist named Claudia Valencia, using the man’s alleged weakness for “young women and sports”.
Dominguez told the BBC that he has no regrets for the deception – which consisted of eight months of on-and-off chatting – saying he wanted to expose the hypocrisy of Cuba’s leadership, who enjoy “oppulent lifestyles”. No state secrets were revealed during the chats, and it’s unclear if the sessions involved cybersex of any kind.
Gotta admire the dryness of the BBC report, which ends with:
“The Cuban authorities have made no comment about the chats, but Claudia says the relationship has gone cold.”
One important note they failed to mentioin; all instances of cybersex were performed with oversized cigars being smoked.
And in what way did this Luis Dominguez expose the hypocrisy of Cuba’s leadership, I wonder?
I was listening to this on the radio. Dominguez claimed part of his motive was to highlight the contradictory rules applying to internet access. Apparently Cubans aren’t allowed access the internet, but the actions of Castro show that it’s one rule for those in power, one rule for everyone else.
“Cubans aren’t allowed access the internet” is this thing realy true??
Luis Domínguez: get a life!
“Weakness for young women and sports”
Hm…now who does that remind me of?
Well, 90% of the adult male population!
27 year old chick is not young. 18-24 is. Shiit she is 3 years from 30. Bithc is old.
that was really low even for a Miami-based punk, this is not news, BBC, it’s just plain BS…
it reads DominGuez first, then DominQuez. Should be DominGuez.
Luis Domigay
DominQuez–DominGuez
So now this we aill also be reading the daily mirror here. Crap reporting from techcrunch, who dare to compare themselves with nytimes.
Have you noticed a significant shift on your demographic towards the ‘aging Oprah crowd’ lately? look closely, cause you might have.
and in what way is this story relevant to silicon valley’s tech scene?
chatting–impersonating that’s 1998 AOL.
This article is lame. It reveals nothing of how Castro’s son was “stung.”
Yes. Cubans are not allowed internet access. Officialy, only tourists are alowed internet access in hotels.
I’m amazed that you smug Silicon Valley types don’t give a damn that the Cuban people have so little freedom.
Of course the point of the story is that what’s good enough for the “little people” (zero internet access) isn’t good enough for the son of El Presidente.
Why doesn’t the tech world come together to demand and then deliver (by whatever means neccessary) unfiltered internet access to China, No. Korea, Cuba etc.
Answer: because they’re too busy making smug and wise ass replies dismissing stories like this and don’t care enough about anyone but themselves.
Joe
Actually, it isn’t true that Cubans have “zero internet access” — this is just a BS propaganda lie that has been said so many times that people like Joe Anton repeats it here.
There -had- been laws restricting internet access but they have been recently been revised, giving internet access to all Cubans.
However, even before those laws were revised, any Cuban could use the internet as part of Cuba’s world-class public education system.
Since Castro’s son is a doctor for the Cuban baseball team and their Olympic team, he would have comparable privileges to anyone in Cuban society who took that path in life. And, unlike in the United States, it is extremely easy for -anyone- with the motivation to become a doctor in Cuba, as all education leading to that is free.
In fact, Cuba even has a standing offer to US students that THEY can receive free education to become a doctor if they promise to return to the US and provide health services in poor neighborhoods.
So, really, give me a break. This is nothing more than yet another Propaganda Incident from the land of the free, where State Propaganda Officially Does Not Exist ™.
It’s in the land of the free that we produce such educated folks like Joe Anton, who has no idea what he’s talking about.
“realfacts” – I invite you to read Yoanni Sanchez’ blog.
Until very recently, Cubans weren’t even allowed to buy the same internet access, say a Canadian, could purchase at a hotel. Ah, but they revised that law … shortly after Yoanni’s video was posted on her site. I wonder why …
BTW, can you please explain to us why the Cuban government doesn’t let Yoanni travel outside the country while Fidel’s son can? Is that because “he would have comparable privileges to anyone in Cuban society who took that path in life”, and Yoanni shouldn’t be expected the right to travel outside the country?
How about Dr. Hilda Molina, who had to wait 15 years in order to meet her grandchildren and visit her ailing mother in Argentina. Oh but wait … she had access to free medical education, that excuses being treated like a child. No problem eh?
Incidentally, for those who REALLY want to know about technology in Cuba, they are one of the leaders in state-funded support for open source and free software. They recently released their own version of Linux and they also released an open source video game which teaches kids how to use Unix. Beyond that, Cuba has, for a long time, been working with free software to decrease the “digital divide” in their country. They’ve also agreed with the ALBA declaration that access to telecommunications is a human right.
http://news.nor.../category/cuba/
Meanwhile, in the US, free software is rejected at all levels of government in favor of bribes from Microsoft and million-dollar licensing fees coming out of your tax dollars.
Dominguez the cyberfag?
ROFL~ HE MUST POST MORE LOGS!
Realfacts…if you think Cuba is a “free” country…with human rights, political freedom, a free press, freedom of religion etc. you are kidding yourself.
And ask your friend Fidel to return Joanne Chesimard to the US. Or is it okay that she shot and killed a NJ State Trooper in cold blood. Would you like to tell his widow and children what a great guy Fidel is and what a Free country Cuba is?
Let me know…I’ll arrange a meeting.
As far as censorship…I stand by my comment. It amazes me that tech-savy individuals from around the world can’t help break down the filters put up by China, No. Korea, Cuba etc. to prevent their citizens from accessing the same content that the rest of us bitch and moan about on blogs like this every day.
Think about it.
Joe
Has Cuba barred Cubans from purchasing Internet access at Cuban hotels?
El Pais reports that as of May 8, 2009 the answer was “yes” at the Melia Cohiba, while Cubans were permitted service at other hotels. The reason, hotel sources told the newspaper, is that the Cohiba has a new contract with Etecsa, the phone company that is also the Internet service provider – and that contract contains the no-Cubans-on-the-Internet clause. (Unless, El Pais reports, they are Cubans residing outside of Cuba; in that case they can pay up and surf away.)
Yoani Sanchez posts a May 9 video of her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, in the Internet room of the Cohiba, where he converses with the hotel employee who denies him service and refers to a government resolution to that effect. The video is here and a transcript/translation is here.
USA Today
Cuba blames US for Internet restrictions
Ww/Pdo, By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
HAVANA — A top Cuban official said Friday that Raul Castro’s government would consider loosening Internet restrictions on ordinary citizens newly allowed to purchase computers — but Washington’s decades-old economic embargo makes it impossible.
“We aren’t worried about the citizenry connecting from their homes,” Telecommunications Vice Minister Boris Moreno told a small group of reporters.
“But problems with technology and resources have made it necessary to give priority to connections that guarantee the country’s social and economic development,” he said, referring to an islandwide network that lets Cubans receive e-mail and view domestic Web sites.
The rest of the worldwide Web is blocked to most citizens in Cuba, which has access controls far stricter than in China or Saudi Arabia. Only foreigners and some government employees and academics are currently allowed unfiltered home Internet service, and many Cubans turn to the black market for expensive, slow dial-up accounts.
Joe Anton,
You want to talk about “real freedom”, huh? Let’s begin by your ridiculous assertion that Castro should return Assata Shakur to the United States:
1. PROVEN FACT: Assata Shakur (born Joanne Chesimard) fled the United States during a time when the United States federal government ran an illegal domestic operation targeting civil and human rights activists which included infiltration, destabilization & disruption, framing innocent people for crimes they did not commit and illegal surveillance. Thousands of internal government documents have been released backing up these claims while tens of thousands more remain confidential — one can only imagine what is proven in the COINTELPRO documents that are still confidential.
2. PROVEN FACT: As just one example of what I’m talking about in #1, one needs look no further than Elmer Pratt, a US military veteran (he served two years in Vietnam) and a member of the Black Panther Party who was arrested in 1970 for the murder of a woman. Documents released by the federal government indicate that the FBI had orders to neutralize Mr Pratt:
http://www.icdc...lpro/doc156.gif
After serving 27 years in prison — 8 of those years in solitary confinement which is tantamount to torture — Mr Pratt’s conviction was vacated when it was discovered that the prosecution had illegally withheld material information about the only witness who actually fingered Mr Pratt. This information was that this “witness” was an informant who had been working with the COINTELPRO program. In other words, Mr Pratt was illegally framed, tortured and kept in prison for 27 years as a political prisoner in the United States.
Mr Pratt is hardly the only such political prisoner who was illegally imprisoned by the United States by their illegal program of political repression.
OPINION (not fact, to be clear): Considering that Assata Shakur was also a target of this illegal program of repression, Cuba is acting in the interest of human rights by offering her political asylum.
3. PROVEN FACT: The United States Political Police targeted a number of legitimate activists for civil & human rights, including Martin Luther King Jr, John Lennon, Muhammad Ali and hundreds of other less famous people, a partial listing of which can be found here:
http://en.wikip...NTELPRO_targets
4. PROVEN FACT: The United States government has acted to plan, support and conduct state-sponsored terrorism against Cuba and dozens of other Latin American governments numerous times over the last 6 decades, up to and including today. The most famous incident is the Bay of Pigs operation, in which CIA-trained terrorists and US military personnel illegally invaded Cuba and began killing people in an attempt to create an uprising against Castro.
5. PROVEN FACT: Luis Posada Carriles, a convicted terrorist, is currently being given political protection in the United States even though Venezuela has requested his extradition, where he had been imprisoned as a terrorist for his involvement in the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 which killed 73 people, including members of the Cuban Olympic Team. Even though Posada is a known terrorist, he was employed by the US government in the 1980s, being paid directly by US Major General Richard Secord. In 1997, Posada was implicated in a series of terrorist bombings that occurred in the tourism district of Havana which directly targeted civilians. Posada is currently living in the United States; the US government will not extradite this known terrorist. Why? They claim he may “face torture” if he is sent back to Venezuela. If the United States is conducting a War Against Terror, why are they harboring a convicted terrorist whose status as a terrorist is confirmed by released FBI documents, which indicate he is responsible for at least FORTY-ONE terrorist operations?
6. PROVEN FACT: Orlando Bosch is another known terrorist currently being allowed to live free in the United States. Bosch was presumably pardoned by Bush the Second and released from prison by Jeb Bush. FBI documents confirm that Bosch was a member of an anti-Cuba “terrorist” organization. Bosch was also a CIA-backed operative. Bosch took part in the Cubana Flight 455 terrorist act. In 1968, he was arrested in Florida for attacking a civilian Polish freighter with a 57mm rifle in yet another terrorism attack. The US Government dropped the charges against him. He currently lives free in the US although he is wanted in numerous Latin American governments as a terrorist.
7. PROVEN FACT: In 1986, the United States government was found to be responsible by the International Court of Justice for essentially state-sponsored terrorism against Nicaragua. These operations presumably including the aforementioned Mr Bosch and Posada Carriles. The United States has refused to accept this decision. The United Nations has passed several General Assembly resolutions demanding the US comply with the decision of the court. The last resolution demanding compliance was passed in 1987. Every single country in the world voted that the US accept the findings of the court, except for two: the US itself and Israel.
So, my point in stating all of these proven facts — and sticking to only proven facts? It is to ask you, Mr Joe Anton, the question you asked me:
Is it ok that the US harbors these terrorists who killed all those Cubans? Is it ok that the US harbors the terrorists who killed the people in the 1997 tourist district bombings? Is it ok that the US sponsored a campaign of terrorism against Nicaragua that massacred thousands of innocent civilians in cold blood? Will -YOU- tell the widows and children of these victims that they do not matter? That their lives do not mean anything?
The facts I have posted is only a tiny glimpse at the state-sponsored terrorism that the US has directed at Cuba and other countries in the the Americas (and, all over the world, for that matter). But I think these few facts are enough to ask you your question in reverse.
And I’ll answer YOUR question. I don’t believe that Assata Shakur killed a policeman in cold blood. -If- she did kill that officer, it was in self-defense during a campaign of violent political repression directed at people who were campaigning to end a racist system in the United States that had black people sitting in the back of the bus, that had “whites only” signs all over the place.
There’s a big difference between being legitimately afraid for your life because the US government was illegally terrorizing domestic activists and committing brazen acts of terrorism like blowing up a civilian air liner, blowing up tourism spots, going to peasant villages and massacring men, women and children.
Given these facts, I ask you to justify the United States as a “free” country. I ask you to justify the terrorism committed against Cuba.
Meanwhile, Cuba supports free and open source software, Cuba supports free health care for all, Cuba supports housing for all, education for all.
“realfacts”;
Still waiting for an answer to my questions.
I also find the open source angle about Cuba to be laughable, seeing as to how our ratio of open source project contributions (I’m talking committers here) eclipses anything being done in Cuba. Heck, even global corporations (like IBM and Sun) contribute more money and effort than Cuba.
You’re also dismissing significant US government contributions to open source. Can you list some?
BTW that’s all irrelevant to the fact that Cuba does limit internet access to the Cuban population and harasses dissidents, specially dissident bloggers (like Yoani) and artists (like pornopararicardo).
You do know that last band right, the one that is not allowed to sign in public and had its singer arrested in a charge that almost literally translates to “pre crime” (reminded me of minority report)?
Augusto,
It’s pretty simple.. Cuba is a tiny island that has been fighting a revolution for the dignity of human beings for 50 years … fighting for the right to health care, housing, literacy, equal rights amongst races, national sovereignty and throughout all that time, the United States, the world’s largest superpower, has waged an illegal war against this tiny nation.
Just like any country during wartime, Cuba has imposed some restrictions on certain freedoms. Taken on the whole, Cuba is an example of what’s possible from a tiny nation with limited resources … a lower infant mortality rate than the US, one of the best education systems in the world, one of the best health care systems amongst countries of comparable wealth and they’ve done all this to prove the superiority of a system which places human dignity over profit.
Cuba is an embarrassment to the United States because they demonstrate, with limited resources, the kind of humanity that is possible. If Cuba can provide health care to all of its citizens, certainly the US can. However, the US is still in stranglehold of cruel power brokers who prefer to expand their own personal wealth rather than contribute to humanity as a whole.
While Castro was risking his life for these rights, the majority of the United States government supporting turning firehoses and dogs on black people fighting for the right to just sit at the counter at the cafe in their neighborhood.
As I detailed in great length, the United States has supported a war against this tiny country and it is amazing to any student of military tactics that Cuba has been able to survive at all in the face of 50 years of political coup attempts and out-right terrorism like it has experienced with your tax dollars. Like I said, what I wrote here is only the tip of the iceberg in what the US has done against Cuba and its allies in Latin America.
Finally, on the matter of open source, proportionately speaking, Cuba has contributed far more than either the US government or the US corporate sector. The largest corporation in the US has spent considerable effort trying to destroy the open source movement.
So, yes, Yoani was not granted a travel visa to receive an award intended to embarrass the Cuban government. Shocking.
Meanwhile, the US has a disgusting and perverse history of blood on its hands that it will not own up to, even when the entire world demands that it does, as I’ve documented in this thread. These crimes against humanity are merely overlooked, just like you prefer to overlook the terrorist bombings and the massacres and everything else the US has done so you can point at a single incident of a blogger not being allowed to get a travel visa.
If not granting a travel visa is such a horrible thing, let me ask you this: are YOU, as a US citizen, free to travel to Cuba? Have you considered the hypocrisy of decrying the “dictatorship of Castro” for denying that travel visa while the United States exercises the same travel restrictions to Cuba?
Sorry. The entire world is on Cuba’s side and they cannot understand the violent and repressive bullying Cuba has suffered at the hands of the United States through overt actions like terrorism and long-term actions like the economic blockade.
When you can explain to me why the US harbors terrorists, promotes and funds terrorism in Latin America, has a history of overthrowing democracies in Latin America and installing US-friendly dictatorships … THEN we can talk about some of the small restrictions Castro has used to protect his country against these aggressions. I’ll await you or anyone else’s response.
“It’s pretty simple.. Cuba is a tiny island that has been fighting a revolution for the dignity of human beings for 50 years … fighting for the right to health care, housing, literacy, equal rights amongst races, national sovereignty and throughout all that time, the United States, the world’s largest superpower, has waged an illegal war against this tiny nation”
So that’s how you justify any oppressive actions against Cuban citizens … “war time” laws. Are you serious?
“When you can explain to me why the US harbors terrorists, promotes and funds terrorism in Latin America, has a history of overthrowing democracies in Latin America and installing US-friendly dictatorships … THEN we can talk about some of the small restrictions Castro has used to protect his country against these aggressions”
What does any of that have to do with the article, or the fact that Cuba DOES restrict internet access to dissident bloggers and the rest of the population? Stick to the subject, I’m sure you can find a US bashing thread somewhere else.
“While Castro was risking his life for these rights, the majority of the United States government supporting turning firehoses and dogs on black people fighting for the right to just sit at the counter at the cafe in their neighborhood. ”
For 50 years nobody else has been allowed to rule in Cuba that doesn’t have a last name of Castro. That doesn’t rub you the wrong way? Also, Cuba has a population of over 50% black people … how come they are not represented well in high ranking positions in the Castro cabinet or the party? The only one you can find is a member of the supreme court, but look at the population in that island and it in no way represents its population.
I’m also trying to figure out how Yoanni is a threat to the country. I’m free to travel pretty much anywhere to criticize or embarass the US government abroad.
How about Dr. Molina, 15 years begging to visit her family. Now she is in Argentina, had to appeal to president Cristina to be allowed to do this.
I also like how you equate not being able to travel to Cuba as the same. I actually don’t agree with that policy at all, but its existence DOES NOT excuse the behavior of the Cuban government. Please, don’t give me the laundry list of evils of the US govt and stick to the discussion.
It is the typical “catch-22 argument” used against Cuba. The United States infiltrates Cuba, bombs civilians in Cuba, bombs tourist hotels in Cuba, commits terror attacks against airline flights in Cuba and even outright invades Cuba but when Cuba implements even the slightest security measures to defend against these aggressions, it is CUBA that is to blame.
Look at the human rights that were taken away in the United States after September 11th. The loss of habeas corpus, warrantless searches, secret search warrants, “enemy combatant status” which basically strips an individual of ALL constitutional rights, Bill Maher is fired for making the wrong type of comment on TV and so on. That was in response to ONE incident.
As documented above, Posada alone has admitted to participating in FORTY-ONE acts of terrorism against Cuba, so why is it so surprising that security measures are enacted in Cuba? The United States has enacted much more repressive measures than Cuba has in the wake of 9/11, against a much smaller enemy. Meanwhile, Cuba is fighting the world’s -superpower- … so is it any surprise that there are security measures?
You can try to dodge the United States’ acts of terror against Cuba as not relevant to the point but it is 100% on-topic. How about the United States lifts the economic sanctions, ends the control of travel and ENDS the decades-long war it has waged against Cuba — leave Cuba alone — and THEN we can judge Cuba’s human rights conditions.
This should be common sense to anyone.
It isn’t true that “no one has been allowed to rule except Castro”. He has maintained his role as head of state but a real look at how democracy is implemented in Cuba will show that there is political pluralism, in many ways much more meaningful than what you get in the US. There are regular elections, people are free to vote for whom they want, people who don’t agree with everything Castro says/does is elected, there are regular neighborhood committees which directly affect the lives of Cubans and all of them are encouraged to attend and participate, etc.
In the United States, we live in a clear oligarchy where the rich control just about every community, city, state and federal power center. We essentially live in a one-party state with limited choice between the left-wing and right-wing of the same party. When Ralph Nader was banned from the presidential debates, he wasn’t even allowed to ATTEND the debates in the audience — he was threatened with arrest unless he left the premises. The police attacked the protesters at that debate and arrested people who wanted a choice in that election.
Cuba has a different form of political pluralism and I would argue that is much more fair than what exists in the United States.
As for your comments about blacks in Cuba, I won’t even dignify it with a response besides the fact that hundreds of people from all over the world have written about the amazing multiculturalism that emerged after the Batista regime fell. The United States continues to maintain the largest prison-industrial complex in the world, disproportionately black, which is increasingly privatized to, yet again, make profit.
Sorry. If you want to talk about who has contributed to repression, terrorism, violence and violation of human rights in Latin America, it makes much more sense to focus on the United States rather than Fidel Castro. The actions of the US are directly relevant to the debate and your attempt to cover up these disgusting acts of terror committed against civilians in Cuba & elsewhere in Latin America show that you are not interested in a real discussion about what is happening in the Americas.
You completely ignored the questions I raised, and as for the “multiculturalism” in Cuba … again, pretty embarrassing that none of the top leaders in the party or the government are of African origin. I think that says quite a bit.
The mentality that Castro is the only one that can be president (him and his brother) is an insult to the all the Cuban people, it is basically saying nobody in the island is qualified to rule over the commoners but these two clowns.
Also, look at how they ousted Perez Roche and some of the other government goons. No explanation was given to the Cuban people. They are treated like children!
You also failed to illustrate how Yoanni is a danger to the national security of Cuba. The fact is, the Cuban government doesn’t know how to deal with technology and specially bloggers.
That you say Cuba has made more contributions to open source than the US government or any US corporation means you know zero about open source. How many Cubans have contributed code to the Linux kernel? Can you please list them?
Repackaging and putting together a Linux distro is not the same as actually CONTRIBUTING to an open source project. You really are going to say that Cuba as a whole has put in more code in open source than say IBM ??? Are you serious? They’re probably using OpenOffice over there, guess who makes the most contributions to that project?
Has Cuba contributed a project to open source like the Federal Govt. has done with the Veternan’s affairs VistA program for hospitals? That’s a huge project with code built from scratch. What’s the equivalent?
Do you understand what the word “proportionately” means? It doesn’t seem like you do. Check out dictionary.com, and then maybe you can formulate a coherent response to my argument about Cuba’s contributions to free software and open source.
As for your question about Yoanni, she presents no danger to the national security of Cuba and that’s why she freely blogs all the time. What I find ironic about her is that she’s the perfect example of the freedom of expression in Cuba. It’s pretty laughable for her to be broadcasting to the world that she has no right to blog when she seems to be doing it every day.
As for Cuba’s contributions to open source, I’ll again just refer you to this website, they seem to have cataloged Cuba’s contributions:
http://news.nor.../category/cuba/
You’ll notice the hilarious article on there about LinkedIn banning Cuban users from being able to register at their site because it violates the US’s trade embargo.
Maybe you can explain to me the national security risk of letting Cubans use LinkedIn? hahahahaha.
And, by the way, I’ll take your lack of response about the United States’ imposing more violence, terror and repression upon the people of Latin American than Cuba ever could as acknowledgment that this is true.
I am going to officially request that Realfacts change his name to Nofacts.
All of his “US Govt. is evil” allegations are nothing more than fanciful figments of his imagination none of which are supported by true scholarship or a serious reading of the facts. But youe wacky college professors in the dirty jeans who told the students to, “Call me Phil,” must have loved you during the 10 years you meandered toward your bachelor’s degree.
In rhe mean time, Joanne Chesimard was convicted of murdering Phillip Lomonaco on a quiet stretch of Route 80 in Western NJ. He made the mistake of stopping the driver of the car she was in for speeding and Ms. Chesimard (who had escaped from prison) shot the State Trooper to avoid detection and a return to a life behind bars.
But according to Realfacts…that’s ok because decades earlier blacks in the US had to use seperate bathrooms.
Huh?
Like I said…tell that to the dead cop’s family.
In the mean time…still no answer to my question that started all this:
“Why don’t some of you tech-types who enjoy the freedonm to read this blog get together and form a WIFI equivelant of Radio Marti or Radio Free Europe…and FORCE dictators like Castro and others to deal with a public that has completely free access to the internet?”
And…
Fact: Calling anti-American crap “facts” doesn’t make any of it true.
Joe
Joe,
I’ll change my name from realfacts if you can provide any example of the facts I presented to you as being false. That’s why I specifically wrote “PROVEN FACTS” because each of those are proven facts.
Anyway, I didn’t go to college, I made my way through the school of hard knocks.
It doesn’t seem like you care at all about the 70-some innocent civilians who were bombed by US-sponsored terrorists, or the innocent civilians killed by the bombing campaign directed at Cuba’s tourist locations, or the innocent civilians killed by the contras, or the innocent civilians killed by the US-imposed, US-supported dictatorships in Latin America. Are all of those people’s lives worth less to you than a state trooper? We’re talking about tens of thousands of people assassinated, tortured, disappeared by US-sponsored dictatorships. Do those people count less to you as human beings?
I’ll reiterate again: since the US government was involved in frame-up’s and other “dirty tricks,” Assata Shakur had every reason to be afraid for her life when confronted by a law enforcement officer. If you act like a police state, you get treated like a police state.
I am a tech type but I spend my time forcing the US to have a REAL democratic media and that’s a hard enough job without getting involved in Korea or whatever.
In the mean time, I’ll be waiting for one of my previously posted PROVEN FACTS to be disproved by you. Whenever (or IF) you can, Joe.
“As for Cuba’s contributions to open source, I’ll again just refer you to this website, they seem to have cataloged Cuba’s contributions:
http://news.nor.../category/cuba/”
There is only one project in there that is original and is a video to teach kids how to use Gimp and Blender … that doesn’t mean that Cuba has contributed a single line of open source code to either project (both of which I’ve used).
That’s what I meant, what are the contributions to large well known open source projects? The site you linked to doesn’t list them at all.
As for Yoanni, the fact that she can’t travel to receive an award for her blogging, she being spied by government agents (check her pictures) and the fact that she has to hunt down for hotels and internet cafes to blog tell the whole picture.
I’m not addressing your laundry list of complaints about the US because I don’t have to, you are going to keep building straw men in a never ending circular discussion that is just meant to distract. I’m a dual citizen, do both of my countries of have to be perfect in order for me to criticize Cuba? No.
I guess you don’t know what “proportionately” means nor can you read with comprehension. The site I linked to goes into great depth about Cuba’s efforts to code device drivers for medical equipment that they can’t get because of the trade embargo, it talks about their Linux distro, it talks about their contributions to Blender, it talks about their contributions at CONSEGI and ALBA (making telecommunications a human right), about building open source computer labs, developing free software models for third world governments with Brazil, and on and on and on.
It isn’t a straw man argument to say that a tiny country under constant terrorist attack by the world’s largest superpower might need to take some security precautions. You ignore this not because it is a strawman argument — you ignore it because it devastates the lame critiques you have put forth.
Every “bad thing” you claim the Cuban government does, the United States government does, but 1000 times worse.
And yet, you don’t pick on the global superpower terrorizing anyone who stands in the way of them increasing their ability to terrorize whomever they want, whenever they want.
You pick on a tiny island country which has fought for human rights and human dignity for 60 years. What the hell’s wrong with you?
Again with the “US is worse so we can’t criticize Cuba argument”?
And one more time, it’s great that Cuba is embracing open source (they have to out of necessity) but the contributions the US government and yes even corporations give to the open source movement are not comparable even proportionately to what Cuba is doing. If you must, you can say that Cuba has embraced open source more on the “user” side of things, but not really in contributions.
I’ll keep complaining about abuses by any government in the world, it’s my right to do so. Just like it’s my right on most free countries to post my complaints and organize political parties in opposition to such governments, unlike Cuba.
“You pick on a tiny island country which has fought for human rights and human dignity for 60 years. What the hell’s wrong with you?”
I don’t think the Castro regime fights for human rights or human dignity at all. I think it’s basically two brothers who don’t trust their own people to let go of power, and as you can see in the original article, preach the evils of capitalism but have families that benefit from it while the rest of the country is not allowed to.
That’s what’s wrong with me, I hate military dictatorships … specially “presidents” that like to dress in military garb and be called “comandantes”. I lived through one of those, so of course I’m against them.
Again, you miss the point. I’ll explain it to you one more time but I can’t waste time again explaining the logic to you.
You have a tiny country who has adopted a path of social justice. The talk about all the horrifying terrorism directed towards Cuba by the United States is not to say that the US is bad and therefore this justifies what Cuba does. It is to say that BECAUSE of the attacks of the United States, Cuba must adopt certain security policies that they otherwise would not have to.
The US knows this and this is why they have kept up the harassment against Cuba for 60 years. If you hold an embargo against Cuba from their closest and largest trading partner, their economy will suffer. This makes Cuba look bad because it is much harder for them to fight the effects of poverty that affect all third world, post-colonial nations.
The US knows that if they are constantly trying to infiltrate Cuba, conduct terrorist operations in Cuba, assassinate Castro, conduct “regime change” in Cuba, then Cuba will HAVE to respond with security policies that the US can then point to and say “see?!?!? they are a dictatorship!”
This is the most basic common sense.
If you cannot understand this simple point, then I don’t know what is the goal of arguing this with you further. I’ve made this point over and over and you still don’t seem to get it. Or, more likely, you are just a partisan who doesn’t want to get it.
Military dictatorships don’t have to be run by people in “military garb.” A military dictatorship can easily be run by men in business suits who rotate out power amongst a small group of a ruling elite who all hold the same interests and just that little bit of camouflage will be enough to fool people like you.
realfacts said “Military dictatorships don’t have to be run by people in “military garb.” A military dictatorship can easily be run by men in business suits who rotate out power amongst a small group of a ruling elite who all hold the same interests and just that little bit of camouflage will be enough to fool people like you.”
Big hint that you are living in a military dictatorship; Your president dresses in military garb, asks you to call him “comandante”, and incessantly talks for hours over and over about past military victories that are irrelevant to your daily life.
Big hint that your society hasn’t achieved racial equality; Over half of your population is of a certain race and nobody from that race has ever been president of your country, nor are they “proportionately” represented in high level positions of the executive cabinet or the only legal party of the country.
Big hint that you don’t have freedom to access the internet; The government harasses dissident bloggers, blocks parts of the internet and passes laws saying that only foreigners are allowed to access the internet from hotels.
Big hint that you have no political freedom; Opposition parties don’t exist and are not legal!
Big hint that the government doesn’t want you to express your views abroad; You must ask permission to the government to travel anywhere, and permission is often not granted unless you are a member of the “PARTY”.
As for the … they’re a small island and taking the necessary precautions to protect their path to social justice, that is BS … excuses to try to hide the fact from the obvious; the main interest of the Castro brothers is to hold on to power. I actually believe they started with different goals over 50 years ago, but it is obvious they, like many humans got corrupted by tasting absolute power over their citizens.
I also encourage anybody else reading this to support Cuban bloggers and get the facts from people who actually live there;
http://www.desd...om/generaciony/ (in Spanish)
http://desdecub...om/generationy/ (in English)
As the mullahs in Iran are learning, it is becoming very hard to keep oppressing the voice of your people with the advent of the internet. Even if you keep trying to firewall your way out of oblivion, there’s always ways to get around it.
La revolución será digitalizada.
sigh.
“Under Castro, Blacks are well represented in the country’s ruling bodies. Successful Afro Cubans are quick to note that they and their children have been afforded opportunities since what they call “the triumph of the Revolution” that they would never have received under the old regime.
“Since the triumph of the Revolution, if you study, if you work hard, you will advance,” insisted Ruben Remigio Ferro, an Afro Cuban who recently became president of the Supreme Court in Cuba – the equivalent of the Chief Justice of the United States.” – Black Radical Congress
“Today the economic embargo the United States imposed on this island, which Cuba exile leaders in Miami insist on maintaining, takes its heaviest toll on Afro-Cubans. This is so because of a loophole that permits U.S. Cubans to send as much as $1,200 a year (a princely sum in Cuba) to relatives in this country.
Since most who fled Cuba are white, the money they send to people here goes largely to white Cubans, leaving Afro-Cubans to bear the brunt of the embargo’s effects. The resulting economic imbalance and its source is not lost on Afro-Cubans who vow never to allow the
exiles to regain a position of power and privilege in Cuba.” – NY Transfer News
“”We in Cuba are not so easily categorized as in the United States,” said Reynaldo Calviac Lafferte, director of the International Press Center. “In the same family, there are some who are as White as that wall.” Then he slapped his patent leathers. “And there are some who are as black as my shoes. For us, race is not an issue like it is for you.”
The director of Granma is also black: “You must understand that we are very different in Cuba,” insisted Gabriel Molina Franchossi, director of Granma newspaper, the official organ of the communist party in Cuba.
Meanwhile, in the United States, companies like Wackenhut implement a modern form of slavery over the black population:
According to a report by Drug Policy and Alliance Network, out of the “23% of New York State’s population, they comprise fully 91% of those currently incarcerated for drug felonies.”
The likelihood of black males going to prison in their lifetime is 16% compared to 2% of white males and 9% of Hispanic males.
There is also a large disparity between races when it comes to sentencing convicts to Death Row. Looking just at the federal death penalty data released by the Department of Justice between 1995-2000, 682 defendants were charged with death-eligible crimes. Out of those 682 defendants, the defendant was black 48% of the cases, Hispanic in 29% of the cases, and white in only 20% of the cases.
If a Black male drops out of high school they have a 32.4% chance of going to prison while their White and Hispanic counterparts have a 6.7% and 6% chance respectively.
“This contemporary push to privatize corrections takes place against a socioeconomic background of severe and seemingly intractable crisis. Under the impetus of Reaganite social Darwinism, with its “toughness” on criminal offenders, prison populations soared through the 1980s and into the 1990s, making the U.S. the unquestioned world leader in jailing its own populace. By 1990, 421 Americans out of every 100,000 were behind bars, easily outdistancing our closest competitors, South Africa and the then USSR. By 1992, the U.S. rate had climbed to 455. In human terms, the number of people in jails and prisons on any given day tops 1.2 million, up from fewer than 400,000 at the start of the Reagan era.
While incarceration statistics have skyrocketed, crime rates have increased much more slowly. In fact, from 1975 to 1985, the serious crime rate actually decreased by 1.42 per cent while the number of state and federal prisoners nearly doubled.”
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Harassment of bloggers…
“Josh Wolf is a U.S. blogger who was jailed by a Federal district court on August 1, 2006 for refusing to turn over a collection of videotapes he recorded during a July 2005 demonstration in San Francisco, California. Wolf served 226 days in prison at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, California, longer than any journalist in U.S. history has served for protecting source materials.”
“Indymedia is an international group of independent journalists and bloggers who provide dissident, leftist news. In the United States, Indymedia activists claim that they have been consistently harassed by law enforcement. ‘The FBI has been to my house numerous times during the anti-war protests, the FBI also came to my job on two separate occasions. I’ve been called before a grand jury, our servers have been seized by federal authorities on a number of occasions for refusing to turn over the IP addresses of people using the websites during protests. Recently, an Indymedia volunteer was thrown in jail for over 200 days. We know the government is constantly watching us; they make it very clear. Finally, we just quit logging IP addresses,’ said one Indymedia volunteer.”
Study on Social Mobility in the United States, Center for American Progress:
“Children from low-income families have only a 1 percent chance of reaching the top 5 percent of the income distribution, versus children of the rich who have about a 22 percent chance.
“Children born to the middle quintile of parental family income ($42,000 to $54,300) had about the same chance of ending up in a lower quintile than their parents (39.5 percent) as they did of moving to a higher quintile (36.5 percent). Their chances of attaining the top five percentiles of the income distribution were just 1.8 percent.
“African American children who are born in the bottom quartile are nearly twice as likely to remain there as adults than are white children whose parents had identical incomes, and are four times less likely to attain the top quartile.
“The difference in mobility for blacks and whites persists even after controlling for a host of parental background factors, children’s education and health, as well as whether the household was female-headed or receiving public assistance.
“By international standards, the United States has an unusually low level of intergenerational mobility: our parents’ income is highly predictive of our incomes as adults. Intergenerational mobility in the United States is lower than in France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Among high-income countries for which comparable estimates are available, only the United Kingdom had a lower rate of mobility than the United States.”
In the 1990s, wrote Pérez Sarduy, “the political and racial division between Cubans on the island (mainly black and brown) and Cubans in Miami (overwhelmingly white) was made apparent in the receptions each group gave South African leader Mandela: in Cuba he was welcomed as a hero, but not so in Miami. In June 1990, shortly before a planned visit to Florida as part of his U.S. tour, four Cuban American mayors of Miami signed a letter declaring Nelson Mandela persona non grata. Any sign of support for Cuba was to be denounced. (Mandela had often expressed appreciation for Cuba’s solidarity in ending apartheid.) The African American community declared a boycott of Miami, which was ineffective, and demanded an apology from the Cuban Americans, which was never offered. The conflict also signaled divisions among Cuban Americans, as Afro-Cubans distanced themselves from Cubans of Hispanic descent.”
“Massive racial differentials in account of wealth remain in the United States: between whites and African Americans, the gap is a factor of ten.” -Wikipedia
“In the United States, there are major racial differences in access to health care and in the quality of health care provided. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that: ‘over 886,000 deaths could have been prevented from 1991 to 2000 if African Americans had received the same care as whites.’ The key differences they cited were lack of insurance, inadequate insurance, poor service, and reluctance to seek care.
“one party state”:
‘Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader criticized both major political parties Thursday for limiting dissent and taking important issues off the national agenda. In a wide-ranging address at the National Press Club, Nader called the Bush administration and members of Congress “puppets” of corporate influence and said Democrats and Republicans are more similar than they are different. “We’re down to a one-party state,” he said.
POLITICAL PLURALISM IN CUBA:
How the system works:
“A total of 41,606 neighborhood assemblies took place in which more than 84% of the eligible population (from 16 years of age) participated; in other words, more than eight million Cubans.
In those assemblies it was the neighbors who nominated (with their hand raised), and who seek in their candidates not the wealthiest or most powerful, but those with more virtue, merit, knowledge and capability.
Another difference: the delegates who are elected fulfill their services to the community without receiving any salary whatsoever and without abandoning their professions and occupations.
Roberto Díaz Sotolongo, minister of justice and president of the National Electoral Commission, has stated that the nomination of candidates is one of the elements that makes the Cuban democratic system unique in the world.
In his recent book, The Buying of the President, Lewis argues that the US electoral system has broken down as, in fact, the big businesses interests select the candidates of both national parties. The real powers that exist in this country are not found on any voting slip, and are not accountable to anyone.
Moreover, he affirms, the powerful corporations back the election of candidates who are already wealthy. In the case of the aspiring presidential candidates of last year, Bush and Kerry and their vice presidents, Dick Cheney and John Edwards are all millionaires.
Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, have a $747-million fortune, of which $14.8 million corresponds to the candidate. Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney and his life Lynn Cheney possess private wealth to the tune of $111.2 million. Edwards has a fortune of $44.6 million and that of Bush stands at $18.9 million.”
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Meanwhile, Augusto finally responded to my enormous list of reasons why Cuba has had to live in “wartime socialism” for 50 years with this incredibly well-articulated argument: “that is BS” … well thought-out, with a wealth of evidence to support your claims, Augusto!
In summary, the United States in no way can be described a democracy. It is an aggressive, expansionist, imperialist oligarchy which uses its vast wealth to impose this sick system on other countries whose people don’t want to live like that. People in he United States live without health care, without social mobility, without a voice in the running of the government and they spend their entire lifetimes working for unaccountable private tyrannies who buy politicians to serve on their behalf.
In Cuba, the virtues of human compassion, social justice, health care for all, where merit matters more than how rich your daddy was. Unfortunately, the United States cannot let an example like this succeed because it would become even clearer to the world that US “democracy” is a psychotic system designed to benefit only the tiny ruling class. So, they have terrorized through violence the country that dares to defy the capitalist democratic social system. And, when Cuba takes steps to protect itself, -it- is accused of all the things the US is guilty of.
And, that’s why Cuba and Che Guevara are insanely popular in Latin America. It’s why Castro’s vision for Latin America is being implemented throughout all of Latin America, in Venezuela and Bolivia and Ecuador and Brazil and Argentina and Paraguay and Nicaragua and Honduras and so on.
I agree, the revolution is digital. And it’s happening right now as Castro’s vision for Latin America is being voted in through all of South and Central America.
No need to cut and paste articles, links will do, on afro-Cubans:
http://www.miam...art4/index.html
Yes, the Chief Justice of the supreme court is black, but what about the senior cabinet members or any of the presidents they could have had in those 50 years?
The “political pluralism” in Cuba bit is hilarious keeping in mind that there have only been to presidents in Cuba since “el derrocamiento de Batista”, and they both happen to be brothers.
Where are the opposition parties? Why are so many of the dissidents in jail?
In the meantime, I encourage everybody to read this blog entry by Yoanni comparing what is going on in Iran with Cuba;
“Tomando Nota” http://www.desd...raciony/?p=1376
“Taking Note” http://www.desd...erationy/?p=700
BTW, Brazil and Argentina are not even close to being aliened with “Castro’s vision”. The same can not be said about Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua (Paraguay, Ecuardo and Honduras are not there yet).