Cuban paradise: 9 in 1,000 access the web; 20 state agents per foreign correspondent

UNITED NATIONS — “Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right…but around the world there are governments and those wielding power who find many ways to obstruct it,” warned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon proclaiming World Press Freedom Day.
Thus when Vincente Botin, a veteran Spanish TV news reporter formerly based in Cuba, briefed UN correspondents, the message was all the more poignant. Botin, whose four year stint in Havana working for Spain’s TV Espanola, spoke of the ongoing pressures from the Castro dictatorship and the continuing attacks against the free press.

...............


Cuba holds the dubious distinction of jailing the second largest number of journalists in the world today, led only by the People’s Republic of China.

..................................

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/mz0363_04_30.asp

Cut it out. He's going to start crying.

They are what is referred to as "patriots".

---

Hold your arm chico!

:+

people in police states are always patriots who support their unelected leaders:

">

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Pathetic. :puke:

Your dark fantasies reveal. Your true hatred of Cubans revealed.
That you dare compare Cubans in Cuba to German Nazis is beyond the pale. Beyond any reasoning.

Isn't there a teabag rally for you to attend? Somewhere there must be a rally really missing your talents.

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Residents of the Nuevo Vedado neighboorhood attend a meeting during municipal
elections in Havana. Cuba’s communist system is built in part on
these block-by-block gatherings, where anyone 16 and over can nominate neighbors
and vote on candidates for local government. (AP Photo/Prensa Latina)



A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during
Cuba's municipal elections in Havana



Local residents line up early Sunday before casting
their vote at a polling station during Cuba's municipal
elections in Havana

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fucked up republicans calling Obama a Kenyan nazi and has nothing to do with the "Cuban people". It was addressed to you alone. You want to amalgamate? Then, hardcore castristas and crazy teabaggers, both fanatics.

You created your post yesterday including Nazi rally pics. It still had Nazi rally pics this morning, long after DU's edit window.

DU's post edit window is about 1 hour.

Now, some 10 hours later, the Nazi rally pics you posted that I responded to have disappeared from your post.

How did you remove the German Nazi rally pics from your post after a full day?

Where is the DU edit tag in red text in your post?


Hmmmm. Sumthin fishy goin on here.

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My real name is Paco Suarez. I am an ex-officer in the Stroessner regieme, and went to the school of the americas. The CIA recruited me when they became concerned that Peace Patriot was exposing worldwide fascism. However I am no longer on the payroll since I told the CIA that nobody read Peace Patriot's off-topic rants, so there was no need to worry.

Now I am trying to build my street-cred with the Miami Cubans since I am currently unemployed.

Who wouldn't be concerned about the unusual access after the one hour limit given for changes to a post the rest of us don't share?

Not at all above board.

Reeks of a mod edit.

Am I doing something wrong?
http://www.philanthromedia.org.nyud.net:8090/archives/GrouchoMarx.jpg http://www.whataboutclients.com.nyud.net:8090/archives/130-038~Groucho-Marx-Posters.jpg

s

El Salvador 13.6%, Guatemala 14.8%, Nicaragua 10.2%, Bolivia 10.8%, Paraguay 12.8%.

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats10.htm#spanish

http://lisawallerrogers.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/04/dec-21-1970-nixon-and-elvis.jpg

Thank you, thank you very much.

have low access, as well as other places in Latin America.

Once the embargo is lifted Cuba's numbers of accessed people will climb, clearly.

If the Cuban government didn't require a permit to get internet access. But I guess that is the fault of the embargo as well, right?

Cuba To Get High-Speed Internet In 2010

The undersea fiber optic cable being built from Venezuela to Cuba represents a departure from prior Cuban policy impeding Internet access.

By W. David Gardner
InformationWeek
July 17, 2008 02:51 PM

With some rank-and-file Cubans just beginning to get a taste of high technology, albeit still slow and very expensive, they can look forward to getting high-speed Internet links in 2010, according to new documents made public this week.
Earlier this week, Wikileaks released documents signed in 2006 by officials from Cuba and Venezuela outlining plans to build a fiber optic cable between the two countries.

"The contract between the two countries, which has been independently verified, adds weight to Cuban statements that the United States economic embargo of the island has forced it to rely on slow and expensive satellite links for Internet connectivity," said Wikileaks investigative editor Julian Assange in the report. "Cuba is situated a mere 120 kilometres off the coast of Florida. The proposed 1,500 kilometre cable will connect Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad to the rest of the world via La Guaira, Venezuela."
The cost of the Cuba-Venezuela cable wasn't revealed, but it is expected to be several times the cost of a cable that could be strung between Havana and Florida; the Cuban government has estimated a Havana-Florida cable would cost $500,000.

High-speed Internet access for Cuban nongovernment and privileged citizens like medical professionals would represent a dramatic departure from Cuba's earlier restrictions, set in late 2003. At the time, the government cracked down on Cubans who were accessing the Internet over the government's inexpensive but painfully slow telephone service.

At the time, the government said it would act to "detect and impede access to Internet navigation service."

But times have changed. In recent months, Raul Castro, the brother of longtime Cuban ruler Fidel Castro, began to permit ordinary citizens to use cell phones, although prices of the phones are beyond the means of most Cubans.

The Wikileaks report said the Cuban documents indicate the fiber optic cable between Cuba and Venezuela would permit the transmission of data, video, and VoIP calls. The agreement would also be aimed at helping build commerce among Cuba, Venezuela, and the rest of the world.

In recent years, Cuba has focused on developing open source software and has received assistance from foreigners, including some Americans. A report published by the MIT Press in 2006 noted that free and open source software in Cuba represented "an alternative path to software self-sufficiency for a resource-scarce country like Cuba."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/data/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209100701

Now, I am open-minded, if you guys can refute this stuff, please do:

A Reporters Without Borders report finds that Internet use is very restricted and under tight surveillance. Access is only possible with government permission and equipment is rationed. E-mail is monitored.<10> See also Censorship in Cuba. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba

Books, newspapers, radio channels, television channels, movies and music are heavily censored. Clandestine printing is also highly restricted.<6> In fact, the Cuban authorities have called Internet "the great disease of The 21st Century".<7> While special permits to use Internet are available to selected Cubans, use of the Internet remains restricted for the vast majority of Cubans.<8> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_cuba

A special permit is required for using the Internet in Cuba. Internet access is controlled and e-mail is monitored.<8><11>
Two kinds of online connections are offered in Cuban Internet cafes: a "national" one that is restricted to use an e-mail service operated by the government, and an "international" one that give access to the entire Internet.<11> The population is restricted to the first one, which costs 1.20 euros an hour. Most can't even afford the 4 euros an hour needed to browse the Internet, as this is approximately a third of the average monthly wage.<11> To use a computer, Cubans have to give their name and address - and if they write dissent keywords, a popup appears that the document has been blocked for "state security" reasons, and the word processor or browser is automatically closed.<11> Foreign visitors who allow Cubans to use their computers are harassed and persecuted.<11>
........................

Of course, as you refute me, you might want to also correct Wikipedia's errors.

Aren't you aware people go there and wage WARS over the information, and that in many cases it's a matter of the last man standing, the last one who gets the last shot at editing who determines what gets seen at any given moment?

It can be used as a general source, but to take it as the ultimate authority is simply SILLY. All the politically loaded issues get doctored over and over.

There are specific sources cited for the information. If it's so wrong, it should be easy to refute, yet you will not.

As open minded as anyone who compares German Nazis to Cubans in Cuba can get.

But the people won't.

But alas I can't keep you from reading it, too.

Its called a contract with your ISP - the ISP's contract terms and structure has to be approved by the gov prior. ISPs cannot connect you to a legal account w/o a legal contract.


Corporate/government permission.

One is an actual law by a government. Another is a service contract, which of course can be avoided by starting your own ISP, which you are free to do in this country.

Provided you meet all government permitting, regulations and requirements. If you don't comply with the rules and regulations as set by the government then American jackboots will come and bust up your illegal business and might even lock you up in an American corporate prison.


You must be a Libertarian teabagger.

They don't check for your political stance here to get on the internet.. witness that you are online right now.

but you never know!

Billy, oh billy, you grasp at straws

back at ya.