From The Sunday Times
May 17, 2009
Clipping Castro one blog at a time
Cubans are forbidden to log on, yet Yoani Sanchez’s website has made her a subversive star
Yoani Sanchez

Sanchez was recently named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for her blog, in which she reflects on everyday life in Cuba
Matthew Campell

CUBAN dissidents have found a brave new figurehead in Yoani Sanchez, a blogger whose observations about life in one of the world’s last communist bastions have angered the state and made her a global celebrity.

Sanchez, a 33-year-old philologist, has attracted a loyal fan base with her gentle mockery of the regime in Havana, which seems to be at a loss over how to rein in “cyber-space rebels”.

“They regard me as an enemy of the state,” said Sanchez last week in a telephone interview. “That is because the blogging phenomenon has opened up a crack in government control which is almost impossible to repair.”

Although it is read all over the world, Sanchez’s blog, Generation Y, is blocked in Cuba. However, like Soviet-era homemade samizdat copies of censored books, it circulates on computer memory sticks and CDs as well as on paper.


“I know that I am being read because people recognise me in the street,” said Sanchez, who sometimes has had to pose as a Swiss tourist so as to be able to post her blog on the internet from a Havana hotel. “People come up to me all the time to wish me luck.”

The government of Raul Castro, 77-year-old brother of the retired Fidel, accuses her of being part of a “counter-revolutionary” conspiracy. Elsewhere she is regarded as a hero: Time magazine recently named her among the 100 most influential people in the world.

Last year Spain awarded her one of its most prestigious journalism prizes.

She was not allowed out of the country to collect it - nor to attend the party held yesterday in Italy for the publication of Cuba Libre, a collection of her blogs - but her prominent international profile protects her in a country where dissidents routinely end up in jail.

Besides being denied an exit visa, she has found her freedom to travel inside Cuba restricted. “We’re treated like schoolchildren: we need permission to go anywhere,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve been misbehaving so I’m not allowed.”

She believes that the election of President Barack Obama in the United States will put pressure on the government to allow more political openings. In the end, though, change will be imposed by the Cubans themselves, she predicted.

“People are waking up from a long cycle of silence,” she said, adding that technology such as digital video and the internet was making it much more difficult for the government to maintain its control.

“My philosophy,” said Sanchez, who is under constant surveillance by the state security apparatus, “is that if they watch me, I’ll watch them. I make videos of things all the time, which I put on the internet.”

Her blog last week featured a visit to one of Havana’s hotels by Sanchez and her husband. Sanchez filmed while he asked a receptionist if he could buy an hour’s internet access. The woman explained to him that new rules forbid Cubans from logging onto the internet from hotels.

Sanchez said this would not affect her blog, however. “We’re slippery people,” she laughed. “If they want to restrict us, we’ll always find other ways.”

Necessity has prompted extraordinary creativity among Cubans, she says, adding that homemade computers built from black-market parts have proliferated in recent years.

In a posting on Friday, she highlighted the case of an “alternative technician” friend who had bartered his watch for a microprocessor to make his computer.

He dreams of leaving the country and marrying a foreigner who would give hima new computer on his wedding day “to which he would not have to add any bolts”.

Other recent postings include film of Sanchez speaking out against censorship at an arts performance in Havana. She has also encouraged people to bang their pots and pans at night in protest. Film of these cacerolazos, as they are known, has appeared on the internet.

The government has branded her antics “a provocation against the Cuban revolution” but Sanchez puts a brave face on harassment by the state.

“They’re trying to make mea radioactive person,” she said. “But I don’t like the role of victim. I try to respond with a smile.”

As for the Castro “dynasty”, she believes that it has run out of steam. “The Cuban system is like one of those gravity-defying houses in Old Havana,” she said. “How does it stay up? Maybe one day they pull a small nail from the door and the house comes tumbling down. In today’s Cuba, that small nail could be anything.”

Perhaps it will be her.
Gimmerbrain maybe you feel she should be arrested by the secret police for ruining your dream society

RE:Ha Ha the jokes on all the lefties waiting for the Embargo to be lifted

ANALYSIS-No bloom yet in US-Cuba ties after April overtures
CUBA-USA/ (ANALYSIS):ANALYSIS-No bloom yet in US-Cuba ties after April overtures

* Overtures in April raised hopes of rapprochement

* Conditionality debate suggests breakthrough not near



HAVANA (Reuters) - The United States and Cuba offered a glimmer of hope last month that they might be ready to end years of hostility, but neither side has moved much since then to widen that window of opportunity.

In mid-April, President Barack Obama pledged a "new beginning" with Cuba after slightly easing the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the communist-ruled Caribbean island that reflects decades of Cold War enmity.

But Obama quickly made clear that further moves toward normalization hinged on Cuba freeing political prisoners and showing progress on human rights.

From his side, Cuban President Raul Castro made what some called a groundbreaking public offer to hold talks with Washington about everything, including political prisoners.

But Havana swiftly clarified this by insisting it had no intention of making concessions to satisfy the Americans.

Despite news from the U.S. State Department that informal talks were subsequently held with the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, many observers fear the good vibes of April may be fading as both sides fall back on old positions.

"There is no process, nothing under way. The story now is of deflated expectations," said Washington attorney Robert Muse, who specializes in Cuba issues.

Obama has said he wants to "recast" U.S.-Cuba ties. On April 13, he ended Bush era restrictions on Cuban Americans' right to travel and send remittances to their homeland. He also removed curbs on U.S. telecommunications firms who want to operate on the island 90 miles from Florida.

But while Obama has moved away from the aggressive hard line of President George W. Bush, who openly urged the overthrow of Cuba's government, the insistence that further steps depend on Cuban concessions has disappointed groups pushing for normalization of relations.

Critics say this same conditionality was pursued unsuccessfully by most of the preceding 10 U.S. presidents who served since Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution.

"I don't see that the Obama administration has really done anything to change the policy, the atmosphere," said Wayne Smith, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana who is now with the Center for International Policy in Washington.

BILLS IN CONGRESS

"We need to make it clear that our policy is no longer as it was under Bush -- to bring down the Cuban government. Our policy is to have dialogue and begin to resolve problems and disagreements between us," he said in a recent trip to Cuba.

While anti-embargo groups voice frustration with Obama, they generally assume his current position is not fixed in stone and is more likely a product of political bargaining or perhaps inexperience, than a reflection of his true beliefs.

Some say he may be trying to aid the passage of bills pending in the U.S. Congress that would lift the ban on travel to Cuba for all Americans.

"I suspect it has to do with bills in Congress he wants to get through and he's receiving signals that if he goes too far, they (opponents) will try to block the measures," said Smith.

Cuba, which presents itself as the aggrieved victim in U.S.-Cuba relations, has done little to encourage Obama.

Fidel Castro, now 82, who was replaced as Cuba's president by his younger brother, Raul, last year, said Raul's offer of talks was misinterpreted by the Obama administration.

Since then, Cuban leaders have struck a consistently negative tone by deriding Obama's embargo-easing steps as minimal, maintaining their harsh rhetoric against the U.S. and offering nothing concrete to get negotiations started.

"We have to do absolutely nothing, except take note of and recognize the corrective steps when they take them," Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's parliament, told CNN last week.

Raul Castro had already said in a January television interview: "We are not in any hurry. We are not desperate."

On the key U.S. issues of political prisoners and human rights, Cuba has said these are sovereign domestic matters.

The European Union, which has restarted talks with Cuba after years of strained relations, got a taste of what may lie ahead for the United States at a meeting last week in Brussels with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

He described EU concerns about human rights in Cuba as "obsolete" and "an obstacle to the process of normalization".

The Cuban side argued there were "no political prisoners" in Cuba, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout.

Human rights groups estimate Cuba has 200 political prisoners. Raul Castro has offered to send some to the United States in exchange for five Cuban agents imprisoned there.

Supporters of a changed U.S. Cuba policy say they hope Obama will move ahead without concessions from Havana because the wait for compromise could be a long one, especially since there is broad world support for an end to the U.S. embargo......DONT HOLD YOUR BREATH YOU JERKS

Sure a thousand differences - China has gross pollution, low life expeactancy, poor medical service, incredibly poor people scratching a living in many parts of the country, rampant corruption, sweatshops employing children, bogus accounting. Still while the fat cats of the evil empire USA make money out of thisand they ignore the plight of the people. Just recently talked io a European living in Cuba with wide experience of other Latin Amrican countries and he reckons they are doing OK.
Castro has the interests of his people at heart and will sure drive a hard bagain to protect them from the ravages of US domination.
We do have some idiots posting Cuba is light years ahead of China!
http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/2006/WalmartsSweatshops.html
S.

ABC in your lifetime you will be able to enjoy the sight of people defecating on Castros and Che their most sacred revolutionary sites The nightmare of socialism is slowly but surely coming to an end in Cuba as they beg to no avail to lift the American embargo What cant the rest of the world save them ?Do their new rice cookers need spare parts ? Obama is going to continue to hang them out to dry One more hurricane and KAPUT ! CASTRO

the question is who is agressor here?

don't you read history? look for the PLATT AMENDMENT

And talking about the embargo every country is suppose to have its sovereignty but US keep the embargo unilaterally even it has been condemned for almost all states at UN.

*remember all the dictatorship in latin america has been supported by US, and we never saw an embargo against one of them (and they were worse than Castro speaking about Human Rights)

* I see a lot of people speaking about the failure of the Castro but the true is that our Countries (the others latin american countries) have goverments with the US support and I don't the difference in human development comparing it to Cuba and sometimes Cuba is better (Education, Health, and sometimes in Food) and all that is with the embargo. our country (Dominican Republic is everey time a little bit worst-corruption, delincuency, poverty enhancement, Health) that's happening with democratics goverments.

my opinion is that US should let Cuba free of the embargo they don' t have the right to do that to Cuba
retire the embargo and let Cuban "without excuse" to their development. No to the interference, is enough

we aren't in the Cold War era, Cuba is not a Terrorist State!

WElcome Eliseo!!

Vaild points, but I doubt Mr Dobbs will absorb any of it !! He is twice as bad as any dictator !!

Is our soothsayer saying the end of the world is nigh!
Cuba is admired the World over!
Everyday, we in India and many other countries the world over are repeatedly told that the economy can no longer afford to sustain the social security benefits that were given to its citizens earlier. We can no longer afford free education, we can no longer get subsidised health care, cheap transport and a host of other services that were once available at subsidised rates and that we will have to pay for them. While there is an increase in productivity, we are told that the possibility of providing social security is diminishing. But this is not the case with Cuba, which despite severe constraints imposed by the US blockade is pledged to not just continue but also expand such benefits to its people.


Health and education continue to be the major priorities for the Cuban revolution. Half of Cuba’s doctors (3000), along with many others privileged sections of Cuba’s populace, deserted Cuba after the revolution. Cuba now has 67,000 doctors, i.e. twenty per single doctor who deserted the island country. It has the highest number of doctors per head of population anywhere in the world. While there were just 97 hospitals in 1958, Cuba now has 267. There is one doctor per every 169 persons, the infant mortality rate is 6.5 as compared to 60 at the time of time of the revolution, and all births take place under medical care. This is the lowest for any third world country and even surpasses many capitalist powers. Even in the US the infant mortality rate is 8. Life expectancy has risen from 55 to 76 years. Health care, including advanced surgical procedures, is free for all its citizens. Even neuron transplants done for Parkinson’s disease is done for free.



One of the prime reasons for the increased life expectancy, apart from the improved health care, is provision of nutrition for the masses. Despite the criminal economic blockade that it has been subjected to, Cuba has been able to provide its citizens adequate nutrition that has resulted in increased life expectancy. Children are provided a litre of milk a day free of cost.



Cuba continues to send thousands of health professionals to other countries to provide assistance, even outstripping the WHO in providing doctors to the third world countries. It had sent hundreds of its doctors to Angola. Currently there are over 2000 health professionals from Cuba working in more than 50 countries, Brazil being one of them.

http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/long_live_the_cuban_revolution_people_democracy/
The embargo will be lifted:
http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/rep-rangel-embargo-to-end-within-18-months-delahunt-bill-in-november/
S.

the Castros's Goverment is not ending, if they die the legacy is so strong that Cuba will not change so much.

I saw a documentary of an american reporter interviewing Fidel Castro and something that really shocked me was the way he walks around all the people in the streets, markets, commercial centers and he only had two cars transporting him.

if it's another president we see an entire army transporting it for his secutiry

face the reason the Castro goverment doesn't end it's because most of the people is from his side.

see also the other post I left in the forum

Life expectancy in Cuba nears U.S. figure


By: Sunil Freeman


Health care system grows stronger despite blockade

Fidel Castro celebrated his 80th birthday in August, a remarkable achievement, given the 600 documented assassination plots he has survived. His longevity sheds a generous spotlight on a simple fact of life in Cuba’s socialist society: People in Cuba live long lives. In fact, the average life span of a Cuban citizen is equivalent to that of a citizen of the United States.

Cubans have undoubtedly suffered heavily because of U.S. policies that aim to isolate the country internationally, including its criminal support of terrorist attacks on Cuba and its decades-long blockade. Still, an extraordinarily resilient and courageous society not only survives but also has the figures to prove it.

The 2007 CIA World Factbook reveals that the average life expectancy for Cubans is 77.08 years. The book, an annual publication compiled by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, contains statistical information on countries worldwide. The Factbook notes that life expectancy in the United States is 78 years.

An April 22 Associated Press news story quoted a 70-year-old retired gas station attendant who candidly described life in Cuba: “Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don’t. But there aren’t elderly people sleeping on the street like other places.”

She may well have been alluding to the United States, a fabulously wealthy country just north of her island home. Here unimaginable wealth is concentrated in the hands of a microscopically small capitalist class, while on any given night nearly a million people go homeless.

In contrast, there is virtually no homelessness in Cuba, a relatively poor, developing country. The tightening of the U.S. blockade in the aftermath of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s former main trading partner, has caused shortages of food, medicine and other needed goods. To manage the shortages and protect against malnutrition, Cuba has a highly equitable food rationing and distribution system. Food supplies have markedly improved in recent years.

Why is the Cuban life expectancy equivalent to that of the United States? We’d have to start by noting that Cubans have free medical care. In contrast, in the United States more than 45 million citizens—not to mention the millions of undocumented—have no health insurance. Those tens of millions, many of them children, are left virtually to their own wits if they get sick, or hurt, in the capitalist system.

Obviously, a society that offers free medical care, with an emphasis on preventive health care, will have citizens with a longer average life span.

But there may be more at play here. Western scientists have been slowly coming to terms with the understanding that mind and body work together and that stress can be a major factor in bringing on illness. Cuba is a socialist society, where resources are used to meet human needs.

hen a major hurricane hit Cuba, the people had been prepared and knew what to do. The community was prepared, and casualties were minimal. In Cuba, emergency preparedness planning and medical resources are designed to meet the needs of the entire community.

Contrast that with the U.S. government’s lackadaisical reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The non-response revealed more than incompetence. It exposed the essence of the capitalist system. People with money drove away before the hurricane hit, and those without money climbed to rooftops if they were lucky enough to survive the onrushing waters. Jazz plays again in the city, but for poor people the reconstruction of New Orleans has been nothing but a sick joke.

Although Cuba is a poor country, its citizens simply don’t have the stresses of life under capitalism, where millions of people are just a few paychecks away from life on the street and know it. This could well be part of the reason that the CIA Factbook shows that Cubans have a life expectancy roughly equivalent to that of the United States. The Cuban experience also shows how a society can be built to meet people’s needs, and for this—for presenting an alternative—the United States has sought to destroy its example.

Free the US people!
S.