Both cell phone and internet usage in Cuba are highly restricted with very low numbers of users compared with the rest of the hemisphere. Yoani Sánchez discusses how Cubans try to circumvent this.
Google Ideas - Conflict in a Connected World - Disconnected Dissent
How does a digital activist function in a country where there is no Internet? Yoani Sánchez shared her personal story. Yoani Sánchez, Blogger and Activist
Google Ideas - Conflict in a Connected World - Disconnected Dissent
How does a digital activist function in a country where there is no Internet? Yoani Sánchez shared her personal story. Yoani Sánchez, Blogger and Activist
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What Yoani Sanchez does I see it as relevant to the democratization process happening inside Cuba, it however doesn't reach enough relevance to truly concern the common Cuban inside the island. What she does is of much more interest to the foreign press and the media than to the actual cubans who do not have the current privileges and financial backing she as an individual has gained abroad. This is a really tough problem for cubans and it points to the fact that in Cuba political activism is not enough to bring social changes when such activism is mainly being filtered through the use of the internet. We can't overlook that Yoani's activism would be more relevant to real cubans in need (and much more relevant than the overrated media attention she has gathered) if the impact she has in the foreign media were matched with the impact she has in the lives of ordinary cubans. That would be real political activism. If we started we the premise that the relevance of what she does should have more impact inside the island than abroad great deal of her true motives and interests would have become sharper and more transparent. Otherwise, everything seems as if she is just fighting for her own digital freedom without her struggle being truly representative of the toughest fights that many cubans face inside the island.
ReplyDeleteIn a totalitarian society such as Cuba even fighting for ones digital freedom is also important. Perhaps the questions you raise are about the "overrated" media attention should be addressed to the media that does not report with equal vigor on the activists on the ground who are being beaten and imprisoned. Yoani herself has addressed the issue pointing out that international media accredited in Havana auto-censor themselves in order to remain on the island. Others who engaged in more objective reporting have been expelled.
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