Stories about Cuba from October, 2008
Ibero-America: Campus Party in El Salvador
This week in El Salvador, hundreds of technology fanatics have assembled to take part in the latest edition of Campus Party. Participants from 22 member states are divided into one of a broad range of areas including: Astronomy, CampusBot (robotics), Innovation, Modding, Campus Create, Digital Leisure and Digital Inclusion. The participation of bloggers have captured the feeling of being in a room with their fellow technology enthusiasts through their blog posts, photos and videos.
Cuba, U.S.A.: Voting on the Embargo
The United Nations General Assembly yesterday approved a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo. For the seventeenth year running, the vote went in favor of the Cuba-sponsored resolution and bloggers - from the diaspora and from Cuba herself - have had a lot of say on the subject.
Cuba: Categorizing
Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez refuses to be labeled.
Cuba: Ties That Bind?
Steven's Cuba Blog and Havana Times report on the formal resumption of ties between the European Union and Cuba, while Child of the Revolution adds: “the Cubans say they are happy to restart an open and constructive dialogue with the EU – on the Cubans’ terms, of course, which essentially...
Cuba, Jamaica: Press Freedom Index
Diaspora bloggers from Cuba (Uncommon Sense) and Jamaica (My View of JamDown from Up So) talk about where their respective countries fall in the recently-released Reporters Without Borders 2008 press freedom index.
Cuba, U.S.A.: More than Politics
“Whatever you might think about Barack Obama or his economic plan, doesn't it diminish the suffering of the Cuban people to transform it into a mere debating point in order to discredit Obama's proposals?” Uncommon Sense says that Cuba deserves better.
Cuba, U.S.A.: Havana & Obama
Havana-based blogger Circles Robinson comments on the US presidential campaign: “Most Cubans made up their minds on who they favor shortly after the Democratic Party primary ended. Not that people are enamored with either of the two major parties, but they at least see a ray of hope for improved...
Cuba: Imprisoned
Diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense calls Cuba the “concentration camp of the Caribbean”, while Havana-based Generation Y blogs about the rise of prices on the informal food market, saying: “These days, chanting ‘Eeee-eeeggs’ may be more dangerous than chanting anti-government slogans. OK, let’s not exaggerate, opinion has always been punished more.”
Cuba: War Reflections
“Today, we are informed about every loss suffered by the American army in Iraq but I remember the secrecy about the number of Cuban soldiers who fell during the Angolan War”: Generation Y reflects on the loss of life as a film about the Cuban war in Angola is released...
Cuba: Human Rights Activist Re-Arrested
Cuban diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense reports that a Cuban human rights activist who was paroled from prison earlier this year because of poor health, now faces up to five years in prison “on a charge of ‘attacking’ — which has been used before to silence critics of the dictatorship.”
Cuba: Keep on Blogging
Generation Y offers encouragement to a rural blogger (whom she refers to as “peasant of agile keys and posts as sharp as machetes”), who paints a picture of what blogging in Cuba is like: “Time is scarce and expensive. You have to resend posts and emails that are interrupted when...
Cuba, U.S.A.: Thoughts on the Embargo
Cuban diaspora blogger Child of the Revolution disagrees with the suggestion of an “independent scholar” that “lifting the embargo is no longer ‘just a noble but hopeless idea’ but smart politics.”
The Blogging Revolution: from Iran to Cuba
Antony Loewenstein, a Sydney-based freelance journalist and blogger, has recently published his new book: The Blogging Revolution. This book talks about the impact of blogging on six countries: Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Cuba.
Cuba: Helping the Victims
Yoani Sanchez takes a road trip to help some of the most severely affected Cuban hurricane victims and says: “I returned and confirmed that the recovery will take years, that hope is scarce and that the worst may be yet to come when the enthusiasm for helping fades.”
Cuba: Showcasing an Everyday Hero
Ronald from Guamo blog honors an everyday hero in Cuban's lives: the lathe operator [es] . In a country where spare parts are quite impossible to get, the ingenuity and creativity of lathe operators who can create pieces out of scrap metals to reinvent motors and equipment parts is priceless.
Cuba: Food Prices
In an effort to counter rising food prices resulting from hurricane-related shortages, the Cuban government has frozen food prices. Cuban diaspora bloggers La Primera Generacion and Black Sheep of Exile respond.
Cuba: To Catch a Thief
“With Gustav and Ike, Cuba’s proven civil defense system once again demonstrated how well Cubans can organize. Despite the hurricanes’ enormous destruction, only seven people died. However, the storms have greatly magnified the shortcomings in the island’s economy…” Circles Robinson thinks that one of those shortcomings is workplace theft.
