A Cuban Blogger Speaks

Courtesy of Harry's Place, a Cuban blogger, el cubano de la isla, weighs in on the status of free expression in Castro's Cuba:

Twenty years ago, expressing opinions contrary to those of the government in the street could result in a beating from passers-by.

Today, things are very different. You can say whatever you like in the street without anything happening to you. People have lost that political fanaticism.

But that is only in the street, among the ordinary people. Questioning any official policy or leader in front of an official or policeman is classified as subversion. There is no middle ground - you are either with the government or against it.

Similarly, the internet is completely under state control. The state monopolises 100% of the information that a normal Cuban receives - the internet is seen as a threat to the system.

(Emphasis added-DD)


It's a sad commentary on the state of American librarianship that denial of the Cuban dictatorship's brutal suppression of intellectual freedom is still taken seriously within our profession.