Posted: February 9, 2011 04:00 PM
My Blog Is Once Again Visible In Cuba
Seated in the armchair of a hotel with my laptop open, I note the slow
blinking of the WiFi transmitter and watch the stern faces of the
custodians. This could be one more day trying to enter my own blog with
an anonymous proxy, jumping over the censorship with a few tricks that
let me look at the forbidden. On the bottom of the screen a banner
announces that I'm navigating at 41 kilobytes a second. Joking with a
friend I warn her we'd better hold onto our hair so it won't get messed
up from "speeding." But the narrow band doesn't matter much this
February afternoon. I'm here to cheer myself up, not to get depressed
all over again by the damned situation of an Internet undermined by
filters. I have come to see if the long night of censorship no longer
hangs over Generation Y. With just a click I manage to enter the site
that, since March of 2008, has not been visible from a public place. I'm
so surprised I shout and the camera watching from the ceiling records
the fillings in my teeth as I laugh uncontrollably.
After three years, my virtual space is again sighted from inside Cuba.
I don't know the reasons for the end to this blockade, although I can
speculate that the celebration of the 2011 Havana International Computer
Science Fair has brought many foreign guests and it is better to show
them an image of tolerance, of supposed openings in the realm of citizen
expression. It is also possible that after having proved that blocking a
website only makes it more attractive to internauts, the cyberpolice
have chosen to exhibit the forbidden fruit they so demonized in recent
months. If it's because of a technical glitch that will soon be
corrected, once again throwing shadows over my virtual diary, then there
will be plenty of time to loudly denounce it. But for the moment, I make
plans for the platforms www.vocescubanas.com and www.desdecuba.com to
enjoy a long stay with us.
This is a citizen victory over the demons of control. We have taken back
what belongs to us. These virtual places are ours, and they will have to
learn to live with what they can no longer deny.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/my-blog-is-once-again-vis_b_820917.html
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