March 25, 2011
Internationally acclaimed blogger Yoani Sanchez says that the Cuban
government, in its attempt to destroy her by denouncing her on state
television, has given her the greatest gift of all -- recognition within
her own country.
Since the program "Cuba's Reasons" accused her and other bloggers of
joining the United States in a "cyberwar" against the communist island
-- while publicly displaying her name and face -- she says she has
experienced unprecedented praise for her work by fellow Cubans.
She wrote in her blog, Generation Y, on March 23:
The tangible result is that my phone hasn't stopped ringing and I'm
hoarse from talking to so many people who have come to show me their
solidarity. My sunglasses -- as big as owl's eyes -- are no longer
enough camouflage for me to pass unnoticed in my city. Every few yards
someone approaches me on the street to offer words of encouragement and
even big hugs, the kind that take my breath away.
What's happening on this island such that those of us "stoned" by
official insults have become so attractive? What happened to the time
when aggravating State media represented years and years of ostracism
and vilification? When did the spontaneous anger against those
slandered, the sincere punch in the face for the stigmatized, fade away?
I swear I was not prepared for this. I imagined that 24 hours after this
pack of lies, told in emulation of Big Brother, everyone would pull
away, stare fixedly at the cobwebs on the wall whenever I passed by. The
result, however, has been so different: a complicit wink, a pat on the
shoulder, the pride of neighbors who are surprised because a certain
quiet and frail little woman who lives on the fourteenth floor is
apparently enemy number one -- at least this week -- until the next to
be stoned appears.
And I'm not the only one. Almost all the bloggers whose names and images
appeared on the "Interior Ministry Soap Opera" are experiencing similar
situations. Vendors at the farmers' market who hand them a piece of
fruit in passing, drivers of collective taxis who say, "You don't pay
today, sir, it's on the house." If the scriptwriters of that courtroom
TV show had calculated such a response at the grassroots level, I think
they would have refrained from putting our faces on television. But it's
already too late. The word "blog" is now irrevocably linked with our
faces, glued to our skin, associated with our actions, tied to popular
concerns, and synonymous with that prohibited zone of reality that is
becoming more and more magnetic, more and more admired.
Sanchez, by her own admission, long remained a virtual unknown in her
own country. The communist island has one of the lowest
Internet-penetration rates in Latin America, with 14 percent of the
country online, up from 0.5 percent in 2000. But, as Sanchez writes,
only senior Cuban officials and foreigners can set up the Internet at
their home, and the vast majority of Cubans cannot afford to pay to use
it at hotels and cafes.
And, even when locals are able to access the Internet, it remains
heavily censored. The state started blocking Sanchez's blog in March
2008, about a year after she created it. Only last February, for reasons
unknown, was it unblocked.
Sanchez often sends entire blog posts via text message to people outside
Cuba to be posted on Generation Y, and international volunteers help
translate the blog into 15 languages.
In 2009 she was chosen as one of "Time" magazine's 100 most influential
people, and Generation Y was listed as one of the 25 best blogs in the
world. Her blog gets millions of hits every month, and each post
thousands of comments.
The Cuban government made two bets and lost them both in attacking her
on state television. First, that it could frighten her into scaling
down, or stopping her activities. Second, that the people of Cuba
support their government's scare tactics and believe its propaganda --
and maybe, that they support their government at all.
-- Courtney Brooks
http://www.rferl.org/content/transmission_cuban_blogger_faces_down_big_brother/3536942.html
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