Cuba's Forum on Alternative Media and Social Networks Ignores
Alternative Voices
Posted: 12/ 2/11 10:12 PM ET
The sign reads: Alternative media and social networks. New scenarios of
political communication in the digital environment.
Architecture that was once daring, a carefully tended lawn and
well-guarded doors to ward off the curious. The Palace of Conventions
has been the site of so very many events organized by the government
that it is difficult to separate its name from the word "official." It
has also served as the parliamentary hall for a National Assembly that
doesn't have its own space and refuses to use the gorgeous chamber of
Havana's Capitol. This, in the inner sanctum of the state and
government, has been the site of this week's Forum on Alternative Media
and Social Networks, called by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The
ragged grass of any park would have been a better site, but there the
participants would have been exposed to passersby and the uninvited...
and this, of course, they could not allow.
In a country where the alternative blogosphere and twittersphere are
both expanding, they held a meeting on Web 2.0 without inviting a single
non-institutional voice. To ignore the existence of "the other" is at
the very least childish; to hold exclusive events to talk about social
networks displays a strong fear of differences. Perhaps among the
attendees -- from five continents -- none was warned about the
ideological bias of the Forum. They probably truly believed they would
find the wide range of opinions so strongly on display in the blogs and
Cuban-themed sites created on and off the island. But what they
discovered was a structured script, where the Internet is analyzed as a
weapon, a trench, a shield. The already exhausted methods of political
confrontation and extremism, now painted over with a thin mantle of
kilobytes.
It's enough to read the 14 points that came out of the meeting, which
lasted two days, to conclude that the participants weren't there to be
heard but rather to receive instructions. I found one of the accords
especially surprising for the authoritarianism it reveals: the one where
daily hashtags are established for use on Twitter. As if they don't
realize that putting this mandate in writing exposes the lack of
spontaneity of their Web campaigns. To the organizers of this Forum,
believe me: defined sets of labels, mandated articles, imposed postures,
have nothing to do with social media or alternative media. The seams of
the vertically ordered are obvious. Readers prefer the spontaneity of
the individual who interacts horizontally with others, versus agreements
reached in the office of some palace official, in the most official zone
of this city.
The Declaration that came out of the event is translated below from the
text in Cafe Fuerte.
Final Declaration of the International Workshop "Alternative media and
social networks, new scenarios of political communication in the digital
realm." Havana, November 29-30, 2011.
Delegates from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Spain, USA, France, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Palestine, Venezuela, participants in the International Workshop
"Alternative media and social networks, new scenarios of political
communication in the digital realm," Havana, November 29-30, 2011,
present the following:
Create a directory of contacts with participants of the event
to allow us to connect in real time and face attacks against our
countries, alert us to different topics and place our messages. This
directory will be sent via email. (Ventanapolitica@yahoo.es)
Articulate a collaborative network, starting with the
participants in this international workshop, that allow us to socialize
content, information, contacts and experiences to work on Internet
platforms and tools, on the basis of a defined political strategy. Its
expression on the Web will be the www.ventanapolitica.wordpress.com blog.
Work together synergistically on the overall campaign.
Generate actions to enhance the continuous updating and
training in the effective use of new technologies in the context of
hypermedia, support the creation of multidisciplinary teams and the use
of online tools and services such as videoconferencing, online courses,
and others.
Create a multidisciplinary group, including technical experts,
that allow us to assess all the proposals we articulate emanating from
the network.
Support the reissue of events like the World Bloggers Meeting
or this Workshop on Alternative Media and Social Networking.
Promote the creation of quality content, that allow us to
overcome our shortcomings in technological development.
Support the incorporation into the network of younger
generations and transform them into active progressive forces in these
new platforms.
Work together to design communication projects in social
networks and other media that include the variety of themes, media and
channels, as well as different audiences.
Intensify work and research, in order to design and create our
own alternatives (such as platforms, support, and even information
security services) that allow us technological independence from the
empires of capitalist production.
Express our solidarity and support with the newspaper La
Jornada, a publication that has been maligned by the magazine Letras
Libres which has accused this prestigious Mexican publication, without
arguments or evidence, of being complicit in terrorism.
The theme of the five Cubans unjustly sentenced in the United
States must be an axis of permanent struggle. And it will be efficient
if we always keep in our minds that each one of us could be in their
place. Every Cuban could be one of the 5. Demand the return of the 5
Cuban heroes to their homeland. Send a daily Twitter message in favor of
their release. Create and utilize the following hashtags: #FreetheFive
#Liberenlos5ya, #LosCinco, #TheFive.
Convert the interventions of Aylin, Rosa Aurora and Olguita
into a group of tweets that are socialized at once.
Explore with our respective responsible government bodies the
appropriateness of the mechanisms of integration that exist or are now
being born in Latin America and the Caribbean to give priority to the
issue of Communication and especially to the alternative media and
social networks for the dissemination of the new reality to our
geographical area.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cuban-forum-alt-media_b_1126398.html
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