Internet, is it worth it or not? / Miriam Celaya

Internet, is it worth it or not? / Miriam Celaya
Miriam Celaya, Translator: Norma Whiting

In the last couple of days, a friend e-mailed me several interesting
articles that generally revolve around the issue of Internet use and its
role in social movements. Since that topic interests me and is part of
me in many ways, I wanted to share with the readers some considerations.

The internet, blogs, social networks and citizen journalism are part of
a phenomenon of our times, when the flight of information, technology,
and communication invades every aspect of daily life, more directly in
countries with greater access thereto. About the events in North Africa
during the so-called Arab spring, there are many who have overstated the
importance of the digital media as a release vehicle in the overthrow of
dictatorial regimes. There have also been critics who have claimed it's
been used fraudulently by "outside interests" and may not reflect the
aspirations of the masses involved, which determined that the rebellions
took place as an epidemic. Is the internet or are the civic forces the
current triggers of the processes for change? Are the two mutually
exclusive or complementary? Clearly, when it comes to measuring the
impact of a factor in social processes, opinions often reach opposite
extremes.

However, in the case of Cuba, a country with a very minimal level of
connectivity, what is the significance of social networks, blogs and
Internet use in general? None and much. Can the new technologies help
chart a course and determine democratic changes in Cuba? No and yes.

The contradiction is only apparent. Regarding the first question, and
given the negligible level of access to networks available to the Cuban
people, it would seem that they are equally invalid in the face of
changes we need to promote in Cuba. However, it can be said that the
relevance of the emergence of an alternative blogosphere and the sudden
proliferation of social networks, despite the difficulties of connection
and backward technology-including limited and primitive cell phone
service- are practically the only possible challenge to the monopoly of
the press and media information and dissemination on the part of the
government.

The lack of freedom of expression, press and of association has led to a
wave of online expressions of independent thought with relative success.
Additionally, these venues for online freedom (indirect, impersonal, or
whatever you want to call it) have been the precursors of other types of
meetings which are becoming permanent: personal and direct links between
different players and civil society groups that are creating democracy
bubbles in the midst of a society suffocated by the apathy derived from
the accumulation of scarcities and frustrations. A sign of their
importance lies precisely in the contradiction between our low
connectivity and the growing interest stemming from awareness of the
networks and their usage.

This brings us to the second question: it is clear that the internet
places a very useful tool in our hands. Just five years ago, most of
those of us who are bloggers today could not even imagine the level of
response that we would get –not only from our readers, but also from
official zealous censors and from our repressive government- or the
commitment that we were assuming with the introduction of our respective
blogs. The harassment of the alternative networks and blogs by the
authorities and the creation of an official blogosphere with the express
mission to counteract the effects of independent bloggers demonstrate
that internet use is not so harmless for the dictatorship. On the other
hand, in a very short time, the networks have allowed us to establish
ties and build bridges with Cubans everywhere, to get closer, thus
overcoming mutual mistrust; to do away with audiences and authorities,
and to find, on our own, the necessary preconditions for reconstruction
of a civil society, virtually extinct from decades of totalitarianism.
The willpower for change in some social sectors became clearly visible
only by the grace of internet use.

Nevertheless, the use of new information technologies and communications
does not in itself imply the key to success in the pursuit of democracy.
This tool cannot replace human qualities, and its use does not, in any
case, represent an end, but barely a means to have access to the full
exercise of freedom in an indefinite future.

The web will not have the ability to mobilize where there is no
determination to make changes, so the use of the internet and social
networks is not condition enough to achieve democracy, but its use does
not lessen its importance as a democratizing tool. Having greater access
would not constitute a definitive solution, but it would represent a
path to seek solutions needed to foster information among Cubans; to
facilitate encounters, the exchange of ideas and views and promote
something that has undoubtedly allowed a growing number of free thinkers
overcome virtual limits set by bytes, and to find ourselves face to face
when discussing our proposals and strengthening our hopes. We have
started to jump out of the networks and have continued to grow in and
out of them.

Perhaps this is a necessary phase for us: using the networks not only as
an information tool and free flow of ideas, but to reproduce hope. And
that is why the internet and the networks are also possibly the most
subversive event that has been taking place in Cuba in recent times.
Nothing is as dangerous for a decrepit dictatorship as hope reborn in a
zombie population. While it is true that freedom will not return to Cuba
only by the hand of the internet, we will definitely not be able to talk
about a democratic transition in Cuba in the future without mentioning
the role played by independent digital journalism, by the blogs, and by
the social networks.

Translated By Norma Whiting

(Article originally published in the Journal of Cuba on May 28th, 2012)
Published on SINevasion June 4 2012

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