Letter to Raul Castro Demanding Free Internet Access for All Cubans

Letter to Raul Castro Demanding Free Internet Access for All Cubans
May 17, 2013

Dear Raul,

World Internet Day is May 17th.

HAVANA TIMES — I write you this 17th of May not to send you my greetings
on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, which we
enthusiastically celebrate today next to Mariela Castro, nor because
Cuba celebrates Farmers' Day today. I write you because today is also
World Internet Day.

My dear Comandante, allow me to steal a few minutes of the precious time
you are devoting to Cuba's reforms, reforms which, according to you,
will be implemented "surely but not hastily" (though, to be frank, I've
seen more of the second half than of anything else), to tell you a few
things about the history of a celebration of which, apparently, you know
next to nothing.

In 2005, cybernauts* from countries like Mexico, Chile, Paraguay,
Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Uruguay and other places around the world,
as well as the Internet Users Association and the Internet Society,
decided to begin celebrating this day. Notice anything about that list,
Comandante? All of the countries which supported this idea, with the
exception of Spain, are in Latin America.

The chief aim of celebrating this day, I should tell you, is to "divulge
information about the possibilities for improving the standard of living
of countries and their citizens afforded by new technologies."

Can you imagine videos of the parade in front of the La Rampa theatre
and the festivities held at the farming cooperatives on YouTube,
uploaded by Cuba's gay and peasant communities? Why, even I would find
it hard to believe!

Dear Raul, my mom recently had two moles surgically removed. Don't
worry, it was a simple enough procedure.

The point is that I would have liked to have seen her face after she'd
gotten rid of those unpleasant protuberances. Believe me, it would have
been very easy: an Internet connection, a laptop computer and a webcam
would have sufficed.

Raul, you will likely say to me that the fact I am unable to see my
mother's mole-free face is trivial, or, to call things by their name,
that it is really quite stupid to complain about such things, when the
country can boast of a 2 % infant mortality rate thanks to you and your lot.

But, allow me to disagree with you, and say that these stupid little
things are what make life worth living, particularly for Cubans who live
far from their loved ones.

Comandante, please forgive the impertinence of asking you to provide all
Cubans with free access to the Internet, this is truly disrespectful,
particularly now, when you are so busy tracing new "guidelines" for the
country. But, please, stop for a moment and Google the phrase
"technological illiteracy".

Believe me, at the pace we're moving, soon Cuba will need another
literacy campaign. This time, though, to raise the shameless banner
which proclaims the island as "the last country in Latin America without
technological illiteracy."

Revolutionarily yours,

Alfredo Fernández Rodríguez

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=93251