Claudia Cadelo, Translator: Unstated
It's been almost a month since they brought us their soap opera and
except for one chapter — the one about the cyberwar — in all the rest
they exposed a covert agent. I couldn't finish watching Monday's, it was
too much. Infinitely boring. Even so, it's worth analyzing this State
Security media crusade against civil society. I confess that the motives
for these actions by the Cuban secret bodies are mostly incomprehensible
to me, and it won't be the first time I've been left speechless by the
objectives and, most of all, by the benefits the government expects from
its soap opera.
First, I find it surprising that they have decided to lump together so
many players: opponents, human rights activists, and bloggers, with
writers, painters, and sellers of satellite antennas and illegal
Internet accounts. Before the first telenovela the main actors were
dissidents, but after the fourth saga it's no longer so clear. By mixing
us all up under a single idea — the counterrevolution — State Security
has exploded the number of protesters. Unfortunately they never nailed
down the meaning of the term. I imagine a satellite dish decoder sitting
in front of his TV, his mouth hanging open, as he learns that he is
"officially" a dissident.
I can't understand the benefits of airing "Cuba's Reasons." Perhaps
defamation as a weapon to discredit the most well-known figures within
civil society; or perhaps the need to create a climate of opinion — or
rather paranoia — with respect to the abilities of the "secret agents"
to insert themselves into our lives. But I continue to think that both
arguments fade into insignificance if we compare them to the
disadvantages: the recognition that what they call "counterrevolution"
goes far beyond ideology and has become a reality in daily Cuban life.
If having the Internet or watching Miami television is just as risky as
belonging to an opposition party, we citizens aren't left with too many
options.
9 April 2011
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