The Out-of-Date Updating

The Out-of-Date Updating
August 27, 2012
Alfredo Fernandez Rodriguez

HAVANA TIMES — Recently, I read with amazement about the news of
Professor Elaine Diaz announcing the "farewell" of her blog.

The fact somewhat dismayed me, because — though I don't share her faith
in the salvation of the Cuban regime — I do respect her for the
seriousness with which she generally presented her writings, well
removed from the rigidity of the national press.

Just over a month ago we witnessed the "death" of the website Joven
Cuba, run by pro-government young academics who also said they "decided"
to shut down their blog.

However shortly after they said they'd be reopening it with new
opportunities for access. After six weeks though, there's still no trace
of Joven Cuba. Hopefully it will reopen when their new school year begins.

There's an old saying that goes: "In politics, what's real is unseen."
If that's so, then we can speculate about the closing of these two sites
where young government supporters felt freer than in the written press.

There they criticized real things, though without going into too much
depth into the causes, while defending the revolution as a viable system
as long as the necessary changes are made.

Things must be going pretty bad for the Cuban government if it has to
pressure even its younger defenders to give up their efforts on the
Internet.

If there's anything indisputable about the "updating of the Cuban
model," it's that its essential to maintain people out-of-touch such as
always occurs with censorship and the abduction of words, all of this in
order to survive.

I should reiterate that I have no evidence that Joven Cuba or Elaine
Daiz were pressured by the agencies of state security to close their
respective blogs, but I find it all too suspicious.

Now that it seems that Raulism can't even put up with its "independent
defenders" in a medium such as the Internet — with very low impact on
Cuban public opinion — it seems logical to speculate on who will be the
next pro-government blogger to "say farewell."

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=77318