In a message dated 5/5/2008 2:30:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> Woah! So the sneakernet underground in Cuba was entirely using either
> government-approved (i.e. non-home) computers, or black market hardware?
Cubans are ingenious about evading government controls. Bureaucrats
(such as reporters for government newspapers), who are allowed limited access
to
the Net, sell their passwords on the black market.
But the average salary in Cuba is only about $17 per month (yep, you
read right), so there are limits to what people can do to sneak onto the Net.
In addition to banning the Net, the government also jams a number of
foreign radio stations and systematically searches rooftops to hunt down people
who use antennas to capture satellite television channels. Volunteers on the
island have opened more than 200 independent libraries to provide public access
to uncensored books smuggled into the island or provided by embassies,
including the U.S. Embassy. In 2003 the government staged a major crackdown and
used
one-day trials to sentence a number of the librarians to 20-year prison terms.
And the repression continues.
The Cuban court documents on the trials of the librarians, such as court
orders to burn the confiscated library collections (including classics such as
Orwell's "Animal Farm"), were removed from the island and published on the
Internet. But the nutcakes who run the American Library Association refuse to
publish news of these "smoking gun" court documents on their anti-book burning
website because they suspect the documents are CIA forgeries.
The world needs to know more about (1) the grim situation in Cuba, and
(2) the disgraceful and unbelievable collusion of the American Library
Association with the Cuban government. Contact the Friends of Cuban Libraries,
a
support group for the persecuted library volunteers, if you can help in
spreading
the word. We need to bust this scandal wide open.
Sincerely,
Robert Kent
Friends of Cuban Libraries
(http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org)
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