IP: the Net in Cuba

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
> Subject: the Net in Cuba
> Date: 27 Dec 2000 08:31:15 -0500
>
> Actually, it's from the Washington Post, but here's where I got it (fair-use
> amount only):
>
> http://www.iht.com/articles/5473.html
>
> Laptop Brigade: Cuba's New Rebels
> Scott Wilson Washington Post Service  Wednesday, December 27, 2000
> Under Castro, Going Online Without Permission Is Out of Line
>
> HAVANA A new rebel has emerged in Cuba: the Internet guerrilla.
> .
> His laptop case has replaced the beret as the signature of revolution among
> thousands of mostly young male professionals, who through subversive cunning
> have become nearly as wired as anyone in the world despite Cuban law
> prohibiting unauthorized private Internet use.
> .
> Known among themselves as informaticos, they represent resistance to a
> government that has sought to stifle the flow of information since the
> revolution four decades ago.
> .
> Encouraged by tentative government steps to wire the country, the growing
> number of Cubans who ignore official prohibitions to look at foreign news
> pages, listen to pirate music sites and browse computer training courses
> online are hastening Cuba's plodding journey into the information age.
> .
> "I'm a member of the generation born just after the revolution," said an
> engineer, 31, who like other illegal Internet users agreed to speak only on
> condition of anonymity. "We all saw the giant Soviet mainframe computers
> linked together that did so little. The PC and Internet are new, independent
> ways of thinking. "To us, Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds are gurus," he
> added, referring to the Microsoft chief and the creator of the Linux
> operating system. After watching the flow of information help to fuel the
> Soviet Union's disintegration, Cuba's Communist government has clamped down
> on Internet technology.......



For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/