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Post by bjd on Dec 11, 2016 7:11:12 GMT
I thought he didn't want a personality cult?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2016 10:10:34 GMT
Neither did Jesus.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 11, 2016 19:17:15 GMT
And Lenin DEFINITELY did not want to be pickled...
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 1, 2017 3:25:39 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Dec 3, 2017 20:52:34 GMT
Yes, a very important figure whose literacy drive was a model for many developing countries.
While measures against "dissident teachers" sounds repressive, I heartily approve of his removal of Church instruction from public schools. We went through that here in Québec, about the same time as the Cubans did, but it was through "La Révolution tranquille" (The quiet revolution), not an armed uprising. Education and health, formerly preserves of the Church, were nationalized, though confessional boards weren't eliminated until the 1990s.
Education is one of the great successes of the Cuban Revolution, but nowadays their educated youth really needs better internet access to achieve their full potential.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 3, 2017 21:42:35 GMT
For what it's worth ~
When we went to a place in Havana with good wifi, I was able to get into all my sites easily -- email, anyport, etc. I could just barely open Facebook, but the private messages and updates wouldn't always show. If I could get a message open, I wasn't able to answer because the whole page would freeze. I find it interesting that the one site synonymous with "social media" and thus with phenomena such as the Arab Spring was the one that I wasn't able to navigate.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 19, 2018 4:08:54 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 19, 2018 5:27:38 GMT
Apparently, Miguel Diaz-Canel used to have long hair and was a big Beatles fan. It is also noted that he is a defender of LGBT rights and expansion of internet access. Cuba will change.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 19, 2018 14:13:50 GMT
Good internet access is one of the things Cuba's highly-educated youth clamour most for.
They want more change and more freedom - a lot of things have changed, such as greater possibilities to build and own one's own home. But according to a friend from here who spends extended visits there (she is retired, of course) they don't want to return to the pre-revolutionary situation or that of some of their neighbours in the Caribbean and central America, some of which have very high rates of violent crime as well as a huge gap between rich and poor. But who can predict the future?
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 19, 2018 14:45:52 GMT
"More freedom" is always the most totally dogmatic thing that everybody says. What they really want is more money, more food and more stuff. Freedom is not the first thing that comes to mind when there are so many other priorities.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 19, 2018 15:05:28 GMT
Oh, of course that is true, but I think access to information has also become an "asset", like the things you mention, and extremely important to youth.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 19, 2018 15:29:20 GMT
Yes Cuba will change and is changing, although probably not quickly nor radically. As far as Díaz-Canel defending LGBT rights, that is simply adhering to official Cuban policy, although of course he may be sincerely an advocate of civil rights for everyone. Ditto internet expansion. The very simplistic video I linked above includes that interesting quote about analyzing "subversive content", which sort of gives a built-in excuse for why internet access might not happen quickly. Really, as far as "highly educated", which is the reputation of Cuba's population, how strictly true is that? The revolution can rightly take credit for bringing education to the masses, but because of Cuba's ideology coupled with its economic woes, how generally educated is the population compared to the rest of the world? Admittedly we are all brainwashed in school to a greater or lesser degree by our own countries' party lines, but having access to all media at least gives people in the free world more leeway to educate themselves in the wider sense. This is an interesting article from 2015: www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/how-education-shaped-communist-cuba/386192/ |
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 19, 2018 16:03:47 GMT
If one is to consider how superior we are in our various countries because we have access to all necessary information about both world and domestic affairs, may I present Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen as examples of how well we all use this wonderful freedom?
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 19, 2018 17:51:30 GMT
You can lead a horse to water, etc.
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Post by bjd on Apr 19, 2018 19:29:04 GMT
The analysis by France 24's correspondent in Havana yesterday is that not much change is expected. Raul Castro may no longer be president but will still head the Communist Party until 2022. All decisions will still be made by the party and the military.
Furthermore, the fact that Trump pulled back from any further renewal of relations between Cuba and the US doesn't bode well for the future.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 8, 2019 17:35:26 GMT
When we went to a place in Havana with good wifi, I was able to get into all my sites easily -- email, anyport, etc. I could just barely open Facebook, but the private messages and updates wouldn't always show. If I could get a message open, I wasn't able to answer because the whole page would freeze. I find it interesting that the one site synonymous with "social media" and thus with phenomena such as the Arab Spring was the one that I wasn't able to navigate. "More freedom" is always the most totally dogmatic thing that everybody says. What they really want is more money, more food and more stuff. Freedom is not the first thing that comes to mind when there are so many other priorities. Oh, of course that is true, but I think access to information has also become an "asset", like the things you mention, and extremely important to youth. I am quoting all these remarks as a lead-in to an article in today's Washington Post. It reads in part: For most Cubans, tapping the Internet meant traveling to a public hotspot, buying a scratch-off phone card and surfing on a cut-rate smartphone.
All that changed seven months ago, when this nation of more than 11 million took a great leap forward with the introduction of 3G mobile telephone service — an advance that permits those Cubans who can afford it to access the Internet anywhere and anytime they have cellular coverage.
The cost, $7 a month for the cheapest package, remains out of reach for many in a country where the median monthly income is $44 . Nevertheless, a surging number of Cubans — more than 2.2 million — are accessing 3G service. That’s giving rise to a new class of netizens, who are organizing behind causes and social movements in a manner not seen since the Cuban revolution.
For years, Cuban censors have blocked websites they’ve deemed politically sensitive. But the government has surprised some observers by not yet following the example of countries such as China, which blocks popular social media sites including Facebook and Twitter. President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who took over the nation’s leadership from Raúl Castro last year, and other top Cuban officials have embraced social media — opening new Twitter accounts, for example. In May, the government took steps to allow private home WiFi more broadly.There is much more to the story, of course, including some surprising developments. Read it all here: www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/cubans-are-using-social-media-to-air-their-grievances--and-the-government-is-responding-sometimes/2019/07/07/01b3cba2-912e-11e9-956a-88c291ab5c38_story.html |
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Post by lagatta on Jul 8, 2019 22:38:29 GMT
Yes, what I had said earlier related to opinions of Cubans I have met. I shouldn't have made "freedom" so abstract. There is an appetite for connection. Of course they want a higher standard of living, but that is true just about everywhere.
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