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A Strategy For Attaining Cuban Internet Connectivity
lpress writes "In the mid 1990s, there was debate within the Cuban government about the Internet. A combination of pressure from the U.S. trade embargo, the financial crisis brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union and fear of free expression led to a decision to limit Internet access. This has left Cuba with sparse, antiquated domestic infrastructure today.
Could the government improve the situation if they decided to do so? They don't have sufficient funds to build out modern infrastructure and foreign investment through privatization of telecommunication would be difficult to obtain. Furthermore, that strategy has not benefited the people in other developing nations.
A decentralized strategy using a large number of satellite links could quickly bootstrap the Cuban Internet. Decentralized funding and control of infrastructure has been an effective transitional strategy in other cases, for example, with the NSFNET in the U.S. or the Grameen Phone ladies in Bangladesh.
This proposal would face political roadblocks in both the US and Cuba; however, change is being considered in the U.S. and the Castro government has been experimenting with small business and they have begun allowing communication agents to sell telephone and Internet time. It might just work — as saying goes "Be realistic. Demand the impossible.""
Allowing Internet connectivity reduces the centralized control that a totalitarian Communist system requires in order to protect the leaders and the system itself from the inconvenience of reality.
Cuba recently (last 18 months) had an undersea line laid from Cuba to Venezuela. Previously they could only connect via Satellite link.
moox. for a new generation.
Cuba is a totalitarian communist dictatorship. That dictatorship has absolutely no interest in a decentralized Internet solution. Cuba's police state was set up by Che Guevara, who modeled it on that of his NKVD/KGB tutor, Lavrenty Beria.
The communist government has exactly zero interest in "decentralization."
Take a look at apple or microsoft's website if you want some perfection.
You must be new here. You can't be *both* an Apple and a Microsoft fanboy; you must choose sides.
Ah yes, just like Saddam Hussein.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Your "knowledge" of history is somewhat mistaken. The reason Castro was driven to looking for help from the USSR was the stupid attitude of the USA. That help had a cost, which was the placement of nukes. The Cuban missile crisis was the result of America's attitude to Cuba and Castro, not a planned event by Castro. Wise up and learn what actually happened rather than through the filter of "USA! USA! USA!"
Cuba is a totalitarian police state. The problem is not too little infrastructure, it's too much oppression. And I don't see how an initiative like this could change the situation.
If Cuba built its own onion routing network (perhaps using Tor software though not connected to the Tor network), then each satellite dish or other internet connection would automatically be able to facilitate connectivity for the rest of the network. No need to wire anything (except some of the exit nodes), this can all happen over wifi.
Don't forget that 802.11af, 802.11y, and 802.22 have ranges measured in miles (802.22 can cover 100km). Blanketing an island of 110km would still take a good number of antennae (especially given the dead zones created by dense buildings in cities), but at a governmental budget scale, it seems quite feasible.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
The U.S.. and a bunch of exiles still pissed about losing their wealth...
When Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1988, he and Fidel Castro went on a boat tour of the harbor in Havana. About half way through the tour, the boat sank. Fidel picked up the pope and carried him back to shore, walking on the water the entire way.
The next day, the newspaper headline in Tribuna de La Habana read "Castro Displays Superiority of Socialist Man".
The newspaper headline in L'Osservatore Romano read "Pope Helps Fidel Perform Miracle".
The newspaper headline in the Miami Herald read "Fidel: Can't Even Swim".
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
You are kidding, right? I'm a Cuban-American, grew up in Miami. Mom fled while she could, grand-parents got out in the final stages of their lives when they became a burden on the Cuban state. We hosted refugees from the Mariel boat-lift in our home in Miami and saw Miami transformed by the mass migration of Cubans to the US.
People are wards of the state. They attend government run schools where they are indoctrinated in socialist-communist ideology. They are taught to worship a man Fidel Castro whom they have no right to vote in or out of office.
Consider the possibility that you don't know as much about Cuba as you think. Over the past 50 years, a peculiar political culture had taken root in Miami which led to rampant speculation and the unchecked spread of rumors. Until recently, the lack of direct telecommunication between Cuba and the US was one factor. Other players were the large populations of exiles who had lost property in the revolution and militants who participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion (you didn't think those radicalized Cubans just disappeared after the invasion took place, do you?), all of whom had a personal interest in making conditions on the island sound as bad as possible.
Yes, the vast majority of Cubans are quite poor, unemployed, and hoping to find a way to leave the country. On the other hand, Americans vastly overstate the degree that ordinary citizens have been indoctrinated and worship Castro. The Castro brothers are corrupt, selfish imbeciles, and everyone knows it -- not just in Miami, but also in Cuba. The typical citizen who shows up at a Communist rally is there because it was required by their employer (e.g. the government), not because they actually believe in that crap.
When it comes to understanding the true situation in contemporaneity Cuba, being from Miami is probably more of a liability than an asset. On the other hand, President Obama has recently liberalized travel regulations, which would allow you to legally travel to Cuba and visit your relatives with no paperwork whatsoever. In the hacker spirit of free inquiry, why not go down there and see things for yourself? ;-)
You'll probably come back less impressed with the Castros than ever, but more impressed by the ability of the populace to see the situation for what it really is.