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Young Cubans Set Up Mini-Internet
An anonymous reader writes: Internet connections remain illegal for Cuban households, but many of the country's citizens still want to tap into the power of networked information exchange. A group of tech-savvy young Cubans has set up a network comprising thousands of computers to serve as their own miniature version of the internet. They use chat rooms, play games, and connect to organize real-life activities. Cuban law enforcement seems willing to tolerate it (so far), but the network polices itself so as not to draw undue attention.
One of the engineers who helped build the network said, "We aren't anonymous because the country has to know that this type of network exists. They have to protect the country and they know that 9,000 users can be put to any purpose. We don't mess with anybody. All we want to do is play games, share healthy ideas. We don't try to influence the government or what's happening in Cuba ... We do the right thing and they let us keep at it."
One of the engineers who helped build the network said, "We aren't anonymous because the country has to know that this type of network exists. They have to protect the country and they know that 9,000 users can be put to any purpose. We don't mess with anybody. All we want to do is play games, share healthy ideas. We don't try to influence the government or what's happening in Cuba ... We do the right thing and they let us keep at it."
We don't mess with anybody. All we want to do is play games, share healthy ideas. We don't try to influence the government or what's happening in Cuba We do the right thing and they let us keep at it.
If you ever want to see how soul destroying communism is there it is. Might as well still have the country controlled by the Mafia, at least it would be more fun.
You mean like torture and murder of political dissidents, people being routinely thrown into prison for speech that is not only legal but won't have US law enforcement even raise an eyebrow and various other tyrannical sundries then yeah. They can't own a cell phone or computer without the state's permission, but hey... free healthcare people!
This just goes to show how pathetic a lot of leftists are. But but Cuba has some great, free healthcare. Yeah? Cuba's also politically and economically FUBAR to the nth degree compared to even most of Latin America. There's a reason Cubans are more likely to expatriate than people in, say, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic or Honduras to try to sneak into Cuba.
It stays because there is a large group of voters in Florida who still want it and the rest of the country that could care less if it is there or not. Then on the Cuba side they have always done what they can to keep it because it gave Fidel a ralleying cry on why Cuba is in so bad of shape.
With current talks will have to see what happens.
I've thought this on a couple of occasions - the US political movement seems to have a not inconsiderable number of people who are more interested in using their political stature to support other countries rather than their own. So you have a large number of voters and politicians who consider Cuba to be their primary voting area, and another larger number of voters and politicians who consider Israel to be their primary voting area.
Stop leaning hard on Cuba, suddenly theres huge outcry from pressure groups and politicians who threaten all sorts of things (see the recent threats by several Congressmen and Senators who shouted loudly that the Cuban embargo laws would never be lifted).
Stop supporting Israel or cut the amount of funding to Israel, suddenly theres huge outcry from pressure groups and politicians who denounce any and all who don't consider Israel of the utmost importance.
To outsiders looking in, it does look like there are many groups and people who value other countries more than they value their "own" country.
Thanks for your reasoned and sensible answers, really good insights. I appreciate your time in giving me some perspectives I'd not considered.
Not something you hear on slashdot every day :-)