Postcard from Cuba
hildreth, jeremy
iYAHO0 0 MUERTE ! avoid a direct reference to their president and his government--I asked my compafieros if they thought anyone was mon- itoring their emails or web destinations. "No,"...
...As I pay the woman behind the counter, I take note of the prices: $5 per hour, $3 per half hour, and twenty cents per printed page...
...Entering the cobbled sixteenth century Plaza de Armas, I stop beneath the archway of the Palficio del Segundo Cabo, an edifice of faded magnificence and steadfast beauty built in 1770 to house the city's first post office...
...Astonishingly, all thirty terminals shared a single 56k modem...
...party official put it, "There's bad information on the Internet as well as good information...
...checking their email...
...Miguel explained to me that the Cuban Book Institute had twenty computers in addition to the ten PCs in the lab...
...said the girl, turning quickly toward me, her eyes wide with suspicion...
...The young people in the lab on this day all appeared to be in their twenties or early thirties, and well-to-do by Cuban standards...
...In the future, those in other occupations may be allowed to join, but for now only writers and artists who "need" the Web for their work qualify...
...Various sources reported that the government screened out certain foreign sites right at the central gateway, making them unavailable to tourists and citizens alike...
...Yes, sometimes," I replied as noncommittally as I could...
...A December 2000 Washington Post article claimed that Internet access for Cuban nationals was granted only to authorized domestic cultural sites...
...The search goes through and the link to the CIA web site works...
...Bueno...
...You are a writer...
...Approaching the guard, I ask:"~Donde esfft el Internet...
...I typed in "drudgereport.com," and the familiar black-andwhite site came right up...
...As I stroked an imaginary beardma gesture Cubans themselves often employ to were no log-ins, usernames, passwords, or even paper sign-in sheets, so tracking usage would be extremely difficult...
...No es muy rfipido," I chided him...
...No," they said...
...Members pay ten pesos a month (about fifty U.S...
...They didn't seem worried about time, or anything else...
...Dot-Commies Keeps Cubans Offline Also, they pointed out, in this room, there BY JEREMY HILDRETH HAVANAnPicking my way through the jungle of handicrafts, oil paintings, and silkscreened "Che" shirts, I emerge from the overgrown flea market into the afternoon sun...
...Several patrons smoked cigarettes...
...My revelation altered drastically the tone of the conversation, and my questions no longer elicited meaningful answers...
...Some web sites, after all, are more equal than others...
...Come...
...It works fine," he replied, "but no one cares because it isn't connected to the Web...
...I had heard a rumor that pornography~strictly verboten in Cuba in any form~was screened at a central hub...
...In almost every respect, the Cuban government treats extranjeros far better than it treats its own subjects...
...Cuba's national capitol building is so similar to our own that climbing its steps gives an American an eerie feeling...
...If these limitations were once in place, however, they appear gone today...
...I glance furtively over my shoulder before requesting Playboy.com...
...May I see it...
...iYAHO0 0 MUERTE ! avoid a direct reference to their president and his government--I asked my compafieros if they thought anyone was monitoring their emails or web destinations...
...In cyberspace, things are no different, although even for tourists and foreigners there is only one place in Havana to log on: the cybercafe in the Capitolio...
...Are you allowed to smoke in here...
...Por qu6...
...The connection, it seemed, was as slow as Cuban molasses...
...Crossing under the soaring rotunda, I enter the air-conditioned computer room, put my name down on the waiting list, and take a seat at a marble ice cream table with a potted African violet on it...
...To be precise, the page, which is almost entirely ASCII text, took more than two minutes to load...
...No funciona...
...Opening a creaky, oversized wooden door, he ushers me into a cool, brightly lit chamber about the size of a doctor's waiting room...
...Ten new PCs neatly line the walls...
...Today, it facilitates more modern forms of correspondence...
...Prior to my visit, I had read stories of severe restrictions on Internet usage...
...Several users were on Yahoo...
...I send a couple of emails from Yahoo!, then do a Google search for "CIA...
...Aptly known as "El Aleph" (after a story by Jorge Luis Borges about an inch-wide crystal that is "one of the points in space that contains all points [and] where all the places of the world, seen from every angle, coexist") the computer lab is one of the few places for Cubansnwhich is to say, authorized Cubansmto log on...
...I understand," I tell him,"but I am very curious...
...No, of course not," said a girl,"but there is no one here to watch...
...As one Jeremy Hildreth is an economic analyst for a Connecticut-based financial services firm and a contributor to National Review Online...
...Ordinary Cubans make an average of 350 pesos a month--less than 90 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 9 SEPTEFIBER/OCToBER 2OO1...
...Es solo para Cubanos, sefior...
...Hef would be pleased...
...After a fifteen-minute wait, I am at one of the eight terminals, putting it through the paces...
...But it was too late...
...One of them, Miguel, let me borrow his terminal...
...Days afterward, I discovered the reason...
...No hay problema...
...cents) for up to six hours per week of computer time...
...I asked Miguel...
...This is it: Cuba's one and only citizen cybercafe...
...Email him at jeremyhildreth@yahoo.com...
...The connection, I notice, is much faster than the one at the Palficio, albeit still no T1...
...No one was watching...
...Despite the machines' frustrating sluggishness, however, every one was in use, save for one turned-offunit...
...Well, not exactly right up...
...The guard leads me across a stunning courtyard, through a gloomy hallway, past a vacant kitchenette masquerading as a coffee bar...
...The Law for the Protection of Cuba's National Independence and Economy, enacted in 1999, dictates that any Cuban who provides information to a foreigner, especially a journalist, could face a thirty-year jail sentence...
...Then, trying to build solidarity, allowed that I, too, was a writer...
...The computer club has 180 members, all of whom are affiliated with either the Cuban Book Institute, the Union of Writers and Artists (a government-sponsored group), or the Hermanos Saiz Association, which operates under the Union of Communist Youth...
Vol. 34 • September 2001 • No. 7
