Imprisonment for 20 years- sounds like fun!
Herberto Padilla
was a poet, who “plotted against the power of the state” because he was the first poet to object to the repression of Fidel Castro’s regime in his writings. He was imprisoned, released after brutal interrogation, required to give a public confession of his crime, and then exiled from Cuba.
Huber Matos Beitez
was a Cuban military leader who aided Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the Revolution but shortly after the Revolution he was convicted of “treason and sedition” because he criticized the regime’s shift in favor of Marxist principles. He was imprisoned for 20 years.
Reinaldo Arenas
was a gay poet, novelist and playwright, which brought him “ into conflict with the Communist government”. He was sent to prison in 1974 after being convicted of “ideological deviation” and for publishing abroad without official consent. He attempted to escape but failed and was rearrested and imprisoned in El Morro Castle, notorious for where murderers and rapists were kept.
Three of many more artists, writers, activists, and dissenters who have been hurassed, beaten, humiliated, imprisoned, killed, or exiled from Cuba because they chose to speak freely.
And under this regime, from about 1959 to 1997 (when the study was published by Harvard-trained scholar Armando Lago) 97,000 people at least, having been named and confirmed by at least two sources, have died by firing squad, extra-judicial assignations, prison due to beating by guards, denial of medical care, and while trying to escape Cuba. I mean, honestly if there are this many people dying because they just want to say what they disagree with or talk about injustices that are going on in their home, or even just wanting to say “eh, I don’t like Fidel Castro” , it seems like to me, we all feel that there is this innate right to want to say what we believe and think and feel, you know? It’s only human and this suppression of voices does not seem at all fair or equal or for the benefit of the greater good, but yeah that last bit is just my opinion.
Like I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to highlight some of Amnesty International’s insights in their post “Cuba’s Internet paradox”.
Basically, the article talks about the extent to which Cuba’s internet is censored. However, it also hits on how this censorship actually impedes Cuba’s achievements in education.
In the article, the author mentions a story about a teacher who was removed from her job because she asked her students to look up information for a history lesson and the government saw that one of the children used Wikipedia.
“children can’t use Wikipedia, because everything in Wikipedia is a lie”…”children have to learn what is in history books, and not look for other information”.
This should be cringe worthy to any academic. I really hope it is to you. I mean, you are reading my blog post! I hope you are reading other sources of information, as well, to make your best judgement call. Take advantage of the amount of and freedom of access we have in this beautiful country.
I’m going to re-quote this from the article (I had this in my last post to) because it sums up a lot.
“According to UNESCO, Cuba has one of the most educated populations in the hemisphere. Literacy campaigns have been central to Cuba’s policies since the revolution, and the country’s commendable education system continues to benefit from heavy investment. Yet decades of off-line censorship, and the apparent desire to continue restricting freedom of expression and access to information through a model of online censorship risks undermining Cuba’s historical advances in education.”
When Fidel Castro took power, he had a plan of action to better his country which included free education, free health care, universal housing etc. We will hopefully discuss all of these and the extent to which it actually benefited the people, but as for education, it did in one sense :(
Cuba, does in fact have one of the most educated populations in the Western Hemisphere. Quick side note: although they’re all educated, they do not want to work in their fields of study because they make no money from it. For example, a Cuban doctor makes about $60 a month, and a bartender can and usually does make that same wage per month. Years of schooling, studying, and no life, or money for a bit of food and time for family? Hmmmm. Oh yeah, I forgot! You are probably wondering, well don’t they get fed by rations, isn’t no one starving? Ahhhhh (sigh) that’s what you think would happen. Nah. The rations are not enough to survive on and a $15–60 salary a month isn’t much to buy that extra food all the time.
Back to the main story. There is a constitutional ban on independent private media and in general there are major limitations in accessing the internet. In 2017 it was found that 1458 websites were highly censored and in a small population of them 41 were blocked. The one thing they all had in common was their expressed criticism of the Cuban government. Lol What’s new?! Hahaha
Something I didn’t know was that blocking internet sites solely to limit political criticism and restrict access to information is contrary to INTERNATIONAL human rights laws. Lol leave it to Castro to break the law :P. I mean, it’s not his laws so it doesn’t apply to him, which even his own laws apparently don’t apply to him (but that’s for another day). Obviously, we can all see that I am taking advantage of MY freedom of expression! WOOOOOOOHHHHHH
So, I’m going to take a minute to point out, if you couldn’t already figure it out, but I write or I choose to write like I think, meaning I jump around from one thing to another and then return. I have a bunny brain and a puppy’s attention span. Wow, see what I mean?
Hahahahahahhahaha
Anyways, the article highlights that when the government blocks websites it doesn’t given an explanation of why the content can’t be accessed. So, the people do not really know that they are experiencing internet censorship.
Other interesting difficulties and censorships and facts:
-Skype is blocked. (Woooooah dudeeeee)
-Facebook and twitter are highly censored
-There are wifi parks and spots in Cuba because you’re technically not allowed to have your own router in your home. Only recently in 2016 was it legalized, but from what I have heard, it is highly discouraged (if you know what I mean) by government officials.
-There are wifi cards that you must buy in order to use the wifi, which can be expensive at times. And I quote, “Meanwhile, at 1.5 USD an hour, the cost of accessing the World Wide Web remains prohibitive for most Cubans with an average monthly salary of 25 USD, and most only use it to speak with family and friends in the diaspora.”
-(Surprise, surprise!) The Cuban government controls all the communications infrastructure in the country.
Okay, so there is a lot more but my whole point in mixing up freedom of speech and freedom of artistic expression and censorship in this blog is to say that there is a lot of suppression going on in Cuba still to this day and this is one of many injustices my people face. More so, I want you to get little glimpses of particular reasons why some Cubans (the Majority of them) lean rightward on the political spectrum. They are very patriotic about living in the US (but also being Cuban) because they want to keep these freedoms inscribed in our law; they know what it is like to not have them.
I mean…
Imagine, what the world would be like, for example, if you couldn’t make memes of or bash President Trump or Obama or any other political leader.
Lol
Imprisonment for 20 years- sounds like fun!
