Cubans barred from logging on to the Internet at home on Tuesday flocked to newly opened public access spots to surf an uncensored Web — if they could afford the high prices.
“I was able to get onto Facebook, download some music ... and I was able to chat with my family in Italy,” said Luis Alonso, an 18-year-old student who paid to use Cuba’s 118 newly expanded public access Web offices.
Cuba has one of the lowest Internet usage rates in all of Latin America: 2.6 million in 2011 out of a population of 11.1 million.
Only doctors, journalists and certain other professionals are allowed to connect to the Web from home.
Dissidents have said the Cuban government’s goal has been to control access to information and that restricting Internet access is just another form of censorship.
The government long claimed it was unable to join undersea fiber-optic cable networks due to the US embargo in effect since 1962, forcing it to connect to the Web via slower satellites hookups and it has blamed limited bandwidth for restrictions on Web access, saying it is forced to “prioritize” it for “social use” purposes.
However, now that may be changing, at least for the financially well-off.
Having secured an undersea fiber-optic cable from Venezuela, Cuba opened the public access sites at offices of the state telephone company Etesca.
The public can access the Web for US$4.50 an hour, down from the previous US$6 an hour, or check their e-mail for an unchanged US$1.50 an hour.
With almost all Cubans earning about US$20 a month, even the reduced rate will likely only appeal to those receiving money from abroad or earning hard currency tips in the tourism industry.
“As low as the [access fees] may seem, they are still high in comparison with salaries we earn,” doctor Tania Molina said. “So we’ll just continue as before.”
However, a few of the more fortunate gave it a go with the Web.
“The hardest thing for me was to upload photos on Facebook — I guess the size of the files was too large,” Alonso said.
He was among a group of people logging on at one of the new access points in Havana.
Yoeldis Rodriguez, 34, an employee at the government’s Cuban Institute of Radio and TV, said the price tag meant she would just check her e-mail or use the Cuban-media only intranet.
“I know the government said it needs to recoup on its investment ... but the price is astronomical,” she said.
“It is a step forward in the sense that before you did not even have this,” she said. “How big of a step forward may be debatable.”
Some people said they felt intimidated because they had to show their government ID cards to get their Web surfing passes. Yet once they were online, they were surfing censorship-free, even to sites virulently opposed to Cuba’s government.
Just last week, a senior official had denied that public access to the Internet was being limited in Cuba for political reasons.
“At this moment, it’s not possible to immediately generalize access to the Internet,” Cuban Deputy Communications Minister Wilfredo Gonzalez told the state newspaper Granma.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS