Cuban dissidents Blog: Generation Y. I can't believe this has won awards!

[R_P_A_S]

I'm trying really really hard to look at this from this woman's perspective (Yoani Sánchez) and from other cubans. It's just a bunch of shit talking really. I mean.. she critizes the lack of goods and services.. prostitution and hustlers in the streets of Havana.. I wonder if she has ever been to Mexico or El Salvador? Any other Latin American country if that to experience REAL hustling and rampant prostitution.

I have been to Cuba and these guys operate like primary school "hustlers". It's comical and not threatening at all. I can't give you guys a number but I can say that 6 out of 10 Cubans have a cell phone. I stayed with 2 different host families and they all had a computer with the internet. I also used the internet at 2 different hotels and some restaurant. While I was there I met Cubans who were allowed to used the internet too. One of the families I stayed with charged their neighbors 1 Euro to use the internet for 30 minutes if they needed it.

Yes, high ranking government officials are going to have better homes and cars than the average person. They aren't trying to hide this. This woman should look around and see that this happens even WORST all over the world.

How sad it is for her to turn around and talk so much shit to gain her self some publicity and notoriety. I don't see anything progressive here that can help cuba move forward or any alternative besides stating a few facts here and there an a bunch of "hear-say", opinions and baseless information.

Cuba has it's problems. I know this.. It's not perfect and changes need to be made... This woman offers neither an alternative nor hope.

[North Star]

I don't agree that every critical Cuban is in the pay of the CIA but Yoani seems to think capitalism is the way out of Cuba's problems. She does spend some time on the issue democracy and freedom of speech but really she seems more concerned with consumer goods then improving socialism in Cuba.

[RadioRaheem84]

How do these dissidents not see that capitalism would only exasperate the problems Cuba faces?\

How do they see it as the solution? That's what make me think that a lot of these dissidents are agents.

[R_P_A_S]

I asked Cubans in Cuba.. what they would like to see change.. and every single one of them told me that they want money to stop being so influential.

These were about 12 or 15.. Not a lot true.. but I think it's interesting to notice.

[RedSonRising]

I asked Cubans in Cuba.. what they would like to see change.. and every single one of them told me that they want money to stop being so influential.

These were about 12 or 15.. Not a lot true.. but I think it's interesting to notice.

The Cubans I've talked to, almost all who want some sort of change, express markedly different wishes than those in the politicized spotlight of dissident journalism. Sure, some of them are tired of the bureaucracy of state-oriented socialism which has complicated certain elements of Cuban society, but inviting "Gringos" to come back and dominate the business of the island while sacrificing the healthcare and education they all have access too does not seem to be on their agenda. What they seem to like about what Raul is doing is not what rightist dissidents and a few far-left haterz want to see happen to Cuba.

[R_P_A_S]

People also want more goods.. specially Shoes! I made a friend while I was in Santa Clara and he had to borrow "nice shoes" in order to take me out and show me the down because he's other shoes were for work and school.

[brigadista]

only prostitution i saw in Havana was white western males with young cuban women...

[R_P_A_S]

in comparison to other countries Cuba's prostitution is not really rampant or out of control.. I got approached only once and that when I was at a hotel using the internet.

[brigadista]

didnt see any in Santiago de Cuba but did see a lot of out gay men..not comparing out gay men to prostitutes by the way:):)

[RadioRaheem84]

So gays out in the open, prostitution in Havana, dissidents openly blogging about corruption, etc.

I thought Cuba was supposed to be totalitarian?

[RedSonRising]

So gays out in the open, prostitution in Havana, dissidents openly blogging about corruption, etc.

I thought Cuba was supposed to be totalitarian?

You can get a free sex change in Cuba now homie. Gays still have a social stigma in Cuba but I too saw plenty walking around without fear of, you know, death and such.

Castro a while ago agreed that prostitution on an individual level to provide sustenance should not be reprimanded by the state, as the capitalist vestiges of pimps, gangs, and bourgeois racketeers weren't at the helm of it anymore. I'm not sure I agree with his complicity on the manner since I still view it as an issue of gender and global inequality, to have Cuban women have to sell their body, but he has a point nonetheless.

I'm not sure how free bloggers are to do their thing. I know some were reprimanded and have to disguise themselves. I've never tried to access a blog from a Cuban-only internet source the average citizen would have access to, so maybe they're not all having to sneak around.

Bureaucratic? Sure. Totalitarian? Hardly.

[RadioRaheem84]

Well the Ladies in White were pretty vocal. I mean there are opposition parties too. I just think it's proly really hard to find a genuine opposition movement against the revolution that isn't Western funded or supported.

[tir1944]

Always take "dissident" blogs with a grain of salt.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/syrian-lesbian-blogger-tom-macmaster

[RedSonRising]

Well the Ladies in White were pretty vocal. I mean there are opposition parties too. I just think it's proly really hard to find a genuine opposition movement against the revolution that isn't Western funded or supported.

It's worth noting that they were tolerated to an extent on the island despite the fact that they had clear ties to Miami terrorist organizations.

[Aleenik]

Whatever is truly going on in Cuba, it is not what I want to happen. Cuba, imo, should have went straight to Communism after the Cuban Revolution and not into a Fidel capitalist dictatorship. The state should have been abolished when Capitalism was... oh wait... Capitalism wasn't abolished in Cuba either. Damn. I guess that's 0/2 for Cuba so far.

[pastradamus]

How do these dissidents not see that capitalism would only exasperate the problems Cuba faces?\

How do they see it as the solution? That's what make me think that a lot of these dissidents are agents.


They (the dissidents and the media)are not interested in facts and figures. They are simply interested in propagating an opinion whether this is right or wrong - regardless. The narritive will always take the side of the dissident. Its propaganda, bareface propaganda. They talk about hustling etc....a group of guys playing a private game of dominio's is not hustling on such a vast scale that a society is essentially wrong for having it.

Capitalism is a solution in Cuba -for them. They are the one who stand to profit off the backs of others.

[R_P_A_S]

Whatever is truly going on in Cuba, it is not what I want to happen. Cuba, imo, should have went straight to Communism after the Cuban Revolution and not into a Fidel capitalist dictatorship. The state should have been abolished when Capitalism was... oh wait... Capitalism wasn't abolished in Cuba either. Damn. I guess that's 0/2 for Cuba so far.

straight to communism after the revolution??? Did you just ignore everything that followed after the revolution? What happened with the US, the OAS and Soviet Union? Cuban was a resort for the US and had a large peasant and rural population..(not industrialized) how can you expect "communism" to be the best choice for them? because it worked wonders in Russia and China? :rolleyes:

[R_P_A_S]

On a personal note.. Cubans are smart people. A lot more politically conscious than the average person in Latin America. I feel they have a right to complaint and voice their objection against their government and the revolution without being imprisoned or repressed.. AS LONG AS these grievances are anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist. Cuba should move forward towards socialism NOT back track to Capitalist policies and wet dreams.