[Marxism] CORRECTION: Internet, the Chicago Tribune and wasting time

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A story appeared in the Chicago Tribune adding to the familiar propaganda
about Cuba limiting internet access. Their reporter spoke to Nelson Valdes,
the Cuban-American sociologist and director of Cuba-L, an electronic news
service which is far more comprehensive than CubaNews, because it is fully
bi-lingual. The idea that Cuba's government deliberately limits access to 
the Internet is extremely widespread, and so everything which is done to
promote the notion must be understood for the fabrication that it is.

Take the time to read this material through. If you want to read further
on this very important subject, here are two more you can take a look at:

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND ACCESS TO INTERNET ON THE RISE
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/23061

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT CUBA AND THE INTERNET
by Walter Lippmann, CubaNews list moderator
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/23064

=======================================================
RESPONDING TO THIS CHICAGO TRIBUNE STORY:
Cubans wonder where their Web access went
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/72323
=======================================================

Dear Walter and CubaNews readers,


I did NOT tell Michael Martinez ANYTHING RELATED the items that appear
inside brackets. He INVENTED such matters:

'How do [the blocked Web sites] contribute to development? Do we give
[Internet usage] to dissidents or to a hospital?'")


Thus, I stated:

"How does the Internet contribute to the country's development? Who should
have the right to have Internet a person or an institution? Thus, practical
choices have to be made: a dissident or a hospital?"

Of course, I related such zero-sum-game to the fact that Cuba has a limited
amount of broadband which is affected by the number of users. The more
users, the less speed in the use of Internet. I posited to Mr Martinez that
the US government is the party that has limited the broadband available to
Cuba because it has not permitted Cuba's access to submarine optical/digital
cable. I also stated that if the US REALLY wanted ALL Cubans to have access
to the Internet it should provide to the island fiber optic connectivity and
do so free of charge. hen, Cuba's government could not claim that any
limitation of access would be do to width of broadband. Of course, the US
government FEARS Cuba's Internet connectivity because it would permit the
REAL use of the huge human capital that the island has. The United States
government, moreover, does not want Cuba to have access to real-time access
to the futures market (in sugar, nickel, etc).

Mr Martinez, in fact, is a major disappointment - I am being POLITE. 
I spent about three precious hours explaining to him the REAL problems of
informatization in the island. I also explained to him that Reporters
without borders is a Central Intelligence Agency Front that works on behalf
of the rightwing Cubans and the Bush administration. Yet, Mr Martinez or
those who control his writing decided NOT to use the enormous amount of
material that I provided to him.

The piece that Mr Martinez has produced for the Chicago Tribune is pure and
undiluted "unga" as the Cubans say.

Best regards,


Nelson P Valdes
Cuba-L Director



PS: Mr Martinez had no idea of the difference between analog and digital
communications, nor the amount of money that Cuba spent on digitalization of
phone lines, nor how to go about finding where a server is located. It so
happened that he assumed that the magazine VITRAL produced in an electronic
version in Pinar del Rio, he believed that the server was located IN Cuba.
Mr Martinez did not know of the Internet instrument known as "whois". And I
could go on. Inorder to write about Cuba a single rule is followed by most
mass media outlets: you have to be iggnorant and politically biased.

================================
WALTER LIPPMANN
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
writer - photographer - activist
http://www.walterlippmann.com
================================

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism