Joisy García Martínez, Translator: Unstated
To Tweet from a cell phone in Cuba is disproportionately costly, almost
impossible, and only comparable with the draining of the Cienaga de
Zapata swamp, the eradication of prostitution, computer illiteracy or
the forbidden game.
To write 140 characters via a cell phone in Cuba, however simple it may
seem, is a luxury few can afford and there are few people who enjoy the
privilege of being able to access the social network Twitter because of
the high price of this service on telephones and in hotels. One hour of
internet access in one of the cybercafes, that are proliferating more
and more in the major cities, cost between six and eight dollars, which
represents a fortune if you consider the average monthly wage for the
average Cuban is around 20 dollars.
On the island, there are few who have a quality computer in their homes.
Those who manage to break the limitations of this internal blockade and
get a computer, then have to deal with the nonexistent connections in
home and the high costs of surfing the internet on the island. Although
social networks like Twitter and Facebook are not blocked by the Cuban
government, like some other sites of a critical and dissident nature,
for the average Cuban to access the, outside the monitored schools, is a
luxury not granted to most. But before these critical hurdles, Cuban
bloggers who are active on sites like Twitter have found other
alternatives, although they remain expensive, they allow us to get on
the network more often and to express ourselves.
This alternative is through text messages of 140 characters send via
cell phones and subsequently published on the accounts of the
microblogging site. To participate in the social network in this way
cost one convertible peso, around 24 pesos in national money, for each
Tweet sent, something that many call "the luxury of expression."
This option, as expensive as it is, at least some of the dozens of
Cubans who have a web presence use. Access to the Internet, and in
particular this latter alternative of tweeting in our country is as
scarce as beef and tolerance. The officials say the island doesn't limit
Cubans' access to social networks, and that platforms like Twitter and
Facebook don't have agreements with the Cuban Telecommunications Company
to allow free messages to these networks from mobile phones, but the
reality is that communication is complex and excessively expensive for
the citizen in the XXI century. An issue that makes me question the
supposed social function of the Cuban telephone monopoly.
This reflection brings to mind the solidarity shown by a person who
recently recharged my cellphone from the internet, so I would transmit
via Twitter the essentials of the hunger strike undertaken by Dr.
Jeovany Jimenez Vega in Guanajay in March. Thank you, actions like these
make me thing that those of us who want to communicate and express
ourselves through tweets in Cuba are not alone, but be must analyze the
cost-benefit, right-freedom that this option brings.
3 April 2012
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