By Manuel Alberto Ramy
Today at
1:10 p.m., Washington time, President George W. Bush will deliver a
brief speech about Cuba. However, since last night, some "tidbits"
have been leaked to the press, as if they were appetizers. Perhaps
those appetizers contain the essence of the presidential speech.
Prudence says we should wait until we can analyze it as a whole.
However, I believe that it is worthwhile to meditate, from this shore
of the Straits of Florida, on a specific point.
According to the news wires and El Nuevo Herald, Bush is willing to make computers available to Cubans, so long as the government in Havana grants all citizens’ access to the Internet.
The U.S. president knows perfectly well that about 9 miles north of Cuba, there is an underwater cable to which Cubans could connect, "reducing the cost of all kinds of communications and getting better service. But the blockade, which the president has tightened, prevents their access and has obliged Havana to resort to an old satellite to conduct their communications
From Havana Read Spanish Version
Computers,
yes; travel, no
By
Manuel Alberto Ramy
(Published
in Progreso Semanal blog on Oct. 24)
Today at 1:10 p.m., Washington time, President George W. Bush will deliver a brief speech about Cuba. However, since last night, some "tidbits" have been leaked to the press, as if they were appetizers. Perhaps those appetizers contain the essence of the presidential speech. Prudence says we should wait until we can analyze it as a whole. However, I believe that it is worthwhile to meditate, from this shore of the Straits of Florida, on a specific point.
According
to the news wires and El Nuevo Herald, Bush is willing to make
computers available to Cubans, so long as the government in Havana
grants all citizens’ access to the Internet.
The U.S.
president knows perfectly well that about 9 miles north of Cuba,
there is an underwater cable to which Cubans could connect, "reducing
the cost of all kinds of communications and getting better service.
But the blockade, which the president has tightened, prevents their
access and has obliged Havana to resort to an old satellite to
conduct their communications.
"The
leasing cost is high, and the bandwidth -- a feature that facilitates
the quality, quantity and diversity of the types of communication --
is 65 megabytes-per-second for download and 124 for uplink. To any
Internaut, these figures are as ridiculous as travelling by balloon
in an age when airliners can break the speed of sound." This
passage is in quotation marks because I took it from my column From
Havana due to appear tomorrow Thursday the 25th.
Here is
the point: by offering computers, the Bush administration wants
Cubans to have access to the Internet and thus learn about the
bounties and wonders of a different world. In terms of contact,
communications made through the Internet can be described as
measured, cold, indirect.
If the
objective is to overthrow the Cuban system -- and it is -- why not
facilitate the direct, warm communications that human beings
establish among themselves when they shake hands, talk over cups of
coffee and (especially) when relatives and friends reunite?
Why, instead of his kind willingness to facilitate the shipment of computers, doesn't Bush facilitate the travel of Cuban-Americans to the island? And of Americans, too, why not? In the latter instance, perhaps he fears that the exaggerated distortion of the Cuban reality shown by the media -- a reality that is certainly harsh for the population -- will backfire on him once the Americans arrive in Cuba and begin to alter the preconceived schemes.
It is a truism that the values transmitted from one person to another are more eloquent than any words. Therefore, why maintain the travel restrictions, even in cases where a relative may be at death's door? Which is better? To console the relative in person or bid him farewell by e-mail? Bush's feelings apparently are tightly blockaded, God knows why.
Perhaps
what Bush intends with his Yes-to-PCs and No-to-travel is to
distance people, cool relationships, because they have altered the
composition of the Cuban-American community in Florida, particularly
in Miami. Oddly enough, that change does not signify support for the
Cuban government; rather, it underscores the personal interests of
every émigré -- his family and friends.
This shift in the community's opinions and attitudes is unstoppable and has been recorded in opinion polls. Besides, the growing tendency to register as independent voters is not limited to immigrants from Cuba. The independent voter defends no other interests than his own, inasmuch as he does not see himself represented in political formations. He votes for whoever (in his view) will defend him. Is it Lincoln, Mario or Ileana? A recent survey -- in El Nuevo Herald, I believe -- revealed that if Raúl Martínez [ex mayor of Hialeah] ran for Congress he would win by several points.
I really hoped something more rational from Bush to support the trio of Florida Congresspeople. In my musings -- and without mistaking wishes for reality, which to me is a mortal sin -- I thought he might try to steal a flag from the Miami opposition and would somehow modify the travel restrictions. But at the same time I pondered that to steal flags you need more than just a political-electoral machine. You need leadership, the exceptional trait that enables a leader to bring the arguments of his opponent to his side and use them to his own advantage.
Fidel Castro has done this, but -- whether you like it or not -- he is a leader. Bush is a machine that, in addition to the dead-ended war in Iraq, finds it difficult to mesh cogs with the Cuban people.
A study by the International Republican Institute -- referred to by Alejandro Armengol in his blog today -- reveals that "the lack of freedoms and the political system worry only 18.2 percent of the population."
Material problems are at the heart of Cubans' worries. Is Mr. Bush planning to send them food, transport, and housing via the Internet?
By restating the current policy and additionally calling for a military coup that would put chaos above stability, Bush has committed a grave error, not only domestic (in terms of Miami) but international. He'll see that, quickly enough.
Manuel Alberto Ramy is Havana bureau chief of Radio Progreso Alternativa and editor de Progreso Semanal, the Spanish-language version of Progreso Weekly.
