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Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Cubans and Logging In to the Future

Cubans and Logging In to the Future
April 8, 2013
Alfredo Fernandez

HAVANA TIMES — Having left Cuba less than a month ago has proven a major
revelation for me. Yes, because for a Cuban crossing the limits of the
island for the first time brings with it a peculiar significance to the
trivial act of traveling in today's world.

Shortly after arriving to Ecuador, which is far from being a developed
country, the unnecessary sacrifice that Cubans are subjected to daily
becomes all so clear.

It's impossible for me to understand why in Cuba we don't have full
Internet service, a tool that interweaves much of the daily life of the
inhabitants of the planet.

I also can't understand always having to search for something to eat on
the island? A brief visit to any market in Ecuador and you will find a
diversified and affordable offer, even for the less fortunate pocketbook.

I'll never forget that "conversation" between Eliecer Avila [then a
student leader at the Computer University] and Ricardo Alarcon [the
former chair of the Cuban parliament], where Alarcon, in one of his
usual statements answered the student by saying, that "travel would be
the best way to end the doubts of the people on the legitimacy of the
Cuban system."

To be honest Mr. Alarcon, now that I can verify what I always imagined,
I reassert what I invariably thought: the difficulties faced by people
in Cuba are absolutely unnecessary.

Twenty days ago I left Havana and to this day I cannot find the
slightest reason for complicity with what Alarcon defends to the limit.
To the contrary, thinking of Cuba I can only feel sorry for my country,
even more so for those who have not yet traveled, enabling them to enter
into the future and see like me, that which they have known for a long time.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=90879

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