The Means and the End

The Means and the End / Regina Coyula
Posted on April 10, 2014

Much has been written about Zunzuneo and Piramideo and I'm not going to
be an analyst. My reflection is simple: Could a mass messaging through
Twitter subvert governments like those of Great Britain, Canada, France,
Australia, Sweden, Costa Rica?

Beyond the well-known 15-M (May 15th) protests in Spain, the student
movement in Chile, and Occupy Wall Street in the very belly of the
beast, the social networks have mobilized, have probably knocked down
politicians, but they haven't knocked down governments.

Where does this turn into a dangerous thing? In countries where a bad
economy, lack of freedoms, or both, create the conditions. The Arab
Spring is the best known referent. The displeasure of the Cuban
government is not about the alleged violation of the telephone privacy
of its citizens (that would be a colossal joke) but precisely because
the government knows very well the express or buried opinions of much of
its citizens about the bad economy, the lack of freedoms, or both, and
what they least want is that a significant group of them would organize
themselves through this means.

And also, I believe, reacting in the face of the launch of Yoani
Sanchez's announced project–a new digital newspaper–a "means" that could
align the feelings of citizens in response to the bad economy, the lack
of freedoms, or both.

9 April 2014

Source: The Means and the End / Regina Coyula | Translating Cuba -
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