Cuban_students Cuban youths across the Florida Straits met and talked
via Internet video phone this week during an unusual experiment
conducted by the University of Miami. The images of youths in Miami and
in Havana were projected on a large screen inside a UM conference room.
For one hour Tuesday night, about half a dozen UM students of Cuban
origin talked to more than half a dozen Cuban youths, some students, in
Havana.
The UM students asked the Cuban youths questions about the current
situation on the island and some of the answers were surprising.
At times, the Cuban youths sounded like Cuban exiles referring to
the Cuban government as "dictatorship'' or "tyranny'' and its actions as
"repression.'' One even said that while Fidel Castro used to describe
the Cuban Revolution as the revolution of all the Cuban people, most
young people on the island now feel it is "his revolution.''
While many issues were discussed, overall the Cuban youths left the
impression that an anti-government youth movement is emerging and that
pro-democracy youth protests may one day spread through the island. One
student noted that the greatest peril to the Cuban revolution is the
country's youths because they are the ones who most fervently want change.
One of the most insightful comments came from a 25-year-old man who
said: "There's a generational conflict which also includes a political
conflict. Today's generation does not feel committed to the same initial
ideals of the Cuban revolution.''
The UM group sat in a room at the Institute for Cuban and
Cuban-American Studies at the UM campus in Coral Gables. The Cuban
youths sat in a living room-like setting somewhere in Havana.
UM organizers said they could not identify the location or provide the
names of the participants to protect them against possible Cuban
government reprisals.
-- Alfonso Chardy
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2008/03/cuban-youths-pr.html
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