May 18, 2009
Article from: The Australian
HAVANA: Cuban dissidents have found a brave new figurehead in Yoani
Sanchez, a blogger whose observations about life in one of the world's
last communist bastions have angered the state and made her a global
celebrity.
Ms Sanchez, 33, a philologist, has attracted a loyal fan base with her
gentle mockery of the regime in Havana, which seems to be at a loss over
how to rein in "cyberspace rebels".
"They regard me as an enemy of the state," Ms Sanchez said. "That is
because the blogging phenomenon has opened up a crack in government
control which is almost impossible to repair."
Although it is read all over the world, the Sanchez blog, Generation Y,
is blocked in Cuba. However, like Soviet-era homemade samizdat copies of
censored books, it circulates on computer memory sticks and CDs as well
as on paper.
"I know that I am being read because people recognise me in the street,"
said Ms Sanchez, who sometimes has had to pose as a Swiss tourist to be
able to post her blog on the internet from a Havana hotel. "People come
up to me all the time to wish me luck."
The Government of Raul Castro, 77, brother of the retired Fidel, accuses
her of being part of a "counter-revolutionary" conspiracy. Elsewhere she
is regarded as a hero: Time magazine recently named her among the 100
most influential people in the world. Last year, Spain awarded her one
of its most prestigious journalism prizes.
She was not allowed out of the country to collect it - nor to attend the
party held over the weekend in Italy for the publication of Cuba Libre,
a collection of her blogs - but her prominent international profile
protects her in a country where dissidents routinely end up in jail.
Besides being denied an exit visa, she has found her freedom to travel
inside Cuba restricted. "We're treated like schoolchildren: we need
permission to go anywhere," she said with a laugh. "I've been
misbehaving so I'm not allowed."
She said the election of US President Barack Obama would put pressure on
the Government to allow more political openings. In the end, though,
change will be imposed by the Cubans themselves, she predicted.
"People are waking up from a long cycle of silence," she said, adding
that technology such as digital video and the internet was making it
much more difficult for the Government to maintain its control.
"My philosophy," said Ms Sanchez, who is under constant surveillance by
the state security apparatus, "is that if they watch me, I'll watch
them. I make videos of things all the time, which I put on the internet."
The Government has branded her antics "a provocation against the Cuban
revolution" but Ms Sanchez puts a brave face on harassment by the state.
"They're trying to make me a radioactive person," she said.
"But I don't like the role of victim. I try to respond with a smile."
As for the Castro "dynasty", she believes it has run out of steam. "The
Cuban system is like one of those gravity-defying houses in Old Havana,"
she said.
"How does it stay up? Maybe one day they pull a small nail from the door
and the house comes tumbling down.
"In today's Cuba, that small nail could be anything."
Perhaps even her.
The Sunday Times
Cubans find a new hero in gentle 'cyberspace rebel' | The Australian (18
May 2009)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25496737-36235,00.html
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