Castro's Internet II

You may recall a recent report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) detailing how the Castro regime controls access to the Internet by ordinary Cubans - as opposed to tourists and senior government officials.

It’s done by a combination of outrageously high access fees and through the use of sophisticated software that monitors any attempt by users to access international sites deemed by the regime to be “counter revolutionary” or subversive.

Anyway, it seems the RSF report has not pleased Havana.

The daily propaganda sheet of the regime, Granma, has trotted out a poor bloke by the name of Jose R Vidal, who is identified as a computer expert at the University of Havana, to defend the current restrictions.

As expected, Vidal avoids the key issues of affordability and senseless surveillance.

Instead, he attacks the “criminal” US commercial embargo (again), while detailing the “great achievements of the Revolution” when it comes to information technology in Cuba, blah, blah, blah …

My favourite line comes towards the end of the lengthy piece, which you can read here in English.

“Taking all the aforementioned into account,” Vidal writes, “can anybody who looks at Cuba in a cool and unbiased way call the security and control measures that the Cuban government has taken over the use of the internet totalitarian, unjustified, or set to isolate Cubans from the rest of the world?”

Yes, we can.

Still, a marvellous piece of Orwellian speak, don’t you think?