Posted on 07/12/2005 1:13:40 PM PDT by CAWats
Democracy: As Cuba digs out from one of the worst hurricane sever to hit the island, Fidel Castro faces a new challenge to his tyranny. It’s not just the failure of Cuba’s infrastructure. It’s also what’s filling the void.
That something is the use of technology as a lifeline to the construction of a civil society. As Hurricane Dennis slammed through Cuba, an interesting change happened: Cubans lost their fear of the state and provided minute-by-minute reporting about conditions by cell phone, e-mail or short-wave radio on the hurricane to their Miami brethren.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
That something is the use of technology as a lifeline to the construction of a civil society. As Hurricane Dennis slammed through Cuba, an interesting change happened: Cubans lost their fear of the state and provided minute-by-minute reporting about conditions by cell phone, e-mail or short-wave radio on the hurricane to their Miami brethren.
The unprecedented firsthand reports went beyond mere human connection and into the realm of spontaneously constructing a civil society as Miami Cubans now mobilize to send aid. It’s like farmers helping each other build barns, the first outline of an emerging polity. And all this is from the hurricane rubble and the failures of Castro’s regime.These private efforts not only provide aid; they also establish civil institutions.Andthe U.S. should encourage it. There’s never been anything like it. Reports rolled in not just from Havana, but from citizens in Santa Clara, Matanzas, Cienfuegos andSantiago,and these reports made their way onto the Internet. Stories are unconfirmed, but ordinary Cubans told what they knew, and we heard reports of a Cuban Coast Guard cutter going down, Ernest Hemingway’s house getting slammed, fish in the Havana streets blown in by waves gathered as food by hungry locals, art collections damaged, the need for candles amid power outages, the forced government evacuations and those who hid from them, the preferentialism given to rich European and Canadian tourists (and Cuban citizen protests as half-empty tourist evacuation buses rolled by), the looting of government shops in cities, the disjointed radio babblings of Fidel Castro on the “mercenary” hurricane, the weird hurricane parties. Not one word of this ever made Cuba’s government-controlled press or, with the exception of the Miami Herald, the mainstream U.S. media. Cuba is one of the world’s most closed societies, so to read these accounts for the first time was an amazing change. We expected nothing but propaganda from the official media. Only the most privileged members of Cuban society have access to the Internet and other technology, so the fact that even they were willing to use it to issue candid reports about hurricane damage shows that Castro’s control is fading. But something else is taking its place. As Cuban-Americans get these unprecedented reports from their relatives, they are struggling to find a way to extend a hand to the devastated without Castro’s operatives getting their hands on the aid. That in itself is citizen action that will prove to be a building block of civil society, and it signals a vast reservoir of social capital in Cuba that’s building. These Miami citizens, groups like Democracia Movement, are making an effort to fill the void from the Castro government’s neglect and indifference. Private citizens are reaching out to other private citizens in Cuba and doing things for themselves. It’s how democracies take root. And it further confirms that Cuba is on the edge of shaking off its dictatorship, and Castro, as outgoing U.S. envoyJamesCason said, “isonhis last legs.” This welcome step toward civil initiatives should be encouraged. Private U.S. citizens should be given at least a temporary window to help other private citizens in Cuba as they struggle to dig out from Dennis’ rubble.Because theCuban government,on its last legs, isn’t going to doit.These civic ties that bind are Cuba’s real future. INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY ISSUES & INSIGHTS TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2005 A13.
I always thought a devastating hurricane could be the thing that results in the end of the Castro regime.
Castro has told Cubans that the CIA decides where the hurricanes will land.
Cuba and North Korea are bizarre places from a bygone era.
Well said - it's what I am hoping for, too.
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