WEBVTT 00:00:00.653 --> 00:00:02.979 Hello Eliane, tell me about... 00:00:05.439 --> 00:00:07.561 Well, besides your life in Cuba 00:00:08.006 --> 00:00:09.677 and everything 00:00:09.677 --> 00:00:12.511 What do you think and what problems do you have 00:00:12.511 --> 00:00:15.017 with the coverage you do for Global Voices 00:00:15.017 --> 00:00:16.698 about the island? 00:00:17.112 --> 00:00:20.597 Well, I have written for Global Voices since 2010 00:00:20.597 --> 00:00:23.608 when the regional Spanish editor 00:00:25.051 --> 00:00:28.845 asked me if I wanted to collaborate with Global Voices 00:00:29.075 --> 00:00:30.555 and I began to write 00:00:30.555 --> 00:00:33.639 about some very sad news for us about 00:00:33.639 --> 00:00:35.335 a plane crash 00:00:35.351 --> 00:00:37.724 in a province called Sacti Spiritus. 00:00:37.724 --> 00:00:39.016 From that moment on 00:00:39.016 --> 00:00:41.386 I started to try a bit to reconstruct 00:00:41.386 --> 00:00:43.538 the voices of what was being said 00:00:43.538 --> 00:00:48.668 by the bloggers on the island, the people who had Internet access, 00:00:48.668 --> 00:00:51.421 still people with limited means 00:00:51.421 --> 00:00:52.969 and the connection was quite slow. 00:00:53.077 --> 00:00:55.981 Currently, the main problem I have 00:00:56.073 --> 00:00:59.752 with the coverage of Global Voices 00:00:59.752 --> 00:01:03.394 is that Global Voices tries to give voice to the blogosphere 00:01:03.394 --> 00:01:05.522 and Internet spaces, 00:01:05.537 --> 00:01:07.685 but many times things happen in Cuba 00:01:07.685 --> 00:01:10.328 and there's a bit of a delay for news to arrive to Internet spaces. 00:01:10.328 --> 00:01:13.565 Especially because of this technology limitation 00:01:13.565 --> 00:01:15.644 or this limit with the use of the Internet. 00:01:15.674 --> 00:01:18.955 So we are asking ourselves during the summit 00:01:18.955 --> 00:01:21.759 if we wait for it to arrive... and lose a week 00:01:21.759 --> 00:01:25.170 or try to start, move foward with what is happening, 00:01:25.170 --> 00:01:28.560 as if it were a live coverage of the events, 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:33.106 without having a reflection from Social Media yet. 00:01:33.106 --> 00:01:34.668 It is a debate that might not 00:01:34.668 --> 00:01:36.109 come up much in other countries NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.109 --> 00:01:37.231 but for us in Cuba, 00:01:37.231 --> 00:01:41.892 it makes up a considerable part of our day-to-day lives. 00:01:41.892 --> 00:01:45.483 We also try to make the posts as influential as possible. 00:01:45.483 --> 00:01:48.894 Cuba is quite controversial in terms of politics 00:01:48.894 --> 00:01:53.205 and there are pretty distant spaces in the blogosphere 00:01:53.205 --> 00:01:55.915 that are opposed to each other and 00:01:55.931 --> 00:01:57.930 it is a bit of an everyday challange 00:01:57.930 --> 00:02:00.739 to try to make the coverage of Cuba 00:02:00.739 --> 00:02:03.123 as neutral as possible, NOTE Paragraph 00:02:03.123 --> 00:02:06.266 although in my personal opinion about our reality 00:02:06.266 --> 00:02:07.782 this is something that is rather hard to achieve. 00:02:07.797 --> 00:02:12.306 Well, that it is as honest and balanced possible. 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:18.586 Of the articles you have written, 00:02:18.601 --> 00:02:21.600 what reactions have you gathered, 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:24.651 if you will, 00:02:24.682 --> 00:02:27.355 through comments 00:02:27.355 --> 00:02:30.667 from the website or by other means? 00:02:30.667 --> 00:02:35.647 Well, almost all the articles that I write for Global Voices receive comments, 00:02:35.647 --> 00:02:37.186 rather controversial comments, 00:02:37.186 --> 00:02:41.554 but we always try to respond to all of 00:02:41.554 --> 00:02:43.192 these comments about the issues. 00:02:43.192 --> 00:02:46.413 The most interesting thing that has happened to me 00:02:46.428 --> 00:02:48.351 is that a lot of people who try to contact me 00:02:48.351 --> 00:02:49.436 by e-mail 00:02:49.436 --> 00:02:51.630 to learn a little more about Cuba 00:02:51.646 --> 00:02:54.654 from what I write for Global Voices. 00:02:54.654 --> 00:02:57.500 And also from the series I wrote 00:02:57.500 --> 00:02:59.501 about the Wikileaks cables, I mean 00:02:59.501 --> 00:03:02.538 what the cables said... about Cuba. 00:03:02.538 --> 00:03:06.211 It generated many comments and lots of replies 00:03:06.211 --> 00:03:08.050 within the official media. 00:03:08.050 --> 00:03:09.683 They started to copy the exact same post 00:03:09.683 --> 00:03:12.231 in the mainstream media 00:03:12.269 --> 00:03:16.052 because I've tried to do a bit of an analysis in three posts 00:03:16.052 --> 00:03:17.394 that I essentially wrote 00:03:17.394 --> 00:03:19.887 to see what issues were being talked about 00:03:20.141 --> 00:03:22.764 though a bit of a quantitative analysis at the beginning. 00:03:22.764 --> 00:03:25.327 Then, briefly explaining what the issues were, 00:03:25.327 --> 00:03:26.859 the postures on those topics, 00:03:26.859 --> 00:03:27.759 and it was very interesting 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:29.067 because it was published 00:03:29.067 --> 00:03:30.285 exclusively for Global Voices 00:03:30.285 --> 00:03:32.969 and suddenly a lot of other media organizations started to publish it. 00:03:33.061 --> 00:03:36.239 Another interesting thing is the translations. 00:03:36.239 --> 00:03:39.488 It's not as exciting or new for me 00:03:39.488 --> 00:03:41.481 to see the posts translated into English. 00:03:41.481 --> 00:03:44.537 But to go in one day and see the posts 00:03:44.537 --> 00:03:46.363 ...in Magyar or Aymara 00:03:46.379 --> 00:03:48.935 or in languages that are not very known in the world 00:03:48.935 --> 00:03:51.308 is incredibly positive because you know 00:03:51.308 --> 00:03:55.949 the people in the places where these languages are spoke are reading about Cuba 00:03:55.949 --> 00:03:58.468 or at least they have the possibility 00:03:58.468 --> 00:04:00.551 of receiving these stories from Cuba. 00:04:02.966 --> 00:04:07.379 Do you take part in the Cuban blogosphere yourself? 00:04:07.887 --> 00:04:11.878 What is your relationship with your parents like? 00:04:11.924 --> 00:04:14.469 Being part of the Cuban blogosphere is complicated, 00:04:14.469 --> 00:04:15.691 it's a complex matter. 00:04:15.691 --> 00:04:18.300 Because it's a blogosphere, as I said, 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:20.107 it's growing constantly. 00:04:20.107 --> 00:04:23.992 Currently, Cuba has almost 600 Cuba-based blogs. 00:04:23.992 --> 00:04:25.233 It might not seem like much, 00:04:25.233 --> 00:04:26.698 but for a country with only 14% 00:04:26.698 --> 00:04:29.799 Internet penetration, it's considerable, 00:04:29.799 --> 00:04:31.877 because there are people who are dedicating their free time 00:04:31.877 --> 00:04:33.948 who are using their Internet connection at work 00:04:33.948 --> 00:04:36.311 because they hardly ever have connections at home, 00:04:36.311 --> 00:04:38.822 to reveal a bit about the reality in Cuba. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:38.822 --> 00:04:42.172 So, to suddenly be immersed in these dynamics 00:04:42.172 --> 00:04:46.776 at the time in 2008 when I had recently created my blog, 00:04:46.776 --> 00:04:50.126 was something very solitary, I mean, there were not many people, 00:04:50.126 --> 00:04:52.147 not many bloggers 00:04:52.147 --> 00:04:53.986 and we were just starting to talk to each other. 00:04:53.986 --> 00:04:56.082 But in 2012, 00:04:56.082 --> 00:05:00.478 face-to-face meetings have been held for bloggers in Cuba. 00:05:00.478 --> 00:05:02.684 There has already been citizen action, 00:05:02.684 --> 00:05:04.834 such us the cleaning of the Almendares river 00:05:04.834 --> 00:05:07.094 that was organized completely from social networks, 00:05:07.109 --> 00:05:10.135 and people it gathered from both inside and outside of Cuba. 00:05:10.135 --> 00:05:12.675 Citizen computer literacy programs dealing with 00:05:12.691 --> 00:05:15.567 technological issues have been carried out. 00:05:15.567 --> 00:05:19.304 for people who have a bit less knowledge. 00:05:19.304 --> 00:05:22.387 And so, it has started to be to be a big community 00:05:22.387 --> 00:05:25.352 where it's still difficult to reach a consensus, 00:05:25.352 --> 00:05:29.927 but where extremely interesting debates are created, 00:05:29.927 --> 00:05:33.059 where very productive dialogues are generated, 00:05:33.059 --> 00:05:36.404 where we are learning a little 00:05:36.420 --> 00:05:39.276 ...to be more influential, 00:05:39.276 --> 00:05:41.239 to respect others' voices, 00:05:41.239 --> 00:05:44.170 to understand that every blog is an individual experience, 00:05:44.170 --> 00:05:45.689 a unique experience 00:05:45.689 --> 00:05:48.932 that does not have to be like others. 00:05:48.932 --> 00:05:51.391 In a way , we teach each other respect for others, 00:05:51.407 --> 00:05:54.149 to understand the terms such as freedom of expression, 00:05:54.149 --> 00:05:58.522 essentially, such as respect for differences, 00:05:58.722 --> 00:06:08.465 and for the media. In Cuba, I don't think there are media organizations, there is only the government media. 00:06:08.465 --> 00:06:10.143 Correct me if I'm wrong. 00:06:10.143 --> 00:06:12.510 If, there are the official media organizations, which are all state-owned. 00:06:12.510 --> 00:06:18.172 Official Cuban media organizations belong to state institutions. 00:06:18.172 --> 00:06:21.107 The Central Workers Union of Cuba, for example, has its media organization, 00:06:21.137 --> 00:06:23.612 the Communist Party of Cuba has its media organzation, 00:06:23.612 --> 00:06:27.645 the Young Communist Union also has its own media press... 00:06:27.645 --> 00:06:29.047 As for university students, 00:06:29.047 --> 00:06:30.787 they have the Alma Mater magazine, 00:06:30.787 --> 00:06:33.040 and on top of that, almost every sector is represented 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:34.368 in some kind of press media, 00:06:34.384 --> 00:06:39.063 but if... all the recognized press media organizations are state-owned 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.358 the blogosphere's relationship with the state-owned media 00:06:41.373 --> 00:06:43.097 is very interesting, 00:06:43.112 --> 00:06:45.185 even if in the beginning 00:06:45.185 --> 00:06:46.869 they weren't very hear or read 00:06:46.869 --> 00:06:48.313 because there were very few. 00:06:48.313 --> 00:06:52.539 Nowadays, we are fairly, indeed, quite read and even quoted. 00:06:52.539 --> 00:06:55.003 Cuban bloggers are interviewed by the press, 00:06:55.003 --> 00:06:57.173 and there are even many issues 00:06:57.173 --> 00:06:59.755 that form part of citizens' concern 00:06:59.770 --> 00:07:01.596 that was first born in the blogosphere, 00:07:01.596 --> 00:07:06.177 and then, the press or traditional journalism makes them theirs. 00:07:06.177 --> 00:07:09.390 They do research, deeper searches, 00:07:09.390 --> 00:07:12.200 and then a dialogue begins 00:07:12.200 --> 00:07:14.936 between bloggers and the traditional press. 00:07:14.936 --> 00:07:18.584 I don't think the relationship is distasteful 00:07:18.599 --> 00:07:20.985 and it doesn't discredit to bloggers either, 00:07:20.985 --> 00:07:22.832 I mean, by the act of being bloggers. 00:07:22.832 --> 00:07:24.848 Bloggers are discredited 00:07:24.848 --> 00:07:27.383 by certain political trends, 00:07:27.383 --> 00:07:31.398 but these political arguments are not the basis 00:07:31.398 --> 00:07:32.167 for being a blogger 00:07:32.167 --> 00:07:35.553 or using new technologies to tell about your reality, 00:07:35.553 --> 00:07:37.304 as it may happen in other countries 00:07:37.304 --> 00:07:39.693 where not having a journalism degree 00:07:39.693 --> 00:07:41.809 can invalidate a citizen, or something like that. 00:07:41.809 --> 00:07:44.489 I don't think this is the case in Cuba, yet. 00:07:44.489 --> 00:07:47.611 At least not this year, for the moment. 00:07:47.611 --> 00:07:50.000 Thank you, Elaine.