1 00:00:00,653 --> 00:00:02,979 Hello Eliane, tell me about... 2 00:00:05,439 --> 00:00:07,561 Well, besides your life in Cuba 3 00:00:08,006 --> 00:00:09,677 and everything 4 00:00:09,677 --> 00:00:12,511 What do you think and what problems do you have 5 00:00:12,511 --> 00:00:15,017 with the coverage you do for Global Voices 6 00:00:15,017 --> 00:00:16,698 about the island? 7 00:00:17,112 --> 00:00:20,597 Well, I have written for Global Voices since 2010 8 00:00:20,597 --> 00:00:23,608 when the regional Spanish editor 9 00:00:25,051 --> 00:00:28,845 asked me if I wanted to collaborate with Global Voices 10 00:00:29,075 --> 00:00:30,555 and I began to write 11 00:00:30,555 --> 00:00:33,639 about some news that was very sad for us about 12 00:00:33,639 --> 00:00:35,335 a plane crash 13 00:00:35,351 --> 00:00:37,724 in a province called Sacti Spiritus. 14 00:00:37,724 --> 00:00:39,016 From that moment on 15 00:00:39,016 --> 00:00:41,386 I started to try to sort of reconstruct 16 00:00:41,386 --> 00:00:43,538 the voices of what was being said 17 00:00:43,538 --> 00:00:48,668 by bloggers on the island, the people who had Internet access, 18 00:00:48,668 --> 00:00:51,421 still people with limited means 19 00:00:51,421 --> 00:00:52,969 and the connection was quite slow. 20 00:00:53,077 --> 00:00:55,981 Currently, the main problem I have 21 00:00:56,073 --> 00:00:59,752 with the coverage of Global Voices 22 00:00:59,752 --> 00:01:03,394 is that Global Voices tries to give a voice to the blogosphere 23 00:01:03,394 --> 00:01:05,522 and Internet spaces, 24 00:01:05,537 --> 00:01:07,685 but often things happen in Cuba 25 00:01:07,685 --> 00:01:10,328 and there's a bit of a delay for news to arrive to Internet spaces. 26 00:01:10,328 --> 00:01:13,565 Especially because of this technological limitation 27 00:01:13,565 --> 00:01:15,644 or this limitation on Internet use. 28 00:01:15,674 --> 00:01:18,955 So we are wondering during the summit 29 00:01:18,955 --> 00:01:21,759 if we should wait for it to arrive... and lose a week 30 00:01:21,759 --> 00:01:25,170 or try to start, move foward with what is happening, 31 00:01:25,170 --> 00:01:28,560 as if it were a live coverage of the events, 32 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:33,106 without having a reflection from Social Media yet. 33 00:01:33,106 --> 00:01:34,668 It's a debate that might not 34 00:01:34,668 --> 00:01:36,109 come up much in other countries 35 00:01:36,109 --> 00:01:37,231 but for us in Cuba, 36 00:01:37,231 --> 00:01:41,892 it forms a considerable part of our day-to-day lives. 37 00:01:41,892 --> 00:01:45,483 We also try to make the posts as influential as possible. 38 00:01:45,483 --> 00:01:48,894 Cuba is quite controversial in terms of politics 39 00:01:48,894 --> 00:01:53,205 and there are pretty distant spaces in the blogosphere 40 00:01:53,205 --> 00:01:55,915 that are opposed to each other and 41 00:01:55,931 --> 00:01:57,930 it is a bit of an everyday challange 42 00:01:57,930 --> 00:02:00,739 to try to make the coverage of Cuba 43 00:02:00,739 --> 00:02:03,123 as neutral as possible, 44 00:02:03,123 --> 00:02:06,266 although in my personal opinion about our reality 45 00:02:06,266 --> 00:02:07,782 this is something that is rather hard to achieve. 46 00:02:07,797 --> 00:02:12,306 Well, that it is as honest and balanced possible. 47 00:02:15,460 --> 00:02:18,586 Of the articles you have written, 48 00:02:18,601 --> 00:02:21,600 what reactions have you gathered, 49 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,651 if you will, 50 00:02:24,682 --> 00:02:27,355 through comments 51 00:02:27,355 --> 00:02:30,667 from the website or by other means? 52 00:02:30,667 --> 00:02:35,647 Well, almost all the articles that I write for Global Voices receive comments, 53 00:02:35,647 --> 00:02:37,186 rather controversial comments, 54 00:02:37,186 --> 00:02:41,554 but we always try to respond to all of 55 00:02:41,554 --> 00:02:43,192 these comments about the issues. 56 00:02:43,192 --> 00:02:46,413 The most interesting thing that has happened to me 57 00:02:46,428 --> 00:02:48,351 is that a lot of people who try to contact me 58 00:02:48,351 --> 00:02:49,436 by e-mail 59 00:02:49,436 --> 00:02:51,630 to learn a little more about Cuba 60 00:02:51,646 --> 00:02:54,654 from what I write for Global Voices. 61 00:02:54,654 --> 00:02:57,500 And also from the series I wrote 62 00:02:57,500 --> 00:02:59,501 about the Wikileaks cables, I mean 63 00:02:59,501 --> 00:03:02,538 what the cables said... about Cuba. 64 00:03:02,538 --> 00:03:06,211 It generated many comments and lots of replies 65 00:03:06,211 --> 00:03:08,050 amongst the official media. 66 00:03:08,050 --> 00:03:09,683 They started to copy the exact same post 67 00:03:09,683 --> 00:03:12,231 in the mainstream media 68 00:03:12,269 --> 00:03:16,052 because I've tried to do a bit of an analysis in three posts 69 00:03:16,052 --> 00:03:17,394 that I essentially wrote 70 00:03:17,394 --> 00:03:19,887 to see what issues were being talked about 71 00:03:20,141 --> 00:03:22,764 though a bit of a quantitative analysis at the beginning. 72 00:03:22,764 --> 00:03:25,327 Then, briefly explaining what the issues were, 73 00:03:25,327 --> 00:03:26,859 the postures on those topics, 74 00:03:26,859 --> 00:03:27,759 and it was very interesting 75 00:03:27,759 --> 00:03:29,067 because it was published 76 00:03:29,067 --> 00:03:30,285 exclusively for Global Voices 77 00:03:30,285 --> 00:03:32,969 and suddenly a lot of other media organizations started to publish it. 78 00:03:33,061 --> 00:03:36,239 Another interesting thing is the translations. 79 00:03:36,239 --> 00:03:39,488 It's not as exciting or new for me 80 00:03:39,488 --> 00:03:41,481 to see the posts translated into English. 81 00:03:41,481 --> 00:03:44,537 But to go in one day and see the posts 82 00:03:44,537 --> 00:03:46,363 ...in Magyar or Aymara 83 00:03:46,379 --> 00:03:48,935 or in languages that are not very known in the world 84 00:03:48,935 --> 00:03:51,308 is incredibly positive because you know 85 00:03:51,308 --> 00:03:55,949 the people in the places where these languages are spoke are reading about Cuba 86 00:03:55,949 --> 00:03:58,468 or at least they have the possibility 87 00:03:58,468 --> 00:04:00,551 of receiving these stories from Cuba. 88 00:04:02,966 --> 00:04:07,379 Do you take part in the Cuban blogosphere yourself? 89 00:04:07,887 --> 00:04:11,878 What is your relationship with your parents like? 90 00:04:11,924 --> 00:04:14,469 Being part of the Cuban blogosphere is complicated, 91 00:04:14,469 --> 00:04:15,691 it's a complex matter. 92 00:04:15,691 --> 00:04:18,300 Because it's a blogosphere, as I said, 93 00:04:18,300 --> 00:04:20,107 it's growing constantly. 94 00:04:20,107 --> 00:04:23,992 Currently, Cuba has almost 600 Cuban-based blogs. 95 00:04:23,992 --> 00:04:25,233 It might not seem like much, 96 00:04:25,233 --> 00:04:26,698 but for a country with only 14% 97 00:04:26,698 --> 00:04:29,799 Internet penetration, it's considerable, 98 00:04:29,799 --> 00:04:31,877 because there are people who are dedicating their free time 99 00:04:31,877 --> 00:04:33,948 who are using their Internet connection at work 100 00:04:33,948 --> 00:04:36,311 because they hardly ever have connections at home, 101 00:04:36,311 --> 00:04:38,822 to reveal a bit about the reality in Cuba. 102 00:04:38,822 --> 00:04:42,172 So, to suddenly be immersed in these dynamics 103 00:04:42,172 --> 00:04:46,776 at the time in 2008 when I had recently created my blog, 104 00:04:46,776 --> 00:04:50,126 was something very solitary, I mean, there were not many people, 105 00:04:50,126 --> 00:04:52,147 not many bloggers 106 00:04:52,147 --> 00:04:53,986 and we were just starting to talk to each other. 107 00:04:53,986 --> 00:04:56,082 But in 2012, 108 00:04:56,082 --> 00:05:00,478 face-to-face meetings have been held for bloggers in Cuba. 109 00:05:00,478 --> 00:05:02,684 There has already been citizen action, 110 00:05:02,684 --> 00:05:04,834 such us the cleaning of the Almendares river 111 00:05:04,834 --> 00:05:07,094 that was organized completely from social networks, 112 00:05:07,109 --> 00:05:10,135 and it gathered people from both inside and outside of Cuba. 113 00:05:10,135 --> 00:05:12,675 Citizen computer literacy programs dealing with 114 00:05:12,691 --> 00:05:15,567 technological issues have been carried out. 115 00:05:15,567 --> 00:05:19,304 for people who have a bit less knowledge. 116 00:05:19,304 --> 00:05:22,387 And so, it has started to be to be a big community 117 00:05:22,387 --> 00:05:25,352 where it's still difficult to reach a consensus, 118 00:05:25,352 --> 00:05:29,927 but where extremely interesting debates are created, 119 00:05:29,927 --> 00:05:33,059 where very productive dialogues are generated, 120 00:05:33,059 --> 00:05:36,404 where we are learning a little 121 00:05:36,420 --> 00:05:39,276 ...to be more influential, 122 00:05:39,276 --> 00:05:41,239 to respect others' voices, 123 00:05:41,239 --> 00:05:44,170 to understand that every blog is an individual experience, 124 00:05:44,170 --> 00:05:45,689 a unique experience 125 00:05:45,689 --> 00:05:48,932 that does not have to be like others. 126 00:05:48,932 --> 00:05:51,391 In a way , we teach each other respect for others, 127 00:05:51,407 --> 00:05:54,149 to understand terms such as freedom of expression, 128 00:05:54,149 --> 00:05:58,522 essentially, such as respect for differences, 129 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. 130 00:06:08,465 --> 00:06:10,143 Correct me if I'm wrong. 131 00:06:10,143 --> 00:06:12,510 Yes, there are the official media organizations, which are all state-owned. 132 00:06:12,510 --> 00:06:18,172 Official Cuban media organizations belong to state institutions. 133 00:06:18,172 --> 00:06:21,107 The Central Workers Union of Cuba, for example, has its media organization, 134 00:06:21,137 --> 00:06:23,612 the Communist Party of Cuba has its media organzation, 135 00:06:23,612 --> 00:06:27,645 the Young Communist Union also has its own media press... 136 00:06:27,645 --> 00:06:29,047 As for university students, 137 00:06:29,047 --> 00:06:30,787 they have the Alma Mater magazine, 138 00:06:30,787 --> 00:06:33,040 and on top of that, almost every sector is represented 139 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:34,368 in some kind of press media, 140 00:06:34,384 --> 00:06:39,063 but if... all the recognized press media organizations are state-owned 141 00:06:39,079 --> 00:06:41,358 the blogosphere's relationship with the state-owned media 142 00:06:41,373 --> 00:06:43,097 is very interesting, 143 00:06:43,112 --> 00:06:45,185 even if in the beginning 144 00:06:45,185 --> 00:06:46,869 they weren't very heard or read 145 00:06:46,869 --> 00:06:48,313 because there were very few. 146 00:06:48,313 --> 00:06:52,539 Nowadays, we are, indeed, quite read and even quoted. 147 00:06:52,539 --> 00:06:55,003 Cuban bloggers are interviewed by the press, 148 00:06:55,003 --> 00:06:57,173 and there are even many issues 149 00:06:57,173 --> 00:06:59,755 that form part of citizens' concern 150 00:06:59,770 --> 00:07:01,596 that were first born in the blogosphere, 151 00:07:01,596 --> 00:07:06,177 and then, the press or traditional journalism makes them theirs. 152 00:07:06,177 --> 00:07:09,390 They do research, deeper searches, 153 00:07:09,390 --> 00:07:12,200 and then a dialogue begins 154 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:14,936 between bloggers and the traditional press. 155 00:07:14,936 --> 00:07:18,584 I don't think the relationship is distasteful 156 00:07:18,599 --> 00:07:20,985 and it doesn't discredit bloggers either, 157 00:07:20,985 --> 00:07:22,832 I mean, by the act of being bloggers. 158 00:07:22,832 --> 00:07:24,848 Bloggers are discredited 159 00:07:24,848 --> 00:07:27,383 by certain political trends, 160 00:07:27,383 --> 00:07:31,398 but these political arguments are not the basis 161 00:07:31,398 --> 00:07:32,167 for being a blogger 162 00:07:32,167 --> 00:07:35,553 or for using new technologies to tell others about your reality, 163 00:07:35,553 --> 00:07:37,304 as it may happen in other countries 164 00:07:37,304 --> 00:07:39,693 where not having a journalism degree 165 00:07:39,693 --> 00:07:41,809 can invalidate a citizen, or something like that. 166 00:07:41,809 --> 00:07:44,489 I don't think this is the case in Cuba, yet. 167 00:07:44,489 --> 00:07:47,611 At least not this year, for the moment. 168 00:07:47,611 --> 00:07:50,000 Thank you, Elaine.