[NYTr] Computers Yes,Travel No: Ramy on Lame Bush Cuba Speech

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Progreso Weekly - Nov 1, 2007

Dateline Havana

Computers, yes; travel, no

By Manuel Alberto Ramy
(Published in Progreso Semanal blog on Oct. 24)

Today at 1:10 p.m., Washington time, President George W. Bush will
deliver a brief speech about Cuba. However, since last night, some
"tidbits" have been leaked to the press, as if they were appetizers.
Perhaps those appetizers contain the essence of the presidential
speech. Prudence says we should wait until we can analyze it as a
whole. However, I believe that it is worthwhile to meditate, from this
shore of the Straits of Florida, on a specific point. 

According to the news wires and El Nuevo Herald, Bush is willing to
make computers available to Cubans, so long as the government in Havana
grants all citizens’ access to the Internet.

The U.S. president knows perfectly well that about 9 miles north of
Cuba, there is an underwater cable to which Cubans could connect,
"reducing the cost of all kinds of communications and getting better
service. But the blockade, which the president has tightened, prevents
their access and has obliged Havana to resort to an old satellite to
conduct their communications.

"The leasing cost is high, and the bandwidth -- a feature that
facilitates the quality, quantity and diversity of the types of
communication -- is 65 megabytes-per-second for download and 124 for
uplink. To any Internaut, these figures are as ridiculous as travelling
by balloon in an age when airliners can break the speed of sound." This
passage is in quotation marks because I took it from my column From
Havana due to appear tomorrow Thursday the 25th.

Here is the point: by offering computers, the Bush administration wants
Cubans to have access to the Internet and thus learn about the bounties
and wonders of a different world. In terms of contact, communications
made through the Internet can be described as measured, cold, indirect.

If the objective is to overthrow the Cuban system -- and it is -- why
not facilitate the direct, warm communications that human beings
establish among themselves when they shake hands, talk over cups of
coffee and (especially) when relatives and friends reunite?

Why, instead of his kind willingness to facilitate the shipment of
computers, doesn't Bush facilitate the travel of Cuban-Americans to the
island? And of Americans, too, why not? In the latter instance, perhaps
he fears that the exaggerated distortion of the Cuban reality shown by
the media -- a reality that is certainly harsh for the population --
will backfire on him once the Americans arrive in Cuba and begin to
alter the preconceived schemes. 

It is a truism that the values transmitted from one person to another
are more eloquent than any words. Therefore, why maintain the travel
restrictions, even in cases where a relative may be at death's door?
Which is better? To console the relative in person or bid him farewell
by e-mail? Bush's feelings apparently are tightly blockaded, God knows
why. 

Perhaps what Bush intends with his Yes-to-PCs and No-to-travel is to
distance people, cool relationships, because they have altered the
composition of the Cuban-American community in Florida, particularly in
Miami. Oddly enough, that change does not signify support for the Cuban
government; rather, it underscores the personal interests of every
émigré -- his family and friends.

This shift in the community's opinions and attitudes is unstoppable and
has been recorded in opinion polls. Besides, the growing tendency to
register as independent voters is not limited to immigrants from Cuba.
The independent voter defends no other interests than his own, inasmuch
as he does not see himself represented in political formations. He
votes for whoever (in his view) will defend him. Is it Lincoln, Mario
or Ileana? A recent survey -- in El Nuevo Herald, I believe -- revealed
that if Raúl Martínez [ex mayor of Hialeah] ran for Congress he would
win by several points. 

I really hoped something more rational from Bush to support the trio of
Florida Congresspeople. In my musings -- and without mistaking wishes
for reality, which to me is a mortal sin -- I thought he might try to
steal a flag from the Miami opposition and would somehow modify the
travel restrictions. But at the same time I pondered that to steal
flags you need more than just a political-electoral machine. You need
leadership, the exceptional trait that enables a leader to bring the
arguments of his opponent to his side and use them to his own
advantage. 

Fidel Castro has done this, but -- whether you like it or not -- he is
a leader. Bush is a machine that, in addition to the dead-ended war in
Iraq, finds it difficult to mesh cogs with the Cuban people. 

A study by the International Republican Institute -- referred to by
Alejandro Armengol in his blog today -- reveals that "the lack of
freedoms and the political system worry only 18.2 percent of the
population." 

Material problems are at the heart of Cubans' worries. Is Mr. Bush
planning to send them food, transport, and housing via the Internet? 

By restating the current policy and additionally calling for a military
coup that would put chaos above stability, Bush has committed a grave
error, not only domestic (in terms of Miami) but international. He'll
see that, quickly enough. 

[Manuel Alberto Ramy is Havana bureau chief of Radio Progreso
Alternativa and editor de Progreso Semanal, the Spanish-language
version of Progreso Weekly.]