In Cubaland, Satellite Dishes are the Devil
hmmm... imagine a country so afraid of what its citizens may learn from foreign newscasts that it would outlaw and then seek to confiscate ... all satellite dishes.
you don't have to imagine. Cuba's doing just that:
Cuba's Communist government has signaled a crackdown on the use of black-market satellite dishes, just over a week after ailing leader Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother.
The Communist Party newspaper Granma on Wednesday warned that the dishes, which many Cubans use to watch Spanish-language television programs from Miami, could be used by the U.S. government to broadcast subversive information.
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why now? there's an estimated 10,000 satellite dishes in Cuba, all of them bought in the black market (and thus illegal), since the government does not provide or sell the dishes to its citizens.
well, the official story is likely to be that since the Bush administration has stepped up its transmissions into Cuba, Cuba is defending itself in the information war.
the reality, however, is that Cuba is quite good at jamming transmissions from the U.S. and has been doing so for years. in fact, Cuban officials brag about how good their jamming programs are.
no. the real reason is that with Fidel out of commission, it is more important than ever to keep ordinary Cubans in the dark as to what is going on in their country. now more than ever, the Cuban government wants to be the sole source of news to its people, so that it can control what they know ... and, by extension, control them.
by the way, the Cuban government doesn't allow its people access to the Internet either (duh).
Check out my earlier entry, Internet for all? Not in Cubaland.
ain't Cubaland grand
you don't have to imagine. Cuba's doing just that:
Cuba's Communist government has signaled a crackdown on the use of black-market satellite dishes, just over a week after ailing leader Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother.
The Communist Party newspaper Granma on Wednesday warned that the dishes, which many Cubans use to watch Spanish-language television programs from Miami, could be used by the U.S. government to broadcast subversive information.
See Full Story
why now? there's an estimated 10,000 satellite dishes in Cuba, all of them bought in the black market (and thus illegal), since the government does not provide or sell the dishes to its citizens.
well, the official story is likely to be that since the Bush administration has stepped up its transmissions into Cuba, Cuba is defending itself in the information war.
the reality, however, is that Cuba is quite good at jamming transmissions from the U.S. and has been doing so for years. in fact, Cuban officials brag about how good their jamming programs are.
no. the real reason is that with Fidel out of commission, it is more important than ever to keep ordinary Cubans in the dark as to what is going on in their country. now more than ever, the Cuban government wants to be the sole source of news to its people, so that it can control what they know ... and, by extension, control them.
by the way, the Cuban government doesn't allow its people access to the Internet either (duh).
Check out my earlier entry, Internet for all? Not in Cubaland.
ain't Cubaland grand
posted by Yimboro | 8:33 AM
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