Originally posted by maverick28They had internet booths all throughout Varadero (sp?) when I was there two years ago. 😕
In addition to criminalizing access to the Internet,
Cuba also persecutes a group of volunteers who have
opened uncensored libraries throughout the island in
an effort to challenge government control of
information. A number of Cuba's independent
librarians, now serving 20-year sentences following
one-day trials, have been adopted as "prisoners of
conscience" by Amnesty International, which is
demanding their immediate release.
I had my eyes opened very quickly concerning what it�s like to live in a totalitarian society where your every move is watched and every word recorded," says Rabbi Kent. "I was staying at Havana�s Hotel Nacional, but it was too expensive, so I asked a friend if there was anything cheaper available. Before this friend could arrange anything for me, I was approached by a man who said he was the landlord of the apartment complex across the street from the hotel and he had a room available. Amazingly, the price he was asking was exactly the amount I had mentioned to my friend as the price range I was looking for. I had been warned that all hotel rooms and public buildings were wired with microphones and cameras, and this confirmed it."
Rabbi Kent moved into the apartment, which was to become his jail for the next three weeks. On his fourth day in Cuba, he was arrested on the street by the National Revolutionary police. He was taken back to his room, where his belongings were searched and he was accused of espionage. "I told them �I�m not a spy, I�m a rabbi. I�m only praying and studying with other Jews,�" Kent recounted. But that didn�t satisfy the Castroite gestapo. "They said I only had a tourist visa and that I must have a �missionary visa� in order to minister to the people. But no rabbi has ever been given a missionary visa, as far as we�ve been able to tell." That effectively ended his mission to Cuba�s Jews. "They said I couldn�t talk to more than three people at any one time. I thought that I still might be able to do some good, but then I found that every Jew I had talked to had been visited by the secret police. I didn�t want to get them in trouble or endanger them, so there was lit
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Originally posted by no1marauderThe fact that the government of Cuba confiscated private property is a complete crock? What fairy tale exactly are you living in? I agree with you that US corporations were exploiting the place before Fidel took over. No doubt about. But I think you kidding yourself if you think Castro is some kind of selfless hero that hasn't benefited personally from the government takeover of said corporate property not to mention the private property of Cuban citizens.
It's also a complete crock.
Oh and your broad brush portait of all those loony Cuban exiles living in the United States as a bunch of ex-Batista corrupt loyalists is a crock. Some of those people were just hardworking average folks like you and me (well like me - don't know about you) that were forced to flee the country.