What would I do for Internet access?

Beat three coffee-shop hipsters and the entire Topeka Coalition for Peace and Justice to death with a spiced chai bar, that's what.

I'd sleep with Jessica Alba. Go ahead, test me.

Can I just confess that I kind of have a problem with that hunger strike story? Lack of uncensored Internet access seems, oh, a bit far down the list of things one ought to be protesting in Cuba. But maybe that's just me.

Guillermo Fariñas, a 41-year-old psychologist and director of Cubanacan Press in Cuba, was blocked from having internet access because of a phone interview he granted to The Miami Herald in which he denounced the wave of repressions against dissidents and independent reporters in Cuba.

OK, this clarifies it a bit. In a real way he is protesting about more than just Internet access. It's more about the suppression of dissent in general. The story (and his campaign) could do well to focus more on that aspect.

The story (and his campaign) could do well to focus more on that aspect.

I disagree. The protest aspect for a right as basic and ubiquitous as internet access is much more powerful and specific than vague protests against vague concepts like "suppression of dissent in general," concepts that Americans hear about taking place in Cuba, but don't quite resonate as something they can compare to their daily lives.

Lack of uncensored Internet access seems, oh, a bit far down the list of things one ought to be protesting in Cuba.

Again, I think you're off base here. Trying to control the thoughts and access to information of your people is one of the most evil repressions of a dictatorship - and something American leftists can't apologize away. It's a symptom of much deeper repression.

And not having the ability to communicate with the outside world on a practical level for a journalist, writer or merely curious citizen is huge, dehumanizing. I'm not sure why you are dismissive; I find it a somewhat odd reaction.

Trying to control the thoughts and access to information of your people is one of the most evil repressions of a dictatorship - and something American leftists can't apologize away. It's a symptom of much deeper repression.

Right. But what you've described is a much larger problem than if I can't access my Yahoo Mail account. There are lots of ways to control information; state-run newspapers, TV, and radio come to mind. And for an country like Cuba I'm thinking that those three methods are still FAR ahead of Internet censorship in their scope and coverage.

And not having the ability to communicate with the outside world on a practical level for a journalist, writer or merely curious citizen is huge, dehumanizing. I'm not sure why you are dismissive; I find it a somewhat odd reaction.

I'm not dismissive of that at all. Again, this is a much larger issue than whether or not someone has Internet access. Internet access isn't even universal in this country yet, you know. So it's really not a particularly prominent symptom of the larger problems in Cuba. It's like complaining about the numbness in your fingers when you're having a heart attack.

Like I said, now that I understand that the story is about far more than Internet access, I can better appreciate his motivation to go on hunger strike. But the way Dorkafork put it---he specifically said the journalist was in jail, which doesn't seem to be the case---it sounded like an American prison inmate complaining that he's not allowed to watch The Daily Show.

I've changed the word "jailed" to "dissident" for clarity. He had been jailed before, and the original story stated: " Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, doctor in psychology and general director of Cubanacán Press, presently in parole due to health reasons began a hunger strike without fluids last January 31st..." But he is not currently in jail and it was a mistake to say so.

And whether or not he's in jail is incidental to the main issue. This seems to be the best description of what happened:

Fariñas, 43, is one of Cuba's independent journalists, most of them government opponents who gather information about human rights abuses and other news that never appear in government-run papers. Lacking such tools as computers or tape recorders, they usually phone in their stories to exile organizations in Miami.

Fariñas, director of a news agency in the central city of Santa Clara called Cubanacán Press, sent his dispatches by e-mail from a local Internet café.

A day after he was prominently quoted in a front-page Miami Herald article Jan. 23 about a wave of attacks against dissidents, Fariñas found all the e-mail addresses he normally sent articles to had been blocked. So he sent an open letter to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, vowing to die unless he got his e-mail back.

it sounded like an American prison inmate complaining that he's not allowed to watch The Daily Show.

Again, characterizing "access to the outside world" as being "allowed to watch the Daily Show" is a diminishing characterization, in my opinion.

But what you've described is a much larger problem than if I can't access my Yahoo Mail account. There are lots of ways to control information; state-run newspapers, TV, and radio come to mind. And for an country like Cuba I'm thinking that those three methods are still FAR ahead of Internet censorship in their scope and coverage.

And what's a more pivotal act in controlling information? Internet access, that's what. Because state run media can be spun as the truth, and internet access - access to the outside world - can both directly counter the effects of all the propaganda in the world AND is revelatory in its inability to be spun - denying your people access to basic information that all of us take for granted speaks volumes.

Again, characterizing "access to the outside world" as being "allowed to watch the Daily Show" is a diminishing characterization, in my opinion.

As is equating "access to the outside world" with "Internet access."

Oops, hit "post" too soon.

And what's a more pivotal act in controlling information? Internet access, that's what.

Only if its penetration in the society is sufficient. Look, even in this country, most people still get their information from the mainstream media. It is only in very recent times that the Internet is proving its worthiness as a means to dispel falsehood and deliver the truth. You should know, you were there when its power was first displayed in full during Rathergate.

I don't dispute the Internet's potential to revolutionize countries like China and Cuba, but I just don't think that the world yet appreciates what a fundamental tool for justice the Internet can be, because even in developed countries it's still doing so only in fits and starts.

As is equating "access to the outside world" with "Internet access."

BS. The happenings and sum of knowledge of the entire world are at my fingertips, this very second. This is not an inaccurate nor exorbidant comparison.

You may still get your news from smoke signals and carrier pigeon, but 90% of the information that enters my brain comes from this little box.

I don't dispute the Internet's potential to revolutionize countries like China and Cuba, but I just don't think that the world yet appreciates what a fundamental tool for justice the Internet can be, because even in developed countries it's still doing so only in fits and starts.

It's happening, and you are vastly underappreciating the trend, IMO. In your defense, most people vastly underappreciate such trends while they unfold under their noses.

Allowing Cubans to watch the Daily Show (Jon Stewart's biases aside), would be an amazing improvement. I've added another link describing current state of internet access in Cuba.

It's precisely because of the power of the Internet that I don't consider the relative consumption of Cuban state-produced media that important. It's like VOA squared.

Well, I know Castro would ban the Colbert Report. Too much truthiness in that show.

Perhaps the reason internet access doesn't seem like such a big deal to us is precisely because it's so pervasive. Even if you didn't have a dime in your pocket you could walk into practically any public library in the country and have access to the world and its goings on.

We complain about media bias here in the states that is the result of group think. As insidious as it is, bias is nowhere near the problem that Cubans face. Their media isn't biased it's not even even news. It's frankly public relations for the government. I challenge you to look over any of Cuba's official media sites (many of which have English translations) and find one negative story. You can't. In Cuba nothing bad ever happens. How can this be? One thing is for a governement (like ours) to try to put a spin on things but in Cuba there's no independent journalism. It is mind control. And its an island.

Mr. Fariñas is on a noble mission, one that deserves more international attention than it is currently getting.

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