Digital samizdat

"Самиздат: сам сочиняю, сам редактирую, сам цензурирую, сам издаю, сам распространяю, сам и отсиживаю за него." ("Self-publishing: I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and get imprisoned for it.") - Vladimir Bukovsky

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In the bad old days of the Soviet Union, banned books and articles circulated in underground print editions.

Xeroxing was out; the secret police--no kidding--controlled access to copy machines.

So usually these "copies" were transcribed by hand or typed, and duplicated in this means by faithful readers, so that the population of copies in circulation grew as they made their way through their readership.

This practice of making and passing copies on clandestinely became known as samizdat (самиздат)-- literally, "self-published"--and some tremendously important works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry originally circulated in the USSR in this way.

Wikipedia notes: "With increased proliferation of computer technologies, it became practically impossible for the government to control the copying and distribution of samizdat."

And how. When average citizens own a machine that can be a printing press, a radio station, or a TV station depending on what software you download, control of information becomes impossible.

The only thing you can do, in a world of PCs, is to attempt to ruthlessly control access to the network, and this is what totalitarian states ranging from Saudi Arabia to China have attempted to do.

And, of course, Cuba... where it isn't working either:

A growing underground network of young people armed with computer memory sticks, digital cameras and clandestine Internet hookups has been mounting some challenges to the Cuban government in recent months, spreading news that the official state media try to suppress.

Last month, students at a prestigious computer science university videotaped an ugly confrontation they had with Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly.

Mr. Alarcón seemed flummoxed when students grilled him on why they could not travel abroad, stay at hotels, earn better wages or use search engines like Google. The video spread like wildfire through Havana, passed from person to person, and seriously damaged Mr. Alarcón’s reputation in some circles.

Something similar happened in late January when officials tried to impose a tax on the tips and wages of employees of foreign companies. Workers erupted in jeers and shouts when told about the new tax, a moment caught on a cellphone camera and passed along by memory sticks.

“It passes from flash drive to flash drive,” said Ariel, 33, a computer programmer, who, like almost everyone else interviewed for this article, asked that his last name not be used for fear of political persecution. “This is going to get out of the government’s hands because the technology is moving so rapidly.”

Cyber-Rebels in Cuba Defy State's Limits (New York Times, 6 March 2008)

Close, still no cigars

In the name of helping Cubans, the US administration is calling for "multibillions" of taxpayer dollars in foreign aid and subsidies for internet access, education and business development for Cubans under the condition that the Cuban government demonstrates certain changes. In the same breath, they claim lifting the embargo would only help the dictatorship. This is exactly backwards. Free trade is the best thing for people in both Cuba and the US. Government subsidies would enrich those in power in Cuba at the expense of already overtaxed Americans!

The irony of supposed Capitalist, free-marketeers inducing Communists to freedom with government hand-outs should not be missed. We call for a free and private press in Cuba while our attempts to propagandize Cubans through the US government run Radio/TV Marti has wasted $600 million in American taxpayer dollars.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX): Struggling for relevance in Cuba: Close, still no cigars

Less America here than almost anywhere else in the world

Cuba famously lies 90 miles from the Florida coast. But it seems farther from America than anywhere else I've been on any of five continents. Some cultural influence crosses the strait: when I introduce myself, young Cubans mention a recent Keanu Reeves film that shares my name―and which was, frankly, rather terrible. But still, there is less America here than almost anywhere else in the world. It is an absence of America so strong that it requires a joint-venture of sorts between the American and Cuban governments to keep it in place. Cuba's otherness stems as much from America's wilful embargo as it does from any policies of the Cuban state; and it is America, not Cuba, which has insisted on Cuba's isolation.

Poverty has gone hand in hand with this isolation. But try to sort out how much of it has been due to the American embargo, and how much to Cuban policies, and you will quickly get lost. Unless, that is, you have embarked on the search with a well-drawn road map of ideological preconceptions.

I would prefer to draw my own map, but this is a frustrating place to go exploring. I've been to see presidents and ministers in other countries equipped with no more than a business card and a polite if sometimes persistent telephone manner. In Cuba my calls are met with equally polite and persistent requests to call again tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, for the duration of my stay. This would be easier to take if I had not first spent six months awaiting a visa to enter the country, on the grounds that this was the time needed to set up meetings for me once I got to Havana.

It will be difficult for me to answer my colleagues' questions about who is up and who is down in the power struggles, and what will happen when Fidel Castro, who is clearly very ill, dies. And perhaps the government might have equal difficulty answering my own questions on those same subjects.

Correspondent's Diary, Havana: The isle is full of noises - Economist.com

P.S. The Economist's elegant, brief backgrounder on the current situation in Cuba takes thirty seconds to read and is more lucid than anything I've read on the subject in an American newspaper this year:

Fifty years on, Fidel Castro's communist revolution has left Cuba with little to celebrate. As long as the ailing Mr Castro, Cuba's unelected leader for the past 47 years, remains in charge, democracy is off the agenda and economic reform is unlikely. The latter is much needed: a combination of tourism, aid from Venezuela and China, and remittances from the 1.2m Cubans living in the United States prop up the failing economy. Cuba struggles to profit from its most valuable natural resource, nickel. A thicket of red tape deters private enterprise.

Although in theory America maintains an embargo against Mr Castro's government, in practice contacts are growing fast. Europe has generally been more keen to engage Cuba, but Mr Castro's penchant for political repression has hurt relations. Foreigners are eager to see if Mr Castro's brother and likely successor, Raúl, is more reform-minded.

If you want to quickly educate yourself about (or bluff your way though) any current issue, these beautifully crafted little executive summaries are the place to start, and the links to in-depth magazine articles will allow you to actually learn something, should you so choose.