HAVANA TIMES – I learned in the upper grades of elementary school that one important trait of a cultured individual is being well-informed about everything, staying up-to-date. An article I read during my adolescence, in an edition of “Selections from Reader’s Digest,” also helped me consolidate that idea. It made me realize this wasn’t only a notion from my neighborhood school, but a topic of world importance, and that the tools backing it were the press, the newspapers, journalism, the radio -in short, the news!
I would see in the movies how people would buy the newspaper, sometimes even several different ones, and read them on the subway or the bus, catching up on events. In some places, like the offices, people arrived at work but before beginning their daily tasks took some 15 minutes to at least read the headlines.
I remember that at the end of the eighties and up until the beginning of the nineties, I could do that too. At that time, I was already working in the city of Havana, in a housing construction company at the provincial level and had an office all my own. I was in charge of everything that concerned the measurement instruments: taking them to be calibrated at the Metrology Institute; taking them for repairs; and coordinating planning with the department of the Economy for the purchase of new, replacement ones, etc.
Hence, I could allow myself certain liberties – such as reading the newspaper during work time. In the end, my activity – although it could be and was, in fact, considered important – was only so theoretically, because the technical department I belonged to had nothing but an old jeep to get around in, that was always broken down. Riding the bus all over the province, which has always had enormous deficits in transport, was practically impossible, even though they paid for the trips.
Transportation has always been a disaster, since the years I was in middle school in 1961, and in that year there was still free enterprise in Cuba!
But my topic today is information, on how to stay current. Like they say, it’s no easy matter. Maybe in the process of keeping up, you fall into certain modern traps, such as what’s come to be called “fake news.” Or, not quite the same, while searching for information, you come across a controversial source which, without being fake – at least not completely so – isn’t accepted by the majority; something that can be very dangerous and not at all healthy.
Hence this task that seems so simple, gives way to a social phenomenon that’s the daily quandary in the Lawton neighborhood of Havana, Cuba.
I say “in Cuba,” because it’s where I live. By extension, I can project my day-to-day living experience, and with it constitute my tiny contribution to reality, by expressing my own truth and what I believe is real.
Thanks to God, who made possible the Internet, which is still allowed here. There’s already talk that they’re thinking about taking it away, but we can still enjoy it today, despite many limitations. Without a doubt, it offers greater breadth to one’s possibilities of staying informed. Really? Well, in Cuba everything is very complicated. It depends on what you want to get information about, but also for what reason. After you catch up on current events – what, in truth can you do with that information? Is it merely an intellectual luxury?
It’s hard to believe, but the information dynamic has gone to a new level. It’s no longer the province of large monopolies. Anyone with talent, be it only a little, can create a sphere of influence and command public attention. We have the “YouTubers,” from every band. They inform us daily, even several times a day, of truths they believe they have. This also means disputing or trying to inform the followers of the opposing band, attempting to set them straight. And in that way, they struggle for their dreams, interests, and ideals.
I get up in the morning and right away try to connect online. There’s not always a connection, and it never operates at sufficient speed. Anyway, it’s impossible to follow so many, and because of that I’ve had to select certain ones.
In the arena of the Cuban government vs the opposition, I find that the spokespersons on both sides, no matter which one, are locked in an eternal argument, whose objective is to lead the pack into the fold of each one of them. And, that dynamic is called democracy, and in some sense is also the essence of politics, even when it isn’t democratic.
The critical day-to-day question for a Cuban is: what can you do, once you’re fully informed? Those who are in favor of continuing the current social system really don’t have a lot to catch up on – their starting point is a static, immovable body of information, of a solidity that gravitates and emanates out of some sole principles, that can’t questioned by law.
If contradicted, refuted and called into question by “those who are in contra!” The latter are legally committing a crime, because opposing the government or its’ policies is illegal, even though they say that it can be allowed. Giving opinions, criticizing, calling into question, examining… is outside the law, along with all those inside Cuba who want to change the way of governing.
