Cuba's internet revolution

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Cuba's internet revolution
The potential of the internet struck Fidel Castro's government like a
shock wave during last year's custody battle over Cuban boy Elian
Gonzalez.
Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of new hits appeared daily on the
website of the communist newspaper Granma as the curious scrolled
stories in Spanish and English about government demands that the boy
be repatriated from the US. 
Editors were stunned at least twice during the seven-month custody
battle when the weekly number of visitors passed two million. 
For perhaps the first time the island, isolated for more than 40
years by US trade sanctions, was offering unedited views directly to
North Americans who didn't even think about Cuba before the fight
over a motherless six-year-old boy. 
Cuba is an internet latecomer, but foreigners can now visit more than
200 government sites that explain communist Cuba's view of the battle
over Elian, the US trade embargo, and Washington's crackdown on US
citizens who break the law to visit the island. 
Havana has also discovered an important side benefit of its web
presence: potential revenue from services and products advertised on
its pages. 

 http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,3042788%5E15322%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

=====
David Goldstein
post: 82 Kingston Road, Earlsdon CV5 6LR, West Midlands, UK
email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
phone: +44 24 7667 7226 (home) +44 7786 704 887 (mobile)

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