huridocs-tech Cubans embrace e-mail

Cubans Embrace Email, Warily
by Steve Kettmann 
3:00 a.m.  30.Apr.99.PDT

HAVANA -- Cuba remains a country stuck in the past in many respects, a fact
symbolized by the pictures of Havana streets teeming with meticulously
maintained American cars dating from the 1950s. But modern technology is
beginning to make inroads. 

Email, for example, recently became available to significant numbers of
Cubans for the first time, although in a trickle, not a flood. 

It was introduced at the University of Havana, where there's always a wait
to use one of the five battered IBMs from the Dark Ages (1986) that serve
as the email center at the university's Central Library. Students are
limited to half an hour, although some press for more time, as others wait
their turn under the high ceilings and fluorescent lighting.

Nearby, a door opens into a smaller room marked "Sala de Referencia." 

On the square outside, an old tank on permanent display reminds everyone
that this remains a totalitarian society with Fidel Castro firmly in
charge. But inside, students brave enough to borrow the email accounts of
visiting foreigners can gain a measure of contact with the outside world.
Few, if any, are stupid enough to include political references in their
messages, however.

"I come every day, because I have a lot of friends abroad," said a
29-year-old from Camaguey who asked to be called Nick. Nick, who is
studying to be a teacher, described himself as a big fan of J.D. Salinger.
("I have a lot of things in common with Holden.") Like the other Cubans
interviewed for this article, Nick would risk serious trouble if he were
identified by his real name.

"I have a European friend who is a reporter," Nick said. "She wrote an
article about Cuba today and sent it by email from the library here. Two
days later, the police came around to her apartment with a citation. They
had a printout of the article translated into Spanish and they asked her,
'Why did you do this?' They gave her a warning that if she did it again,
she would be fined -- or expelled from the country." 

Threats aside, the introduction of email at the university -- one of the
few places it's available in Havana other than government offices and
luxury hotels -- means more information is leaving the country via
visiting students.

Monica ("like Lewinsky," she explained helpfully), a 21-year-old from
Bogota, Colombia, was amazed to find she could get an email account when
she arrived in Havana to study. She and her friend Sandra, a Spaniard, said
they keep their emails simple, limiting their discussions to friends and
classwork. Politics are studiously avoided. 

None of the Cubans interviewed about email had any illusions about
privacy.  It's known that every email sent from the university account is
automatically copied into an archive. It's equally known that the email is
being copied elsewhere, too. 

"You know they are opening the mail and looking at it," Nick said. 
"Sometimes letters disappear. If it happens with letters, you can only
imagine what they do with email. 

"Every month or so, by magic, there is some problem with the email here
and it is shut down for a few days or a week. We always joke that they are
using this time to catch up on reading all the emails." 

Karla, an art history major, explained that she obtained her email account
from a helpful university administrator, but clammed up when a reporter
asked further questions. She seemed relieved when the interview ended.

Another student, Pedro, said he uses the account of a student from Saudi
Arabia and comes in every day to email his girlfriend, who lives in
Northern California.

"I'm so glad for email," he said. "It's so different than communicating by
regular mail.  Sometimes it would take 12 months for a letter to arrive."

The students using foreigners' email accounts are taking a chance,
especially in light of a new anti-sedition law enacted in February. The
law increases the penalty to 20 years' imprisonment for any act deemed to
undermine the authority of Castro's government. If that sounds like a
broad legal definition, it's no accident: Interpretation is up to the
government. 

How the law is applied remains to be seen, but so far there haven't been
any cases involving email. None that have been publicized, at any rate.

Some Cuban students have their own email accounts, although this is
limited mostly to graduate students. They are free to contact graduate
students in other countries, as long as it's to exchange ideas about
things like pulsars in the constellation Aquila, or mitochondrial activity
in infants. 

Faculty members are also new to email. Literature professor Guillermo
Rodrigues Rivera was in the middle of planning a trip to Italy using
email, a much more efficient method than he's endured in the past.

"It's very new. Maybe we can all have it within a few months," said
Rodrigues Rivera, who taught briefly both at Hunter College in New York
and in Spain. "Cuba has always been open to the world. We are an island in
the Gulf of Mexico between the two Americas. 

Cuba made its wealth by its position. We are a country that is open to the
world. Email is a good way to break the isolation." 


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