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My experiment with a blog for Cuba

A few months ago (november, 2014, if I my memory serves well) I started an experiment: a blog for Cuba, in a cuban platform. You could say that why do I invest time in that, if I already have this and another blog, that I cant barely keep updated weekly. Well, the answer is simple: I always wanted to have a blog in a cuban site, it is my country and I feel that it is the right place to have my content.

But also there are practical reasons. The cuban public lacks internet, a few lucky ones have full access, but a large group (which compared to the amount of disconnected people, is also insignificant) has a limited access to .cu domains. Whatever news I post here, you can read them earlier in the specialized websites. Reviews? I buy new hardware every 2-3 years. Im forced to write about my personal projects, and perhaps my opinions about important events.

The cuban reader is different. Cut from the outer world, it has no access to news or reviews. They need a bridge, somebody who brings them those news to an accessible place, in this case, the new blogging platform. Thousands of new blogs have fluorished, about religion, politics, technology, musics, celebrities, everything. Some of them dont go beyond the sample Wordpress post, but others gather a dedicated community.

In my case, my blog has quickly reached an important number of followers: I receive around 20-30 daily visits with peaks of 100 or more, and an average 2-3 comments per post, surpassing my first blog in Blogger,which has less than 20 comments in its 6-7 years online. It is incredible that a local community of a few thousand people are more willing to participate than a worldwide one of millions.

I cant say how much will it last. This blogging platform is not controlled in any way by the goverment and some people are exposing some divergent criteria. Im sure that if at some point it becomes a political liability, the officers in charge will pull the plug to protect themselves. In the meantime, the cubans are enjoying their own little fake internet.

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