Active blogger Yoani Sánchez (photo) expresses her joy about the expanding blogosphere in Havana, Cuba. In her blogpost “Arco iris en la blogósfera” (Rainbow in the blogosphere), she reports on the rapid growth of blogging since she started her blog Generation Y in April 2007. In addition to being an inspiration to new bloggers, she enjoys meeting them, and giving technical advice, such as: How to use Wordpress, and how to maintain a regular online presence, where Internet connections are hard to obtain.
In her blog post “Young Pro-Democracy Advocate Edgar Lopez Trapped in Cuba”, Yoani petitions for Edgar Lopez to be permitted to travel to join his family in the USA. Foreign travel is one of the many activities that are restricted in Cuba. The country is also tightening the net on bloggers: “Cuban bloggers, an endangered species? ”. Only official government websites are permitted to register on the “.cu” Cuban domain. Hotels are among the few places where it is possible to get Internet access in Cuba, but access cards are only provided to foreign tourists. Yoani is also under attack from an official state journalist who seems to be severely out of touch with how the Internet works.
The “Petition to help Edgar Lopez” explains that Edgar López has been denied a travel visa because he is a member of a political group that does not support Cuba’s communist party.
Yoani Sánchez is listed as Hero and Pioneer in the Time 2008 Top 100.
Thai Internet User Suwicha Thakhor
A Bangkok court has harshly sentenced Suwicha Thakhor to ten years in jail for items that he posted on the Internet. This is reported in Ten years jail for “insulting” Thai king, in the Telegraph (UK) newspaper. The controversial Thai law, Lese-majeste (insulting the monarchy), has been used several times this year. Thousands of websites are blocked in Thailand and many more are monitored for critical comments. A restrictive Computer Crime Act makes citizens wary of using the Internet. Strict Internet monitoring enabled Suwicha Thakhor’s anonymous posting to be traced to his home computer. The details of his January 2009 arrest are described by Reporters Without Borders. The article “Thailand: Blogger’s Conviction Shocks Internet Freedom Activists” includes comments from Suwicha’s lawyer, indicating that he has been unfairly punished to set an example to other Internet users.
The lizard’s claw is an ancestor of and a metaphor for the skill of penmanship. The feather of a bird and the claw of a lizard are both constructed from keratin proteins. Writers would never have put quill to paper if the first lizard had not ventured to clamber a tree trunk. Have our literary scratches on paper progressed much since that prehistoric adventure? If we write just to fill our bellies, then our instincts have not advanced from those of the hungry lizard. If the motive for your blog post is to earn AdSense clicks, then you are using the lizard part of your brain, the part that urges you to search for a meal, whether it is a tasty insect or an e-payment from Google.
