In the NY Times Sunday magazine, Roger Cohen rhapsodizes about his sojourn in Cuba. Like most Americans of a certain mindset, he likes the non-commercial aspects of the place:
The absence of visual clutter — no ads, no brands, no neon signs — leaves the mind at peace. Fidel’s colossal stubbornness has delivered a singular aesthetic, striking in the age of globalized malls.
I wish I had a dollar for everyone who's ever been to Havana and gushed about all the cool old cars. My former brother-in-law once told me that Americans love Cubans because they're all so thin--rationing works! The rest of his family came here on a raft.
Blogger Yoani Sanchez, who has no ticket out, recently won the Jury Prize in the Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards -- The BOBs--and has been organizing a meeting of Cuban bloggers for this weekend. The meeting was canceled by order of the Interior Ministry.
We want to warn you that you have transgressed all the limits of tolerance with your rapprochement and contacts with counter-revolutionary elements. This totally disqualifies you for dialog with Cuban authorities.
The activities planned for the coming days cannot carried out.
We, for our part, will take all measures, make the relevant denuciations and take the necessary actions. This activity, in this moment in the life of the Nation, recuperating from two hurricanes, will not be allowed.
It's really a pity that the PTB at the NYT didn't link to her blog. Besides dodging the secret police, Sanchez can't even post her own entries.
Instead she e-mails them to friends outside of Cuba who update her blog.
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