Erstellt am: 11. 4. 2015 - 10:56 Uhr

Cuba's New Revolution

After 50 years of hostilities what does a normalisation of relations now mean? A Reality Check special, in conversation with Havana-based journalist, Will Grant.

President Barack Obama & President Raúl Castro are meeting in Panama at the Summit of Americas. It’s not the first time the two heads of state have bumped into each other and exchanged smiles. But it's all about symbolism with a handshake, representing the end of two government’s decades long hostility towards each other, as this will be the first encounter since President Obama announced his decision for the United States to begin normalising relations with Havana. But what do Cubans themselves make of all of this?

Last December, Cubans woke up to the news that their future was set to undergo a massive shift. Fifty years of being ignored by their strongest neighbour 150 kilometres away, Cuba & the US were set to re-establish diplomatic ties; the promise or the hope is that the crippling restrictions on business, banking and travel would be lifted. It’s the news that many of the 11 million people living on the island had long waited for. The economy has been in decline ever since the fall of the Soviet Union (and the Soviet bloc’s withdrawal of never-ending funding). More recent problems for Cuba of a low oil price have meant regional support from local players such as Venezuela has dropped, has thrown their ability to sustain a viable economy into question.

Things are slowly changing. Take for example access to the internet. Like North Korea, Cuba is one of the least connected countries in the world, although Cubans have some internet access. A connection at home is out of reach for most and it’s generally officials, academics, or government sponsored journalists that enjoy an internet connection at their place of work. For the average Cuban however, there is a kind of offline internet, known as the “sneakernet”. In other words, one person downloads, for example, an article onto a USB drive and then circulates it around friends. That also goes for films, TV shows or anti-virus software and such ”internet mules” will copy whatever friends or family want to watch.

All of this is set to change with the announcement of resumption in diplomatic relations. The US & Cuban governments have also promised to upgrade the island’s telecoms infrastructure. The hope is that large US technology giants will be allowed to come into the market and sell or hire fast data systems which should speed things up a bit. The next question though is: to what extent will the Cuban government allow open and broad access to freedom of discussion on the net. But that mindset may be changing here too.

Will Grant is a journalist and foreign correspondent who has lived in Havana for many years. For a Reality Check special, I spoke with him about the mood for change on the island and the impact that recent small transformations have had on the population there. Here is a short excerpt of his thoughts from Havana as he returned home after a busy day reporting on, amongst other things, Cuba’s first free open access wifi installation, in the west of Havana, run by a famous local artist Kcho.

Steve: Open Internet access, that sounds exciting since the Cuban government has been notoriously restrictive when it comes to opening up the internet more to its population. I understand an internet connection is prohibitively expensive and skype is still banned?

Will: I’ve just come back from that cultural centre. It’s an interesting step. I think everyone is a little hesitant to say that it’s any great unveiling of a free public wifi to all Cubans. It’s a single cultural centre but it does make it probably the first free public wifi on the island and that is an important step. It’s not universal access, it’s doesn’t mean a reduction in the price generally. It’s still very difficult for Cubans to access the internet. But there may be more cultural centres able to offer such services.

What’s happening is that the authorities are allowing this artist to try it out so they can see that it’s not going to cause any great problems, that people aren’t downloading material that they shouldn’t be and distributing it privately; that people can be “trusted” with the internet. So I think the authorities are watching this to see how it plays out. But it’s a small but significant step I would say.

Reality Check Special

Cuba’s New Revolution: A Reality Check Special, in conversation with Havana based journalist Will Grant can be heard on Saturday, April 11th, 12-13, and afterwards seven days on demand.