Apparently, buzz about #ConnectCuba has made it all the way to China. The South China Morning Post World recently ran an article on two Grammy Award winning artists who have lent their name to the Connect Cuba campaign: “Cuban singers Gloria Estefan and Willy Chirino are backing a campaign to deliver ‘the internet without the internet’ to the island via USB drives, DVDs, CDs and other memory formats loaded with uncensored information” said the English language newspaper based in Hong Kong, with a circulation of 104,000.
The article goes on to describe the “largely web-based campaign [which] would use all social platforms and media to publicise the petition and highlight Cuba’s rate of internet access – one of the lowest in the western hemisphere – and its tight censorship of the web.”
In addition, the SCMP references Yoani Sánchez’ April 2013 visit to Miami where she requested more flash drives, computers, re-writable discs, and smart phones be sent to Cuba for an underground network of sharing information that has been referred to as “Internet without Internet.”
The SCMP reports that “The Cuban government tightly controls the web on the island. Access is expensive or limited to government officials and facilities. Many pages created by the opposition are blocked and smartphones cannot connect to the internet.”
There is even a nice mention for Connect Cuba spokesperson Ana Villafañe’s upcoming song for the campaign, which is being produced in Los Angeles by Cuban American composer and songwriter Carlos Jose Alvarez.
The SCMP article goes to show that the power of an idea can spread very far…even to Asia and beyond.
To read the entire SCMP article, click here.