Internet Marti

Now, how good can a modern education be when there’s no access to the internet? American children begin searching on line for information by the 4^th grade and in some schools even sooner. By the time American children reach high school they have access to the collective knowledge of mankind with the click of a mouse. Granted that most prefer to go on my space, download games and music and cruise for sexually explicit material, but hey it’s a free country and the internet is instant freedom.

Which brings me, as most things do inevitably do, to a captive island in the caribbean. According to Reuters, Reporters Without Borders,(RSF), accused Cuba of preventing its citizens from connecting to the World-Wide Web. RSF claims that less than 2 % of Cubans connect to the Internet and when they do, they do so at closely monitored Internet acces points.

With less than 2 percent of the population online, Cuba is one of the world's most backward countries as regards Internet usage," RSF said.

"This is quite surprising in a country that boasts one of the highest levels of education in the world," it added.

The Cuban government, of course, blames the US embargo for its internet censoring claiming that it has to limit internet use due to limited bandwidth available because

“U.S. economic sanctions that bar Cuba from hooking up to submarine fiber optic cables and force the country to use costly satellite communications for Internet traffic.”

I sympathize with the Cuban regime on this. I understand their download plight and feel their bandwidth pain. That is why I propose that the US put aside its political grudge and help the Cuban people by aiding them in getting online. I propose “Internet-Marti” where the island is blanketed with free satellite communications from coast to coast to relieve the Cuban Government’s bandwidth problems and get all the Cuban people online so they can join the 21^st century.