The Christian Science
Monitor. Monday, February 12, 2001
The Dec. 20 opinion piece "Dotcommies Take Over Cuba" by Timothy
Ashby and Elizabeth Bourget paints an inaccurate picture of Cuba's technical and
computer capabilities.
*None of Cuba's three state-owned Internet service providers is permitted to
offer residential service to Cuban nationals. There are not "more than
2,000 post offices offering Internet access." There are plans to give
Cubans access to a limited, government-controlled intranet.
*There is no fiber-optic cable between Florida and Cuba.
*Only about 2 percent of Cubans have telephones in their homes, much less a
modem.
The article also asserts a Cuban "economic transformation by following
a policy based on technology, markets, and new capital." But only some
150,000 Cubans (out of a population of 11 million) are privately employed.
Private business, beyond single-family vendors and tinkers, is illegal. What
business is allowed is prohibitively taxed and forced to rely on the black
market for supplies. No Cuban workers have the right to organize or bargain
collectively. Cuban commercial banks do not exist.
The Cuban government seeks to direct limited access to foreign markets,
capital, and know-how toward one end: keeping its regime afloat - so it can
continue to deny its citizens their fundamental rights. But without
democratization and the free flow of ideas and capital inherent in the World
Wide Web, Cuba will never become "the Caribbean's digital hub."
Charles S. Shapiro Washington
Coordinator for Cuban Affairs
US
Department of State
Authors' response:
Cuba's five (not three) Internet service providers currently offer service
to businesses and academic institutions. We heard conflicting stories about the
current number of post offices that are Web-enabled or linked to the Net, but
visited one in Havana where anyone (including ordinary Cubans) can go to use the
computer terminals for e-mail. Similarly, most major hotels offer Internet
access to anyone, Cuban and foreigner alike.
It is true that only a small percentage of Cubans have resident telephones.
They use post offices for telephone access, which is the reason that Internet
service is being made available at these sites. Cuban officials told us that
2,000 post offices will be linked to the Internet this year, and this seems
possible. Wireless Internet access is developing quickly to "leapfrog"
the telephone system (which is nonetheless being privatized and upgraded).
Fiber-optic cable is being laid throughout Havana; the fiber ring around the
capital is finished. The biggest barrier to Internet access for Cubans is price,
not regulation.
The cable between Florida and Cuba exists, but has not yet been connected to
a US terminal because of the US embargo. The ARCOS 1 trans-Caribbean cable
(developed by a consortium that includes major US telecom companies) is being
laid; ARCOS 2 (an offshoot to connect Cuba) will be completed within three
years.
We found the Cubans to be highly entrepreneurial. The government has
definitely adopted a policy of gradually allowing more private economic
activity. Cuba is definitely investing heavily in IT training and education, as
well as in infrastructure. The statement in our article that this new policy is
one based on "technology, markets, and new capital" is actually a
quote from a senior Cuban government official. Evidence for this is pervasive
throughout Cuba.
Timothy Ashby and Elizabeth Bourget
Sonrisa Foundation Los Gatos,
Calif.
THE ARTICLE
Dotcommies take over Cuba
Opinion. By Timothy Ashby and Elizabeth Bourget. San Mateo,
Calif. Wednesday, December 20, 2000
Another revolution is sweeping through Cuba.
Today, Fidel Castro seems as determined to create a world-class information-
technology sector as he was to overthrow the Batista dictatorship in the 1950s.
Anticipating an end to the United States trade embargo, Cuba is preparing to
become the Caribbean's digital hub.
Largest of the Caribbean island states, with a land area of 43,000 square
miles and 11 million people, Cuba has been economically and politically isolated
from its giant neighbor 90 miles to the north for more than 40 years.
Despite what one may think about Fidel Castro, none of the profound economic
changes taking place in Cuba today would be possible without his direct
guidance. Mr. Castro and his still officially Communist government have
undertaken Cuba's economic transformation by following a policy based on
technology, markets, and new capital.
The aging revolutionaries who followed Moscow's model have been replaced by
a new generation of well-educated, pragmatic officials. Among members of the
Cuban National Assembly, the average age is 40; the foreign minister is 35, and
the minister of foreign investment is a 49-year-old woman. They read The Wall
Street Journal and George Gilder's "Telecosm," a US bestseller on the
revolution in broadband, and shake their heads when foreign leftists spout
Marxist dialectic at them.
In January 2000, the Cuban government established a Ministry of Information
Technology (MINIT) with a mandate to make Cuba an "information society"
and quickly develop an information-technology industry and e-business. MINIT has
various subsidiaries operating as profitmaking businesses focusing on
telecommunications, software, hardware, wireless, e-commerce, and training.
Eight Cuban universities offer degrees in information technology, and the
Institute for Science operates 40 branches around the island providing adult
education in computer science. Several Internet service providers are available,
owned by government ministries but functioning like competing dotcoms.
Cuba has an established electronics manufacturing industry. Semiconductors,
radios, televisions, and Cuban-designed computers are assembled with foreign
parts. There are 30 software-development companies; none existed three years
ago. Total software exports for 2000 may seem paltry at $14 million, but they
have grown 650 percent since 1999.
Computer youth clubs are springing up everywhere. A club in Havana has work
stations with modern Pentium computers on the ground floor, used by young Web
designers looking like dotcommies from a Silicon Valley start-up. The walls are
emblazoned with slogans and posters - but not quite the ones expected in a club
owned and operated by the Cuban Communist Party. The predominant slogan is "Creemos
en el Futuro" ("We Believe in the Future"). Posters advertise
courses in software programming, multimedia, computer repair, and e-commerce.
Classes upstairs are packed with serious teenagers learning HTML and Microsoft
Office.
Students swap copies of Giga, a slick Cuban computer magazine. Recent topics
include Internet security and a review of new hotel-reservations software
developed by the Cuban firm Softur. Despite the embargo, Giga carries ads for US
brands such as Microsoft, IBM, Macintosh, and Oracle.
Cuba is ideally positioned to be a digital hub. The telephone system is
being upgraded after a $1 billion investment by Mexican investors. Full
digitalization of the telecommunications network is expected in 2004, and more
than 2,000 post offices offer Internet access to the local population. Cuba has
a cellular telephone system, satellite earth stations are being built, and a new
fiber-optic cable connects the island to Florida.
Global information-technology companies plan to make Cuba a premier location
for Internet data centers, providing Web-hosting services for businesses
throughout the Western Hemisphere. As a likely future member of the North
American Free Trade Area, Cuba will offer tax advantages to US firms investing
in electronics manufacturing for export. The island has more college graduates
per capita than any other Latin American country, and skilled workers earn the
equivalent of $30 a month.
Cuba's government has extended an invitation to foreign businesses
interested in helping to develop the information-technology industry. Although
Cuba would prefer to obtain US expertise and products directly, other nations
are currently providing American technology.
"Trading with the US is an American problem, not a Cuban one,"
says Daniel Fernández López, vice president of Grupo de la
Electronica, a division of MINIT responsible for telecommunications. "We
welcome American business, but we can't wait."
Americans who are frustrated by the embargo can begin rebuilding business
bridges now by providing charitable IT training, used computer equipment, and
exchanges between US and Cuban IT executives, a legal practice under the current
embargo. By doing so, we can generate cultural goodwill while laying foundations
for future business.
Timothy Ashby, CEO of the Sonrisa Foundation, is the former senior Latin
American trade official with the Reagan and Bush administrations. Elizabeth
Bourget is president of A Way With Words, a Silicon Valley marketing and
communications agency.
Copyright 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society.
All rights reserved.
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