Recent Developments: Cubans to Get Email Access, Blogging Becomes More Popular, And TWTEA is Under Review
TWTEA
President Obama has a decision to make on Trading with the Enemy Act (TWTEA), the original legislation that was used to implement the Cuban embargo. According to Caribbean Net News:
TWTEA, enacted in anticipation of World War I in 1917, grants the president wide-reaching economic authority in times of war. In 1933, the act was extended to apply to national emergencies, only to be returned to an exclusively war-time power in 1977. It currently allows for the continuation of sanctions initiated in the 44 years between, as is the case with Cuba, which was declared an “international emergency” by President Kennedy in 1963, through annual renewal by the president. Cuba now stands as the only country subject to TWTEA
Hopefully President Obama will let TWTEA expire and continue to build a bridge with the Cuban People.
Blogging Becoming Popular in Cuba
There is hope for the Cuban people and that is becoming more apparent a bloggers are speaking out about the conditions within their country. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Despite vast legal and technical obstacles, a growing number of Cuban bloggers have prevailed over the regime’s tight Internet restrictions to disseminate island news and views online. The bloggers, mainly young adults from a variety of professions, have opened a new space for free expression in Cuba, while offering a fresh glimmer of hope for the rebirth of independent ideas in Cuba’s closed system.
Cubans to Get Email Access
Cuban post offices may be getting access, according to the AP:
Many post offices already offer public computers, but they are linked to a national intranet – an extremely limited list of Cuba-only Web sites.
Cubans there can send and receive international e-mail, but direct access to the rest of the Web is blocked, limits far stricter than those imposed even in China or Saudi Arabia.
Internet supervisors at two Havana post offices said Wednesday that while authorities are preparing to apply the law and have even installed new, faster PCs in some locations, they did not know when the new rules will go into effect.