Susannah Vila
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Susannah is a Co Founder of the engine room (www.theengineroom.org), an organization dedicated to investigating supporting the effective use of technology in advocacy. Connect with her on Twitter @szvila.
Latest posts by Susannah Vila
20 April 2011
Cuba: Communist Party Ushers in Entrepreneurism and Term Limits
For the minority of Cubans who are within it, the blogosphere provides a space to exchange ideas. And there were plenty prompts for discussion this week, with the Castro brothers holding the first Congress of its Communist party since 1997 (it is supposed to be every five years) and announcing term limits for leadership on the island.
8 February 2011
Cuba: “Operation Cyber-Mambí”
There has been much speculation of late as to whether the spirit of protest will find its way from Egypt and Tunisia to the Caribbean. If the lock on the marketplace of information maintained by Castro's government is what's standing between discontented Cuban citizens and protest, then recent attempts to use “counterrevolutionary” bloggers' tactics against them have come as no surprise to netizens.
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21 May 2010
Cuba: Monitoring Arrests
Ever since the February, 2010 death of Orlando Zapato Tamayo, the first Cuban hunger striker to perish in 40 years, the situation in the island appears to have become even more tense.
20 March 2010
“Damas de Blanco:” A Week of Protest in Cuba
Cuba's Damas de Blanco protests come on the heels of a flutter of international condemnation incited by the hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo's death last month. Wednesday's crackdown by Cuban police was the first in two years on the political group, which is made up of the daughters, wives and mothers of imprisoned political dissidents.
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11 March 2010
Google, Yahoo & Other Tech Companies to Operate Freely in Cuba
A recent decision by the United States Treasury Department to open up closed societies to American technology companies was met, at least for the first few hours, with radio silence in Cuba. The minimal reaction online is indicative of one of the biggest obstacles to this effort: social media works best with internet access.
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25 February 2010
13 February 2010
U.S.A., Cuba: Cuban-American Congressman Announces Resignation
Bloggers in Miami and Cuba are buzzing over the news that US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart will not run for reelection in the fall. Diaz-Balart, a Republican, is a staunch supporter of the trade embargo against Cuba, and he took his resignation speech as an opportunity to highlight his role in codifying the embargo.
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==> As Africans we need to let go of our victimhood, inferiority complex & acceptance...