VOA慢速英语--移动互联网给古巴带来了快速变化

Mobile Phone Internet Bringing Fast Changes to Cuba

After a tornado¹ struck Havana last month, Mijail Ramirez wrote on Twitter that Cuban officials were threatening to force him from his damaged home. A week later, he said the government had changed its mind and would help him rebuild the home.

Cuban citizen Jorge Luis Leon sent a message to the official Twitter account of a Cuban vice² president asking that hospital waiting rooms have seating for family members.

And, a group of young people launched “Sube,” a ride-requesting app for the aging American vehicles that can be seen on the streets of Havana each day.

It has been over two months since Cuban officials announced that the country’s citizens could fully³ use the internet on their mobile phones. Today, internet-connected Cubans are doing everything from questioning government officials to posting pictures of dirty bathrooms.

In the process, they are bringing their country -- once one of the least-connected places in the world -- into the digital age.

Fast-moving changes are small but noticeable.

“Life has changed,” said 25-year-old Alberto Cabrera, who is part of the team that developed the Sube app. “You see it when you walk down the street. The other day, looking from the roof of my house I could see that a neighbor had mobile internet service, as did the person in front and the person beyond him. You never saw that before.”

A recent government report says about 6.4 million of Cuba’s 11 million people are using the internet and social media.

In the past, most Cubans could use their mobile phones to link only to their state-run email accounts. They also could visit one of the few government-supported Wi-Fi areas on the island.

Claudia Cuevas is a 26-year-old university professor and a member of the Sube team. She said, “Before you went to the park (with Wi-Fi zones) once a week to communicate with your family.”

The history of the internet in Cuba has been filled with tensions and suspicions since the 1990s. Cuba’s government accused the United States of blocking its access to the fiber⁴ optic cables near the island. Cuba said, as a result, it was forced it to use a costly⁵ and slow satellite service. In 2011, Cuba got access to a submarine cable with the help of Venezuela. Then, in 2015, the general public in Cuba gained access through the opening of Wi-Fi points in hundreds of parks.

Critics of the government said it resisted giving Cubans free access to the internet because it feared a free flow of information. Government supporters said it was fighting efforts by the U.S. to weaken Cuba’s political system.

Harold Cardenas is a Cuban blogger and Cuba expert who now lives in the United States. He said, “For a while, the internet generated⁶ fear among Cuba’s leaders and there was a long wait.”

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel opened a Twitter account last year. He recently ordered all of his ministers and other top officials to do the same. But many of them do not provide their own content or answer citizens’ questions. They only retweet official messages or propaganda⁷.

Diaz-Canel has repeated the importance of the internet. He says Cuban officials are working on websites and tools to help provide online government services. Such tools could make it easier for a citizen to request birth certificates or complete a government form.

Cubans are growing more skilled and more interested in internet use. This was made clear by the online reaction to the tornado in late January. Citizens used Facebook and Twitter to give and gather reports on damage and organize support.

Claudia Cuevas, the university professor, said the combination of internet access and social media “is a channel that people can use to say things as they are directly: ‘We need this or this is happening.’ It cannot be blocked and people must see it as a way to express themselves and say what they think.”

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Caty Weaver⁸.

Words in This Story

tornado - n. a violent and destructive⁹ storm in which powerful winds move around a central point

app - n. a computer program that performs a special function

roof - n. the cover or top of a building, vehicle, etc.

fiber optics - n. thin threads of glass or plastic to carry large amounts of information in the form of light signals

access - n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone

1 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 fiber   

n.纤维，纤维质

参考例句：

• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
• The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。

5 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

6 generated   

a.生成的

参考例句：

• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。
• It generated much excitement and frenetic activity. 这使人们非常激动并导致了狂热的行动。

7 propaganda   

n.宣传，宣传机构

参考例句：

• A lot of propaganda has painted him as bad.大量宣传把他说得很坏。
• Art may be used as a vehicle for propaganda.艺术可以用作为宣传的媒介。

8 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

9 destructive   

adj.破坏（性）的，毁灭（性）的

参考例句：

• In the end,it will be destructive of our whole society.它最终会毁灭我们整个社会。
• It is the most destructive storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的一次风暴。