Cubans evade censorship by exchanging computer memory sticks

[Nye Bevan]

PUEBLA, Mexico -- Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez on Saturday told newspaper publishers from around the Western Hemisphere that “nothing is changing” in Cuba’s ossified political system and that “the situation of press freedom in my country is calamitous.”

But Sanchez said underground blogs, digital portals and illicit e-magazines proliferate, passed around on removable computer drives known as memory sticks.. The small computer memories, also known as flash drives or thumb drives, are dropped into friendly hands on buses and along street corners, offering a surprising number of Cubans access to information.

“Information circulates hand to hand through this wonderful gadget known as the memory stick,” Sanchez said, “and it is difficult for the government to intercept them. I can’t imagine that they can put a police officer on every corner to see who has a flash drive and who doesn’t.”

.....

Dissidents who come into the sights of the Cuban regime led by Raul Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel in 2008, are being repressed in ways that “don’t leave fingerprints,” Sanchez said. “Often, activists, including independent journalists, are detained on the street, pulled into cars without plates, pushed, threatened (and) questioned by civilians who never identify themselves,” she said, only to be freed after a few hours.



http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/09/3276747/cubans-evade-censorship-by-exchanging.html

[talkingmime]

1. I have an old flash drive in a Swiss Army Knife (genuine article).

I think it's 128K or 256K or something tiny by today's standards, but that's enough for a lot of text - and it has scissors!