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Ideas

Beyond The Artists, Days Are Numbered For The Cuban Regime

The Cuban government has once again jailed dissenting artists or forced them to flee. But anger at the 60-year dictatorship has spread far beyond artistic circles and the regime no longer has the power to silence people.

Beyond The Artists, Days Are Numbered For The Cuban Regime

A protest in Miami in support of those targeted by the Cuban government

Cecilia Noce*

-OpEd-

It was just over a year ago, on Jan. 27, 2021, when Cuba's Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso slapped a protester in the face at a demonstration at the Ministry of Culture. Other demonstrators were then arrested.


That was the moment the Cuban regime stopped pretending. Just then, it gave up the pretense that its "revolutionary culture" was democratic or critical. And it was at that point in time that the regime and dissidents lay all their cards on the table.

Mass demonstrations v. Marxist jargon

There are no excuses for the decisions to hit a protester, nor is there any Marxist jargon to justify the minister's meanness. Young protesters who were detained that day appeared to be in charge of events. In fact, they had successfully done so two months before, when they forced a meeting to talk about freedom of expression, creativity and an end to political persecutions. They were part of a community of peers that shared — and shares — a particular language and forms of communication.

Their attitude showed they did not have respect, affection or any sense of debt to the Cuban 1959 revolution and its dogmas. They felt no nostalgia for its pantheon of dead heroes, including Fidel Castro. Amid blows and orders to push on against these "enemies," the minister brazenly declared, "You'll shut up because I feel like it." He said it with conviction, because in Cuba, his kind have become the owners of words. Only the artists wouldn't shut up.

The minister can lock up every single artist on the island, but he no longer has the power to shut people up

Within weeks, the song "Patria y Vida" ("Homeland and Life") was launched on YouTube. Two million people listened to it within two days. Hundreds, even thousands, of young Cubans decided to sing it first at home, then on the street. Three words at a time, they urged others to talk.

Patria y Vida became a greeting and a sign among people who want change. Two months later on April 4, other young people gathered in San Isidro, a poor neighborhood of Havana, to shout these same words as they blocked the authorities' attempt to detain to Maykel Osorbo, one of its singers. Finally, on July 11, the voice of these youngsters exploded.

They were fed up, and they were everywhere. It wasn't about Havana or artists or a song anymore. In every corner of the island, online, and in little towns, you heard people demanding freedom, medicines, food and dignity. Today, most of the artists of the Jan. 27 protest are in jail or have fled. Repression today is measured with official figures: 790 people are jailed for exercising their right to protest, including 55 minors.

Dissenting voices are everywhere

In cases, detainees are prosecuted for alleged "sedition," which is punishable by a 25-year prison term. Today, five artists are being held in an ordinary prison for thinking differently. The singer Maykel Osorbo may have an infection inside the Pinar del Rio maximum security prison, for which he will not receive proper medical attention. The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been on hunger strike for days and not speaking, while held in isolation.

But the voices are still there: on social media, in taxis, in food queues. Complaining, demanding. The minister can still react and lock up every single artist on the island, but he no longer has the power to shut people up. He never did, in fact, though it seems Cubans only realized this recently. And now, they refuse to keep quiet, whatever the minister may say.

*Cecilia Noce runs the artistic freedoms project at CADAL, a human rights NGO based in Buenos Aires.

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Future

Livestream Shopping Is Huge In China — Will It Fly Elsewhere?

Streaming video channels of people shopping has been booming in China, and is beginning to win over customers abroad as a cheap and cheerful way of selling products to millions of consumers glued to the screen.

A A female volunteer promotes spring tea products via on-line live streaming on a pretty mountain surrounded by tea plants.

In Beijing, selling spring tea products via on-line live streaming.

Xinhua / ZUMA
Gwendolyn Ledger

SANTIAGOTikTok, owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, has spent more than $500 million to break into online retailing. The app, best known for its short, comical videos, launched TikTok Shop in August, aiming to sell Chinese products in the U.S. and compete with other Chinese firms like Shein and Temu.

Tik Tok Shop will have three sections, including a live or livestream shopping channel, allowing users to buy while watching influencers promote a product.

This choice was strategic: in the past year, live shopping has become a significant trend in online retailing both in the U.S. and Latin America. While still an evolving technology, in principle, it promises good returns and lower costs.

Chilean Carlos O'Rian Herrera, co-founder of Fira Onlive, an online sales consultancy, told América Economía that live shopping has a much higher catchment rate than standard website retailing. If traditional e-commerce has a rate of one or two purchases per 100 visits to your site, live shopping can hike the ratio to 19%.

Live shopping has thrived in China and the recent purchases of shopping platforms in some Latin American countries suggests firms are taking an interest. In the United States, live shopping generated some $20 billion in sales revenues in 2022, according to consultants McKinsey. This constituted 2% of all online sales, but the firm believes the ratio may become 20% by 2026.

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