Cuba Locks Down Top Cuba Blog

        Cuba’s most popular blogger Yoani Sanchez said on Monday that Cuban authorities had blocked viewing of her blog and then allowed slow access to the website from Cuba.

Sanchez, whose critical “Generacion Y” blog received 1.2 million hits in February, said government censors had placed “filters” that delayed viewing of her Web page on a server in Germany ( http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/).

“This effectively blocks access to the blog. What Cuban with limited access to Internet is going to wait 15 minutes to see it?” Sanchez said.

On the weekend, attempts to view the site from Cuba met with a notice “The page cannot be displayed.” The state telecom monopoly ETECSA is Cuba’s only Internet service provider.

The 32-year-old Sanchez, a philology graduate, has drawn a considerable readership by writing about her daily life in Cuba and describing economic hardships and political constraints.

She has criticized Cuba’s new leader, Raul Castro, who formally took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro last month, for his vague promises of change and minimal steps to improve the standard of living of Cubans.

“Who is the last in line for a toaster?” was the title of a recent blog that satirized the lifting of a ban on sales of computers, DVD players and other appliances Cubans long for, though toasters will not be freely sold until 2010.

In a country where the press is controlled by the state and there is no independent media, Sanchez and other Cubans have found in the Internet an unregulated vehicle of expression.

“This breath of fresh air has disheveled the hair of bureaucrats and censors,” she said in a telephone interview, vowing to continue her blog. “Anyone with a bit of computer skills knows how to get around them,” she said.

{Taken from Reuters}

See other article – Cuba Lifts Ban On Cmputers And DVD Players

Grenada Deputy Minister Named In Bribery Case

With all the talk these days about accountability, integrity legislation in Barbados and forensic audits across the board on government projects under the former BLP government, we came across a rather interesting piece involving one of our Caribbean neighbours. According to press reports, Grenada Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Energy, Gregory Bowen, has been implicated in a bribery case.

The documents filled in a New York court on February 25 2008 is listed as “Civil Action No. 06 Civ.11512 {EJW}”. The lawsuit was brought by complaint US Texan oil man, Jack Grynberg - who is also President of RSM Production Corporation -against Bowen and his Russian associates. These other defendants name were the Russian energy group TNK-BP in which BP {a British  oil company} has a 50% stake and Russian ”oiligarch” Mikhail Fridman. {Our understanding of the word ”oiligarch” is a obscenely wealthy tycoon sometimes refer to as the ”godfathers” of Russia}. Also named  in the suit was BP former Chief Executive Lord Browne. 

According to court documents, Grynberg and RSM signed an oil and gas exploration agreement with the government of Grenada in 1996. That same year in September Grenada’s Minister of Energy and Deputy Prime Minister Bowen told Grynberg that he expected brides in order to allow RSM to do business on the island. 

Grynberg refused but in 1998 passed on certain information about proposed drilling  sites to BP in the hope of forming a partnership with the British oil company.

BP turned down Grynberg’s offer. The lawsuit however alleges that information about Grenada may have been passed on to TNK.

{Further reading – http://www.belgrafix.com/gtoday./2008news/Mar/Mar22/The-Bowen-Russian-connection.html}

KFC Grilled Chicken Coming To Barbados?

Barbados health concious eaters will be very pleased to know that they can walk in KFC restaurants and have grilled chicken as an alternative to fried chicken.

That’s because if KFC grilled chicken becomes a hit in the US markets it may introduced the concept worldwide . The company is planning a series of TV ads in test markets promoting grilled chicken on its menu. The chain which serves approximately 12m customers daily at more than 14,000 outlets around the world is hoping to lure back health concious customers who dropped fried chicken from their diets or cut back on indulging.