Honestly (I apologize for this), I wasn’t planning to blog until next year. I’m way too busy between my job and the endless- time consuming applications for grad school. To make things worse, I’m just recovering from a dengue fever that kept me a few weeks in bed, so I’m way behind on my schedule. But I read the news and this time, couldn’t help to publish. To make the long story short, there is a new law reform project which pretends (and if approved, will effectively do it) to control Internet contents. There are strong reasons to believe this law will be approved.
The specific procedures are all well explained here (In Spanish). You can also go to the blogs at the bottom of this page who will surely make detailed and valuable analysis on this controversial law. For now, let me just say that the part which worries me the most is the prohibition to make anonymous publications online and the prohibition to publish any text, image, recording or video which contains any explicit or implicit way of violence. The law allows a lot of discretion of what could be violence and what is not; in short words every message that the government doesn’t like will be qualified as “violence” or “offense to the public powers” and will be censored.
As far as I know this blog is not a Venezuelan site and it shouldn’t be subjected to those rules. But still, I believe it could be blocked arguing any disposition of this law let it be anonimity or “violence” or “public power offense”; or the fact that it is written from inside Venezuela by a Venezuelan citizen. What is for sure is that many vital information Venezuelan sites that I visit daily and that they are my only source of live, minute by minute news will never be the same after this law.
I’m afraid to wake up in a few weeks and see a totally misinformed country, an even more static country than what it already is. The Revolution is so obsessed with regulations. To every problem they find, to every aspect that bothers them; they come up with a law as a “solution”. They are eager to restrict every single one of our moves. And as a result, Venezuelans don’t move so much any more. They think it twice before they move, because who knows? anything they do might be illegal. And that makes us rigid, static, un- human, just sad, plain sad.
Internet means freedom for me, the only window I can fully enjoy at the moment. Once this law is approved, I can say I have officially lost my freedom. Internet with censorship is not Internet at all, is just something else. All I know that my life as I know it will change significantly.
If you live abroad (most of my readers do), your life won’t change. Venezuelan sites will probably find the way they can be seen abroad, although blocked in here. You will probably know the news long before us; you will have more access to Venezuelan information than any Venezuelan living in the country will; which will make us second class citizens (and you, even if you are a foreigner, a first class one). You might be able to keep reading this blog. Or you might won’t.
If you come back here some day and this blog doesn’t exist or you haven’t seen an entry in quite a while; keep in mind that I’m still here. I’m still here and I’m still living the things you hear.
I’m like you, I’m a normal person, nothing extraordinary.
I just turned 26 years old and asked my boyfriend to take me to see the new Harry Potter movie as my birthday present; which he did, but he added a perfume to that gift list: “Happy” by Clinique. It’s the perfume I wear, because it’s sweet and it has the name I want to be described as: Happy.
I grew up in an average middle class family, nothing special. I have a huge family. I was lucky enough to receive a good education; I’m a college graduate and I’m applying to go to grad school abroad (is just a dream really, I have to be accepted and get a scholarship, otherwise I won’t be able to go; so the scenery is not very optimistic). I have a job which has allowed me to pay my applications expenses but makes it impossible for me to move out from my parents home (which is very common between us 20 something’s in Venezuela).
I’m in love with a man I met almost three years ago; we daydream about getting married some day and have kids of our own, but our future is not certain yet. I love to dance and to have long coffee talks with my female friends – most of them now live abroad so is “Skype talks” instead of “coffee talks” for me. I also love to write and I want to be a writer some day, to publish something someone says “this is quite good and enjoyable!”.
I was born in Caracas, I have lived here all my life. In one of the most dangerous cities of the world, I have the record of never being mugged except for those couple of times I was distracted and someone took my cell phone from my purse and I didn’t noticed until I came back home. I think the key is to always keep a low profile. I don’t have a car of my own and I have developed a strange fear to driving which drives my mom, my boyfriend and the rest of my family; crazy. I know they secretly detest me for it. I like to take long rides on busses, preferably sited, watching all the people, and listening to music on my mp3 player. I love languages, I think they are an amazing door to get to understand other people, other ways of thinking. I’m learning French and my goal is to speak English and French perfectly so I can move to Portuguese and German.
I have put myself in a lot of ridiculous situations in the past, and I’m afraid my clumsiness will forced me to continue doing so in the future. I was not popular at Highs chool so this explain why I wasn’t kissed until I turned 16. I don’t remember the name let it alone the face of the boy who did it. I smile too much. I cry too much. I’m corny. Sometimes I don’t take things so seriously, I can develop a very sarcastic and unbearable humor. But I do take things seriously, more seriously than what I would want to. I don’t tolerate injustices. I’m way too sensible. I’m not strong or brave. I’m just a freedom lover who happens so be in the wrong place for freedom lovers. A dreamer (Don’t we all are dreamers at some point?).
So I just wanted to say that if you don’t see me, remember that. Remember that whatever you read in the news its real, its real as long as someone like me lives it. That’s what I’ve been trying to prove with this blog. The possibility of not being able to do it anymore makes me sad, angry and disheartens me a lot.
This is a bad day. This is a bad day for clumsy- freedom -lover dreamers. This is a bad day for naïve people like me, who always seek to open windows wherever a door is closed. Internet Censorship is worse than a closed door; it’s an entire house with its doors and windows blocked and me; just here, struggling to keep living a normal life; feeling stupid and unable to re- open them.
PS: I don't know it its related to this or not, but I haven't been able to access my blog all day. I can only do it via Proxy. It happens with many blogspots from time to time..
PS 2: In Spanish you also can read this and this brilliant post about it by Chiguire Bipolar
The specific procedures are all well explained here (In Spanish). You can also go to the blogs at the bottom of this page who will surely make detailed and valuable analysis on this controversial law. For now, let me just say that the part which worries me the most is the prohibition to make anonymous publications online and the prohibition to publish any text, image, recording or video which contains any explicit or implicit way of violence. The law allows a lot of discretion of what could be violence and what is not; in short words every message that the government doesn’t like will be qualified as “violence” or “offense to the public powers” and will be censored.
As far as I know this blog is not a Venezuelan site and it shouldn’t be subjected to those rules. But still, I believe it could be blocked arguing any disposition of this law let it be anonimity or “violence” or “public power offense”; or the fact that it is written from inside Venezuela by a Venezuelan citizen. What is for sure is that many vital information Venezuelan sites that I visit daily and that they are my only source of live, minute by minute news will never be the same after this law.
I’m afraid to wake up in a few weeks and see a totally misinformed country, an even more static country than what it already is. The Revolution is so obsessed with regulations. To every problem they find, to every aspect that bothers them; they come up with a law as a “solution”. They are eager to restrict every single one of our moves. And as a result, Venezuelans don’t move so much any more. They think it twice before they move, because who knows? anything they do might be illegal. And that makes us rigid, static, un- human, just sad, plain sad.
Internet means freedom for me, the only window I can fully enjoy at the moment. Once this law is approved, I can say I have officially lost my freedom. Internet with censorship is not Internet at all, is just something else. All I know that my life as I know it will change significantly.
If you live abroad (most of my readers do), your life won’t change. Venezuelan sites will probably find the way they can be seen abroad, although blocked in here. You will probably know the news long before us; you will have more access to Venezuelan information than any Venezuelan living in the country will; which will make us second class citizens (and you, even if you are a foreigner, a first class one). You might be able to keep reading this blog. Or you might won’t.
If you come back here some day and this blog doesn’t exist or you haven’t seen an entry in quite a while; keep in mind that I’m still here. I’m still here and I’m still living the things you hear.
I’m like you, I’m a normal person, nothing extraordinary.
I just turned 26 years old and asked my boyfriend to take me to see the new Harry Potter movie as my birthday present; which he did, but he added a perfume to that gift list: “Happy” by Clinique. It’s the perfume I wear, because it’s sweet and it has the name I want to be described as: Happy.
I grew up in an average middle class family, nothing special. I have a huge family. I was lucky enough to receive a good education; I’m a college graduate and I’m applying to go to grad school abroad (is just a dream really, I have to be accepted and get a scholarship, otherwise I won’t be able to go; so the scenery is not very optimistic). I have a job which has allowed me to pay my applications expenses but makes it impossible for me to move out from my parents home (which is very common between us 20 something’s in Venezuela).
I’m in love with a man I met almost three years ago; we daydream about getting married some day and have kids of our own, but our future is not certain yet. I love to dance and to have long coffee talks with my female friends – most of them now live abroad so is “Skype talks” instead of “coffee talks” for me. I also love to write and I want to be a writer some day, to publish something someone says “this is quite good and enjoyable!”.
I was born in Caracas, I have lived here all my life. In one of the most dangerous cities of the world, I have the record of never being mugged except for those couple of times I was distracted and someone took my cell phone from my purse and I didn’t noticed until I came back home. I think the key is to always keep a low profile. I don’t have a car of my own and I have developed a strange fear to driving which drives my mom, my boyfriend and the rest of my family; crazy. I know they secretly detest me for it. I like to take long rides on busses, preferably sited, watching all the people, and listening to music on my mp3 player. I love languages, I think they are an amazing door to get to understand other people, other ways of thinking. I’m learning French and my goal is to speak English and French perfectly so I can move to Portuguese and German.
I have put myself in a lot of ridiculous situations in the past, and I’m afraid my clumsiness will forced me to continue doing so in the future. I was not popular at Highs chool so this explain why I wasn’t kissed until I turned 16. I don’t remember the name let it alone the face of the boy who did it. I smile too much. I cry too much. I’m corny. Sometimes I don’t take things so seriously, I can develop a very sarcastic and unbearable humor. But I do take things seriously, more seriously than what I would want to. I don’t tolerate injustices. I’m way too sensible. I’m not strong or brave. I’m just a freedom lover who happens so be in the wrong place for freedom lovers. A dreamer (Don’t we all are dreamers at some point?).
So I just wanted to say that if you don’t see me, remember that. Remember that whatever you read in the news its real, its real as long as someone like me lives it. That’s what I’ve been trying to prove with this blog. The possibility of not being able to do it anymore makes me sad, angry and disheartens me a lot.
This is a bad day. This is a bad day for clumsy- freedom -lover dreamers. This is a bad day for naïve people like me, who always seek to open windows wherever a door is closed. Internet Censorship is worse than a closed door; it’s an entire house with its doors and windows blocked and me; just here, struggling to keep living a normal life; feeling stupid and unable to re- open them.
PS: I don't know it its related to this or not, but I haven't been able to access my blog all day. I can only do it via Proxy. It happens with many blogspots from time to time..
PS 2: In Spanish you also can read this and this brilliant post about it by Chiguire Bipolar