by Judi Mcleod, Editor, Canadafreepress.com
July 19, 2004
Uncle Sam officially broke off relations with Havana under the 1961 Trading with the Enemy act. Not so for Teresa Heinz-Kerry, who in 1991, using a Canadian connection funded by her Tides Foundation, linked the communist country up to the World Internet.
The Toronto-based Web/Nirv, Canadian affiliate of the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) and its offshoot the association for Progressive Communications (aPC), used a 64 KBPS undersea cable IP link from Havana to Sprint in the United States, linking Cubans to the Information Highway.
IGC and aPC are one of the Tides Foundation's largest ongoing projects.
a massive, 24-hour, transnational computer communications network, IGC services 17 United Nations offices, 40,000 activists, some of the radical stripe and a legion of non-government organizations in more than 133 countries.
The Tides' octopus of the electronic communications world got its start back in 1987, when the England-based GreenNet began collaborating with IGC, which operates PeaceNet, EcoNet, ConflictNet and LaborNet in the U.S.
according to an aPC Internet historical account, the two giant networks began sharing their electronic conference materials and "demonstrated that transnational electronic communications could serve international, as well as domestic committees working for peace, human rights and the environment."
By late 1989, the IGC network included Canada (Web), Sweden (NordNet), Brazil (alterNex), Nicaragua (Nicaro) and australia (Pegasus).
Hooking up the left wing world to the Internet didn't happen by default. In the spring of 1990, The Tides Foundation funded aPC with the specific goal "to coordinate the operation and developing of an emerging global network".
Cuba's 1991 connection to the Internet was initiated by aPC affiliate Canadian NGO Web Networks, forerunner to Web/Nirv. "We created an information tunnel through the american blockade," explained Mark Surman, former technical director of Web Networks. "Our computers would make a long distance call to the computers of the Cuban Center of automated Exchange (CENIaI), about three times a day to pick up and deliver mail. This is called a store-and-forward system. Then this traffic was gatewayed to the rest of the Internet."
When Cubans replaced Canadians as the islands' access provider, Fidel Castro's government became the gatekeeper for access and content.
For the past 40 years, the Torricelli Law has restricted Cuba from purchasing goods from subsidiaries of U.S. companies.
The Tides Foundation is a charity.
Under american regulations currently applying to tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations, IGC "has had to openly pronounce that its networks are for educational and charitable purposes only."
Under usage rules in the ICG manual, it states "the network shall not be used in any substantial way to carry on propaganda, to influence legislation or to intervene in any political campaign.
"It may be used, however, to discuss in a non-partisan way, legislation, politicians and campaigns. Only up to five percent of the total resource time of staff may go to working on political causes and towards lobbying efforts."
Canada, upon which Cuba's tax system is based, maintains a much softer stance on the Castro regime. Not only was Cuba's tax system built with the direct advice of Revenue Canada, Canada has been doing business with the island since 1959. Canadians, with an estimated 500,000 visits this year, make up the largest single tourist group to Cuba.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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