As Hurricane Dennis bears down on the U.S. this evening, it's done some of the worst damage, ever, in Castro's decaying island tyranny on Cuba.
 
But something's happening. Cubans, long deprived of technology like the Internet and cell phones, except in the most controlled circumstances, somehow are getting their hands on them anyway. And they are giving live reports from every corner of Cuba, to Cuban—Americans in Miami and elsewhere, who are now posting them on Val's Babalu blog. Never has the world seen so much candid reporting out of Cuba. We learn of Cuban coast guard ships foundering, Ernest Hemingway's house getting smashed, looting of government shops in the cities, downed power lines, backed up sewers, collapsing houses, forced evacuations, hiding from forced evacuations to stay behind, tourist apartheid stubbornly remaining in place, the absence of candles and foodstocks, and the whole incredible picture of communist government mismanagement of this huge natural disaster.
 
More interesting still, we learn of Castro's disjointed reaction, mixing up dates, falling into incoherence, railing against mercenaries, making strange pronouncements on the radio.
 
Cuba has had hurricanes before, but we have never seen the extent of news we now do here. Somehow, getting their hands on cellphones and computers and talking openly, Cubans are showing the extent of how deeply Castro is despised through Cuba, from every level of society, even from those with access to phones and computers.
 
Read the riveting firsthand accounts from Cuba here  and here.  Check out the links they contain. The Miami Herald has another excellent thread of similar reports here.

A.M. Mora y Leon 07 10 05