Cuba is not Egypt, with a very different history and different facts on the group. It's OK, even instructive, to look at what is happening in Cairo and Alexandria and wish the same for Havana and Santa Clara, but be sure you understand the differences and why the Tunisian-Egyptian flu has not yet sparked a similar response by Cubans.
Still, the Castro dictatorship is nervous.
That was the conclusion Monday of Cuban journalist and activist Dagoberto Valdés after he was arrested and detained for about three hours on Monday.
"They are very nervous because of the general situation in the country, much less because of Tunisia and Egypt," Valdés said.
Ideology and technology, among other factors, make it precarious to assume that what happened in Egypt will next happen in Cuba. Twitter and Facebook do not have the following — and thus the ability to transform — in Cuba that they enjoy in Egypt.
But then the repression and suffering on the island is far worse than what Egyptians have had to deal with in recent decades. That's a key reason in why Cubans have been slow to take to the streets.
An important similarity is that in the halls of Cairo and Havana tonight, there is fear. Fear that their time is up and more profoundly, there is a fear of the people.
In Egypt, the people are taking advantage of that fear to demand change.
Hopefully soon, Cubans will likewise be emboldened.
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