I just spoke to Yoanni and she’s ready to submit her request for the “Carta Blanca” (White Card) to the office of immigration at the Ministry of Interiors. Yoani has been awarded the International BlogHer Activist Award and part of the award entails to join thousands of her fellow bloggers in St. Diego this Summer at BlogHer’11. There’s only one problem: The very same blog that has granted Yoani so many awards (Premios Ortega y Gasette in 2008, New York Times Top 25 blogs in 2009, Premio Principe Claud in 2010, the International Women of Courage Award from the U.S. Department of State in 2011) is also the blog that is keeping Yoani a captive of a government that considers her “a criminal” for writing her own opinion. I guess that makes us all criminals. Me for sure!
I’m not going to ask you what you think (since I already know) but I will ask you: What can you do about it? Since blogging is the best
tool we have, I have an idea: Let’s blog Yoani out of Cuba. A pioneer in the blogosphere, who has taught and inspired so many of us must receive our support. I believe in the influence of all our voices united. In one choir, one prayer, one petition, one cry for justice. If you would like to blog Yoani to BlogHer, here are some ideas for your post:
-An open letter to Gen. Abelardo Colomé Ibarra (Cuban Minister of the Interior)
-An open letter to Raúl Castro (President of Cuba)
-Your personal invitation letter to Yoani to come to BlogHer
-Anything else you might think relevant
Once you write your post, please add it here to this blog hop. This will help us all find each other. You can also help by tweeting and retweeting all the messages with the #YoaniBlogHer hashtag. Ok, now let’s make it happen!
