Revolutionary website?
The Cuban government has unveiled a new Wikipedia-esque website designed to reflect Cuba's history and view of the world.
While the official launch is today, the website (which is in Spanish) is available at ecured.cu with almost 20,000 articles live, all written to spread knowledge of the relatively secret country without an aim to make money, the BBC reported.
Loosely based on Wikipedia's successful model, it is believed that updates will be permitted with the administrator's approval, but it is not known who is in charge of the fledgling encyclopaedic rival to the US multilingual web giant.
While Wikipedia has always trumpeted its democratic nature, (if not the accuracy of its content) Ecured's aim is to reportedly "create and disseminate the knowledge of all and for all, from Cuba and with the world."
"Its philosophy is the accumulation and development of knowledge, with a democratising, not profitable, objective, from a decolonizer point of view," apparently.
According to Auntie, Ecured describes its unfriendly neighbour the United States, as the "empire of our time, which has historically taken by force territory and natural resources from other nations, to put at the service of its businesses and monopolies."
So no love lost there then. The entry reportedly goes on to make a dig at America's public services.
"It consumes 25% of the energy produced on the planet and in spite of its wealth, more than a third of its population does not have assured medical attention," according to the article.
The entry on Ecured also reportedly accuses the US of wanting to invade the Caribbean island, which it says is eyeing up the country "like those who admire a beautiful fruit that will end up falling in their hands".
While it is generally believed that relationships between Cuba and the US are gradually thawing after the Cold War, the US is still imposing its trade embargo on the petite Communist country. Relations are thought to have improved since president Obama came to office and Raul succeeded his revolutionary brother Fidel Castro in 2008.
Interestingly Raul Castro is reportedly described by Cuba's Wikipedia rival as a "revolutionary combatant, political leader, statesman and military chief," who "writes and participates in the struggle of ideas at a global level" and "influences important and strategic decisions of the Revolution".
While Cuba's Wikipedia alternative might succeed in ruffling diplomatic feathers and prove interesting reading to outsiders, it is unlikely to rival its Capitalist counterpart's vast audience of some 78m visitors every month, or its repertoire of some 3.5m entries in English and 682,000 articles in Spanish.
