Silvio Rodríguez Asks for Free Internet Access for Poor Countries

Silvio Rodríguez, Cuban musician known for his protest songs, called on U.S. President, Barack Obama and Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, to give the third world free internet access.

“The proposal is simple: the world is very uneven and a lot of pain could be avoided with an action that would contribute to a global leap: a ring of satellites to provide Internet to the third world,” Rodriguez wrote in the “Message to Google’s CEO,” which he published on his blog “Segunda cita” on Monday.

“I’m sure it’s something that is possible for those with privileged brains (and wallets),” he said.

Obama’s meeting with the elite of Silicon Valley –a region where the largest computer and technology companies in the U.S. concentrate–and in which Schmidt participated last week in San Francisco, motivated Rodriguez to write about it in his blog. “Owners of internet and President Obama: Build a satellite network that will give free Internet to the third world”, he wrote last Sunday.