What Cuba Means in Google

If you enter the search term 'Cuba' in Google News, the free world's leading search engine immediately suggests the following options:

"Cuba earthquake 2010, Cuba news,Cuba Haiti, Cuba embargo, Cuba earthquake, Cuban, Cuba Travel, Cuba economy, Cuban news, Cuban cigars."

Thus, for a new arrival from outer space Google provides zero clues about what's been happening in Cuba for 51 years, except for the embargo.

Perhaps Google takes pride in being 'politically neutral', which it interprets as meaning no up front mentioning of "dictatorship", "elections", "human rights", "political prisoners", "Ladies in White", "Mazorra", "Zapata", "dissidents", "exiles", "liberation", "hunger strikes", "executions", "acts of repudiation", "civil liberties", "political police" etc., but essential to mention Cuba travel and "Cuba embargo", immediately.

Oh, and to hide or omit "exiles" or "exilio" too, as and wherever possible.

Google would perhaps argue that few searches for Cuba mention said terms but omit mentioning that a neophyte often doesn't know what to search for.

Google claims it has left China in protest of alleged Communist demands that it exercise self-censorship. Yet, notwithstanding assertions to the contrary, I think perhaps the Castros would love to talk business with Google.

COMPARABLES:

Iran for Google News - "news, punch, february 11, nuclear, israel, sanctions, protests, war, threat, feb 11

Iraq for Google News - "news, dinar, war, election, dinar revalue, dinar revaluation, dinar news, oil, economy, elections 2010"

UPDATE March 24, 2010 -- Well. Today Google removed "Cuba earthquake 2010" from its drop down --Let's Define Cuba For Searchers List-- but left "Cuba earthquake" (check for yourselves). Said deletion made space for a new defining term (only 10 allowed it seems). No, they didn't pick 'dictatorship', 'elections', 'political prisoners', 'dissidents', 'hunger strikes', etc. Instead they went with "Cuban Missile Crisis". (I remember watching it on TV from exile in New York.) Ah. How could they have forgotten. Castro wanted to shoot a nuclear warhead at the United States. Yes, Castro. The one so many in the U.S. and worldwide now defend. Good choice.

However, Cuban cigars continue to say more to Google about Cuba than tyrannies, executions and dead hunger strikers.

But there is hope. Maybe tomorrow.

UPDATE --March 28, 2010

Today Google web search defines Cuba as: cuban missile crisis, cubase, cubana lust, cuba gooding jr., cuba libre, cuba cigars, cuban sandwich, cuban revolution, cuban recipes, cuban food. All the ones in bold are different than the 10 terms it used to characterize Cuba when I first published this post 5 days ago on March 23.

Google web search thus grossly distorts by hiding the fact of tyranny in Cuba for 51 years.

´Cuba libre´is the best they could do, perhaps because it equally refers to a rum and coke.

How does Google come up with its blog search terms for Cuba? Only people´s searches? Therefore it can be controlled, from the outside, by an automated or human propaganda machine?