DNS - DNS Web Performance: Cuba's Version of Wikipedia Crashes on Launch

Cuba’s highly anticipated (at least in Cuba) EcuRed kept on crashing Tuesday, the launch day for the online encyclopedia with a Castro-type twist.

A couple of attempts by TMCnet to log onto EcuRed failed Tuesday afternoon.

And Fox News Latino  reported late Tuesday afternoon that Internet users “reported difficulty getting onto the site, or accessing its now over 19,600 entries.”

Ecured.cu was described as Cuba’s version of the popular Wikipedia site, which is written by its users.

The Cuban variation offers knowledge “with a democratizing, not-for-profit, objective, non-Colonial” viewpoint, said Fox News Latino.

EcuRed featured “knowledge by all and for all,” according to Fox News Latino.

Cuba’s National Office of Statistics reported earlier this year that “less than 3 percent of Cubans used the Internet at least once over the past year.”

EcuRed will be available on the Internet and on government approved sites via intranet.

What kinds of things does the Cuban site consist of?

It says about the United States that “Historically, it has been characterized by divesting other nations and countries by force of their territories and natural resources.”

And as far as the U.S. economy, capitalism is “a late phase of imperialism.”

EcuRed also features a long biography of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

In a related matter, TMCnet reported from The AP that a confidential but recently published U.S. diplomatic cable predicted “Cuba's economic situation could become ‘fatal’ within two to three years.” The communist–run country was too slow in adopting reforms. The cable was released by WikiLeaks. It was written in February before Cuban authorities announced plans to fire about 500,000 government employees and to expand private enterprise.

The cable added things could worsen if economic or political problems occur in Venezuela, a Cuban ally, which the cable described as "increasingly unstable," according to The AP.