【尊龙凯时·(中国区)人生就是搏!】古巴电脑人才上网寻找美国客户

2024-11-03 12:01:01

MEXICO CITY — At his parents’ cramped house in Havana, Yondainer Gutiérrez builds apps and websites on a makeshift computer that runs on pirated software. He has no Internet access there, so he rents time on a friend’s connection to send his work to clients in France, Britain, Canada and the rest of Latin America.墨西哥城——在哈瓦那父母的狭小房子里，尤达内尔·古铁雷斯(Yondainer Gutiérrez)用一台加装着盗版软件的破旧电脑撰写应用于和创立网站。由于那里没联网，他必须租给朋友的网络来把自己的工作成果发送给法国、英国、加拿大和拉丁美洲其他地方的客户。This is outsourcing, Cuban-style, a little-advertised circle of software developers, web designers, accountants and translators who — despite poor and expensive Internet access — sell their skills long-distance.这是一种鲜为人知的古巴式外包服务。

这些软件开发人员、网页设计师、会计师和翻译成不会把自己的技术卖给远在他乡的顾客——尽管网络连接又劣又喜。And ever since the United States in February authorized Americans to import goods and services from Cuban entrepreneurs for the first time in half a century, they have their eyes on America as well.今年2月，美国进了半个世纪以来的先河，开始容许国民进口古巴从业人员获取的商品和服务。此后，古巴人也识破了美国市场。

“This opens up the world,” Mr. Gutiérrez, 27, said of the new rules, which mean that an American can hire Cubans, or buy a limited range of goods from them, so long as they work in the private sector, not for the state.“这关上了通向世界的大门，”27岁的古铁雷斯提及新的规定时说。这意味著，美国人可以聘请古巴人，或者出售他们获取的受限范围内的商品，只要他们身处私营领域，而不是为国家工作。After President Obama announced a new era of engagement with Cuba in December, Havana has been awash with American executives scouting business opportunities and hoping to sell commercial flights, yogurt, pharmaceuticals and other products.去年12月，奥巴马总统宣告打开与古巴恋情的新时代，在那之后，美国商界高管争相涌至哈瓦那，不仅是为了探查商机，也期望把商业机票、酸奶、药品和其他产品销售给古巴人。

Of course, there is still an American embargo against Cuba. Trade is complicated by the fact that American exporters are banned from offering credit to their Cuban customers, and many more restrictions will have to be lifted before Americans can freely invest on the island.当然，美国依然在对古巴实行经济制裁。美国禁令出口商获取信贷给古巴客户，这让贸易往来变得复杂。

而在美国人可以权利投资古巴之前，还有很多其他容许条款必须中止。But under Mr. Obama’s new policy, Cuba’s tiny outsourcing sector is now open for American business, several experts said.但一些专家说道，在奥巴马的新政策下，古巴微小的外包行业现在可以采纳美国客户了。“This has an immediate impact helping entrepreneurs in Cuba,” said Tomas Bilbao, the executive director of the Cuba Study Group in Washington, referring to the new regulations.“这不会立刻产生影响，协助古巴的创业者，”华盛顿古巴研究团体(Cuba Study Group)的继续执行主任托马斯·毕尔巴(Tomas Bilbao)在谈及新的规定时说。

Cuba is certainly no Bangalore and is unlikely to ever rival the great outsourcing hubs. But more and more Cubans are marketing their services online, using skills obtained in the country’s socialist education system and workarounds learned from years of hardship.古巴当然不是班加罗尔，有可能总有一天都无法与那些一流的外包中心抗衡。但是更加多的古巴人开始利用在该国社会主义教育体系取得的技能，以及在艰苦岁月中学到的变通方法，在网上促销自己的服务。Websites like Freelance.com, Behance, twago.es and Traductores Autónomos carry postings from Cubans across a dozen cities, from Pinar del Río in the west to Santiago de Cuba in the east.在Freelance.com、Behance、twago.es和Traductores Autónomos这样的网站上，有不少古巴人放的帖子，他们来自西起比那尔德里奥，东至古巴圣地亚哥的十几个城市。There are no official figures, but nearly a dozen Cubans with postings on online job sites, who were contacted by telephone or by email, said that this work was their main source of income and that their peers were doing the same. Some said they already had American clients who hired them through middlemen.目前没官方数据可以参照，但是我们通过电话或电邮联系了在聘用网站发帖的十几个古巴人，他们说道这种工作是其主要收益来源，他们的同伴也是一样。

有人说道，早已有一些美国客户通过中间商雇佣了他们。John McIntire, a former investment banker and chairman of Cuba Emprende Foundation, a nonprofit that trains Cuban entrepreneurs, said the computer programming sector had the greatest potential to flourish under the new American regulations.约翰·麦金太尔(John McIntire)曾在投资银行工作，目前是为古巴创业者获取培训的非营利机构古巴允诺基金会((Cuba Emprende Foundation)的主席，他说道，在美国新的规定下，最有可能兴旺发展的领域是计算机编程。“It’s in huge demand,” said Mr. McIntire, speaking at a conference in Washington hosted by the Brookings Institution last week. “And guess what? Cubans are world class at it.”“这个领域有极大的市场需求，”麦金太尔上周在华盛顿举办的布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)会议上说道。

“而且你们告诉吗，古巴人在这方面有世界一流的的水平。”Many who work at the University of Information Sciences, or UCI, near Havana, or the José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute, or Cujae (pronounced Coo-hai), moonlight as freelance programmers, using the institutes’ broadband to transfer large files, software developers said.在哈瓦那附近的信息科学大学（University of Information Sciences，全称UCI），或何塞·安东尼奥·埃切维里亚高等技术学院（José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute，全称Cujae，发音Coo-hai），有很多人全职当权利程序员，利用学校的宽带传输大文件，软件开发者回应。Others buy dial-up connections on the black market — for about $200 per month — or rent time on wireless connections at big hotels. The smoky lobby of the Habana Libre hotel in downtown Havana serves as an office for Cubans who write software, build apps, unblock or fix mobile telephones, or rent houses. They huddle daily on deep armchairs and pay $8 per hour for Wi-Fi.其他人在黑市上出售电话号码相连——约每月200美元——或如期段租给大酒店的无线连接。在哈瓦那市中心，哈瓦那权利饭店(Habana Libre Hotel)烟雾云雾的大厅被一些古巴人当成办公室，他们写出软件、研发应用于、关卡或修缮手机，或租赁房屋，每天都躺在深深的扶手椅里，为Wi-Fi缴纳每小时8美元的费用。

Dairon Medina, 28, a Cuban computer programmer who worked as a freelancer for several years before moving to Ecuador four years ago, hires colleagues in Cuba to do jobs for clients in Argentina, Canada, Germany and the United States.28岁的达尔隆·麦地那(Dairon Medina)是一名古巴电脑程序员，四年前搬了厄瓜多尔，在那之前，他当过几年的自由职业者。现在他聘用古巴的同事为阿根廷、加拿大、德国和美国的客户工作。He believes Cuba’s proximity — 90 miles across the Straits of Florida — is a plus.他指出，古巴与美国地理位置上的相似——佛罗里达海峡的90英里——是一个特分项。

“There’s a cultural affinity,” he said by Skype. “And then there’s the question of time zones.”“这有一种文化亲和力，”他通过Skype回应。“再有就是时区问题。”If American clients began hiring Cubans on a regular basis, he said, “it could be an immense market” for Cuba.如果美国客户开始常规性地雇佣古巴人，他说道，这对古巴“有可能是一个极大的市场”。

Oquel Llanes, a fluent Russian speaker who works with a Spanish tourist company in Havana and writes translations on the side, said there was constant demand.欧奎尔·兰斯(Oquel Llanes)能说道一口流利俄语，在哈瓦那的一家西班牙旅游公司工作，同时做到着笔译全职工作，他说道这方面的市场需求很平稳。“Translators are like barbers,” he said by telephone. “No matter what, people will always need them.”“译员就是像理发师，”他在电话中说道。

“不管怎样，人们总是不会必须他们的。”Especially when they come cheap. Mr. Llanes, 52, who studied mathematics and computer science in Moscow in the 1980s, said he charged between $5 and $10 per page to translate literary criticism and history books. That is hardly a fortune when a page can take an entire day, he said, but much more than the average $20 per month paid to state workers.尤其是当他们出价低廉的时候。

兰斯现年52岁，20世纪80年代曾在在莫斯科自学数学和计算机科学，他称之为自己翻译成文学批评和历史书籍的收费是每页5美元到10美元。他说道，翻译成一页有时候不会花费一整天的时间，做到这个放没法财，但比公务员每月平均值20美元的工资强多了。

The Cuban government has long had a policy of exporting services, especially those of doctors, nurses and sports trainers, in order to increase state income. Some 65,000 Cubans are currently working for the state overseas, earning it about $8 billion per year.古巴政府有一个出口服务的长年政策，尤其是医生、护士和运动训练师的服务，以减少国家收益。目前约6.5万古巴人在海外为国家工作，每年大约为古巴赚80亿美元。Datys, a Cuban state-owned software company with 700 employees, sells services to Latin America, according to its website, and Desoft, a state-owned high-tech company, has several clients in Cuba.古巴国营软件公司Datys网站上的资料表明，它有700名员工，在拉丁美洲销售服务。

国有高新技术企业Desoft在古巴有好几个客户。Were the government to improve Internet connectivity and telecommunications, Cuba could develop a competitive outsourcing sector, either state-run or independent, experts said.如果政府改良了互联网相连和通讯，古巴的服务外包部门可以显得很有竞争力，无论是国营还是独立国家公司，专家说道。“If you wanted to run a Spanish-speaking call center, why do it in Mumbai?” Mr. Bilbao said. “Maybe Cuba could eventually do that.”“如果你想要经营一个西班牙语呼叫中心，为什么要去孟买呢？”毕尔巴说道。

“或许古巴最后有可能做这一点。”That is still a way off, though, experts said. Under current sanctions, Americans are permitted to buy services only from the private sector; Cuba may not wish to see that sector grow.不过这还有一段路要回头，专家回应。

现行的制裁条款只容许美国人从私营部门出售服务；而古巴有可能不期望看见私营部门快速增长。Improved Internet connectivity is also a big “if.” A plan apparently leaked by the Cuban communications ministry and published this week in a blog, La Chiringa, indicates that the government aims to connect 50 percent of Cubans to broadband by 2020, but the anticipated speed would be too slow to stream video or play games online.提高互联网相连也是一个相当大的假设。本周，博客La Chiringa张贴了一份或许是古巴通信部泄漏的计划，表明政府的目标是在2020年前，让50%古巴人用上宽带，但计划中的数据传输速度太快，足以观赏流视频或玩在线游戏。

As the United States eases restrictions, it will test the Cuban government’s willingness to open up, Mr. Kavulich said.美国限制了容许条款，这将考验古巴政府对外开放的意愿，美古贸易和经济委员会(U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council)的约翰·卡武里奇(John Kavulich)说道。“At some point the impediments will leave the shores of the United States and wash up on the Malecon,” he said, referring to Havana’s seafront promenade.“在某个时候，问题将漂离美国海岸，被冲向马勒孔，”他说道。

马勒孔是哈瓦那的海滨大道。For now, experts said, restrictions on both sides are limiting engagement with Cuba’s private sector.专家回应，双方各自的容许条件，正在制约美国与古巴私营部门的往来。Mr. Gutiérrez, whose products include an app that helps drivers find a parking space and AlaMesa, an online Cuban restaurant guide, said that, for the moment, he would have to find a workaround to get payment from American clients. His projects range from around $500 for a basic website to several times that amount for one project that required hiring three people.在古铁雷斯的产品中，有一个应用于可以协助司机寻找停车位，还有一个是古巴餐馆在线指南AlaMesa。他说道，目前他必需寻找一个变通办法，以便从美国客户那里收款。

他的服务范围从创建一个基本网站，收费大约500美元，到积极开展必须雇佣三个人的项目，收费几千美元。Banking and Internet problems aside, he said, he is optimistic that the thaw between Cuba and the United States will help freelancers like himself.他说道，除了银行和互联网问题之外，他悲观地指出，古巴与美国之间的关系冻结将不利于像他这样的自由职业者。“There’s a lot to build here in the way of services; there’s a whole market to exploit,” he said. “All I need is a normal Internet connection and a way of getting paid.”“关于服务，还有很多东西必须修建；这里有整整一个市场必须拓展，”他说道。

“我必须的无非是一个长时间的互联网相连，以及一个收款方式。

本文来源：尊龙凯时k88-www.samybenmayor.com