Application for Constitution of the Cuban Association for the Development of Education / Dora Leonor Mesa

The Cuban State created since 1959 under the leadership of Fidel Castro is considered by many of his followers to be a benefactor, centralized and hierarchical. Up to today it has been the principal responsible for the social demands raised mainly through his political party: The Communist Party of Cuba.

Always occurred in one way or another, now more than ever, that the context is the great organizer of organizational designs. With the current trend of globalization, everything is closely related and the ideal of predictability has been turned into “the ordinariness of uncertainty.”

Cuban society, like it or not, is bound to change. Assumptions and alternatives are the new rhythms of our time. Everywhere many paradigms are fading and it is difficult to predict long-term trends. Everyday the solutions to citizens’ problems have forced the governments of most of the world to engage with civil society and NGOs.

Sooner or later Cuba will have to adjust to the idea that without the help and commitment of civil society it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to resolve and detect the incessant changes demanded by modern society. Especially if it is under the premises of the economic transformations that are just beginning to take shape in a country where everything is scarce and nothing seems to be stable.

It happens that government officials are managers of schemes and pre-established structures. Civil society in any event is formed by leaders who, regardless of their style of leadership, have in mind something that is difficult for a State official to assume: Think of the needy and beneficiaries according to their needs, more or less understandable for the government, but ready to be resolved by civil society and its leaders.

Officials have little time, members of civil society always find time for their needy beneficiaries. This little issue marks an important difference.

Those affected do not care if the solution is pretty or ugly. They simply want to solve your problem as best and as quickly as possible. David and Goliath are the best examples to compare civil society and the problems facing the Cuban Government. Goliath is powerful but the sling is in the hand of David and with God’s help, some might say, he won. The God of civil society is knowing where to strike to resolve or alleviate the conflict.

On August 1 we filed the Application of the Constitution of the Cuban Association for Development of Education. They may respond negatively under the most unlikely of pretexts. There’s no rush. Hopefully common sense and good faith will lead. As the wise proverb says: “There is no evil that lasts a hundred years, nor body that resists it.”

3 August 2011