Author: Fernando Dámaso

The mega-soap opera of the Five Spies, recycled as anti-terrorists and heroes, for years have occupied a lot of space in the national political programming. Structured for the seasons, in the best style of the soaps, they appear one after another, regardless of the actual audience. The main characters presented at the beginning as meek and innocent doves attacked by the imperial eagle, according to the season it’s broadcast, have been adapted to the arguments of the interests of the moment.

In the first season, the starring performances were given by the attorneys, some designated officials and chosen journalists, who were charged with trying to convince us of their innocence, constantly bombarding us with scholarly interventions and articles. In it, the main characters were kept discreetly in the background, with few public declarations, to give the impression that in addition to imprisonment, they were subjected to isolation.

In the second, they started to appear alongside the popular figures (mainly actors who visited them) and their mothers, where they looked lush and healthy, although on returning these people speak of the cruel physical and psychological tortures, the subhuman conditions, harassment, etc. and shed a tear to add spice to their words in the in the best style of the soap operas from the fifties of the last century.

The melodramatic weight increased from chapter to chapter, with the incorporation of the loving and long-suffering wives and daughters, who lost no opportunity for national and international stardom, both in print and on radio and television.

The third season was characterized by their recycling as intellectuals. It turns out that not only were they anti-terrorists and heroes, but also cartoonists, painters, poets and writers. The reason for this readjusted argument was given so they could incorporate national and foreign artists and intellectuals and to the cause, and it was necessary that the main characters belong to that sector. Cartoons, paintings, poems and writings proliferated, most of poor quality, despite the hard work of surreptitious cartoonists, painters, poets and writers, trying to improve the work and make them more digestible.

In this fourth season, with one of the main characters gone from the plot (he already served his sentence), the argument has moved on to the moral and altruistic, related to virtue, dignity, loyalty and courage. Thus, one of those who is still in prison, marvels at the attitude of a self-employed punch seller in Las Tunas, whom he welcomes and greets for offering free punch to the ambulances.

The one released, now acting as a hero at events (he has no other work), participates in whatever congress, conference, meeting or workshop held, and offers lectures on morality, loyalty, dignity, etc. to students and, out of sync with the times, talks to them about visiting the Coppelia ice cream stand, without realizing that this hasn’t been an option for young people for several years, more interested as they are in discos, hotels, trips abroad and private restaurants (paladares).

Together, with the participation of some artists from the Governmental Team Cuba, draw up a huge mural for the Cuba Pavilion on the Havana La Rampa, and so it continues.

We don’t know what they’re going to try in the fifth season nor those that will come later, but it seems that the mega-soap opera will be prolonged in time, considering that in the absence of some more interesting argument, they will continue stretching it out as a way to keep a part of the population entertained and make them forget more important and momentous things, at least until the boredom of “more of the same” runs its course. The argument, which is nothing original, has already been used multiple times. They are only changing the characters!

1 July 2013

The 52nd National Baseball Championships ended with the triumph of the Villa Clara team, and after a few days passed, some considerations came to mind: most along political lines and a few with regards to baseball.

I do not understand the presence of the flag of the 26th of July Movement next to the Cuban flag in the Sandino stadium. When the so-called Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (26th of July Movement, 13th of March Revolutionary Directorate, and People’s Socialist Party) were merged into the United Party of Socialist Revolution, which later came to be called the Communist Party of Cuba, it was agreed to deactivate these organizations and their symbols, using them only on important occasions related to them (the 26th of July flag on the anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Barracks, the Directorate’s flag on that of the Assault of the Presidential Palace, etc.), and to adopt, then, the flag created for the Party.

This has been complied with by the other organizations, but not by the 26th of July Movement which uses its flag indiscriminately on any occasion, without anyone protesting or any protest against this violation of the agreement.

The Cuban flag should fly alone, sovereign and independent, unescorted by any other, except in specific activities, where it flies with those of other countries. It is the only one that truly represents all Cubans. The remaining represent only a part.

Why in the stadiums and other sports facilities are vivid images of political leaders present, when this was banned on the triumph of the revolution so as not to fall into the cult of personality? Would it not be better and more pleasing to the eye, to have images corresponding to outstanding athletes in their respective sports? I have never seen in any foreign sports facility (except in the countries of the extinct socialist camp and in some current stragglers) party flags and pictures of political leaders.

Why did a baseball series have to be politicized to the point of absurdity, establishing in the closing ceremony (no one knew until then) a dedication to the so-called Five Heroes, with the presentation of the champion trophy presentation  made by one of them along with their family members, with a bland political intervention? Do there not exist in Cuba important and respected sports heroes to do it? Baseball is the national sport and its fans have different political views, it is not lawful to restrict it to one of them.

Now, something about sports. Why not allow each team, respecting generally established rules, to design their own uniform, avoiding the current impersonal eyesores mass-produced with a single design? I’m sure we would gain in aesthetics, the players would feel better, and it would be clearer to the spectators.

I think the best reward for the players, who really deserve it, ignoring the speeches of the occasion and the obligatory expressions of gratitude, both false and irrelevant, would be to improve their economic conditions and allow them to rise in their careers without any ceiling and, please, maintain decent conditions on the playing fields, to where playing is a pleasure and not a risk.

22 June 2013

If we observe the behaviour of the Cuban economy in 2012 and the first half of 2013, what becomes clear is that, in spite of the “updating” and new “guidelines” (which amount to nothing more than a simple wish-list), there are no significant achievements to indicate that at least we are on the right path.

Neither agriculture (a real disaster), nor industry, nor construction, nor transport have shown improvement. On the contrary, they remain laggards, failing to make a collective contribution to the country or to improve the lives of its citizens.

The only successes to be reported are in what is referred to as international collaboration (the hiring out of professionals at low-cost) and tourism. Reaching a level of two million visitors a year (a ridiculous figure for any country in the region) has been billed as “a great achievement” in spite of all the many projects and all the foreign capital invested in this sector.

What is really going on? The effectiveness of the few measures taken so far has been limited by absurd restrictions and excessively slow implementation (so in that sense nothing is new). They hinder development and, worse yet, do not completely free up productive forces or allow for economic expansion in all areas.

Politics continues to be focused on the economy. Out of fear of having to pay the costs for decades of mistakes and volunteerism (which by necessity will have to be paid), the economy is being sacrificed. Bets are being placed on an uncertain, miraculous future, the discovery of oil, a change in U.S. policy, a Latin American economic union, and even effects from widening the Panama Canal and the possibilities presented by the port of Mariel. The hope is that one of these developments will get our chestnuts out of the fire.

Cuba’s economic problems, as well as its political and social problems, have been multiplied many times over. They must be resolved by all Cubans — those here and those overseas — with our resources, efforts and intelligence. As long as this participation is premised on accepting absurd and archaic political restrictions, and as long as a small group of “chosen ones” retain control of the thunder key — the only ones capable of doing anything in spite of their multiple failures – very little will be accomplished.

28 June 2013

With those incomprehensible absurdities of politics, the United Nations Decolonization Committee adopted the resolution presented by Cuba, with support from Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, on behalf of the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence.

By any chance does this Committee know that on 6 November 2012 a plebiscite was held in Puerto Rico, where the majority of the population voted to join the United States as the 51st state, somewhat smaller numbers to maintain the current status of the Commonwealth, and only a tiny minority to be independent? Is it, perhaps, not the will of Puerto Ricans, for years now, to remain joined to the United States in a way or another, as demonstrated in the four plebiscites?

That Cuba and its populists friends propose every year, in an act of manifest interference in the internal affairs of another country, is nothing unusual, but that the United Nations accepts it is shameful. In addition, the information offered by the official Cuban press is manipulated, stating that the text now adopted stressed the majority pronouncement made last November 6 by the population of this country in rejecting the current condition of political subordination. In reality, the majority pronouncement was to cease being a Commonwealth and to become a State of the United States.

How long will they continue politicking in favor of a small group of separatists who, convinced of the rejection of its citizens of independence (the minimum percentages obtained in four plebiscites prove it), have chosen to live it, his backed by the will of most Puerto Ricans, who have not lost their language, nor their flag, nor their music or dances, their customs or their identity, but have enriched it with new contributions? How long the UN will be continue to lend itself to this dirty game?

25 June 2013

When the state-run media writes or talks about education in Cuba, they always start with the obligatory preamble, discussing how bad things are in the rest of the world, including in so-called first-world countries. They then go on to discuss the encouraging situation in Cuba, where students are guaranteed free education as well as health care, nutrition and other basic services. Those of us who suffer under Cuban socialism, however, know that things are not quite so simple.

If, in the early days — and I’m referring only to education — taking advantage of the  facilities, the physical foundations and the existing licensed teachers, it was of high quality, the fact is that very soon, with the advent of failed educational experiments and other changes, the quality began to decline. Schools for teachers were closed, replaced by training in inhospitable environments in an effort to strengthen revolutionary commitment. Quick courses were taught in short time spans. Poorly trained personnel were allowed into the system. Televised courses replaced teachers in classrooms. The schools in the countryside program was introduced. As a result of these and other changes, a large percentage of good teachers are now at retirement age. Competent newcomers do not exist and replacements are not foreseen given the lack of interest among young people, who are attracted by the greater incentives and better working conditions offered by other professions.

In addition to its well-known and difficult material and pedagogical problems, the Cuban educational system has not been able to train the citizens the country needs and will need over the short and medium term. An attempt to emphasize politics and ideology at the expense of education has distorted Cuban teaching, which had always enjoyed respect since the era of Félix Varela, José de la Luz y Caballero, Martí, Varona and many others. This has led to a critical loss of values, which is palpable on a daily basis in the streets of our cities and towns, and which is shared equally by different generations. The teacher-student-parent relationship has been broken for many years, abrogated by the state monopoly on education. Trying to restore it now is no easy task, especially when, instead of emphasizing the formation of citizens, there is an ongoing emphasis on the formation of “patriots,” which is understood to mean those who are loyal to “the model.” They are trying to rescue the “system of revolutionary values” when in reality what they should be trying to rescue is the system of national values, which are much more important and significant than the former.

In a social scenario of absurd and archaic constraints imposed by those in power, there is little that teachers can do (if they act as such and not as mere transmitters of a failed ideology in which even they themselves do not believe). The same is true for parents and the rest of the family, who are also obligated to engage in a double standard, known as the “dual morality,” which is really a lack thereof. Faced with this reality and trapped in the middle of a tense situation, the only path left for a student is escape, either through alcohol, drugs, exodus, or through individual or group rebellion as part of one of the many current urban tribes (such as emos, rockers, rappers, reparteros* or skaters).

I feel that, rather than organizing and staging large events to show the world the “achievements of Cuban education,” efforts and resources should be spent on addressing the real situation, which endangers the national identity and directly threatens the country and its very existence.

*Translator’s note: Followers and fans of reggaeton music.

11 June 2013

The announced rescue of sugar production, after the ravages of the Alvaro Reynoso Task that finished dozens of plants, and the adjustments and readjustments of the “upgrade” and the application of the “guidelines”, seems not to have achieved the objectives, with production having, in some cases, declined.

Despite nearly six months of harvesting, it appears that we not exceed the one million four hundred thousand tons of sugar expected (an extended time when historically, with less technological equipment and development, the harvest reached four to five million tons in less than ninety days).

At least, that is what emerges from the literature on the harvest in the province of Villa Clara. Figures are figures: despite organizational measures taken, resources allocated, etc., the harvest produced 11,000 fewer tons than planned (5,400 tons more than the previous harvest, which was 5,600). In addition, it missed the 44% of the time (26.66% is attributed to the rains), the sugar mill capacity reached  56%, a very low indicator, and industrial performance was 10.60.

The listed causes are many: lack of control, lack of coordination and forecasting, rainfall, human activity, especially among those cadres led the process, administrative and technological indiscipline, excessive foreign matter, grinding cane backward and burnt, low combined productivity, lack of on time completion with the necessary means to guarantee the results, indiscipline among the brigades at the beginning and end of the day, poor quality of delivered equipment and parts, late delivery to the centers (up to 37 days overdue), and so on. The list of misfortunes could go on and become endless. A similar picture is repeated in other provinces.

I ask two simple questions: Is this not enough, repeated year after year, to finally understand that the “model” does not work? Why do we have to wait before deciding to discard and replace it with one that has shown itself, despite its imperfections, to be better, more productive and better?

7 June 2013

Without any hint of shame the state-run press reports that an American citizen attending a public presentation by her president at the National Defense University interrupted him and even questioned some of his policies in a rude manner according to several journalists present. The importance of this news for Cubans lies in the fact that this woman, as well as many other people in the United States and other democratic countries, have the right to do this. In our country on the other hand, not only would it be considered a serious action, you could also spend years in jail for it.

In another article it is reported that, in a session at the Ninth Congress of the Union of Cuban Journalists, someone posed the question, “What sort of journalism does Cuban socialism require to make it stronger as it goes through a period of change?” The replies all have a common denominator: to petition the state to act less as a guardian and to request authorization to be more critical, though always “being aware of the challenges that the country faces in the midst of the incessant and worsening harassment by the American government, which has not abandoned its goal of destroying the country’s socialist project…,” blah, blah, blah. Without the least embarrassment these journalists accept state control over what they write and report, and their appeal amounts only to “being allowed to write and report a little more.” It was always my understanding that rights are not something to be begged for, but rather to be demanded.

Another article mentions a “big tweet for Cuba” (a reference to the Five*, who by now, if my math is correct, are four), accompanied by a photo of a “stand in” at the front of the White House. As I indicated at the beginning of my post, how wonderful to be able to do all this freely, without anyone interfering! It is as safe and secure as a picnic. In democratic countries, that is, because if these things happened in ours, they would all be considered “destabilizing actions orchestrated by local mercenaries fulfilling orders from the empire.” That simple.

It is striking that presumably intelligent people would lend themselves to this sordid political game by participating in it as though they were performing a commendable action for which they deserve respect and even applause. I believe the solution to the problems between the governments of Cuba and the United States (and I say governments) must be through dialogue. I do not believe it can be achieved through tortuous paths, but through truth, honesty and frankness, assuming each lives up to its responsibilities.

*Translator’s note: Five Cubans serving prison sentences in the United States for espionage, for whose release the Cuban government has been actively and publicly campaigning. One of the four has been paroled and recently returned to live in Cuba with the permission of the American courts, in exchange for giving up his U.S. citizenship.

3 June 2013

To update, in one of its many meanings, means to put in tune with the times. It updates the valued, that which, having demonstrated its effectiveness, should be retained, although infused with new spirit or, what is similar, provided with renewed energy. It wouldn’t occur to anybody to update the obsolete, whose properties have been superseded by development, because updating cost far more than replacement with something new, which is much more efficient.

In the case of the so-called “Cuban upgrade” some inconsistencies occur: first, it’s trying to update the archaic, the failed, which throughout its existence has demonstrated its practical infeasibility, and also this updating is carried out “at the speed of the burial of the rich” — slowly — and plagued with absurd restrictions that reduce its effectiveness for oxygenating the dying national economy, “straitjacketing” it even more, making it hard for it to breathe. This is the stark reality.

None of the measures taken so far — most simple legalizations of what has been being done illegally for years — have represented improvements for the ordinary citizen, much less an economic boom. Moreover, they haven’t even offered stable solutions for many of the main problems, such as food, which is becoming more precarious and more expensive every day. Actually “there has been a lot more heat than light,” notwithstanding the usual triumphalist declarations, which we are so accustomed to.

The fact is that what we need is not an “upgrade” but a “change.” What doesn’t work should be replaced by something that does work, or at least that has proven to be better. If we don’t abandon the “ideological hoax” and the eternal empty slogans, we will never get out of the impasse to which we’ve been brought. We are simply continuing to enmesh ourselves in the unbearable tangle of these fifty-four years, with no present and no future, living in the past, clinging now to some “generic guidelines,” that try to say a lot without actually saying anything.

Change is an urgent need, both economically as well as politically and socially. Without it the way continues to be blocked, and this is a real blockade.

30 May 2013

The anniversary of the Cuban Republic passed on May 20, and if something was written or said in the official media it was, once again, to criticize and make a big deal out of it, charging it with every possible evil and a few impossible ones.

In addition to calling it a pseudo-republic, media-created and neocolonial, the highlight was classifying it as not independent because of the existence of the Platt Amendment for more than three decades, until it was abolished in the ’30s through an agreement between the governments of Cuba and the United States.

This ideologically manipulated history is well-known. According to it, Cuba was only truly independent starting in January 1959.

However, the assertion is not completely true: it ignores the “Brezhnev Amendment,” which for more than thirty years as well (until the disappearance of the USSR), held Cuba under the aegis of the Soviet Union, followed by the “Chavez Amendment” which extends to this day.

During the first, Cuba was not independent, as its actions and policy responded, first, to Soviet interests, including an article of submission in the 1976 Constitution [from 1959-1976 the Castro regime governed without any constitution at all]; nor was it independent during the “Chavez Amendment,” as it responded to the interests of “Chavism,” a mixture of populism and anti-Americanism.

In other words, if earlier, according to government propaganda, Cuba was not independent, then after, it has not been either. It’s as simple as that.

26 May 2013

Since its installation in power, the Cuban government has always moved stride for stride with the corresponding thick ideological cover. Each year was given a name, which was supposed to serve as an incentive for work during its twelve months. Thus, 1959 was the Year of the Liberation, but it really meant, by the measures taken, rather than the liberation, the violation of all existing rights and freedoms. Then came many others which, above all, were more than just names without concrete results, until they lost interest in the practice and it become routine, and then they started to put the focus on slogans for extensive periods of time.

One of the most interesting was the so-called Battle of Ideas, where everything that is done or undone formed a part of it, from fixing a pothole, repairing a bodega, replacing a bulb in the street, tilling the land, holding a rally, reaping the harvest, etc.

It was so important that he even had his ministry and minister, who seemed drawn from the pages of George Orwell’s novel 1984. I came to constitute a little parallel private government within the existing, complicating everything even more that is already was. continue reading

In the Republican Cuba each province had a governor and each municipality a mayor, who governed, in the case of the province with a Council of municipal mayors, and in the municipalities with a city council with councilors. The municipality was the local society organized politically to an extent determined by the necessary relations of vicinity, on a basis of financial capacity to meet the expenses of the government. It had autonomy, with powers to meet the peculiar collective needs of local society. The province was composed of the municipalities within its territory. So it was established in the Constitution of 1940.

From the year 1959, instead of perfecting what already existed, these structures were modified and, in the case of the municipality, which is what interests me, the mayor was replaced by a triumvirate of three commissioners, something also provided in the aforementioned Constitution, but with the number of commissioners in correspondence with the number of inhabitants in each municipality, rather than a fixed number for all.

As the experiment failed, due to the multiplicity of leaders, it was changed to just one, though with limited executive and financial power, and with the measures to be applied having to be approved or ordered by the central government.

In practice, the old town hall of municipal government became a mere administration. Then they experimented with the same dismal results, with the so-called JUCEI (Coordination, Operations and Inspection Boards, which were the municipal and provincial governing bodies). With the emergence of the People’s Power they thought that the problem would be resolved, looking to the experiences gained within the Republic and later, but these lessons were discarded, maintaining the inefficiency, now increased with the increase in bureaucracy.

The truly great problem is that, sitting on top of the existing bodies of government, both national as well as provincial and municipal, is the Party. It is no coincidence that every time there is a meeting of any of them, either the National Assembly or the provincial or municipal ones, the Party Plenary is held first and it establishes the scope and limits of what will be discussed and approve by the assemblies.

In this scheme, in reality the Party has the power, and of course it the Party that governs and the government (the People’s Power), are simply administrators. Herein lies its inability to solve problems, national as well as provincial and municipal. It is a duality similar to the two existing currencies where one, though it do not do so consciously, conspires against each other, because they occupy and act in the same small space.

In the capital this is the big problem, aggravated by the presence of the central government and its agencies and institutions, who influence and pressure the administration, which becomes an executor of the tasks of others, leaving its own tasks uncompleted.

The result is on view for all: broken streets and sidewalks without maintenance,  abandoned landscaping, chaotic garbage collection, terrible services of all kinds, buildings deteriorating and collapsing daily, poor health and other evils that affect citizens.

As long as our provincial and municipal governments do not have real, strong and resourceful leaders, who perform their duties as such, all this will be insoluble.

18 May 2013

A careful read of the extensive article, “A look at the Cuban model of wellbeing,” published in the daily Granma on 13 May 2013, raised, for me, some doubts and disagreements.

The cases with which the article begins are people of different ages who, for one personal reason or others, have decided to return to live in Cuba, representing an insignificant percent of the hundreds of thousands who have not, and who prefer to continue developing their life projects in line with other wellbeing models overseas, despite the economic crisis, the violence, unemployment, social isolation, rootlessness, the distance from their lived ones, the exclusion, discrimination, lack of solidarity, etc.

On the basis of these atypical cases, the entire posterior argument is structured, emphasizing the lack of a feeling of exclusion, the social spaces, social solidarity and the collective creativity and intelligence.

To suggest that there is no feeling of exclusion because everyone in the neighborhood knows everyone else, is an incredibly trivial argument, as is defending the bad custom of sticking your nose in other people’s lives, which is the result of the widespread surveillance among neighbors, leading to envy, gossip and the existence of mandatory collective activities which, far from avoiding exclusion, directly threaten the individuality of citizens, which should be respected. continue reading

There is a word in the Spanish language, which is used in different ways by the Cuban authorities, according to their interests: this is diversity.

In international relations it is widely used by the top leaders and their representatives, who demand respect for it. It’s logical. When the majority of countries have democratic governments, diversity is represented by those who do now. In this situation, the presence of these, Cuba among them, is only possible if it is accepted and respected. This happens in the United Nations (UN), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), and so on.

For individual countries, diversity works in two different ways. If in those countries that have democratic governments, which do not share the Cuban political-ideological spectrum, the defense of diversity support parties, movements and opposition groups. If governments are authoritarian and populist, and respond to the interests of the Cuban authorities, then diversity is attacked, accusing its representatives of being bourgeois, stateless, fascists, mercenaries, lackeys, allies of the empire, and so on. continue reading