Some Words for Others / Fernando Dámaso

In my country, the use of Spanish language words is subordinated to the political interests of the moment. So, at the beginning of the sixties when the dangers of communism were pointed out, they talked of humanism. Later, when the lack of democracy was pointed out, they spoke, officially, of proletarian democracy. When confronted with the issue of human rights, they talk about the rights to defend ourselves. And so it goes.

  1. Now they’ve turned to other words. The crisis that threatens the country is not that, but simply problems and difficulties. The massive layoffs of workers, is a process of making people available. Those who are laid off, and so become unemployed, are not that at all, they are “available.” And so to the point of exhaustion.
  2. This game with words and with the different internationally accepted categories, has brought consequences in regards to statistical information about Cuba, which are ignored by any serious world organization, as they lack absolute reliability. The statistic that there are 3.6% unemployed, reported for several years now, is example enough, when in reality there is underemployment, using three or more workers where one would be enough.
  3. The result was catastrophic: low productivity, no profits for businesses, poor quality products and services, and labor, financing and corruption problems, diversion of resources, miserable wages, etc. Precisely what they are not trying to fix.
  4. What would make sense is not to repeat the mistakes made. However, that’s not the situation. They continue down the same road, trying to continue to politically manipulate words, believing that using some instead of others will change reality.

December 11, 2010