“Driving” Lesson / Fernando Dámaso

  1. When driving a vehicle you should look ahead, but also use the rearview and side mirrors. This prevents accidents. It is the same when it comes to finding possible solutions to problems: we must look to the front (the new), but also take into account what is behind (the past) and what happens to our side (the experience of others).
  2. If you fail to do so, you can make big mistakes, believing you have discovered something new, when it has already been in use for hundreds of years. In all areas this is very important, but economically, that is what concerns me, as it constitutes one of our major bottlenecks, it is more important.
  3. For over fifty years (I’m looking back through the rearview mirror), our economy has been a failure. We have survived at the expense of huge infusions, first from the former Soviet Union and now Venezuela. This is a truth that only a very deluded do not accept. There are, as evidence, dozens of plans with no results and, as the culmination, the current chaotic situation.
  4. There are many experiences in different countries (I am looking to the sides, side mirrors). Some more liberal than others, but none, so far, is akin to the conceptions of our official economists. For one reason or another they are rejected. It is not good to copy but, They could at least be taken into account when seeking solutions.
  5. The road to an economic solution must pass through the elimination of political and ideological ties that imprison us (I’m looking straight ahead), go through the authorization of the small and medium privately owned cooperative in the beginning, and capital investment, Cuban first, and then abroad. It also entails the relevant legislation, to ensure security rights to these processes. There are many other issues to consider, but I think that these, for now, can serve to get us moving.

December 18 2010