Translating Cuba

Arrest at Fonts and Beales Streets (Lawton) NOW of Lady in White (@DamasDBlanco) Aime Cabrales. Phone: 53603463

October 14 2012

Repressors in Lawton arrested Lady in White (@DamasDBlanco) Aime Cabrales Aguilar. Phone: 53603463.

October 14 2012

Waiting for Lady in White (@DamasDBlanco) Aime Cabrales in order to arrest her without charges in Lawton. Phone: 53603463

October 14 2012

Socialist ideas, which enjoyed a certain prestige among some sectors of the world’s population at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, failed spectacularly when put into practice in numerous countries. They resolved none of the problems they promised to solve, plunging these nation’s inhabitants into backwardness and poverty.

In the case of Cuba these ideas were summed up by the term “vernacular socialism”—a form replete with excesses and absurdities—which did not achieve even the minimal successes of its “brothers” in Eastern Europe, requiring the country to be subsidized, principally by the former Soviet Union. Unproductive Pharaonic schemes, the elimination of financial controls, the abolition of money, a foreign policy worthy of a superpower and other follies ruined the nation and wasted the time and resources of generations of Cubans, who were conned by the idea of socialism as a mythic cure for all of society’s ills.

These worn-out banners are now raised only by a few demagogues. Although they do not really believe in them, they use them to confuse the politically naive masses and certain people from the world’s foolish, ingenuous left, who adopt them more as social pose than as real, activist commitment.

In a game of words they sometimes try to equate them with social democratic ideas, which have validity and are successfully applied in some European countries, when one has nothing to do with the other. In these countries freedom of expression is respected, private property exists, and citizens are able to enjoy full rights—things which are non-existent under “real socialism”—because a great deal of attention is paid to these things and ample resources are dedicated to social problems, allowing them to enjoy magnificent health care, education and social security systems, among other benefits.

Trying to sell socialism as a development option is like offering a poor quality product, one that has demonstrated in full (and also in poverty, suffering, pain and even blood) its inefficiency. As a result, those who have experienced it do not want to hear any more about it, much less see it restored in their countries.

“Tripping over the same stone, again and again” seems to be a Cuban trait, along with “overshooting or falling short, never hitting the mark.” “Updating socialism” is simply that— continuing to trip over the same stone.

October 11 2012

Recently I learned, although it has not yet been publicly announced, that the Havana Historian Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, has retired his economic motor: “Habaguanex.” I am sure that this gentleman will come to be known as one of the few citizens of the Cuban Archipelago who, in the last 54 years, has done commendable and consistent work to improve our country. I believe, without equivocation, that if free elections were held, he would surely be one of the candidates for president of the nation, given his charisma, intelligence, sacrifice and honesty.

I have also been unable to avoid learning that his trusted men in the construction of “Puerto Carena” are being prosecuted for embezzlement. And now the so-called “domino effect” has begun. It has been served up on a silver platter to the Castro brothers, who for a long time have wanted to sink their teeth into the money that is spent on the historic district of the city of Havana. Without Dr. Eusebio Leal, a great part of it would have collapsed and millions of dollars that now dance in the state coffers would be absent.

Now, in place of Habaguanex, will be some ex-officer of the “armed forces” who responds blindly to Raul Castro and, of course, the deterioration and lack of control will be greater. The analysis of the problems should not focus on the consequences, I have repeated many times, the misrule of the Castros always does the same thing: throws out the baby with the bathwater to avoid getting at the root causes that force the great majority of people to survive with what is within reach of their hands. It is no secret that Old Havana has recovered thanks to the close management of the historian; and also, unavoidably, the housing reconstruction in general has been healthy for the black-market that thrives throughout the country and which, some day, will require a monument of its own as a great savior of the Cuban people.

I sense that the success of the work of the historian is due to the independence he had in all these years of arduous labor, such that he could give us a palpable image of revival the place where we come from. Now I fear that if the economic base necessary to continue his work of safeguarding one of the most beautiful cities of the Hemisphere slows or stops, our architectural history, which is part of our insular essence, will be in danger of extinction. And, without the spaces that are ancestors created, we will never be able to orient ourselves in this labyrinth of confluences that was “St. Christopher of Havana.”

October 9 2012

Cuban authorities, as has been their custom for years, have launched a new campaign against the U.S. embargo, taking advantage of the start of high-level United Nations General Assembly sessions. The worn-out script began with a press conference by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Havana on September 20. The only thing that could be called new was the announcement that the cumulative damage to the economy is now calculated to be one 1.76 trillion dollars. It is not known where he got this figure or how it was calculated.

Of course, the minister omitted the fact that the United States is one of Cuba’s principal commercial trading partners and that, according to official statistical annuals, supplied more than 4.1 billion dollars in food products from 2001 to 2002, making it the main provider of these commodities during this period.

He also forgot to mention that, thanks to President Obama’s easing of restrictions, approximately 400,000 members of the Cuban community arrive in that country annually. They provide substantial help to their families and friends, and their remittances constitute 85% of one of the chief sources of hard-currency earnings for Cuba. There has also been an easing in restrictions limiting the direct shipment of packages and money meant to aid family members. All this disproves the fallacy that the embargo has stiffened under the Obama administration.

If the Cuban government is not purchasing medications, it is because of its perennial financial insolvency. All the world’s other countries are willing to sell Cuba all the goods its requires — including products from the United States — provided it can pay. This is the real problem for the Elder of the Antilles, now a parasite state.

In addition to the damage brought on by the embargo, it would be appropriate to evaluate the disasters caused by a regime which for fifty-three years has destroyed the very foundations of the nation.

It is worth asking how much the destruction of the sugar industry, the backbone of the economy, has cost the country. Or the destruction of the livestock sector, another national treasure, now devastated to the point of not being able to guarantee that children over seven years old have a liter of milk or a piece of meat, something Cubans hardly recognize anymore.

One should consider the destruction of coffee and cocoa production, and the fact that a prominently agricultural country now imports 80% of its food, including such staples as yucca (cassava) to supply the tourism industry, as has been recently reported in the official press.

Perhaps the American embargo is responsible for the poor quality of new construction, which develops leaks immediately after completion and has many other problems. Are U.S. administrations responsible for Cubans not having access to the internet and the human knowledge to be gained from it?

Is the United States responsible for the continued decapitalization of Cuba, or for the fact that it invests half of what other Latin American countries do, causing it to sink progressively into backwardness?

Can external factors be blamed because people in the principal inland cities have to get around in wagons and carts pulled by horses, or because farmers have access only to old hoes and mule teams?

Have external factors caused the destruction of a large part of the roadway infrastructure and the housing supply? Are they responsible for the insignificant amount of housing construction, which has led to overcrowding for generations of Cubans? Or that 50% to 60% of piped water is lost due to the poor condition of water mains and the inadequate state of plumbing in homes? Or that the nation’s electrical energy system is showing signs of collapse due to obsolete Soviet and Czech thermo-electrical plants, most of which have been in use for forty years without adequate maintenance, and some of which are fueled by high-sulfur heating oil?

Is it because of an imperialist plot that the health care system is falling to pieces, as Cuban doctors recently claimed? Or that Calixto García Hospital finds itself in a calamitous state, with only ten of its thirty operating rooms even able to function. Or that, meanwhile, the other great “achievement” of the revolution — education — is marked by a drop in the quality of instruction?

Perhaps it is because of a sinister CIA scheme that Cuba will have an unsustainable population base by 2035, with more than 34% of the populace over 60 years of age, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

One might mention the many calamities resulting from completely irrational decisions taken over the course of the last fifty-three years which have cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars. These would include programs such as the character deforming country schools, the Cordón de La Habana, the Revolutionary offensive of 1968, the Harvest of Ten Million, the social workers, the emerging and comprehensive teachers, and many more of the mad ideas that seem to have been schemes intended to ruin the country.

Was it an international plot to fragment Cuban society by separating families and causing personal upheaval by forcing people to abandon their homeland? Who is to blame for the growing marginalization of society, the runaway growth of corruption at all levels, the fifth largest rate of incarceration in the world, or the acceptance of new moral and ethical codes which justify any actions as means of survival in the the jungle that Cuba has become? All this has resulted in the greatest loss of moral values of all time.

It is clear that, by the time he realized that the country was on the edge of a precipice, President Raúl Castro was already aware of many of these problems. However, his commitment to the past seems not to have allowed him to take effective measures to rectify, at least in some way, all the damage caused to the nation that was unrelated to external factors.

It is hoped that the resolution on the embargo, which is scheduled for a vote on for November 13, will once again condemn it. We have never supported the embargo, which has been used by the Cuban government as a justification for all its failures and repression.

However, to condemn only the embargo is a decision that would not take into account the most important aspect of the Cuban experience, which is the blockade imposed by authorities preventing the people from realizing their potential and from enjoying their rights. We, therefore, feel it would be fitting that the resolution to be approved, in addition to condensing the American embargo, also demand that the Cuban government take the following steps:

That it promote freedom for Cubans, respect for human rights and the introduction of real economic reforms to allow them to fulfill their creative capabilities;

That the National Assembly of People’s Power ratify the the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, endorsed in writing by the government on December 10, 2008.

Democratic countries would make a great contribution to the Cuban people if a balanced resolution were approved in the current session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Translated from Cubaencuentro

Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Havana
25 September 2012

The 21st century. A country called Cuba, where it citizens fight for a transparent democracy and for the freedoms that this encompasses. There are very few resources to achieve the power of the people in a country tossed into the abyss 53 years ago.

The Cuban counterrevolution, the opposition or the fighters for human rights in Cuba; whatever you want to call them, they have exhausted almost all their resources. The only one left is the most drastic option, the HUNGER STRIKE.

The opposition in Cuba has always tried to come to an agreement with the government, but it has always avoided any change and its governmental ideal.

Thus, the hunger strike has become a weapon against the Castro tyranny. Despite the fact that it is a weapon that destroys human being who undertakes it.

In reality the government has no interest in the deaths that could happen with this desperate measure. They are only focused on not losing their totalitarian power and avoiding democracy on the island. Space

But with a clear objective and a well defined goal, this weapon has become the Achilles tendon of the Castros.

October 8 2012

Although October 10 marks the beginning of Cuban’s struggle for its colonial independence, and is a holiday, the celebration has been reduced to a few ads and billboards. The same is true for February 24, but no one mentions May 20 any more, it has gone from being our national day to the execrable beginning of the Republic. The important anniversaries are the assault on the Moncada barracks and the day Batista fled.

My son’s History textbook summarizes it like this: … the energy of the Manzanilleros, led by the attorney Carlos Manuel de Cespedes… determined the beginning of the Cuban Revolutionary process on October 10, 1868… Cespedes’ uprising from his La Demajagua refinery, inaugurated, in national history, the use of the path of armed struggle to achieve independence.

Besides being carelessly written, the book is full of generalizations that prevent young people from identifying with the events and characters they study. My son’s face became attentive when he learned that Cespedes was a notable chess player of this time, that he was in love and liked to write poems to the ladies of his affection, that La Demajagua refinery had a steam machine many years before the famous “Cry of Yara” for independence, and that the help of the slaves, rather than productive, was onerous.

He was amused, believing a joke, when I told him that the head of the uprising wasn’t Cespedes, but rather Francisco Vicente Aguilera, and that Cespedes had not resigned the command to him when he moved forward the date of the uprising to October 10, as the story goes, by a telegram intercepted by a sympathizer, where he let slip to the Spanish authorities about the imminent uprising. I’m sure my son won’t forget any of this detail that doesn’t show up in his book.

I clarified, before his rapid conclusion, that it’s not about a history of the good and the bad, that Cespedes was wrong many times, but he was great despite his flaws. In the patriotic plan I told him about La Bayamesa written Cespedes and Fornaris, of Aguilara whom I’d already talked about, the patrician who even gave a theater to Bayamo and died poor and in exile.

About Perucho Figueredo and his nervous verses that he wrote in the saddle and that today we sing as the national anthem. What can I do! I’m from before, from those who still get emotional about certain symbols; my son, on the other hand, belongs to his era of disbelief. At least I try to be less cynical. At least I try.

October 11 2012

A paper presented at an event sponsored by the Christian Workers Movement, which took place on Saturday, September 13 in Havana, entitled ” The Role of Christian Workers in Today’s Globalized World.”

Alongside the effects from globalization, Cuba is immersed in a profound structural crisis, a crisis of character. This is evidenced by economic inefficiency, loss of hope, apathy, widespread corruption and a massive exodus. Among the causes is the attempt to subordinate individual and group interests to those of the state.

After the transfer of power, carried out between the years 2006 and 2008, the Cuban government decided to introduce some limited reforms to the economy with the goal of perfecting a system that has been shown to be unfeasible–a contradiction that meant these efforts were doomed from the start.

The package of measures introduced can be characterized as the most basic plan of reform, the key elements of which can be summarized as follows:

1) Create a strong and efficient agricultural sector capable of feeding the population and replacing imports,

2) make people feel it is necessary to work in order to live,

3) firmly reject illegalities and other forms of corruption,

4) reduce the number of workers on the state payroll, whose redundancies exceed one million positions, and

5) encourage self-employment.

Among these the most important was Decree no. 259, which covers the use of idle land. It is an important but inadequate measure because, while itacknowledges that food production is a national security concern andrecognizes the inability of the state to produce it, it maintains the state’s role as property owner and reduces private producers to tenants.

Regardless of this, the importance of these measures lies in the fact that, given the national and international contexts, they make it impossible to return the inflexibility of the past.

At the Sixth Party Congress and the First National Conference of the Cuban communist party, held in April of 2011 and January of 2012 respectively, the outlines of a basic reform plan were passed by consent and codified in the Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy, but were subordinated to the failed system of socialist planning and state enterprise.

As a result agricultural production fell 4.2% in 2010. GDP in 2011 grew less than expected. Food imports rose from 1.5 billion in 2010 to 1.7 billion in 2011. Retail sales fell 19.4% in 2010 while prices rose 19.8%. On the other hand the median monthly salary rose only 2.2%.

The 2011-2012 sugar harvest, officially slated to produce 1.45 million tons, had the same disappointing results as in the past. In spite of being able to count on sufficient raw material, as well as 98% of the resources allocated to this effort, it neither met its target nor was finished on time.

The goal of getting people to feel they must work in order to live — an issue widely linked to illegality and other forms of corruption — was not achieved. Instead, criminal activity grew, as demonstrated by the number of legal proceedings that have either taken place or are ongoing.

In regards to reducing the number of workers on the state payroll, limitations placed on self-employment have hindered this goal. Of the 370,000 self-employed workers, more than 300,000 are persons who were either unemployed or retired. The program of self-employment has absorbed less than 20% of state workers, which means that the expectation that this solution would counteract layoffs from state jobs has not been met.

The Causes

To come out of a deep structural crisis like Cuba’s, transformations must be structural. Small changes to the economy must be extended to include the co-existence of various forms of property, including private property, as well as the formation of small and medium-sized businesses and the rights and freedoms stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Covenant on Civil and political Rights and theCovenant onEconomic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Regardless of the difficulties facing Cuba’s leaders, the decisive factor has been the unfeasiblity of the current model. Even if the government had been working under the best national and international conditions for implementing the reforms, they would have still failed due to the lack of freedom– a prerequisite for modernity– and a high degree of political will, which make any attempt at change pointless. Experience has shown that the capability of any individual or government entity – no matter how high – are inadequate in addressing the crisis in the context of globalization. This is the reality as well as the challenge facing Cubans, including the militants from the Movement of Christian Workers whose mission is to make Jesus of Nazareth present in work and social environments.

Jesus conceived the Kingdom of God as a place of dignity for human beings and liberation for all the enslaved. When he returned to Galilee, he began proclaiming the good news of the Lord – the moment has arrived; the kingdom of God is at hand. Changed your ways of thinking and living; believe in the good news. By his example, Jesus calls on us to change our way of thinking and living as the foundation for the Kingdom of God, a spiritual labor that begins here and now.

Two figures from our past come to mind. The first is Fr. Felix Varela, who, upon joining the struggle for autonomy and later for independence, understood the need for civic education as a means to achieve these objectives and, therefore, chose education as the path towards liberation. José de la Luz y Caballero was similarly aware of the efforts of some Cubans to gain independence from Spain and came to the conclusion that, before revolution and independence came education. But in order to educate, he said, one had to be a true evangelist.

The labor situation in Cuba today is extremely complex and peculiar. At the same time that we have guaranteed certain health services and free education, wages, the principal means of social redistribution, prevent the satisfaction of basic material needs and undermine the spirituality of the world of work and of society in general. This situation has generated an ethical deterioration in society, whose first manifestation is that criminal acts have emerged as important means of livelihood. In that sense, it is an obligation of every Christian, committed to renewing action of Jesus in favor of justice, to fight for work to resume its role as a source of fulfillment and happiness.

Hope, springing from the need for change, moves us from the existing plane to a higher plane, in close relationship with faith and love. Therefore, although hope always incites change, in Cuba it assumes greater significance because of the spiritual and material insecurity the current structural crisis has caused.

The Facts of Life — a permanent review of life and militant action — consists in seeing, judging and acting as Jesus would have in the concrete situations of everyday life. An exercise that makes the Christian face the reality in which he lives through the lens of the gospel.

As rights and freedoms are closely related to spirituality, Christian workers have a great responsibility for the changes that the country needs, to make a reality of what Martí said as a lead in to our Constitution: I want the First Law of our Republic to be the commitment of Cubans to the full dignity of man.

September 24 2012

If one were asked what should be saved of the Castro brother’s communist revolution, the number of responses would be enormous. Followers of Fidel Castro — those who hang his portrait on the walls of their homes and swear he is the greatest statesman of the twentieth century — would come up with an endless list of accomplishments that should be carried on into the future.

Those who are convinced that Castro is the worst political scourge ever to afflict any country would smile quizzically and answer in a single word: nothing.

There would also be nuanced responses. Serious academics and a less passionate segment of the Cuban population, both on and outside the island, would emphasize that any future plans for the nation should include retaining universal and free health care and eduction, but little else.

Intellectuals and political scientists from the modern left argue that, before evaluating any social achievements of the Castro regime, it is essential that national sovereignty be maintained and that, in a future looming just ahead of us, we should not fall under the sphere of influence of any of the world’s power centers.

They argue for a politically independent Cuba, one with good relations with the United States but without being an unconditional ally. And for being able to accuse Washington in an international forum of any given outrage or to condemn it for some arbitrary action in one of its many wars to promote democracy.

If they could be transported in a time machine, armchair democrats would place Cuba at the level of Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago, minus the headlines in the international press on human rights violations and with a better economy and social services.

In debates Cubans committed to their country envision in their minds a spectacular future. Being optimistic is a positive thing. It is interesting that, in occasional discussions in which the admirers of the revolution participate, authoritarianism, multi-party government, the creation of independent trade unions and respect for free speech are openly acknowledged.

Public health and education are not the only unquestionable successes. Certainly teaching carries with it a strong ideological message, but all citizens living in Cuba have the possibility of learning to read and going on to higher education.

Other points in its favor are the access to culture and sports. There will always be asterisks, however. It is not possible for a nation to have a hard-currency economy and expect to be in the top spots at the Olympics.

Schools devoted to sports and arts education for children and adolescents with talent should be retained. Gymnastics and sports centers should also be brought back as a source of entertainment and a healthy option for the mind and body.

The civil defense system should not be touched either. It has worked. Since the devastations of tropical storm Flora in 1963, which cost the lives of two thousand people and caused enormous property damage, the loss of human life from hurricanes and other natural disasters has been minimal.

Broadly speaking, these are, in my opinion, the principle victories that could emerge from the Cuban revolution. Of course, there are many more things that need to change.

Addressing pressing social issues, unresolved political rights and structural changes are an enormous challenge for any future democratic administration in Cuba. But that is another story.

Photo: Dr. José Rubiera, the most recognizable face from the Institute of Meteorology and the man whose forecasts facilitate preparations by Civil Defense and the public for the arrival of thunderstorms, cyclones and cold fronts.

October 7 2012