Fernando Ravsberg

Among the worst damage suffered by Cuban society in its conflict with the United States has been perhaps the excessive secrecy established throughout the country as an essential civic virtue for protecting lives and properties on the island from “enemy” assaults.

I just returned from El Salvador, where I spoke with numbers of people. Among them was a young doctor who now works for the Ministry of Public Health, though she had previously lived in Cuba for 11 years where she studied for her degree and in her specialty. She spoke to me as if I were the only person who could understand her.

The problem of the over-consumption of energy has appeared evident ever since it was announced that all families that cooked with gas, kerosene or firewood —most of the population— would have to start using solely electric appliances.

To see disagreements between the panelists on a program like Cuba’s news/commentary program “Mesa Redonda” (the Round Table) is something that rarely occurs. To also allow members of an audience to raise blunt criticisms against the government would be truly astounding.

People told me but I found it difficult to believe that the ministry of Basic Industry had lost millions due to a simple oversight in the signing of mining contracts. It surprised me that with so many well-trained specialists such monumental “deficiencies” could have come to play.

A few days ago I went shopping in a small supermarket in a neighborhood here in Havana. It’s a storefront that’s barely 25 steps wide and 20 steps deep. Since the issue of impending mass layoffs across Cuba was fresh on everyone’s mind, I counted the number of workers there and observed how they worked.

When assuring that the model no longer works, the Commandant facilitated the path being pursued by General Raul Castro so that he can change everything that he judges necessary to change, without other political leaders being able to oppose him, shielded behind the flag of “Fidelism.”

I remember a private party in which trova musician Pedro Luis Ferrer sang some of his more critical songs. One of the Cuban participants told him with delight: “That’s it; we should reconstruct the Cuba we had before that guy came to power.”

It turns out that the “law of laws” —with which compliance is mandatory by all Cubans— says that “dual citizenship will not be admitted. As a consequence, when foreign citizenship is acquired, Cuban citizenship will be annulled.”

On occasion, the defenders of the Revolution shield themselves from criticism by pointing to disasters that have occurred in other countries, as if the problems faced by other societies can be used to justify the deficiencies of the Cuban system. I’m not disputing that real social, economic and human rights crises exist in other countries, but I think that the problems of others continue to serve as the comfort of fools, because that road only leads to resignation and paralysis.