“Distortions”, Today’s Trendy Word in Cuba

By Francisco Acevedo

HAVANA TIMES – Do you remember last week when I discussed our dear Miguel Díaz-Canel’s podcast dedicated to the topic of transportation?

In it, the minister, Eduardo Rodríguez Davila, mentioned four distortions in his office. They cannot use the foreign currency they generate; fares are paid in national currency; state-run management models have a different management formula compared to private ones, and the resources allocated for plans do not align with the intended results.

Nothing new under the sun, but the word has become trendy, and this week Prime Minister Manuel Marrero adopted it as a banner during a visit to Camagüey.

“The first thing we need to look at are our distortions,” Marrero said, and then urged people to seek alternatives because we cannot remain idle, waiting for the United States embargo to be lifted.

Unfortunately, he does not begin by applying this to himself, as the Cuban economy and the country in general are filled with distortions. Those who do not want an alternative are precisely those in power. For them, all creativity is aimed at trying to legitimize and sustain a model that can no longer hold up, rather than making a real shift and allowing others to try something different.

“The first thing we have to eliminate is our self-blockade,” and as always, the ball is thrown to the other side without considering that censorship, repression, and dictatorship, to sum it up in a one word, have been the main cause of the failure of the centralized communist project.

All the criticisms regarding freedoms weigh heavily in the rest of the world for someone to decide to give credit to Cuba, and of the few who endorse the government, a large percentage remain dissatisfied because their loans are not paid back. The examples are there, ranging from nations as politically distant from ours as Argentina and China.

Clearly, the proposal coming from the government offices does not involve free elections or democracy, but rather continuing to endure and try to do more with less, with the “absolute certainty” that the only possible path comes from the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

It’s the usual outcome in this type of balance where the same thing is repeated over and over, year after year, decade after decade, and we still cannot guarantee bread for all citizens, milk for children, and a dignified old age for our elderly.

This same week, we learned something more about bread: it takes eight hours to make. So, when the arrival of flour is delayed, fresh bread cannot be had for breakfast because it comes out at noon and not in the morning. It’s one of the wonders of this country, where we learn new things every day, thanks to our leaders.

They didn’t mention it in that Round Table program, but the first thing an manager of a bakery must do is think about how they will pick up the flour assigned to them, whether in a horse-drawn cart or in transportation paid for out of pocket by them and their workers, because everyone wants to maintain their family’s source of income. Here, no one should be deceived: no bakery worker lives on their meager salary but on the bread, sweets, and cookies they make with that same flour and sell on the side; that’s why the product Cubans purchase in the ration stores does not meet quality standards.

Nowhere else in the world do people think about the bread supply chain; they simply go to their bakery and buy it every day, all day, and of all types (yes, because let’s remember that here we are talking about the most basic, lowest quality product possible, and they can’t even guarantee that).

Here, the government ministers explain how everything is done in detail, from bread to transportation. We are privileged to receive this new process of literacy through national television in the voices of the high-ranking officials.

In the end, it’s not so you learn how nothing is done, but to justify why it’s not done. In many cases, they even acknowledge they are unable to meet the population’s expectations in both quality and quantity, be it a product or service. However, few question why.

If they are incapable of fulfilling their social purpose, they remain the sole ones responsible for it. Why isn’t the private sector allowed to ensure the country’s bread or transportation, why must something so simple be part of a government’s operations?

In workplaces, whether production or services, perhaps there is no production or services, but there is always a mural reminding us of the month’s anniversaries or photos of the leaders of the Revolution. Significant time is dedicated to such (time that delays bread making, for example) in government union or Communist Party meetings, where it is more important to contribute to the repressive work of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), the Armed Forces (FAR), and State Security than to fulfill production plans.

These are the distortions that our Head of State will never talk about on his TV program, where aggressive policies towards the United States government, the great ogre of the movie, are constant.

It doesn’t matter if Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product continues to decline as long as it’s because workers spend time on non-essential tasks; the crucial thing is to stay in power at all costs.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.