Cuba’s Bureaucracy Sighs with Relief

Fernando Ravsberg*

HAVANA TIMES — A TV roundtable on bureaucracy is over and we now know the origin of the word, its meaning, that it does not exist only in Cuba, and even what Mexican actor Cantinflas thought of it. And with that what do we do now? Which steps must we take to get rid of bureaucracy so as to advance to a more efficient society?

There were no answers because the debate went off on a tangent, despite journalist Pepe Alejandro having touched on the core issues: bureaucracy is the product of an overly centralized model and the lack of a greater socialist democracy. However, instead of delving deep into these points the discussion changed course to continue swimming along the surface where we will never find solutions to the underlying problems.

And what about the people’s thoughts on the subject? As always, the only questions presented on the show came from people who by chance were walking by the entrance of the Journalists Association. Nobody bothered to go to places where the population must do their paperwork, OFICODA, the Housing Department or Civil Registrar’s to ask the public about what they were experiencing at that moment.

Actually more than a Round Table the prime time show should be called the Empty Table, at which Cubans heard anything new, except perhaps the views of Cantinflas.