The Cuban Theory of the Perfect Society (Documentary)
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – This is the second poignant documentary by Ricardo Figueredo Oliva. Like the first, Juan Sin Nada, the filmmaker manages to explain things about the Cuban system and life that are very difficult to understand, especially for people who have not lived on the island or under a similar system.
The Cuban Theory of the Perfect Society can be summed up in one word, the “absurdities” of a system where common sense is crushed in favor of inertia and stubbornness. There are millions of examples where the ordinary Cuban either shrugs his/her shoulders or says Why? knowing they will not receive a response.
In Juan Sin Nada, Figueredo tackles with great success what it’s like for a Cuban worker to try to live off their “salary”.
Now, in his most recent production, he shows the part of Havana that most visitors don’t see or don’t understand. The thinking of Cubans trying to live their lives in a country where, as they say, “everything is prohibited” and individual initiative is punished instead of supported.
The Cuban Theory of a Perfect Society is an aesthetically pleasing 61-minute documentary, very honest, very respectful. In simple popular language and images it shows us the illogical things of a system that excels in shooting itself in the foot.
Over time, much of Cuban society concluded that the promised bright future will not come. Some blame the eternal enemy and others seek a future. Very sad in a country with so much potential.
….and Olgasintamales, MININT are the skin of the bubble! Not for them the daily struggle, not for them a shortage of housing – housing is built specifically for them, or indeed a shortage of anything. They are indeed the Pigs of Orwell’s 1984.
Circles writes of the Theory of the Cuban Perfect Society. I recall when first absorbing the views and opinions of Cubans, the almost constant reference to the need for “respect”. It is inculcated at every level of education, from creche to university. “People must have respect.”
The purpose is to ensure compliance. Compliance initially with the teacher’s instructions, but later, compliance with the edicts and instructions of those on high ie: the communist masters and their theories.
For the communist hierarchy operating under the dictatorship, respect is necessary for the achievement of total power and control – from the creche through school, through a dreary life of compliance to all instruction, to retirement in 350 sq. ft. getting in the way of the next two generations and receiving 200 pesos ($8) per month state pension and eventually to the grave. Such is the Cuban Communist Perfect Society.
As I wrote in ‘Cuba Lifting the Veil’:
“Don’t challenge the system, accept it, stay mute and exist.”
Poor Cubans 62 Years sacrificing theirs lives for nothing. I always wonder about those people who still defend the Castro’s Regime. What is it exactly that they defend? In the rest of Latin America there are poor, rich, middle classes, working classes and beggars. In Cuba everyone is miserable. Poor and beggars. The military elite and their family are in a bubble.