Breaking the mold

By Elsa Claro

The biggest fears now felt in Cuba, notwithstanding others, refer mainly to two topics. The tax system and the layoffs.

Dámaso Rielo, a carpenter who became a furniture varnisher, attacks the payment of taxes almost as if it were Lucifer himself.

“How can they tax someone for caring for a sick person?” he asks. On the issue – which is neither the most controversial nor the most significant of those that can be cited – there are diverse opinions, denouncing or praising the end of a state indulgence that has become an obstacle for the change in schemes that looks for a prosperity now scarce.

Luis Cancio Hernández, a garage parking attendant, states: “We have long paid taxes and we split the profits. We don’t call ourselves a cooperative, but we are one, just like the cooperatives the state will allow. And I assure you, we all found it unfair for them to charge us. And of course if we don’t pay [taxes], we earn more each, but one gets used to things, and it is natural for something to seem so bad. They also charge [taxes] elsewhere, so …”

Mariana Calderón Fernández, seamstress: “In my job, it is preferable to manufacture a new piece than to fix it or patch it. I assure you that after people get used to a couple of things, it’s hard to teach them something else.” That’s how she sees the proposed tax system and the need to increase productivity and efficiency in general.

Other respondents refer to their area of specific activity. Alberto Peña Crespo, a sports instructor, says: “There are only two articles in the Guidelines [for Economic and Social Policy] dealing with physical culture and sports but, as they say, they’re a beaut: they focus on the practice of mass sports and physical activity, something to achieve with a restructuring of both the system sports and the sports facilities. In my view, that is the conception we originally had. Remember: a healthy mind in a healthy body, more mass sports and more access to them. Personally, I prefer it.”

“It’s very nice to win Olympic medals and we should not stop trying to get them, but, if to achieve that we must leave many municipal swimming pools empty or small training camps without resources so as to give preference to high-performance sports, what kind of stimulus – worse still – what kind of example do we give the children who tomorrow must follow the same road?”

“We got so used to being among the first that it will be very difficult for many to accept defeat. We’ve already had some defeats. But, with less or the same, we can give a better athletic training to our boys, without abandoning our efforts to place in the international competitions. As I say, it won’t be easy to change our mindsets, but nothing is impossible.”

Another person attached to his area of interest and activity is agricultural engineer José Pablo Guerra, who explains: “The 31 Guidelines leave almost nothing out. In some areas, there are repetitive concepts that are not sorted by subject, so it’s difficult to conceive the idea fully. I say almost nothing is missing; however, and to my sorrow, I see that the concept of ‘seed’ is completely absent. It should have appeared in Guideline No. 166 – without seed there can be no agriculture,” he stresses, with the voice and attitude of a man offended.

“The word ‘seed’ is mentioned only in Guideline 176, in reference to the development of a sustainable agriculture. How senseless! These guidelines were born in the Ministry of Agriculture and for me they reflect the lack of concept of the importance of what’s basic and essential. There can be no rivers or lakes, or sea without water; likewise, there can be no agriculture without seeds.

“I have also read the section about Science and Technology. Guideline 127 talks about the creation of conditions for integrating the achievements of Science and Technology to production. However, I believe that they cloud the guideline with the final word: ‘necessary.’ Aren’t these concepts for development always necessary?”

Ángel Gómez-Estrada, a young chemist in a pharmaceutical company, says that what he likes about the so-called updating of the Cuban economic system is that “it will end the fiction of so many people nodding off in a workplace, pretending to work and making low wages. Another thing I find very good is that the production of goods will be prioritized, starting with goods for domestic consumption, and that services will be improved at both the state and private levels.”

However, among some intellectuals who were calling for changes to the system, fears are now circulating about the “commercialization of art.” They refer to the section devoted to culture, which states that it is necessary to create new sources of revenue, evaluating all the activities that can pass from the budgeted sector to the entrepreneurial system.

A previous article in the Guidelines advocates the continuation of the development of artistic education, creativity, the arts and the ability to appreciate art, as well as the protection of the cultural identity and cultural heritage, all of which must be achieved by ensuring an effective use of the available resources.

“It’s just that we’re forever zigzagging,” someone says, requesting anonymity (he’s not very well known, I should point out) saying at a meeting of the UNEAC that the platform subject to a general review is “for the market.” Judging from his facial expression and comments about imminent hazards, he anticipates the greatest of disasters.

There is still not enough information, says S. Piña Basset, a civil engineer who intends to create a cooperative of construction workers and went to the Ministry of Labor to find out his chances of becoming a private contractor. He was told that professionals could not engage in self-employment. In fact, that limitation has since been repealed and now appears in the Official Gazette together with many other regulations that have been repealed or are new and appear in the Decrees 10 and 11.

Subsequently, the Guidelines for the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party were released, which, in Article 272, provides just what Basset wants. The publication of this document breaks, only partly, the insufficiency of data on a long and complex process involving the most substantial reforms made in 50 years.

On November 10, President Raúl Castro hosted a workshop giving instructions to 523 leaders and experts from around the country who are responsible for directing the massive process of discussion prior to that event, which will take place in April 2011.

I guess this will break the lack of information that causes complaints and uncertainties and that a popular analysis will discuss the number of budgeted units that face reduction, that the terms “economic efficiency” and “self-financing” will assume their real dimension and that the announcements on credit policy in areas that stimulate the production of goods for domestic consumption or export sales will ring true.

An effort is underway to create mechanisms to facilitate the import needs of the new non-state sectors of production. Clearly, these are just the beginning of a debate on the future of an island always threatened and, despite everything, with enthusiastic and bold people.