A touch of reality

From
Havana                                                                              Read Spanish Version

A
touch of reality

All
about a reggaeton

By
Manuel Alberto Ramy

A
few days ago, I walked down the streets of Centro-Habana, a populous
municipality whose streets are full of potholes and whose houses are
in very bad condition. On the sidewalk, three young boys sang a
reggaeton, while clapping their hands. I stopped to listen. The
lyrics (most certainly made up by them) said there isn’t enough
money, so people have "to invent" (resort to the
underground economy, which is linked to theft and the rerouting of
resources), or "to have chavitos
(convertible
pesos) for the oil and the soap, and go out with ‘la
jevita’ (the
woman) to have a good time." And the lyrics continued to tell
about "the situation."

Coarsely,
sometimes using obscene words, those three young men singing songs
about the national reality led me to meditate about the Revolution in
Cuba and revolutions in general.

Every
revolutionary process aspires to create a better society and promote
human beings with different values and attitudes. These processes
result from a permanent tension between the goals that have been set
and reality. But (and there’s always a "but") in the
established revolutions that are plunged into a dynamics of reforms,
as is the case of Cuba, the tensions between realities and goals are
even stronger.

And
one is tempted to turn away from the unpleasant realities, to see man
outside his context, outside the social framework, which in Marxist
terms is the equivalent of a terrible sin.

The
relationship between structure and superstructure, that is, the
relationship between the material base and the spiritual values is,
according to some, like astrology: the stars don’t command but they
certainly guide. Just look at the reality that lies behind the lyrics
of the reggaeton and its performers.

Can
a man with superior ethics emerge if he is submerged in a sea of
basic necessities? Marx saw the leap from the point of view of
developed societies, which is not our case, or China’s or Vietnam’s.

If
man thinks the way he lives, and lives the way he thinks, reality
resides in life, in those millions of citizens for whom a wage (as we
know) is not enough. So, he jumps the ethical barrier and "invents."
To prevent an "invention," a raise in salary is required,
but that’s practically impossible when there is neither production
nor productivity to back that raise.

So,
how to increase production and productivity? To what mechanisms
should we resort? And here is where the problem gets even more
complicated, because it involves means and objectives. Can a
different society and a superior person be built with the methods
used in the society that we’re turning away from?

That,
and none other, is the great dilemma and the contradictions facing
all thoughtful Cubans, even the authorities: How to improve without
missing the transcendental objective? And how to make reforms in such
a way that the process won’t slip out of our hands?

The
two previous questions, like the first answer, are very much linked:
To increasingly augment the society/government relationship from top
to bottom. To give a greater leading role to the citizen, so he may
enjoy real participation in the decisions and have effective control
over the policies and the administrators of those policies.

In
sum, a gradual and greater socialization of the reform process, which
primarily includes the productive sector, which is the indispensable
linchpin because it is the actor of the structure, of the material
base.

Apparently,
on this aspect (the productive sector) there are different opinions
that proclaim entrepreneurial self-management as the formula that can
integrate all the incentives — material, political and ideological.
Also, within the political and government apparatus, there seems to
be an idea that the situation can improve through institutional
adjustments, and that the workers can develop a feeling of belonging
to their workplace.

I
don’t have a fully formed answer. I can only say that the problem, in
addition to being urgent, is profound; that the institutional
readjustments are not sufficiently effective. We must remember that
the institutions are the results of the structures; they are their
visible bodies. And, like any other neighbor’s son, I am betting on
the broadest popular participation that can resolve — within
socialism — the situation we’re going through.

Manuel
Alberto Ramy is Havana bureau chief of Radio Progreso Alternativa and
editor of Progreso Semanal, the Spanish-language version of Progreso
Weekly.