The banning of 3-D movies, or, ‘I’m the boss here’

Yes, it IS an obvious step backward

No process of changes is a straight and rising path. Moments of doubt, misunderstanding and resistance are to be expected. In the case of Cuba, which survived a transforming debacle that got out of the hands of the eurosocialist leaders, each step of its obligatory survival has always been accompanied by the immutability of certain points, of those boundaries where the system “doesn’t budge.”

The just announced official banning and subsequent closing of the halls for the showing of three-dimensional video constitutes – along with the suppression of the sale of imported clothing – the first chapter in an effort to stanch the flow of new initiatives.

Invoking order and discipline, the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers chose to put an end to the tolerance that had existed for several months, allowing the spread of a form of audiovisual recreation in several of the country’s provinces.

And although the Council does not deny it, its decision rather contradicts what one week earlier had been published in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, quoting the Deputy Minister of Labor: the government was studying a law to regulate the situation of those entrepreneurs who didn’t wait for an indication from the State to take advantage of an opportunity.

At this stage of the Cuban Revolution, how sad are the words “forbidden” and “shut down immediately”! How much deterrence and hesitation they convey!

My understanding of this affair (because the start paragraphs published Saturday contain no arguments) is that, as was done with the video parlors in the 1990s, the government wants to suppress – by the stroke of a pen – a space of ideological socialization that is deemed susceptible of allowing the enthronement of values and principles that are different from the Cuban social system.

As our recent history demonstrates, I predict failure for that clumsy attempt to regulate content. The movies shown in the 3-D parlors and the most blatantly counter-revolutionary programs imaginable are already circulating without control, without hindrance, from flash drive to flash drive, from DVD to DVD.

I cannot find other reasons for that decision. I rack my brain but cannot find them.

I return to the idea that an unpopular measure like this one (especially for the young people and adults who can no longer opt for this amusement) attempts to demonstrate that the degree of opening to new categories of private business should not be determined only by what the group making the economic changes considers pertinent.

And, if that were the case, I see it loaded with orthodoxy and obstinacy. It would be nice to find that the citizenry (even if minority sectors with a clear vocation for economic profit) can propose and implement alternate paths, new ways to satisfy social needs.

In the face of such proposals, I stress, the pertinent thing to do would be to regulate, to dialogue, to find common interests between the nation’s project and the personal intention. But never, never to ban.

Neither do I find this decision reasonable when it sharply ends the possibility that Cuban towns gain access to a leading technology that, while not professional (as the video parlors that showed the Battle of Ideas were), satisfies expectations and informs people. Besides, for the state institutions to undertake that task is almost like sentencing us to a virtual lag.

As to the deterioration of esthetic sense that might be caused by the low quality of the movies shown there, I share the opinion that education (social and familial) is the best antidote for ignorance.

The fact that in Cuba there are people who don’t need a 3-D movie to amuse themselves because they satisfy their spirits with a book or a sparsely attended concert is, likewise, the result of an education whose problems led us into the current state of affairs.

Though some may deny it, this measure is definitely a “step backward.” It is also a “wait a while,” a “don’t go there.” Setbacks are likely to appear on the road to change, but, even when expected, will always sadden us.

*José Jasan Nieves Cárdenas is a Cuban journalist who works at Radio Ciudad del Mar, a radio station in the city of Cienfuegos.