What’s integral about the changes
By
Manuel Alberto Ramy
Some
news items slip by, unnoticed, as if they traveled through an
information subway, and now that I’ve had time to look through
hundreds of them I’ve found some that are worth sharing with you. I
will not refer to President Bush’s offer to send cell phones to all
Cubans. In the marketplace of international policy, Bush is a lousy
vendor and his message is worse than the worst TV commercial. Let me
just say that, as of a few days ago, the Cubacel company had sold
15,000 new cell-phone lines. Multiply that figure by 120 convertible
pesos (1 convertible peso equals 1.18 dollars) and you’ll see
the volume of business.
Now,
to the news. A news item from Europa Press, dated May 19, said that
Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Investments, Ricardo Guerrero, said in
Madrid that the measures being implemented by the government "had
been contemplated for a long time" and that this is "an
integral process."
To
me, the integral nature of the process is not news, for several
reasons.
From
Havana Read Spanish Version
What’s
integral about the changes
By
Manuel Alberto Ramy
Some
news items slip by, unnoticed, as if they traveled through an
information subway, and now that I’ve had time to look through
hundreds of them I’ve found some that are worth sharing with you. I
will not refer to President Bush’s offer to send cell phones to all
Cubans. In the marketplace of international policy, Bush is a lousy
vendor and his message is worse than the worst TV commercial. Let me
just say that, as of a few days ago, the Cubacel company had sold
15,000 new cell-phone lines. Multiply that figure by 120 convertible
pesos (1 convertible peso equals 1.18 dollars) and you’ll see
the volume of business.
Now,
to the news. A news item from Europa Press, dated May 19, said that
Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Investments, Ricardo Guerrero, said in
Madrid that the measures being implemented by the government "had
been contemplated for a long time" and that this is "an
integral process."
To
me, the integral nature of the process is not news, for several
reasons. The first is that the socioeconomic reality is a fabric.
When you operate on a segment or aspect of that fabric, the remaining
segments are affected favorably or negatively, as the case may be.
That’s
inevitable. It’s one reason why President Raúl Castro said
that decisions had been made in the past that had created more
problems than those that needed to be solved. I think the president
referred to tactical or response measures, lacking in systemic
outlook. Often, tactical measures — because of their heft and
dimension — become a strategy that replaces the initial strategy.
The
second reason — and I restate ideas that I’ve discussed in articles
I wrote more than a year ago — is that the accumulated problems are
so many and so intertwined that they demand a coherent, systemic and
novel approach, as well as a timetable of priorities, especially in
the definition of the engines of propulsion to be used in the field
of production. This is a critical point, because it implies resorting
to nontraditional motivations in Cuba’s revolutionary practice, such
as material stimuli, which were small.
An
integral answer is the only serious answer when focusing on the
policy being started now (something that I clearly perceive); it
responds to a fine-tuned vision of today’s Cuban, who is no longer
yesterday’s Cuban, much less the 1960s’ Cuban. In politics, the genes
reside in principles and values, in the indelible tracks left behind,
not in clonation, which of itself is antidialectical. That’s a reason
for the importance of the institutions and functional
institutionality.
As
a final element, I point out that in the field of the visible, of
what can be touched, we are witnessing a process that on one hand is
restoring rights — to stay in hotels, to buy cell phones, electronic
equipment and household appliances, to increase pensions by up to 20
percent — and on the other hand makes structural changes in the agro
sector that imply decentralization and a noticeable expansion of the
role of local agencies of the People’s Power (provincial and
municipal governments). The process will also have an effect on the
state’s central administration, likely implying the merging of
ministries.
If,
as it seems, this stage of the Cuban process departs from an integral
project and a new style of work that emphasizes collective study and
discussion of steps and measures, the distribution of functions and
institutionality, it becomes clear that the country is saying
good-bye to the paternalism represented by "they give me"
and "it was my turn."
Now,
it’s a question of "I earned more" by producing. And, if
the earnings are excessive, I suspect that income taxes — already
imposed on those who receive bonuses in convertible pesos or on
self-employed workers — will be utilized as a regulatory element.
I
left for last Vice Minister Guerrero’s statement that the changes
"had been contemplated for a long time." No reason to doubt
that. In the fall of 2005, Fidel Castro warned in a speech at the
University of Havana that only the revolutionaries could destroy the
Revolution. Also at that time, he defined that revolution was
changing everything that needed to be changed. That need is
undeniable: the issue on which consensus is needed is how
to make the changes, and to
what extent,
in this first stage of the country’s socialist development.
Manuel
Alberto Ramy is Havana bureau chief of Radio Progreso Alternativa and
editor of Progreso Semanal, the Spanish-language version of Progreso
Weekly.
