CUBA: HEAT AND SCEPTICISM

By Leonardo Padura and - - Reprint | | Print |

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HAVANA, Jul 9 2008 (IPS) - Whether they hope for the materialisation of certain wishes or are convinced of certain disappointment, a day looms in the near future for Cuban: July 26, anniversary of the beginning of the armed struggle of Fidel Castro and his followers in 1953, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. In this article, Padura writes that it was a year ago that Raul Castro, then interim president, raised hopes for change in a short speech he gave during celebrations of this anniversary. The Cuban economy and society are clearly waiting for -and need- new and deeper changes. Months have passed without the oft- mentioned economic liberalisation that would allow for the creation of small private businesses, the longed-for sale of cars and furniture, the elimination of the burdensome exit visas to leave the country, among other changes that have been spoken of – but which the upper ranks of Cuban decision-making have less and less desire for. What is most worrisome is that this Cuban society that lives on hope continues to show signs (recognised by its leaders) of deterioration and a scepticism that in the opinion of many could block or derail the implementation of changes that could lead it into new directions.

Last year, Raul Castro, then interim president, raised hopes for change in a short speech he gave during celebrations of this very anniversary. In informal language unusual in Cuban political discourse, he stated that conceptual and structural changes were necessary in Cuba’s economy and society. He then issued a good-faith challenge to the hoped-for new administration of the US.

In the twelve months since then, during which an initial euphoria gave way to nervousness, a handful of changes have occurred: the dividing up and distribution of unproductive state land; the legalisation of certain sex change operations; salary increases without upper limits; and permission for Cubans to have mobile phones, to use hotels previously reserved for foreign tourists, and to buy computers and DVDs. All of this has been accompanied by a modest but persistent opening towards a critical stance by the Cuban media, worn down by years of paralysis, silence, and official triumphalism.

However, it is clear that the Cuban economy and society are waiting for -and need- new and deeper changes. Months have passed without the oft-mentioned economic liberalisation that would allow for the creation of small private businesses, the longed-for sale of cars and furniture, the elimination of the burdensome exit visas all Cubans are required to have to leave the country, among other changes that have been spoken of – but which the upper ranks of Cuban decision-making have less and less desire for.

What is most worrisome is that this Cuban society that lives on hope continues to show signs (recognised by its leaders) of deterioration and a scepticism that in the opinion of many could block or derail the implementation of changes that could lead it into new directions.

For example, it is no secret that for many thousands of Cubans exile remains the most attractive alternative. This is clear from the fact that each week dozens of Cubans risk their lives secretly trying to cross the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits on often unsafe boats, paying around ten thousand dollars for the passage.

What is at the very least curious – and for many alarming – is the nature of one sector of Cuban society’s relation to the new realities. One of the most startling reactions to the current period emerged after the recent and visible improvement in urban transportation in Havana: the ”sport” of slashing and breaking the new buses. It has become so extreme that by a few weeks ago the number of buses vandalised – almost always by youths – had topped 60, out of total of just a few hundred.

Something similar has also happened, albeit with some remote financial justification, in response to the improved signposting along the country’s roads and garbage collection: the theft of the new street signs and rubbish bins, which are cannibalised for a wide range of uses. The wheels of the latter, for example, are used to make carts.

In what has been dubbed ”the battle against illegality and criminal acts” which seem to be proliferating in the country, the police have recently shown to the public various clandestine plants producing condensed milk (the product is canned, labelled, and touted as “good quality”), soft drinks, certain brands of coffee, cigars, plastic decorations, gasoline, etc.

The tension is growing between the historic verticality of the country’s political and economic structures and a horizontal proliferation of marginalisation, corruption, and the yearning to escape and find a better life, like X and Y axes on which Cuban society’s future takes the form of a giant question mark. In an environment where the money citizens earn by legal means is not enough to live, where the state industries frequently prove to be inefficient, and where the behaviour of a considerable percentage of the population is characterised by laziness, survival strategies, and a inclination to steal anything that can be stolen, certain real conceptual and structural redefinitions are in order.

With these and other expectations, many Cubans are sweating through the searing summer heat, eyeing the horizon for approaching hurricanes, taming their scepticism with the practice of getting-by or waiting hopefully for the changes that maybe, just maybe, will be announced in the days to come. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)