by Nick Miroff
November 10, 2009
Cuba's state-run economy has been in crisis mode for years, but it now
faces some especially sobering arithmetic. With trade falling and debt
stacking up, President Raul Castro has warned Cubans that the island's
socialist system must change.
And he's asking them for something they are not used to giving in
public: criticism.
Collecting Criticism
In the dark driveway of a Havana apartment building, neighbors are
gathering around a single light bulb and a Cuban flag. They have come
for a meeting of the local Committee for the Defense of the Revolution —
a neighborhood organization founded in part to root out anti-government
subversion.
Now the group is tasked with collecting criticism of Cuba's socialist
system and ideas for how to reform it. Similar discussions are being
held across the island, as communist authorities urge Cubans to work
harder, expect less and speak freely about the country's nagging problems.
Aurelio Alonso, deputy editor of Cuba's Casa de las Americas journal,
says he thinks Cuba's economy must face major changes. Like many Cubans
who say they support the government but want it to change, he believes
the state should allow for more small businesses and cooperatives.
Alonso says simply asking Cubans to work harder for no new benefits is
an empty formula. "Now, all that we are doing is we have our leaders on
the screen of the TV saying, 'You have to produce more,'" Alonso says.
"In the history of society I don't remember any situation where economic
accumulation has advanced because some charismatic leader says, 'You
have to produce more.' "
True Openness?
Major changes to Cuba's one-party system are not on the agenda for
discussion. That was also the case in 2007, the last time Cuban leaders
asked for public input.
Since then, the government has made limited reforms, but Cuba's economy
remains overwhelmingly state-controlled. Inefficiencies are compounded
by U.S. trade sanctions. Cubans are left to cope with chronic shortages,
meager salaries and a smothering state bureaucracy.
In a cramped Havana apartment building, former diplomat Miriam Leiva
remains wary of the government's new openness to criticism, but she says
she is beginning to see changes.
"For decades people didn't express themselves because they knew that the
security police or the informers were listening and were going to tell
on them," she says. Leiva's husband, dissident economist Oscar Espinosa
Chepe, spent two years in prison for his opposition activities.
"But little by little, since the situation is so harsh, since they have
so many personal problems ... they started to open up, to talk, and this
has been a way of liberating themselves and this is a step to ask for
more and to demand for their rights," she says.
Leiva still worries the criticism could be used against people in the
future. But she said open discussions are a step toward a more open society.
"I think that the government, Raul Castro, wants to know what people
feel and think and what they hope for," Leiva says. "He also knows that
people need to express themselves to feel a little better. It's not that
I think that he wants to change everything, but at least he knows that
even to preserve his power, he has to makes changes."
A Culture Of Paternalism
The proposal that has caused the biggest stir would eliminate the ration
system that provides every Cuban, regardless of income, with about two
weeks' worth of food. Most of it is imported, at great cost to the
government.
One of Castro's top officials recently likened some Cubans to "baby
birds," waiting to be fed by their "Daddy state," a remark that upset
many who say it's the government's fault for creating a culture of
paternalism.
Social worker Ariel Dacal says he lives in a neighborhood where poor
families couldn't survive without the government food basket.
As a committed socialist, Dacal worries that if the economy is
liberalized but little else changes, Cuba will follow a Chinese or
Vietnamese model that eventually leads to capitalism. And that would
squander the sense of solidarity and social commitment the Cuban
Revolution has built over decades.
The Cuban Revolution needs its own revolution, he says, one that will
bring more democratic participation to politics, the economy and every
facet of daily life. That, he says, is the only way for the Revolution
to save itself.
Cubans Warily Test Their New Freedom To Criticize : NPR (10 November 2009)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120274039&ft=1&f=1004
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