Five Minus Three Is Two

Five Minus Three Is Two / Fernando Damaso
Posted on March 2, 2014

On the 27th, after serving his sentence, one of the "Cuban Five" spies
was released and subsequently deported to Cuba. For several days, the
official press and the authorities have launched a media circus, which
starting today will grow. There are only three now serving sentences in
U.S. prisons. I am sure, however, the manipulative media campaign will
continue to talk about five. They have a lot invested in it and it would
be like renaming an already known product.

This, ultimately, is nothing more than a publicity campaign like any
other. In addition, it's always cost the Cuban authorities time and work
to react to reality. If once, many years ago, they were considered
revolutionary, for decades now they have been profoundly reactionary.

It seems that time doesn't pass in vain, and the old men of today find
it hard to change something, fearing they will lose everything. It's
understandable: age no longer allows them to start over.

The issue of the spies, rather than an act of humanism, is a way to
entertain a part of the population, so they forget their everyday
problems, and to make some sense of the absurd protests and demands of
the "government's friends" abroad, which also assures paying tourists
for the Cuban people, and feeling like they star in something, the more
to the left the better, to be different to most.

There's someone else who, I'm sure, contrary to their natural feelings,
would prefer for the situation to continue, so that they don't lose
their "little goodies," which they've been enjoying for years: their
families. From ordinary unknown citizens, by the work and grace of the
authorities, they have become public figures, who travel, dress well,
give lectures, participate in events, receive awards, and who have
resolved their problems of housing, transport, food and clothing, all at
the expense of our pockets, because their "merits" shine by their
absence, a non-being who on a new scale of values, is considered a
"merit" to be a family member of a confessed spy.

These are some of the absurdities that persist in Cuba and that have
disrupted our society, making the young and not so young people prefer
to emigrate, and the old, condemned to their misfortune, dream of better
days in the years they have left to live.

1 March 2014

Source: Five Minus Three Is Two / Fernando Damaso | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/five-minus-three-is-two-fernando-damaso/