Too Many Experiments — Part 1 / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso
Those who read what was published in the official press, on the recently
concluded Ninth Regular Session of the Seventh Legislature of the
National Assembly of People’s Power (the name gets it done), may have
noticed that the most word used is “experiment“: it approved a policy to
create experimental cooperatives in non-agricultural activities; it
authorized the application of leasing to food service establishments
that employ up to five workers (which is already being experimented with
in barber shops, beauty salons, shoe repairs and other places); it
selected a group of business organizations to undertake experiments
aimed at providing them autonomy; and addressed… experimental policies
for the commercialization of agricultural products in the provinces of
Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque; experimental formulas for the production
of food; continued the experiment in the provinces of Artemis and
Mayabeque to delineate functions between the assembly and provincial
councils and municipal administration.
To deny the importance of experimentation before applying it in some
generalized form, would be a mistake. However, we can not spend our
lives experimenting. If someone suggested these experiments were a
government about to come to power, without experience, perhaps one could
concede a vote of confidence, but not for the same government to
experiment for more than fifty-three years (most of which failed) and,
for the sake of them sacrifice almost four generations of Cuba.
A country is not a laboratory or a research center to test formulas that
are supposed to solve long-term national problems.Too much time has been
lost in experiments, which, incidentally, have always been applied
widely throughout the country since the inception of this government,
with devastating effects.
There is no need to invent warm water, without using experience and
known formulas, which have been proven over the years and which still
demonstrate their effectiveness. We have Brazil, Chile, India, South
Korea, Japan, South Africa, China, Vietnam, Russia and most of the
countries that were part of the former socialist camp, as examples.
We must not forget either that fifty years ago most Latin American
countries were more backward than Cuba, and today it is the opposite:
the foremost in leading economic indicators and even in some social
indicators. To bet yet again on the so-called socialist economy (failed
everywhere) and the socialist enterprise (also failed), is to insist on
backing a losing horse.
Many meetings could be organized, hundreds of speeches delivered and
dozens of experiments performed, and until our authorities leave behind
their ancestral atavism, more ideological than rational, there will be
no solution to the crisis, no solution to existing problems, nor will
the country go down the right path towards progress and satisfaction of
the always growing needs of its citizens.
July 26 2012
http://translatingcuba.com/too-many-experiments-part-1-fernando-dmaso/
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