A Bill to Penalize Acts of Repudiation

Cuba: A Bill to Penalize Acts of Repudiation / Juan Juan Almeida
Posted on May 1, 2015

To guarantee the prevalence of solidarity and respect, a bill is
urgently needed that would penalize acts of repudiation, and hold their
perpetrators and accomplices criminally responsible.

Help me to promote this bill.

A Bill to Penalize Acts of Repudiation in Cuba

By Juan Juan Almeida

To guarantee the prevalence of solidarity and respect, a bill is
urgently needed that would penalize acts of repudiation, and demand
their perpetrators and accomplices be held criminally responsible.

We Cubans are living through an unequivocal social collapse and loss of
values that we should, for the benefit of all, reverse. The Government
bears much blame for this phenomenon that underlies civic conduct.
Perhaps it thought that it was doing enough by providing us the
opportunity for suitable professional advancement, and upon decreeing
that good manners were a petit bourgeois vestige, created the "anti-value."

It is true, although somewhat belatedly, that the Catholic Church plays
an important role in reversing the process of moral degradation, and as
of a few months back, Cuban television has been insistently broadcasting
messages related to social education. This is commendable, but not
enough – and to carry out such a campaign seems cynical and ironic to
when in fact stupidity and rudeness are promoted and rewarded.

It seems contradictory that in Cuba, where the levels of instruction are
decidedly elevated, formal education should be absolutely fractured and
undervalued by the authorities.

What type of good behavior can be imparted to a child who is party to
the impunity of someone who, without any legitimate reason, inflicts
violence on his equals, or attacks others' dignity and physical
integrity, causing injuries with anatomical, physical and/or mental
consequences?

We are a passionate people. I understand the urge to earnestly defend
certain convictions, and that, under current circumstances, the
government needs to display its superiority and control. But the
ignominious act of repudiation is a form a discrimination that seeks to
persecute, harass and exert the domination of one social group over
another. It is the vulgarization of discord and a daily erosion of
social mechanisms.

How many times have we not seen how a group of persons – immune to the
law, but operating outside the cases authorized by the law – by
employing violence, force and even intimidation, enter others' homes
without spoken or unspoken permission of its residents? The Internet is
full of examples.

At this point, it is impossible to achieve good forms of conduct, and
incorporate social courtesy in the Cuban temperament, without first
penalizing similar behaviors that endanger community stability and
social relations.

Today, to guarantee the prevalence of solidarity and respect, a bill is
urgently needed that would penalize acts of repudiation, holding their
perpetrators and accomplices criminally responsible. Sanctions would
extend from prohibiting the frequenting of certain locations;
prohibiting the practice of a given profession, charge or office;
warnings; fines; limitation of freedom; correctional work with or
without internment; up to incarceration – depending on the level of
social dangerousness of the committed act, its circumstances and
consequences, as well as any prior criminal record, recidivism and/or
multiple repeat acts of the "repudiators" implicated in such intolerable
outbursts of rage and violence.

Society belongs to all of us, equally. To promote a bill of this nature
is not to confront the State, it does not undermine any of its
inefficient institutions, it does not inflame anybody. It is merely a
civic and civilized way to encourage respectful coexistence among Cubans
– because when social distress signals are so clearly seen, it is
everyone's responsibility to pay attention and act.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Source: Cuba: A Bill to Penalize Acts of Repudiation / Juan Juan Almeida
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