From Failure to Failure / Fernando Dámaso

From Failure to Failure / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

According to the latest official figures, the 2011-2012 sugar harvest
(still unfinished) will amount to only 1.4 million tons, similar to that
of the year 1895 in the 19th century, when the War of Independence
against Spanish rule began. It doesn't seem like 117 years have passed!
In other economic lines the failures, like the sorrows of the popular
song, also crowd in: in the production of milk, beef, pork, vegetables,
fruit, etc. It's better not even to mention fish — we apparently live in
a landlocked territory and not in an archipelago.

Much of the unproductive land of the state farms is full of maribou
weed, and continues to be unproductive and full of marabou weed in hope
of some decision from on high that will require it to be turned over to
the campesinos, even if it is only for their exclusive use and not
ownership (beggars can't be choosers!). And the stockpile (also
state-owned) of agricultural products continued from bad to worse. The
sale of building materials to the populace, to repair their homes,
cannot keep up with demand, and is also a breeding ground for
lawlessness and corruption, which prevails in many areas of society,
despite the unleashed persecution and repression, because they do not
attack the root causes — low wages in national currency, which do not
meet the minimum needs for survival.

In the so-called hard-currency stores the shortage of basic commodities
is striking, revealed by shelves either completely empty or with just a
few exotic items, which nobody buys because of their high prices. To
tighten the citizens' belts even further, the new customs regulations
that will be implemented soon (the date is constantly changing)
eliminate the exemption for food products that they enjoyed in recent
years. Now they are included in the maximum weight that will be allowed
to enter. In the often repeated words of that sage Bobo de Batabanó: "We
were few and Catana gave birth!"

The few measures taken, authorizing with limitations what should never
have been prohibited (buying and selling homes and vehicles, small
private businesses, some self-employed trades, etc.), have no direct
impact on the causes of the national economic crisis, as they relate
mainly to the area of services and not to production.

Despite the speeches, official statements, articles in the press, and
the triumphalism of the news, both television and radio, this truly
serious situation is very difficult to conceal from the eyes of the
population, who have to suffer daily.

Because of this, it is noteworthy that they dedicate so much time and
space to criticizing the little that the President of the United States
(our eternal enemy) has done in his nearly four years in office, without
saying anything about our four. Four years is equivalent, in most of the
democratic countries, to a full presidential term. So far no visible,
real, or stable results have appeared anywhere, nor can the beginning of
any solution to our long crisis be felt. While updating "the model" and
repeating each of the "guidelines," chapter and verse, until boredom
sets in, we are moving backwards, like the crab. Perhaps that is the new
way forward in the socialism of the 21st century, and I am showing my
economic illiteracy! Anyway, the tunnel is as dark as before, without
any light visible, and time passes inexorably.

June 6 2012

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