Too Many Experiments — Part 1

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

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