Forward Flight

Forward Flight / Rafael Leon Rodriguez
Rafael Leon Rodriguez, Translator: @hachhe

In recent days Havana has stood out as venue of countless events, most
of them of an international nature and assorted disciplines.
International Labiofam Congress 2012; International Law Congress 2012;
VII Course on Tools of Control and Prevention Against Administrative
Corruption; Orthopedics Congress 2012; Nanosciencie and Nanotechnolgy IV
International Seminar, among others. The titles themselves give a
feeling of development and resolution in the diversity of subjects and
plans for the future. How far from the daily Cuban society! It seems
like another Cuba, a virtual one, that only exist for a privileged
group, the palace court and company guests.

Nothing to do with the real Cuba, which despite being an small country
with 11.2 million inhabitants has the fifth largest prison population in
the world in relation to the number of individuals. The one where each
citizen's share of the national debt is valued at six thousand dollars,
owed to a group that includes Paris, Russia, China, and who knows how
many more countries, whom the Cuban government owes, on balance, the
ballpark figure of sixty billion dollars.

The country that is aging at such a pace that it is predicted that by
2035 a third of its population will be over 60 years old. The one where
the workers earn miserable salaries not exceeding twenty dollars a month
on average, in a dollarized economy. The one where retired men and women
are forced to survive through all kinds of tricks to eat and dress
badly. The one with a two million person diaspora that grows
exorbitantly. The impoverished Cuba that has been exhausted of wealth
along with its dreams and hope.

The heirs of the new class seem to behave as if in forward flight, to
ignore the sad reality of this island anchored in the past. Convinced of
the powers and privileges inherent to their lineage, they flaunt plans,
capacities and projects. Meanwhile, the gap continues to widen between
them and the majority of citizens, who trapped in the trick of a single
party system and the negation of their fundamental human rights, as set
out in the United Nations Covenants on civil and political rights and on
economic, social and cultural rights, confirm that there can't be any
communion with the oppression.

Translated by: @hachhe

October 2 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/forward-flight-rafael-leon-rodriguez/