Neither so Educated nor so Superior

Neither so Educated nor so Superior / Miriam Celaya
Posted on May 14, 2013

HAVANA, Cuba, May, www.cubanet.org- I've heard it said that hunger can
affect vision permanently. For a while, I thought that this sentence was
just a popular myth based on superstition, however, it turns out to be
absolutely true. Hunger and other deficiencies cause, additionally, some
distortions, such as lack of perception of reality and total lack of
perspective.

This explains why, for many "inside" Cubans, almost everything is
irrelevant and nothing transcends beyond the narrow confines of daily
survival. Decades of material shortages and of totalitarianism have
ruined the ability of a large segment of the population of the island to
discern, despite the high levels of instruction exhibited by official
statistics, turning subjects into slaves of their own elementary needs.

An example of this was the recent electoral process in Venezuela which
showed, by comparison, how far we Cubans are from even reaching the
first step of this difficult stairway filled with obstacles called
democracy. While Venezuelans offered us a true example of civility by
exercising their right to vote and to assert the power of suffrage — an
unknown experience for millions of Cubans — the main concern of people
on the island was the possibility of the start of a new era of blackouts
and a new "Special Period" if the opposition candidate, Henrique
Capriles, won. Paradoxically, many Cubans refer to Venezuelans as
"crude," "illiterate" and "ignorant."

The combined action of the monopoly of information and direction, the
lack of freedom of association and the manipulation of the press have
been three basic mainstays which — together with the material
precariousness of survival — have plunged the Cuban population in a deep
ignorance that does not reflect the benign statistics. The Cuban case
demonstrates exactly how the use of statistics has allowed the
government to misinform the population and feed the national vanity. The
farce, often repeated, has spread alarmingly, to the point that even
many prestigious international organizations have recognized the
"achievements" of the revolution in education and health and other
indicators of social development.

The numbers, however, are fickle, and mask a reality very different than
the image they project. Decades of incomplete, distorted and biased
information have resulted in only a minority of Cubans possessing the
ability to analyze issues related to politics, economics, or any event
occurring in the world. The "masses," meanwhile, form opinions from
indoctrination and emotions… when they form opinions. Usually, the
standard displayed among people faced with any matter not related to
their daily subsistence is limited to an apathetic shrug of the shoulders.

The indifference and ignorance grow, while each year the statistics are
more triumphant and less reliable. Let's take the case of the training
of doctors and other health specialists. The graduations are massive,
but the quality of the graduates is generally very low. The levels of
professionalism are often extremely poor and only a few dozen will stand
out amid thousands of new doctors and technical personnel in each group.

The same applies to general education. Officially, it is stated that
there is a teacher in every classroom, which is a lie. However, the
worst thing is that there are hardly any teachers able to educate and
instruct students, so both, the levels and the quality of education have
declined dramatically over the years, particularly since the 90′s.

The proverbial ignorance of many of these "teachers," coupled with their
failure to educate, has forced parents to search for alternative
solutions, such as hiring "tutors," teachers who have been generally
separated from the formal education system due to terrible wages and
deplorable working conditions, and now teach in private education. This
option has proven the effectiveness the official system lacks, and is
marking a major schism among students whose parents can afford the
expense of hiring the services of a private teacher and those who must
make do with the meager knowledge they receive in classrooms.

But, in the meantime, the numbers and the official press continue out
there. The statistics support the government fanfare about the
advantages of the Cuban system, yet deceive public opinion by
distorting, at the same time, society's general opinion. The media
revels, jubilant, in the advantages of the system. Perhaps this explains
why Cubans see themselves as highly educated and intellectually superior
to many other people in the region. Another deceit that, in some way,
constitutes a small consolation after half a century of dictatorship
that has erased the memory of a nation's population.

Translated by Norma Whiting

10 May 2013

http://translatingcuba.com/neither-so-educated-nor-so-superior-miriam-celaya/