Understanding Another Reality

Understanding Another Reality / Fernando Damaso
Posted on August 14, 2013

Cuba's state-run press has been commenting on the protests by students
in Chile and their demands for free education. Not surprisingly, it has
used these protests to generate propaganda extolling the benefits of
Cuba's own form of free education. I have no intention of reiterating
the well-known and long-standing deficiencies in the Cuban education
system, or for that matter in the healthcare system, both of which have
been funded by subsidies, first from the former Soviet Union and later
from Venezuela, courtesy of Hugo Chavez. Instead, I would like to
imagine what "the morning after" might be, with some personal
considerations in mind.

In spite of the economic difficulties it would entail, I believe that
the new Cuban state would be obligated to guarantee that both education
as well as healthcare remain free to all citizens, which logically
should be of better quality than the systems currently in place. To
realistically deal with the associated costs, it will also have to allow
for the existence in both sectors of private institutions for those who
have the financial resources and the inclination to make use of them.

The false and demagogic egalitarianism underlying both of these
cost-free systems is in reality based solely on a shared misery endured
by most of the population even as the differences between one citizen
and another becomes increasingly evident every day. On the morning after
— no matter how quickly it comes — these differences will be even
greater, a result of "updating the model" and the "change" that will
ultimately occur in any event.

We will have to confront it with our feet planted firmly on the ground
and without unreal utopian visions. Undoubtedly, free state institutions
will co-exist alongside private ones, as they do in most countries.
Citizens will choose to access one or the other based on their own
economic conditions and personal preferences. The false concept of the
patriarchal state which controls, guarantees and decides everything has,
after fifty-four years, been roundly proven to be a failure. It must
fade away and be replaced by a modern, democratic state — one marked by
economic efficiency and social justice — whose potential will be
determined by the nation's wealth, which will be the product of the
initiative and hard work of all its citizens.

13 August 2013

Source: "Understanding Another Reality / Fernando Damaso | Translating
Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/understanding-another-reality-fernando-damaso/