Other Lost Traditions

Other Lost Traditions / Fernando Damaso
Posted on September 21, 2013

Importing traditions (the circus of the yellow ribbons* is one example)
seems to be the fashion, with the goal of entertaining the public,
despite great governmental dedication and the poor treatment of the
citizens, with respect to the spectacle mounted on 12 September.*

If it's about traditions, instead of importing them, it would be
convenient if the authorities restored some of the democratic ones that
existed during the fifty-six years of the Republic, which were abolished
at the stroke of a pen.

I will not dwell on the festivals and the line, which are also worthy,
but those in another group, within which we can cite: the right to
freely express opinions, and to make them available in the corresponding
organs of the press; to elect the president of the country and his
counterparts in the provinces and municipalities, through a direct vote
of the citizens, in elections where candidates from different parties
compete; to all the free development of private initiative, without
medieval laws or regulations, which present obstacles and impediments;
to facilitate free access to information for all citizens; for parents
to be able to decide which school — public or private — they want to
educate their children; to respect differences of all kinds; to
decriminalize wealth; to let the provincial and municipal organs of
power possess real power to solve the problems of their communities, and
to stop being mere appendages of the central power; to let the unions
respond to the interests of the workers and not to those of the Party,
the government and the administration; to let social organizations
multiply and for belonging to them to be truly voluntary, according to
the interests and desires of each person.

There are many other democratic traditions that also should be restored,
but those mentioned are enough.

If this were to happen, which seems almost impossible currently, then
perhaps we could start to believe in the good intentions of the
government to resolve the problems of the Nation.

*Translator's note: Fernando is referring to the "circus" around the
government's decision to drape Cuba in yellow ribbons — an American
tradition but not a Cuban one — to demand the release of the four
remaining spies in prison in the US, and the dance party mounted at the
"Protestdrome" on September 12, in support of this objective.

19 September 2013

Source: "Other Lost Traditions / Fernando Damaso | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/other-lost-traditions-fernando-damaso/