Cuba’s New Post-Revolutionary Elites

Cuba's New Post-Revolutionary Elites
November 3, 2014
Martin Guevara

HAVANA TIMES — Now that Cuba has decided to definitively (though
surreptitiously) change its social model and the structure and
foundations of its economy, and the novel figure of the national
entrepreneur, stemming from current hierarchies and the corporate
parameters to be established by these, will soon begin to flourish on
the island, it would be convenient to reflect on the nature of these
soon-to-be nouveaux riches, whose precursors we've seen in the Soviet
Union's metamorphosis into the Russian Federation, as well as in East
Europe, Vietnam and, more recently and paradigmatically, in that
millennia-old giant, China.

The new entrepreneurs that emerge in post-communist societies are
characterized by a series of common features. These entrepreneurs:

-Are more fond of merciless competition than those educated in market
economies, though they may be less prepared to actually take on such
competition.

-Are unbelieving types who have renounced all ideologies, religions or
philosophies that proclaim modes of conduct based on moral principles.

-Are atheists and agnostics who suspect even their own indoctrination.

The feel that, since they have paid for their food, they must eat until
they are about to burst. At one point in their lives, entrepreneurs
trained in market societies may experience a longing for something
spiritual in their lives. They may go as far as rethinking what they
have done at different points, in those moments of reflection that
characterize the life of a human being.

The new entrepreneurs, educated under the obliged slogans of social
equality, on the contrary, tend to reflect upon and review their actions
in the opposite direction, reproach themselves for futile expenditures
of energy and conclude that it is time to use them for their own
benefit, that they ought not waste another minute considering the old,
deceitful slogans or sterile utopias.

These businesspeople consider the everyday hypocrisy of the traditional
rich, deployed to balance out their guilt, a simple waste of time.

They do not ask for permission or forgiveness, nor do they show
gratitude. They simply pay.

For this new class, boasting of one's wealth is a healthy sign of good
taste.

They do not understand philanthropy or the patronage of the arts. They
detest art but spend large sums of money on paintings and sculptures
that can be resold at a higher price.

They are direct, sincere, uncomplicated, rough and devoid of any depth.
They make obscenely rich the manufacturers of all distinctive items of
bad taste that characterizes the nouveux riche.

Their clothes show an astonishing lack of taste and, running traffic
lights in their urban yachts, made and painted exclusively for them,
they are simply incapable of understanding why anyone would consider a
gray Rolls Royce a sign of distinction.

All the while, they shamelessly let others know that their powerful
parents shielded them as much as possible from those slogans that put to
sleep and bound an entire nation for over half a century, changing their
rhetoric (but never their habits) as they become used to uncorking
expensive champagne bottles. Most swing back the bottle, while some use
cups, mixing the champagne with some ice cubes.

Source: Cuba's New Post-Revolutionary Elites - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=107079