The Ostrich Syndrome

The Ostrich Syndrome / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar
Posted on November 17, 2015

A group of Cuban immigrants block the Interamerican Highway at the
border between Costa Rica and Panama in protest at being held. (Alvaro
Sanchez / courtesy / El Nuevo Herald)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 17 November 2015 — Like the ostrich
who buries his head in the sand so as not to see what terrifies or
disgusts him, the Cuban government and official media have refused to
recognize the plight of thousands of compatriots stranded at the borders
of Central America. Single men and women, families with children,
workers, peasants, students, Cubans all, are attacked by immigration
authorities, exploited by human traffickers, and punished by a nature
they don't know, in their desire to emigrate to the North.

Not a single statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no comments
in the Communist Party's provincial meetings, not one clarification from
a delegate in the Accountability Assemblies of People's Power. Not even
on radio, television or the nationally circulating digital media has
there been any mention of the issue.

However, in the street everyone is talking about it because they hear
about it on foreign radio broadcasts, despite the interference, they see
it through prohibited and persecuted satellite dishes, or they hear of
it by using anonymous proxies to access the internet sites so
delightedly blocked by the soldiers of information. In the most dramatic
cases, they learn about it first hand, because they have a relative or
friend suffering through it.

Cuba is bleeding into an uncontrollable migratory hemorrhage, but
listening to officials and official journalists gives the impression
that this is the country's least important problem. The speeches follow
a script drafted from above and focus on demanding more discipline and a
high level of command and control. Inspectors go to stores and count the
inventory to the last nail, checking for missing or diverted resources,
but fail to note the thousands of employees who leave the island each
year, be they warehouse workers or inspectors.

The nation's expanding desire to leave appears to be of no importance
nor cause any pain according to the government's rhetoric. It is as if
there is no interest in the fate of those who launch themselves on the
sea or put themselves in the hands of coyotes, leaving everything
behind: their professions, property, part of their family, promises of
love, debts…

We are becoming a plague issuing from a country that boasts of
its healthcare services. We are rejected, disdained, in airports and at
border crossings despite our reputation as a sympathetic and friendly
people that took us centuries to craft. This new scum* that has leapt
from the oven, from the "crucible of the Revolution," does not want to
melt in the mold where they try to tame its nature. In Cuba there is no
war, as in Syria, no famine like that of some African countries, only
the fear that with improved relations with the United States the
privileges awarded by the so-called Cuban Adjustment Act will be eliminated.

In the same way that parents do not divorce their children, States
should not lose interest in what happens to their citizens, before whom
they have duties, some of which are not even promulgated in laws or
articulated in the Constitution. Worse still is the silence of the
media, gagged by the same old culture of secrecy. The ostrich buries its
head in the sand from cowardice, but its wings are too short to cover
the eyes and ears of others.

*Translator's note: During the Mariel Boatlift Fidel Castro said "let
the scum (escoria) go."

Source: The Ostrich Syndrome / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-ostrich-syndrome-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/