IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH | Page 10

The dust from that fallout has brought us to today’s
muck: one need not be even semi-intelligent to figure
that out. While corruption in other systems tends to
function as an outgrowth, here it is organic, takes the
place of work and its natural agent—economic efficiency—simply because work has lost its primary
function as a producer of goods, either for individuals
or a group. It has become the paradoxical cause of all
losses.
That very sordid way of trivializing corruption, of
making a corrupt act a kind of unavoidable light at the
end of a tunnel, because it is key to survival, is what
everyday Cubans are inheriting from the Revolution
today. Seen this way—and that’s just how it is—it is
wrong to take note of the number of functionaries, administrators and even ministers that are replaced to
conclude that at the present time this government is
waging a successful campaign against corruption.
There is no other more convincing way to more or less
gain control over corrupt practices than to resort to
radically changing our political structures and the direction the system plots for our economy—because
this scourge is now part of our nature and a new tradition. Any other actions are just a set-up for the gullible.
He had to be black
Otherwise, the way in which the case of the Economic
Sub-Director of Communal Services of Old Havana
has been publicly exposed once again reveals h ow the
dominant oligarchy not only subjugates the masses via
repressive methods, just as in colonial times, but also
manipulates them by subtly manipulating their minds
and even subconscious.
This is why we can feel nothing but mistrust when we
see this person, because he is presented to us as a prototype of administrative corruption, and presents himself before the cameras as a shameless lowlife lacking
any modicum of modesty or self-respect. Upon seeing
him, many say: “He had to be black,” which not only
confirms the fabled, ideological notion of the hegemonic caste’s superiority (it is white and distinguished), but also causes slippage in society’s mechanism for cultural domination through dual, racist and
classist discrimination. This reaffirms the maxim that
says “it matters little if all birds eat rice because it’s
always the blackbird’s fault” (approximately, ‘When
a dove associates with crows its feathers remain white
but its heart grows black” or “all crows are black’).
If things continue as they are, we will keep seeing
nothing wrong with supreme, political and military

leaders living large, beyond good or evil, beyond the
reach of any control, rule or law, while the underdogs
remain subjected to their abusive legislation, as well
as to the (diabolic) combination of said legislation and
their humiliating and prejudiced interpretation of it.
Just one example of many is the notion of so-called
“pre-criminal social dangerousness” in the Penal
Code, which according to them, should function as a
regulator of dangerous behaviors for society. Yet, everyday people think and say something quite different;
what they say is that it is really a legal mechanism designed to keep people, particularly blacks and people
opposed to the government, in line. Worse yet, this
bad legislation has been strengthened recently with the
8.3 modification of the Penal Code, euphemistically
called “moral conviction;” it was created to make it
easier for the police and courts to indiscriminately decide if someone is guilty, even if there is no evidence
against him or her to prove it.
Briefly, if someone is arrested under a charge of ‘dangerousness,’ he or she knows that he or she may remain legally behind bars (a cave, despite its being registered under the Penal Code) for hours, days or years.
If there is a trial, no witnesses or defense attorneys, or
detailed investigations about the “crime” are needed.
The fact is that to be considered legally ‘dangerous’ in
Cuba it is more than enough for any insignificant regime representative to consider one ‘dangerous.’
By now, hundreds of thousands of people must have
gone to prison after being accused of being “socially
dangerous”; it is an ideal way to keep them behind
bars because they oppose the government, but not
count them among the statistics for political prisoners.
It is precisely oppositionists and blacks who constitute
the greatest source of prime material for the increased
harvest of ‘dangerousness’—both simply for being
what and who they are.
It would suffice to compare this arbitrary, cruel and
totally unjust treatment with that generally doled out
to highly corrupt, white-collar criminals who illegally
enrich themselves in full view of all. In addition, we
are not even talking about the highest regime leaders;
those who don’t even need to steal according to common practice, because they are opulent and have too
much of everything in the midst of the greatest economic and moral debacle endured in Cuba since colonial times.
Note:
1- Web page of the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba [Union of Writers and Artists of

Cuba] (UNEAC), April 2013

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