On Corsairs and Pirates

 

F de Corsarios

 

A slave is a man who works for another who holds control of him, and in that socialist system the community would dominate man, who would then render all his work to the community. And as public officials are human beings and, therefore, abusive, proud and ambitious, and would wield great power in that organization, abetted by all those who would take advantage or would hope to take advantage of the abuses, and by those vile forces that always prowl among the oppressed, the terror, prestige or cunning of those who rule, this system of official distribution of common labor would in a short time suffer from the grief, violence, thefts and distortions that the spirit of individuality, the austerity and the daring of genius and the wiliness of vice soon and fatally create in any human organization.

José Martí

 

 

By David George

While the Cuban regime gives shrieks of terror at the “Obama” saga, and fades in the attempt to curb the rising tide of discontent becoming more evident in the streets of the country, another dark enemy with sharper hook continues hanging around, tearing down its caravel which sails already with an ataxic course: Corruption.

Despite the veil and lack of clarity as a constant when addressing the issue, it was recently publicly acknowledged with alarming numbers, the internal lack of control and poor economic mechanism in more than half (58 %) of the audited state entities. Phenomenon that seems to be recycling itself like an unstoppable surge despite the much vaunted “fight against corruption, crime and illegalities”, for which the Office of the General Comptrollership of the Republic was created at the time, as a life vest which indeed little has been able to do in order to appease the storms in a system that seems like tailored to promote and generate this scourge as endemic defect of the regime. In a country where who is not guilty is then complicit, as the only means of subsistence inspired in an ascending lifestyle of more than one “Gulliver”.

What turns out to be paradoxical is that those offenders –the few that have been reported by the media– are not dissidents, opponents, or salaried of the Empire, isn’t none of those who now promote a change and denounce those very vices in a direct manner, without facades, and against which the repressive apparatus itself is well oiled.

On the contrary, state companies managers, public employees (at all levels without even being recognized), relatives of senior leaders and themselves, almost all members of the exemplary PCC (Cuban Communist Party), the very ones who shout the “down with the worms”, which are always present in the stands of slogans, those involved in “acts of repudiation” which they rather for themselves deserve, those who show the equality of their shoes while masking a wooden leg behind the proclamation of being revolutionary… Those are the corrupt ones: who “explode North direction”, sinking themselves here but staying afloat there.

Nevertheless, the fight against those, the real enemies of any nation still remains a mystery on the island without treasure. The tame press prefers to put the blame on an ordinary street vendor rather than rebuking a minister. The fog on that sea does not dissipate, the fault of some helmsman gets always disguised like avoiding splashing the mainmast, whereas the ruffians, like corsairs, grab the booty. The State, as old pirate, puts on a patch in one of the eyes alternating to the most convenient side.

So, year after year, we get already used over time, like scammed sailors after each national test, to hear like buccaneer shout, that old harangue which against the filibuster fallen in disgrace invites to strike sail saying anew: ALL ABORD!

 

 

Translated by: Yuseff Rodriguez

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