By Benjamin Noria
HAVANA TIMES – For a few weeks now, opinions have been disseminated and sought on a new draft Public Health Law in Cuba. The content of this law is equally advanced as was achieved in the Family Code, despite occurring in a third world country.
Well, now, I ask myself a question: does the Cuban government have an interest in developing advanced health and family laws for the country and yet there is no interest in developing advanced laws that serve to lift the economy?
All the time the government talks about Cuba being a poor and beleaguered country. Luxembourg, for example, is three times smaller than Cuba and has no access to the sea, it was taken by the Nazis during the First World War and was also governed during the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte; However, it currently has one of the highest per capita incomes in Europe.
Singapore is another country that is four times smaller than Cuba, it was also subject to several empires and is currently the country with the highest GDP per capita in the world, a tax haven, and the highest welfare state.
The Cuban government always sees itself as a victim of harassment from the United States, and supposedly because of the embargo (called a blockade) it imposes Cuba has not been able to develop economically.
Some time ago I read a book in which it is stated that the human being is the only animal that first had to think to then be able to eat. Let me explain: for example, a cat, an elephant, or a lion does not need to be taught what type of food it can eat, or when to mate, or how to make a nest. This is not the case of humans who, lacking natural laws to live in society, had to think of other rules for having sex, using cutlery during meals, inventing clothes to cover their bodies, etc.
What is my intention in saying this? Why does the Cuban government want the ability to think? How is it possible that other smaller and disadvantaged countries are more prosperous than Cuba? What needs to happen for them to get to work on the economic development of the country?
I also read in another book that countries with dictatorships have three pillars: 1- Possessing a martyr, 2- An imaginary enemy, 3- A common ideology. In Cuba the martyr is Jose Marti, the imaginary enemy is the United States and the ideology is Marxist-Leninist.
This is their problem: until they are willing to change the schemes, to abandon conservatism, to allow a free market economy, freedom of creation and private initiative, no change will be possible in Cuba.
They must stop playing victims of the imaginary enemy and take action. Human actions are what count. If the Cuban government does nothing, nothing will happen, we will continue like this for 65 more years of revolution.
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