“It leaves musicians without work, but bureaucrats continue,” laments Silvio Rodríguez

Silvio Rodríguez, one of the most international scouts of the Revolution, has long turned his Segunda Cita blog into a place from which he provokes intense debates based on his critical comments against certain government decisions.

In addition to defending the regime, the troubadour did not hesitate to attack the authorities on several specific occasions, such as the withdrawal of the press accreditation of Uruguayan journalist Fernando Ravsberg, the repression of the LGBTI march in 2019 in Havana or even the inclusion Radio Progress on a blacklist.

Since the beginning of the year, the newspaper online of the musician boils intensely against the task of ordering and moves economic debates in which his followers do not shy away from denouncing the errors or negligence of the authorities. Rodríguez has already published three texts so far this year in which he criticizes the way in which decisions have been taken by the governing body and in which he pleads, very clearly, to give a boost to small private companies.

“Some of our ‘heights’ are very afraid that people will prosper, make money, become a force with their own opinions and endanger the established distribution of power.”

“Some of our” heights “are very afraid that people will prosper, make money, become a force with their own opinions and endanger the established distribution of power,” says the musician himself. “Most economists complain that, in parallel with the latest measures, SMEs should have been authorized and strengthened in the private sector (I have always said that they must be complicit, I think there can be many),” but “that no one touches anything, I can only touch” seem to reject this. “Fear of losing the pile,” some say.

This is how strong it is in the middle of a string of over 240 comments to post in which he reproduces an article by the writer and journalist Giordan Rodríguez Milanés, in the orbit of the ruling party until his departure from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac), entitled The unfinished drama of X and the Cuban state. In the text, he talks about the impotence of many artists who become self-employed as a result of the ordinance, which leaves them out of some rights that state workers have, even if they spent their lives paying the state to represent them.

Dozens of troubadour supporters took advantage of the message to protest to the point of outrage against government policies they consider wrong, starting with Silvio Rodríguez himself, who has no hesitation in saying, “He leaves musicians without work, but all bureaucrats they are still in their offices ”.

Although there are many people who easily agree or claim that there are countries where workers are worse off, the author of the text intervenes to continue to express his views and responds that in Cuba the people have been taught that the state and its leaders think and decide for him while the money was distributed, accustoming him to live without taking into account the costs of those gratuities.

The debate is also open to monopolies, with interventions stating that competition would improve the quality of supply. “The only way to improve the quality of bread is for people to buy a better bread for 1 peso. Not even thousands of sterile or corrupt audits or controls will make Cuban bakers make you better bread for 30 consecutive days.” adds a follower of the singer-songwriter.

Another points out: “By 2020, the state has financed the inefficiency of the state company. Starting with 2021, the state decides not to do it and make those resources available to the population directly by increasing its revenues. But the state company, with its controls almost monopolistic in most of its activities, it has chosen to seek a new form of financing its inefficiency (and beware! because inefficiency almost always masks corruption at various levels) through indiscriminate price increases. “

“What am I going to buy myself?” (…) Where will I buy it? This was because almost everything was closed and what was open had nothing to sell. Will it be part of the Ordinance? Will it be temporary or permanent? “

“As long as the productive forces are not released by allowing the creation of small and medium enterprises and prices are controlled by themselves through competition, business inefficiency will not disappear, productivity will not increase and more wealth will not be generated,” he added. another one.

High prices or quality is not the only thing that stands out in the countless comments on the blog of the former champion of the regime. The absence of products also entered the debate: “What will I buy? (…) Where will I buy it? This was because almost everything was closed, and what was open had nothing to sell. Is this part of the ordinance? Will it be temporary or permanent? “

The author of the original text is relentless in his views contrary to the authorities in the comments to his own article, in which he interacts to respond to those who shyly defend the way in which the Government developed the Order of Activity. After a long tirade of outraged statements, he ends his message with these words: “I’d better leave him here and not go. I’m unbalanced for the internet again. Go, distinguished comrades: keep destroying the country.”

After this message, Rodríguez returned to liven up the debate with a new one post, released on Sunday. In this case, the article is by sociologist Ricardo J. Machado and is entitled The order of tasks versus reality? Here, the author apologizes for the mistakes made in implementing the process, for the difficulties involved and urges the Government to listen very carefully to the requests of the population to rectify as they go. But it does not profile itself when it comes to alerting to serious repercussions if it does not open its hand to small private parties.

“We must tie the hands of the bureaucracy and not allow a parallel government to do its job. The Eighth Congress of the CCP will have the floor. It could be the last.”

According to Machado, the government must implement a reform that gives impetus to SMEs, flexibility in cooperative management and “the long-awaited autonomy of state-owned companies that the bureaucracy will try to sabotage.” And he continues: “Murillo states that the number of state-owned companies that could fail is about 450. In my experience, it would be double, almost reaching a thousand. The lack of managerial training and mental numbness of many of our entrepreneurs, as a result of Almost 60 years of authoritarian vertical structure, is very difficult to overcome in the short term. “

In addition, the author makes a serious warning at the end of the text: “We must tie the hands of the bureaucracy and not allow a parallel government to do its job. The Eighth Congress of the CCP will have the floor. It could be the last.”

Rodríguez, less detailed in his comments on this post, took advantage of the publication to convey the text message of a pensioner who can not afford the cost of electricity and calls on the Government to pay attention. In addition, he did not miss the opportunity to respond to the text discreetly but clearly: “I can not understand how this problem has not been resolved, based on the phrase repeated a thousand times of” think as a country “, which I dare to raise to another category “think as a nation or as a country”.

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