Agricultural workers wanted

Cuba: Agricultural workers wanted
de Jorge Olivera Castillo Sindical Press
Marţi, 2 iunie 2009, 15:29

They prefer designer trainers and firm steps on paved roads. The
countryside is a distant phenomenon, a frozen image which has lost all
its splendour and is stored somewhere on the back shelves of their memory.

A mattock, a rake, a yoke of oxen, a straw hat, country boots and the
burning midday sun…but all this is old history, something that the
current younger generations find too common and tasteless.

Any willingness to work the land, such as sowing fields and harvesting
crops, is greeted by an enormous flood of apathy, which threatens to
break through the dikes that still miraculously protect our country from
utter devastation.

Proposals suggesting that young people could return to the country are
usually met with annoyed faces and with reactions that clearly express
their strong dislike for the idea: "Have you gone mad?" Although many
people opt for a more discreet form of rejecting this possibility, deep
inside they all strongly wish to pronounce those four words which
perfectly depict their flat out refusal to work on farms.

After several steps in the wrong direction, which were attempts to
change the social-economic environment, the Cuban Government is now
seeking for a way back. In the past, the leadership insisted on an
absurd program of industrialization, which favoured urban growth at the
expense of rural development. However, their projects, which failed to
bring about any sustainable results in agriculture, started from a false
premise as to the real possibilities of our country.

It was a big foolish mistake to adopt special decrees and other harmful
instruments, which would force millions of young people to schools,
which neither took into consideration their vocational profile, nor the
criteria which the students have to meet in order to succeed in their
field. The revolution has produced a great many doctors, scientists,
engineers and scholars, but for some reason the Government given so
little importance to farmers and has undervalued their role in the society.

The lack of balance that exists today is a direct result of the fact
that while running the country our Government has been applying the same
methods as the ones used by sergeants to control their infantry squads.

Instead of good sense and hope, the massive dimension of the project and
the virus of the revolution have seeded thunder. Now as the storms are
growing stronger, their weather forecasts only dare to provide very
general information, which try to conceal all of the negative
implications that might end in an apocalypse.

The possibility that young people could improve country statistics is
unthinkable. According to official figures, they only account for 6% of
the overall labour force engaged in agriculture.

I doubt that their percentage will reach double digits in the upcoming
years, unless measures begin to be taken that could wake up the sense of
duty hidden behind the walls of a patriotism that are becoming more and
more porous.

Some members of the Communist Youth Association are already engaged in a
campaign to raise public awareness that tries to make young people more
interested in agriculture.

Even if they achieve an increase in the number of farmers, we have
sufficient reasons to predict that everything will end up as a huge failure.

Quantity does not mean quality. This obsession has already brought about
too many disastrous results to continue following it, but it is possible
this could be the only remaining option.

In 2009, the contradictions of our system – one which lacks future and
is riddled with inefficiency – have now become more visible.

Between 1959, when the revolution began, and 1968, when the
Revolutionary Offensive made it much more radical, we buried all customs
and traditions that had reflected our love for the land and which had
helped us achieve enviable production results, which may in no way be
compared to our current output.

A significant number of the younger descendants from the families that
are living in the countryside, wish to live in towns, preferably in the
capital. They don't want to know anything about sowing seeds or irrigation.

Instead, they are thinking about how to get married to a foreigner, in
order to escape the island. They dream of spending entire nights
partying at discos or just sitting by the sea on Malecón and watching
the stars.

In Cuba, people lost the habit of working a long time ago. Being bent
over a shovel to plough a row in a field is something that only appears
in old photographs. Young people do not know how to work and are
incapable of facing the reality which surrounds them.

Persuading someone living in Havana that he or she should go to work in
the country is the easiest way to get a quick laugh or to be called by a
great many names which, from an ethical point of view, cannot even be
put on this paper.

One thing is certain: the Cuban countryside goes on falling into decay.
I doubt that anyone would dare to deny this. There are quite a few signs
indicating that even the worse case scenarios could become true, and we
can certainly expect them make mistakes.

We may also expect to see fireworks, the full-time operetta ensemble,
hired blockheads and a group of interpreters reciting the most recent
odes to the revolution. Frauds get no rest. They work full-time and
extra hours. When planting lettuce and picking mangos, they might even
be the most efficient ones.

About the author: Cuban poet and journalist Jorge Olivera was sentenced
to 18 years in prison for giving the true information about the real
Cuba. He was arrested together with other 28 independent journalists
during the so called Cuban Black Spring in 2003, when there was a
crackdown on the Cuban opposition. He was sentenced in 24 hours without
the possibility to talk to his defender. In December 2004 he was
released on medical parole – he almost lost his sight and his health
conditions were rapidly worsening. Now, Jorge Olivera Castillo is a head
of unofficial PEN Club Cuba.

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