Another Sweeping Law

Another Sweeping Law / Rosa Maria Rodriguez

Posted on April 18, 2014



The National Assembly or Cuban parliament approved with no problems —

not a rare thing for this organ where although it's not divine it "comes

from above" — the new foreign investment law. You don't need a crystal

ball to know that new legislation, like the new broom of the refrain,

sweeps fundamentally well for them and their orbit.



The suffocating financiers of the nineteenth-century Cuban political

model shows that for the nomenklatura the urgency of their bank balances

or updating — aerating — their state capitalism is more important than

truly reviving the battered "socialist economy."



Like every law "that is disrespected" in Cuba after 1959, it was

approved unanimously, meaning that everyone agreed, or at least raised

their hands, in a caricature of a senate composed almost entirely of

members of the only party legalized in Cuba which has been in government

for 55 years and although it calls itself communist, it is not.



One might then suggest to the Cuban authorities, to be consistent with

their own laws, to carry out an aggiornamento also of the philosophical

basis of their ideology and the name of the historical party of government.



The Cuban state has had its eyes on foreign investment for a long time.

Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, said

earlier this year in Brazil, which in Cuba there would continue to be

only one party. Emphasizing, of course, the interest in Brazilian

entrepreneurs and the message of confidence and stability he wants to

convey to them from the Cuban ruling class, to encourage them to do

business in Cuba.



This norm becomes another discriminatory law "with the bait" of fiscal

and tax benefits for foreigners, in contrast to the thunderous taxes

payable by nationals who venture into the private sector. They did away

with all the Cuban and foreign businesses when this model came to power

and now stimulate and encourage only foreign capitalists to invest in

our country.



They say they aren't giving it away, but any citizen from other climes

is placed above nationals, who once again are excluded from the

opportunity to invest in medium and large companies in their own country.



Just like our Spanish ancestors committed shameless abuses and

marginalized native Cubans and restricted them in their economic role in

their own national home.



The state still owns "the master key" of labor contracting–the employing

company– to calm their followers and to urge them to continue giving

their unconditional support to the established and visible promise that

they will be rewarded and privileged, if only with a tiny,

revolutionary, symbolic and coveted "mini-slice" of the state pie.



On the other hand, the impunity in the management of public officials,

on part with the lack of respect for society implicit in secrecy,

exposes the heart of corruption. One of the many examples that get under

the skin of Cubans of various geographic coordinates is, what is the

state of the country's accounts. What are the periodic incomes and

expenses in different parts of the economy. Why isn't Cuban society

informed about the annual amount of the income from remittances from

Cubans who have emigrated, and how these resources are used?



A lot could be said and written about the new law and the old

discrimination and practices contained in previous legislation, which

for me is a horse of a changeable–not another–color.



But it would give a lot of relevance to the segregationist, sloppy and

desperate search for money by power elite in Cuba, which requires

increasingly huge sums of "evil capital" to sustain its inefficient

bureaucracy and unsustainable model.



In short, the new law, like the proverbial broom, will always sweep well

for them and that seems to be all that, according to their dynastic

mentalities, fiftieth anniversaries and blue-blooded lifestyles, they

care about.



15 April 2014



Source: Another Sweeping Law / Rosa Maria Rodriguez | Translating Cuba -

http://translatingcuba.com/another-sweeping-law-rosa-maria-rodriguez/