Looking for the Essence of our Values The Union of Young Comunists of Rio Cauto, in the eastern province of Granma, made a deep analysis during the Municipal Assembly for Evaluation By: Osviel Castro Medel A CubaNews translation by Greg
McDonald. This is a worthwhile phrase, I said to myself. Because frequently the discussion about values flies about without landing at the heart of the matter; everything remains vague and theoretical. Is it enough, for example, to mention only "the importance of patriotism"? How can one be patriotic without predeterminative thought on the subject? This seems to be one of the challenges that we are up against in meetings of this kind in our country: to discuss problems regarding the formation of values with our feet on the ground, without falling into the trap of rote discussion from memory and thus remaining at a superficial and harmful level of abstraction. On this matter, Manuel Valera Escalona, first secretary of the UJC in Granma, elaborated on a cardinal idea: "We can spend our lives commenting on the values of the world at large; but if we don't meditate on what is occurring in terms of the negative values latent in our own base committee and what we can do to eradicate them...we are accomplishing nothing". On this subject, it is worth mentioning the discourse of Aliannis Tamayo, art teacher. "We should be more up to date on lifestyles and the needs of children and young people, so we can act appropriately". "Why don't we focus on the most recent ideas and feelings expressed in the songs of Silvio? What does it cost to speak about the virtues of our own rhythms, without dismissing outside influences?" The most interesting aspect of these ideas is rooted in the search for other artists who are "not yet exploited", above all because there is a tendency to match the promotion of values with the understanding of the history of previous exemplars. As Manuel Rodriguez Puig, member of the provincial bureau of the Party has pointed out, it is worthwhile to think about the present. "Nothing works better in helping others to develop their values than the use of personal examples. If we look to Fidel and draw meaning from the multiple facets of his example, we will surely become better persons", he said. There was also much reflection on a key question: not to look for paradigms, for those who inspire, in the distance of perfection. If we convert them into unreachable gods surely we will be incapable of climbing to such heights in order to possess their attributes. So, to sum up, the assembly of Rio Cauto left us with a clear message: It helps very little to merely list our values, like robots. The important task is to find the essence of each one of these in many places, the least of which is in ethereal and volatile theory...
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