Havana, Tuesday October 11, 2011. Year 15 / Number 284
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR,
published on October 7, 2011
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Leasing out the bakeries: a dissenting opinion
I think the
decision to lease out the bakeries to their employees would be wrong,
and definitely not a solution to theft.
Theft in our bakeries would seem to be caused by ownership issues.
Private property has always bred crime, but it takes the cake for some
forms, starting with the most subtle of them: the exploitation of man by
man. Theft happens in all kinds of cooperatives worldwide, including
family businesses. Since the dawn of civilization buyers and sellers
have stolen from and cheated each other.
As I see it, the leasing policy is mostly designed to create jobs and
meet people’s production and service needs where the State can’t, but
that’s not the case of the network of bakeries we have in Cuba in which
that same State has invested so much and given so many people a steady
job. It offers a basic commodity made of imported flour, despite a hard
economic situation made worse by this years-long special period that no
one knows how long it will last given the current international crisis
and food production and trade problems.
I’m not saying that non-State bakeries cannot be opened where reason
makes it advisable and benefits for both the State and the customers can
be expected. But I’m convinced that if we do things properly bread
production in State units will be better, safer and more beneficial than
any other.
Finally, if I were a baker, I would vigorously protest against those who
label as thieves the workers of a sector as duty-bound as all the others
to make the most of its potential and improve its performance in a
socialist production system.
Let us not be as dazzled by production and service methods based on
self-employment as we once were by the State-run socialist way. What
steps we take will need the intelligent improvement of our
socialist society as a whole, without looking down on small private
property, leasing or any other mechanism adopted by our economic system
and putting in as much dedication and effort to make steady progress in
the race to meet our material and spiritual needs.
J. Bernal Camero
Some remarks about the notary’s offices
In August, Granma
published a reader’s opinion about the unethical and disrespectful
treatment he received in the Notary’s Office in the neighborhood of
Alamar. He used his letter as an opportunity to hit a raw nerve by
asking, how can these notary’s offices guarantee they will properly take
care of all the new legal formalities now in the offing that were
discussed and approved by the Sixth Congress of the Party?
Taking into account the essential services these offices provide to
society, I start from the following premises:
For many years, the demand for notarial services has far exceeded the
supply, to the point that people often have to wait in line from one day
to another and spend the night at the entrance when they need some legal
service, the completion of which usually takes too long in detriment of
both the clients and the attorneys themselves. Besides, what these
notaries are paid doesn’t tally by a long shot with the volume,
complexity and importance of their work.
Even if we put aside the oncoming “peak” in the number of formalities,
the new State policy on the transfer of ownership will bring with it a
steady rise in the demand for legal services.
And I wonder:
Why not pay our notaries, in accordance with the “pay-per-outcome”
system, a fraction of the fee paid for every legal matter they close?
Why not pay our notaries, on top of their salary, a fixed amount of
money in respect of “consultations”? Why not give Law graduates and
professional attorneys more and better opportunities to do notary work
in order to create a potential reserve?
E. de J. Martínez
Martínez
A good discussion held by the medical staff
I’m a patient at the
Antonio Pulido Humaran teaching polyclinic in the People’s Council of
Arroyo Arenas in La Lisa Municipality. During one of my appointments –I
suffer from high blood pressure and digestion problems– I heard about a
letter Granma published on September 23 titled Enfrentar lo
incorrecto en la asistencia médica (Confronting an incorrect medical
attention) which the polyclinic service staff happened to be discussing
right then. The object of their analysis was the wrong attitude of a
physician who neglected his duty as a professional health provider of
the Revolution and the humanism of which our doctors have always
boasted.
I was surprised by the strength of their arguments and their unreserved
condemnation of the doctor’s incorrect performance in between many
remarks about the great effort by the Revolution and the Ministry of
Public Health to put the polyclinic’s services at the disposal of –and
bring them closer to– our communities, where over 90% of the people are
reached by and benefit from the current system. It’s no less striking to
see our health care professionals striving to do their best despite our
economic situation, transportation problems and lack of resources. But
they have the most important resource: their love of what they do.
I urge you all to visit this polyclinic and see by yourselves how
pleasant it is to be in a place so clean and mindful of every detail and
how well doctors, nurses and technicians treat all patients. I’ve
witnessed how they fight death every day and their kindness while trying
to solve our problems. Last April this polyclinic was awarded a special
distinction for their moral values and principle, undoubtedly the right
benchmark to measure the Revolution’s public health program. We must
condemn any improper behavior with the full strength of our principles,
because it’s time to put an end to the wrong attitudes in that field.
Our people demand a great deal of humanism and solidarity from our
health care centers, but also hold their administrations accountable for
their right performance, as they must see to it that they fulfill their
reason of being: the provision of health.
I agree with the lady who reported what happened at the Capdevila
polyclinic that the solution lies in education, not punishment, but
these days demand that we stand out firmly against any violation
and even apply disciplinary measures if need be to attack the problem at
its roots and change what must be changed. But above all else, we must
be energetic and brave to defend what the Revolution has given to the
people.
M. González
Biñottez
Urban development violations: who’s to blame?
Much has been written
in the media about illegal construction in our cities and towns, but
nowhere in the papers does it say that the main culprits for letting
people commit these violations are the very Physical Planning offices
and Housing authorities who for decades have kept on their payroll the
inspectors in charge of preventing this situation.
Municipal governments are also liable, since all they care about in
their status meetings is the number of fines given rather than the
number of works suspended for breaking the rules. For years I have been
going to Santa Maria beach and parking my car in a spot formerly
occupied by a small dollar restaurant called Don Pepe. It had been built
on a tarmac originally designed as a parking lot and was therefore
taking a few meters from it. Don Pepe was demolished this summer and
replaced with a bigger restaurant that takes a lot more surface area, a
work apparently authorized by all relevant bodies. With so much land
available around this beautiful parking lot, why was someone allowed to
make it smaller, forcing vacationers who often stay at that part of the
beach to go elsewhere for lack of space?
We talk about urban planning, but these architectural solutions detract
from and destroy what we want to preserve, especially in our resorts.
M. Álvarez
Metrology and standardization are essential to upgrade our economic
model
Aware of some of
the tasks within the jurisdiction of National Bureau of Standards, I
have come to the conclusion that, much like any other new economic model
in Cuba, this entity –known back in the 1980s as the State Committee for
Standardization– must revitalize its tasks and increase its autonomy.
Your paper has often published people’s complaints about this entity’s
repeated failure to comply with matters under its responsibility. I’ll
only mention by way of example the provisions of the third WHEREAS of
Decree-Law 183 on Metrology, signed by our Commander in Chief in
February, 1998: “We need to protect citizens from the harmful effects of
incorrect measurements and the use of unfit measuring instruments in
activities related to trade, public health, the environment, technical
safety, postal and legal services, and other fields of public interest”.
Granma has
always provided a platform for people to report problems that for the
most part involve the weighing of consumer goods, but we should also ask
ourselves whether we can have internal control without being sure that
our measuring instruments are “Fit for Use”. Is efficiency is possible
in an enterprise where broken, altered or simply improper instruments
are used and higher outputs are reported as a result which eventually
end up later on in stock adjustment plans they shelve for years? No
control is possible without Metrological Assurance and a powerful
authority to enforce it.
We owe it to our Che Guevara and his economic strategies that since the
early years of the Revolution Cuba has been a member of the ISO
(International Organization for Standardization), a move that made it
possible for our country to learn about the implementation all over the
world of the ISO publications on Quality Management, a.k.a. the ISO 9000
Family of Standards. Cuba’s own experience endorses the value of these
documents, so how come these standards are not mandatory in all our
entities, at least there where export goods are produced?
In my opinion, we have spent too much time trying to implement the
Corporate Improvement Program that should have been devoted to applying
the ISO Standards, We would have made more progress if we had, not
because the Program is wrong, but because of the great results achieved
worldwide, and especially in the developed nations, through the ISO
Management Systems. It has been gradually improved and adjusted to
dissimilar situations, something our Cuban model has failed to
accomplish. I have talked about this with many people who are familiar
with the ISO Standards and they all agree.
The National Bureau of Standards also governs equipment quality and
standardization, an activity where some progress has been made but I
believe much remains to be done.
I grant that the technical and professional qualification of the
Bureau’s staff both in Cuba and abroad is worthy of emulation, as is
their resolve to remain in their posts, making the most of their great
skills despite their low pay and without dropping the banner of quality,
metrology and standardization, all synonymous with efficiency.
J. R. Reynaldo
Sánchez
Through the maze of fines and procedures
I’m a regular reader of Granma’s Letters to the Editor section, a
forum for popular discussion about our main subjective problems even
when the reply to someone’s complaints sent by the responsible party is
at best anemic.
I’ve ready two opinions about the imposition of fines, and a recent
event leads me to enter the existing maze of rules and regulations:
Decree No. 272/2001 “On the Territorial and Urban Reorganization” is the
legal basis used by the inspectors of the relevant entities to commit
countless acts of injustice, thanks in my opinion to the inadmissible
wording of Article 24 in Section II of this document, and I quote: “Any
decision taken by the proper authorities can be appealed to their
superior. The said appeal must be lodged within the three working days
following notification” –the law specifies that beyond this deadline the
affected party’s appeal is dismissed– “and solved within the fifteen
working days following imposition” –the law doesn’t specify that this
deadline is binding on the appealed party– “and the appeal will be
accepted only when the relevant fine has been paid or a contract of
payment has been agreed with the relevant authorities”. No legal or
administrative motion or procedure can be used against this decree.
The above has its origins in the following event: On May 19, Jorge Luis
Varga, an Inspector with the Task Force against illegal acts run by the
Municipal Housing Board of Taguasco, visited my mother, who is 82, and
told her she had to pay a fine for an accusation filed against her. Is
imposing a fine to please the plaintiff the usual way to deal with an
accusation or is there a procedure to check whether there are grounds
for it and go over the social behavior and revolutionary background of
both the accused and the moral implications of such decisions?
My sister, under whose care my mother is, paid the fine and filed a
claim according to the terms and following the steps established by the
law, which included a formality never mentioned in its text, consisting
of paying for a 10-peso revenue stamp.
On three occasions my sister or her son showed up at the said office to
learn about the final ruling but never got a straight answer, but as
soon as the deadline set by Article 24 expired another inspector visited
her twice, apparently because he was not quite sure about his mission.
How can there be a law that enables an inspector to impose a fine and
another one to investigate the case? What if tomorrow the investigating
inspector becomes an investigated inspector, considering that the person
in charge who came up with this rule is entitled to do so?
On August 1st, when I went to the Housing office and demanded to see the
relevant Resolution, the Head of the Legal Department asked me why I
wanted to read something that could not be appealed in any way from the
administrative or judicial viewpoint. I replied that it was a citizen’s
right that no one could violate and told her that what can’t be appealed
to any authority must make room at least for an ethical and moral claim.
After two hours’ delay, they showed me the Resolution.
And I wonder:
1. Can a legal deadline be set for the accused but not for the accuser?
If the complainant loses the right to appeal once the deadline expires,
what if the same happens to the contested party? What to do then?
2. Can such a socially consequential Decree be in the hands of so
incompetent and insensitive authorities?
3. In absence of legal and/or administrative rights, are you also denied
the right to denounce mistreatment and lack of professional ethics?
I went to the municipal attorney’s office and accused the Housing office
of breaking the law, but I was told what they did was an administrative
violation instead. Is infringement of the law by an authority empowered
to dispense justice nothing but an administrative violation?
Article 127 of the Cuban Constitution says that the Attorney General’s
Office is the state body which has, at its fundamental objective,
jurisdiction over the control and preservation of legality by ensuring
that the Constitution, the law and other legal regulations are strictly
obeyed by state agencies, economic and social entities and citizens.
Maybe in Taguasco this Article only applies to the latter. Is this an
administrative violation or a case within the Attorney’s Office’s
jurisdiction?
E. del Sauzal Ramos
Scalpers: how much longer?
Scalpers are part
of the landscape around our stores, in the vicinity of which they hawk
with total lack of inhibition and in full view of everyone everything
you don’t find inside.
If you go to the supermarket on 70th street in Playa Municipality you
can buy anything from food to house appliances without even going in.
Outside the mall on Carlos III Avenue you can get furniture, mattresses
and other brand products, even a jacuzzi. You can also buy anything in
front of any auto parts store
Despite the fact that the current State policy of eliminating
restrictions on the sale of home appliances and computers is an
obstacle in their path, there’s still a whole army of those characters
who make a living and get rich at the expense of people’s needs.
A few days ago, to take a case in point, I visited the hardware store of
the Palco Hotel and the Nautico department stores, as well as the one on
42nd and 1st, and none had white cement for sale. Right outside,
however, you can buy as much as you want for a price.
They don’t produce that cement, but steal it from the State.
How come these individuals can sell what they have in front of police
officers and still get away with it?
I have seen with my own eyes two police officers walking by these
hawkers without giving them so much as a warning glance. Is there no
solution to this corrupting and offensive practice?
It’s a real shame the way they do it in broad daylight and without
hiding. How much longer?
J. C. Amor
The need to sell water pumps (turbines) in Santiago de Cuba
No water pumps,
popularly known as turbines, have been sold in any of Santiago de Cuba’s
chains of stores since the Energy Revolution was launched in 2006.
It’s hard for those of us who live in high places to have access to
water despite the renovation of the water supply system in this city.
I think something must be done about it, given that higher power
consumers like air conditioners and barbecues are currently for sale
anyway.
A. J. Fernández
Costa
|
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/cartas-direccion/cart-168.html