By Osmel Ramirez Alvarez
HAVANA TIMES – Developing a road map to dig Cuba out of the deep hole it’s fallen into represents a dilemma and an enormous challenge, not to mention having that road map be accepted and later function. So much so, that the popular verdict is expressed with an oft-repeated daily saying on our streets: “no one can knock it down, and no one can set it right.”
Obviously, things are in an equilibrium, but unfortunately not one resulting from consensus, nor from the cohesion of our society’s most positive values and aspirations. Rather, it’s a disastrous balance of the things that divide and harm us.
It’s been reached via a combination of the worst elements of the diverging factions: intransigence, ignorance and the disparaging of the opposing side. In this whirlpool, a war to “the finish” is the only road they see to fruitfully resolve the conflicting aspirations. This need to annul or vanquish completely the ideas of the other have brought us to this blind alley, apparently with no exit.
Common sense screams that under these circumstances the only road is dialogue and consensus, culminating in an agreement that’s good for all, and where we all must cede “something” for it to be possible. This isn’t possible, however, amid a general intransigence, nor with intolerance. Unfortunately, such common sense isn’t prevailing – not among the governing officials, nor with an important part of the opposition that still dominates public discourse on this topic.
The strategy of dialogue isn’t just “wanting to talk,” or wanting two factions who say they’re opposed to the idea, to sit down to a dialogue. From that erroneous perspective, of course, it seems stupid, out of place, or just nonsensical to take it on.
Nonetheless, the steps towards such a prospect are very logical, and make a great deal of sense. These can be summarized in several points
