Untitled - Convivencia

DIALOGUE, YES:BUT WITH HUMAN RIGHTSAND WITHOUT EXCLUSIONEditorial 16. Jul-Aug-2010. Convivencia Magazine. www.convivenciacuba.esCuba is going through one of the tensestmoments of its recent history; withouteconomy, without a viable political projecton the part of the ones who hold power andwith a society which is increasinglydiscouraged. It’s not an apocalypticperspective but reality. It’s the new “specialperiod” though it has not been officiallycalled that way. There is a difference with thecrisis of the 90’s. In that crisis there was alot of money in national currency circulatingand almost nothing to buy. Now there is nomoney and nothing to buy. In that crisisthere were measures to maneuver and thelegalization of another currency. Now thereis nothing of that. Those who doubt it maygo to the streets; may come to Cuba; maytalk to all the sectors and not to some ofthem.The mass media play their role in differentways, of course, in a plural world. Theindependent journalists and bloggersgenerate and confirm news from the insideof Cuba with veracity and immediacy neverseen before. More and more the foreigncorrespondents and the international pressagencies quote the independent journalistsand bloggers because they are close to thenews protagonists and to the real life inCuba. That is the verifiable truth if we haddirect access to the social mass media. It hasbeen an almost imperceptible evolution. It’san unstoppable and reliable evolution. Inthat world competence, veracity andimmediacy transcend all the rest. Thejournalists and bloggers have won thisacknowledgement. It’s a sign of real change.It’s due to this new phenomenon that itbecomes very difficult to manipulate the publicopinion because there are very diverse Cubanvoices that appear immediately and contributeother approaches. It’s not about who is right orwho has got the truth. It’s about the fact thatthe persons who have access to this diversity ofinformation can build their own opinions andhave the necessary to elaborate their ownjudgment. That is what freedom of expressionis for. It’s diverse and opposite to theexclusiveness of the sources and to theexclusion of the voices.In this time Cuba is torn again between anguishand hope; the same as more than half a centuryago. The only thing new is the exhaustion ofthe projects, the tiredness of the same old storyand the irrepressible need for change whichturns into a dangerous urgency and we cannotand should not play with it. One thing is thenecessary gradualism that every process needsand another thing, very different, is tomaneuver in order to save time and not makeany changes, even more when there are humanlives at stake. It’s ethically unacceptable. It’s acrime.So the only honourable and ethical way out isthe pacific dialogue and the negotiation withresults. However, for a real dialogue and acredible and viable negotiation some premisesmust be fulfilled; these premises are essentialaccording to our opinion:1. The dialogue should be an attitude and amethod. That is, it should have a dosage ofgood will and another dosage of technicalrequirements. Not only good will because itwould be ingenuousness. Not onlyEdiciones ConvivenciaPinar del Río. 201263