boatmen and philosophers

a doctor of philosophy required a boatman to transport him across a large river. While traversing the tides the philosopher asked the boatman if he knew philosphy. The boatman said ¨no.¨ The philosopher said, ¨ah, too bad for you, for you have lost half your life.¨ The boatman continued to row. The philosopher asked the boatman if he knew math and the boatman said ¨no.¨ The philosopher said, ¨ah, too bad for you, for you have lost half your life.¨ A tumultuous storm began to rage above the river and soon there was a deluge that rocked the boat. The boatman asked the philosopher if he knew how to swim and the philosopher, shaking uncontrollably, said, ¨no.¨ The boatman said, ¨ah, too bad for you, for you will now lose all of your life.¨ The research in Cuba has ended for now, and after meeting with many philosophers and social scientists, one sees in cuba much work between theory and practice. Philosophers here are often engaged in daily struggles with farmers and factory workers in attempts to construct more human friendly and efficient modes of work and production in order to meet the goals of the socialist project. A comment by the director of the Latin American School of Medicine comes to mind. He said, roughly, ¨what distinguishes the Cuban approach to medical education is that we not only teach and learn about the science of medicine but we teach and learn about the science of political consciousness rooted in solidarity, social justice, and human well being.

The internet is slow today so comments must be brief. Returning to the Bahamas tomorrow and to the US the following day. viva socialismo, in peace and solidarity, d

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leisurely stroll

a leisurely stroll along the Malecon...the main street along the ocean...down to old havana allowed an experience of excessively ¨liberating¨humidity. A number of conversations with people in the street and in the ¨artist´s market¨revealed the complexity of opinion one finds in Cuba...there is not the subservience to the ¨party line¨often caricatured in the US as though Cubans are somehow robots rather than human beings working through personal, interpersonal, local, national and international conflicts and contradictions across a complex array of social forces, cultural productions, economic unpredictabilities, ideological interrogations, institutional structures, power relations and the strong influence of the organization of social relations of production, distribution and consumption. There are plenty of frustrations around numerous issues...Cuba IS a poor country...and various forms of poverty are evident... struggling heroically to maintain an experiment in alternative politics and economics in the face of an outside world that is not very sympathetic to that struggle, to say the least. It does seem that Cuba´s remarkable ability to survive and to some extent even flourish, in the face of so many struggles, attacks of various sorts, and deprivations, along with the Cuban´s ability to maintain a high level of human development as measured by education, health and health care, sustainable agriculture, scientific advancements, cultural programs, etc., might suggest that Cuba offers a model that should be studied carefully by the rest of the world as we face increasing problems around economic collapse, global climate calamities, military aggressions, and other threats. the struggle continues...viva la revolucion! d

correction

there was a small but important error in a previous post about education, the phrase ¨not without criticism and reflection¨ came across as ¨not with criticism and reflection.¨ There is much and ongoing criticism and reflection in Cuba on education.
So, it should read -

a long conversation on education revealed the important link between knowledge and experience. the commitment...not without criticism and reflection...

morality and food, etc.

today there was much discussion of morality and what Marx may have meant by ¨species being.¨ In the end, to reduce hours of discussion to a phrase, one could say, it is not so much that individuals should be of secondary importance or absolutely subservient to the social, but that the individual will only fully develop under social conditions that encourage and nourish the development of our multiple individualities. At a very basic level, without social structures and commitments to providing food to citizens individuals will remain underdeveloped.

The question arose, around food and agriculture, ¨can Cuba offer an alternative to corporate control over the global food system, a form of control that is creating increasing food crises?¨ The answer was yes, and added was that if the world continues along the current path we will face the choice between, to quote Mezsaros, ¨socialism or barbarism...if we are lucky!¨ Cuba is committed to sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty and is operating in a world in which the food crisis is producing a ¨silent Tsunami¨in the words of the World Food Program...100 million more people are now going hungry, added to the 850 million already chronically hungry. Cuba´s program, in brief, is rooted in ecological farming, diversification into small and local farms, redistribution of land to farmers in order to operate on small scales conducive to ecological farming, state support for small farmers, democratic participation in planning and governance of farms as well as in research, paying a fair price to farmers, organic urban gardens, all operating within a very highly educated population with a high human development index, free health care and education operating more and more in a decentralized manner. Still, Cuba must import a considerable amount of food, $1.5 billion last year, including about $500 million from the US. Cuba has a long struggle to attain food self'sufficiency and sovereignty, but the struggle continues. viva socialismo! d

education and the struggle

internet access has been very limited and slow...the US blockade prevents important updates such as laying fiber optic lines, etc. a long conversation on education revealed the important link between knowledge and experience. the commitment...not without criticism and reflection...to the socialist experiment is not simply a result of wanting to ¨be like Che¨ but rooted in an overall experience of support, cooperation, concern and solidarity around education that extends from the student to the teacher to the classroom to the family to the neighborhood to local groups to national federations such as the committees for the defense of the revolution the national federation of women, etc, etc. one other point...their is a rising tide of neoliberalism-capitalism on a global scale and of course Cuba is an island...one serious question revolves around how Cuba will defense itself against the rising tide...the pressures are great because Cuba is forced to interface with global capitalism across a number of industries, in agriculture, etc. in order to survive...the creeping capitalism can be very insidious, so in Cuba the battle of ideas to protect the process of the socialist experiment rages on and Cuba walks on a razor´s edge while the rest of the world stands on the edge of a precipice...let us hope that we do not step in to the abyss...the struggle continues...viva la revolucion...venceremos...d

from the island

the revolution continues; email access is quite limited and rather slow. Scheduled events have been removed from the schedule and unscheduled events have made appearances. Conference presentations have been insightful, expansive, wide-ranging and well-informed and the discussions have been extremely lively. Cubans have insights into US politics and culture that are striking, of the sort one rarely encounters in the US! The commitment to the socialist experiment seems strong, the economy has improved over last year (as evidenced by the huge amount of vegetables on the pizzas!). More later, as access is running out at the moment. Any questions will be explored. in peace and solidarity, viva socialismo, d

delayed blogging

to all, due to unforeseen circumstances, blogging attempts from the island will be delayed until Monday, June 23. in peace and solidarity, d

blogging from the island

to all, if everything works out well, there will be blogging from the island between June 18 and July 1, with hoped-for daily updates on meetings, information, conditions, insights gained, conferencing, etc. and there will be opportunities to ask questions that we will try to address and have answered by "experts" on the island. Past experiences on the island have demonstrated that one must be prepared for the unpredictable (blogging will be an experiment that may sometimes fail but one hopes often succeed???) and surprising (both good and bad). More to follow...venceremos...in peace and solidarity, d