Restrictions Do Not Mean Solutions

Restrictions Do Not Mean Solutions / Fernando Damaso
Fernando Damaso, Translator: Unstated

The rapidly evolving subject of the "pilfering of brains and talent" is
once again the order of the day here after the announcement that certain
absurd regulations governing travel overseas will be overturned starting
January 1 of next year, leaving it quite clear that restrictive measures
will still be applied to prevent this so-called pilfering.

In reality no one is stealing either brains or talent, which simply go
where they are properly valued and where those with them can realize
their full potential. In the Cuban republic's fifty-six years such theft
did not exist because talented professionals such as artists, athletes,
or anyone with something original to contribute to society could be
successful at home without having to emigrate. When they did travel,
they did so to gain knowledge or skills and returned to apply them in
Cuba, as history amply demonstrates.

This defection of brains and talent and a defection in general began
after January 1, 1959 when the country was incapable of providing even
minimal opportunities for those with brains and talent to develop or to
live comfortably alongside their family members. And so began the flight
of professionals, artists and athletes, looking for new and more
promising horizons, which continues to this day.

I do not believe that new restrictions on certain sectors of the
population will resolve the problem. They will infringe on the rights of
citizens affected by them, creating differences between those who can
travel and those who cannot. It has been clearly shown that restrictions
are simply there to be violated. They make defection difficult, but they
do not prevent it. The intelligent thing to do would be to provide
better economic, political and social conditions so that no one has to
emigrate, and people could realize their personal as well as
professional goals in their own country. The decision to reside in one
country or another belongs to the individual citizen and not to any
government. If this were not the case, then people with brains and
talent who decide to emigrate because their countries lack the
conditions necessary for them to fully develop, allowing them to advance
and contribute to human achievement, would lose out.

October 17 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/restrictions-do-not-mean-solutions-fernando-damaso/