Protecting Labor Stability in China: 国务院关于进一步做好稳就业工作的意见 [Opinions of the State Council on Further Improving Employment Stability] Released 24 December 2019

(Pix from China is really worried about unemployment. Here's what it's doing to avoid mass layoffs)

One of the more interesting effects of the dynamic state of U.S.-Chinese trade relations is its effects on labor and employment.  While the Western press has sought to highlight these effects as part of their sustained criticism (and some defense) of the Trump Administration's policies (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, and here), Western  media elements have been far less concerned about possible effects on the labor and employment situation in China.

CNN, however, recently reported on Chinese official's efforts to avoid large scale unemployment that has resulted from a  cluster of factors tied to the effoprts, now several years old, to reshape the rulea and context of global trade (China is really worried about unemployment. Here's what it's doing to avoid mass layoffs).

Beijing has made clear that the world's second largest economy cannot spiral into a slump and risk mass layoffs as it tangles with rising debt, cooling domestic demand and an ongoing trade war with the United States. . . .In recent weeks, the government has bombarded the economy with a wave of stimulus measures, from tariff reductions that could help soothe the pain from rising prices, to rate cuts that could fuel more bank lending. . . Authorities are also amping up the language they're using to describe the situation. China's State Council last month called on local governments to "go to all lengths" to prevent massive job losses this year — what it characterized as the country's top policy priority. . . While China's official unemployment data has barely budged over the last several years, hovering between 4% and 5%, Beijing's messaging suggests that it is unusually worried about the slowing economy and the challenges that the year could bring. "Beijing is much more worried about social unrest than about ballooning local debt, which at one point seemed to be a priority, " said David Zweig, director of Transnational China Consulting Limited and a professor emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Ibid.)

The reference to the State Council actions in the CNN reporting  relates to  a recently published set of guidelines issues by the Chinese State Council: 国务院关于进一步做好稳就业工作的意见 [Opinions of the State Council on Further Improving Employment Stability] No. 28 Release date: December 24, 2019

This post includes the text of the State Council Opinion in the original Chinese along with a crude English translation. Several points are worth considering as one reads through the text.  The Opinion is organized into seven key elements, each subdivided into specific guidance; (1) a brief set of general requirements in one paragraph; (2) "support enterprises to stabilize their positions;" (3) "develop more jobs;" (4) "promote multi-channel employment and entrepreneurship for workers;"  (5) "promote large-scale vocational skills training;" (6) "practical employment and entrepreneurship services;" and (7) "do a good job in basic living security."   Beyond the expected directions to subsidize  public sector enterprises, much of the guidance mirrors what one would expect to see as policy responses in liberal democratic developed states.  But the form of the approaches to ameliorating job losses might mask some underlying differences --especially with respect to the role of the state rather than of markets in creating the conditions, including the macro and micro financial conditions to expand and redirect labor productivity. Recall that the State Council Guidance is directed to "People's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, ministries and commissions of the State Council, and agencies directly under the State Council." Here one begins t see more clearly the way that markets play an important but different role within Marxist Leninist systems than they might in the West. Left without discusison, as is usual in such documents, are issues of coordination, and capacity (with respect to which ¶ 10 proves interesting).  I leave the more detailed study to those interested but welcome more discussion.

Lukumi in Cuba--On the Problems of Divination and Interpretation for the 2020 Letra del Año (Letter fo the Year)

I have been writing about the Letter of the Year (Letra del Año)--an annual prediction produced by the unified branches of Lukumi priests of Cuba since the 19th century. The annual divination-guidance has latrely been the joint work of the Babalawos of the different branches of the faith under the aegis of the Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba.

For the last two years the process and content of the Letra del Año has proven difficult for these institutions.  In 2019, there were two predictions  that circulated early, though one was dropped within hours of its circulation (see The Orishas Speak: The 2019 Letter of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra del Año para el 2019 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) (Refran: "Las raíces de IFA son amargas y el fruto es dulce").

This year saw a different kind of challenge for those whose business it is to produce the annual divination-guidance for the faithful for "Cuba and the World" (to whom these Letras del Año are traditionally addressed). First, the 2020 Letra del Año was produced with a substantially minimized interpretation respecting a potentially troublesome divination-guidance (The Orishas Speak: The 2020 Letter of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra del Año para el 2020 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) and a Preliminbary Interpretation). Almost immediately after the production of the Letra del Año a controversy erupted in Cuba respecting a terse interpretation predicting a coup d'etat and a military government, one that the members of the Asociación were quick to contextualize in a press conference widely reported in official government media (and discussed here: "Destitución de un gobierno provocado por golpe de estado e intervención de un ejército" ["Removal of a government caused by coup d'etat and intervention of an army"]: Formal Interpretaiotn of Divination and the Political Sensitivities of States: The Ifa Letter of the Year and Political Scandal in Cuba). 

Now, via its Facebook page, the Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba has distributed a more elaborate interpretation of its Letra del Año. The interpretation, a copy of which is posted below, is worth considering. Its great contribution is in the choice (among all of the oddus) of the two core oddus around the 2020 divination, one each for the dominant orishas of the year: Oschun and Obtalá.  These are meant to be the font through which an interpretation may be made and insight offered. The first of the two stories is that of "The Three Thieves and Oshun's riches." The second is the story of Obatalá and the Corrupt City." The stories are powerfully relevant.  In that respect I also found it useful as well to consider it alongside the interpretation provided  in this blog on 1 January (here). The interpretation of the Asociacón requires no comment, only the suggestion that it ought to be read.

Larry Catá Backer, "Toward New Era Thought: Reflections on Xi Jinping, Speech at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up"

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2020)

To the ends of advancing the study of New Era Thought along more useful lines, the Coalition for Peace and Ethics has undertaken a study of Chinese New Era Thought, of which these posts form a part. As part of that project CPE has begun to critically assess the discursive references. More specifically, Flora Sapio and I have been considering the development of New Era Theory by examining carefully some of the key writings of Xi Jinping.  Over the course of several postings we have carefully considered one of what we consider to be a critical elaboration of New Era Thought--Xi Jinping's Speech on the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up, Beijing 18 December 2018.


In a prior post (Building New Era Thought--Reflections on Xi Jinping's Address on the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up, Beijing 18 December 2018) it was suggested that a year after its delivery, Xi Jinping's Speech on the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up [-在庆祝改革开放40周年大会上的讲话] was now a more useful object of study, providing potentially great insight into the character of scope of New Era Theory in China.

But such speeches, unlike uttered by virtually all of their counterparts in Western liberal democracies (at least at this time in the history of the West) are not meant to be a political consumable with a very short half life. Especially in the case of the speeches of Xi Jinping, they mean not just to produce the usual kinds of internal and external signals (and thus the counting referenced above). These remarks, however, may be more usefully understood for their contribution to the development of the fundamental political theory of the Chinese political model,

It is with that in mind, and with the benefit of the passage of a year that has stripped away the dross of the political situation around which the speech was delivered, a re-reading of the remarks more clearly exposes the substance of the evolution of Chinese Marxist Leninist theory in the new era. More particularly, Flora Sapio and I believe that there is a large measure of insight to be gained from a closer study of these remarks. This was an important speech on self reflection, and on the communication of that reflection which may resonate in different ways for Chinese and for foreign readers. For that reason alone the speech is worth considerable study.

That post included the original text of the 在庆祝改革开放40周年大会上的讲话 in the along with my crude machine assisted translation with the promise of reflections on what the Speech suggested for the emerging New Era Theory from Larry Catá Backer and Flora Sapio.

This post includes the first of the reflections: Larry Catá Backer, Toward New Era Thought: Reflections on Xi Jinping, Speech at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up. I build that reflection around the concept that:

The speech. . . can be most usefully understood as built around three tasks, each of which poses its own set of questions. The first is to deliver a eulogy for the passing Era, the legacy of which must be respected as a core element of the foundation of Chinese Marxist-Leninism. In that respect, the Era of Reform and Opening Up, with Deng Xiaoping as its core, now officially joins the Revolutionary and Founding Eras, with Mao Zedong at their core. . . . The second is to describe (this is an intensely political exercise) the evolving facts that mark the fundamental character of the emerging “New Era” era as distinct from that of the passing Era of Reform and Opening Up. This task is built around the question of narrative view, of describing how the core of Chinese leadership projects its view of the world within which the evolving political theory of Marxist-Leninism must be expressed to suit the times. . . . The third and probably most important task was to then “apply truth to facts”—that is, to draw on the passing of the Reform and Opening Up Era in the national and historical realities in which Chinese Marxist Leninism finds itself to begin to flesh out the answer to the question—“what is What is New Era Thought?

The index of all Posts (Text of Speech, Annotation, Reflections of Backer and Sapio) on the Xi Jinping 40th Anniversary Speech may be accessed HERE. These will be published in Volume 15 Emancipating the Mind: Bulletin of the Coalition for Peace and Ethics (forthcoming 2020).

Building New Era Thought--Reflections on Xi Jinping's Address on the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up, Beijing 18 December 2018

“No one is in a position to dictate to the Chinese people what should or should not be done,” he said. “We will resolutely reform what can and needs to be reformed, and we will resolutely uphold what cannot and does not need to be changed.”

(Xi Jinping, Speech Delivered in the Great Hall of the People on the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up, Translated and quoted in Yanan Wang (for AP, "China will ‘never seek hegemony,’ Xi says in reform speech," Washington Post)

四十载惊涛拍岸，九万里风鹏正举。江河之所以能冲开绝壁夺隘而出，是因其积聚了千里奔涌、万壑归流的洪荒伟力。习近平：在庆祝改革开放40周年大会上的讲话  

 

It was with some anticipation that, now over a year ago, a global audience awaited the remarks of Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the course of celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the adoption of China's policy of Reform and Opening Up, and its incorporation as a core of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Political line.  The remarks--在庆祝改革开放40周年大会上的讲话 --were delivered at the end of 2018.

At the time, and as is now customary for the consumption of such remarks, the speech received a short but intense burst of interest contextualized within the constraints of the hopes, fears and strategic objectives of those who are in the business of reading and presenting such matters to the public, and in that way of using these to shape the various political narratives that manage local popular opinion. Its greatest utility at the time appeared to be oracular. However, in lieu of examining its entrails, the oracular priesthood chose instead to reduce the words of the remarks to data and then to extract meaning by summing repeated "key words."  And, indeed, there were lots of repetition to consider:

In his speech, Xi Jinping mentioned the names of six people: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, Marx and Lenin. Here is a graph of total appearances  of each in the text of the speech:

(Qiang Gang, Reading Xi’s Reform Anniversary Speech, China Media Project)

At the time, the Hong Kong press noted that 

Xi did not directly address the specific challenges facing the world’s second biggest economy or touch on sensitive issues such as the ongoing trade war with the US. Instead, Xi spent much of the hour-and-a-half speech drawing general conclusions about China’s economic and social development in the past four decades since Deng Xiaoping, China’s former paramount leader, started to embrace market-oriented changes in China. (Xi Jinping: China to stick to Communist rule and its own path to cope with ‘unimaginable’ perils)

That produced disappointment in the global press as well (here, here, and here), along with a small drop in Chinese financial markets (e.g., here). 

"The reason why everybody was watching this speech so closely is that they were looking for hints of any possible concessions that Xi was prepared to make to try and ease the current trade friction with the US," said Brown, noting Beijing's recent agreement to buy more soybeans from the US and reduce tariffs on US cars. "Those concessions didn't happen, other than a vague promise from Xi for China's economic reforms that began 40 years ago to continue," he added. "More, this was a speech about China's identity and position in the world." (Marking 40 years of reform, Xi says China won't be dictated to).

And that, certainly, was a plausible way to read speeches like this.  That, at any rate is the way that Western commentators, academics, and policymakers, tend to approach speeches from the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.  But such speeches, unlike uttered by virtually all of their counterparts in Western liberal democracies (at least at this time in the history of the West)  are not meant to be a political consumable with a very short half life.  Especially in the case of the speeches of Xi Jinping, they mean not just to produce the usual kinds of internal and external signals (and thus the counting referenced above). These remarks, however, may be more usefully understood for their contribution to the development of the fundamental political theory of the Chinese political model,

It is with that in mind, and with the benefit of the passage of a year that has stripped away the dross of the political situation around which the speech was delivered, a re-reading of the remarks more clearly exposes the substance of the evolution of Chinese Marxist Leninist theory in the new era. More particularly, Flora Sapio and I believe that there is a large measure of insight to be gained from a closer study of these remarks. This was an important speech on self reflection, and on the communication of that reflection which may resonate in different ways for Chinese and for foreign readers.  For that reason alone the speech is worth considerable study.

This post includes the text of the 在庆祝改革开放40周年大会上的讲话 in the original along with my crude machine assisted translation. 

 (Video of Xi Jingping's address)

The links to all Posts (Text of Speech, Annotation, Reflections of Backer and Sapio) on the Xi Jinping 40th Anniversary Speech follows. These will be published in Volume 15 Emancipating the Mind: Bulletin of the Coalition for Peace and Ethics (forthcoming 2020). INDEX OF POSTS:

Text Xi Jinping Speech Here:Building New Era Thought.

Annotated Text of Xi Jinping Speech HERE: Building New Era Thought--An Annotation

Larry Catá Backer Reflections on the Xi Speech HERE: Toward New Era Thought.

Flora Sapio Reflections on the Xi Speech HERE: The Ecology of Interpretation in the New Era

Syllabus for Course on "Globalization and the Transnational Enterprise"

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2019)

I have been developing a course on transnational (or multinational; I use the terms interchangeably) enterprises.  That project inevitably now requires consideration of economic (and now more comprehensive systems of) globalization, with which the multinational enterprise is now inextricably interlinked. Getting an alignment between the developing ideologies of globalization (as well as the ideologies of those opposing globalization) and those of the multinational enterprise (and those who view that enterprise with suspicion, has proven to be a challenge.  An even greater challenge has been to avoid an academic silo approach to the materials.  It is an easy trap to teach MNEs as creatures of law, or of politics, or of economics, etc., and in the process strip the engagement of much of its richness.  There is value in such "siloing"--technical expertise, more granular study, etc.  But in the process, and especially for students encountering the MNE for the first time, such narrow approaches run the danger of reducing the MNE to caricature.  On the other hand, one acquires a comprehensive picture of the MNE in the aspect studied (MNE as a legal construct; MNE as an economic vehicle; MNE as a social ecology, etc.).

So, I chose to try for a broader approach to the introduction of the MNE in globalization.  It is aimed for graduate students in international affairs, business, law and the social sciences. This year it will be taught out of the School of International Affairs (last year I tried a more law oriented version taught for the law school). It remains very much a work in progress.  A number of challenges remain: (1) course organization (I chose to divide the materials into 5 broad sections focused on MNE management and self-regulation); (2) course materials (facing the hard choices among a growing body of excellent materials against the realities of student study time and their ability to effectively absorb material); and (3) pedagogy (I chose to avoid the lecture-exam model in favor of a more student centered model built around the application of the teaching materials to the real life experience of an assigned MNE).  I will report on results as the semester progresses. 

This post includes the syllabus and a short description of the problem of the MNE in globalization as the basis for their study.  The syllabus may be downloaded HERE: MNCLawSyllSpr2020. 

The course philosophy may be found at pp. 13-16; the course description is set ut at pp. 1-2. While the syllabus was designed for a semester length course,  it can also be taught in short course forms, either as a 2 week bare bones course, or a longer 4 week intro course.  As this is still vey much a work in progress, suggestions and comments most welcome!

Birgit Spiesshofer: "Green monetary policy - "whatever it takes"?" English Translation of Article published first (in German) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine Einspruch! (online) 10 December 2019

(Birgit Spiesshofer)

Dr. Birgit Spiesshofer has been undertaking truly important and path-breaking work in the area of the responsibility of business for harms that may be attached (that, of course, is the issue of the moment, that is the jurisprudence of "attachment") to the economic activities of enterprises and persons.  Her  monograph, Responsible Enterprise: The Emergence of a Global Economic Order (Munich: CH Beck, Oxford, Hart, 2018), is a remarkable analysis of the "state of the legal art"in this field and an excellent basis for thinking about the paths already being carved out for going forward (for my review of this work, see "The Enterprise of Responsibility:" Reviewing Birgit Spiesshofer, "Responsible Enterprise). 

Dr. Spiesshofer has recently written a short essay, Green monetary policy - "whatever it takes"? It suggests both the complexities of implementing even the most well meaning policy, as well as the constant balancing that most be undertaken when complex liberal democracies operating in a multi-level (sui generis?) confection of states, regions, and the like, seek to respond to critical issues. The essay reminds us that there is nothing easier to make than a for publication slogan; but that to turn that into viable long term policy, much less operational modalities, becomes an altogether more daunting task.  In a sense, climate change (and the resulting necessary policy initiatives among polycentric governance systems) provides a good opportunity for the EU and its components to lead by example, but also to refine their working styles to further a cause with respect to which everyone on earth has a significant stake. 

The essay was originally published as  Grüne Geldpolitik - „whatever it takes“?only in German, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine Einspruch! (online) Dece,ber 10, 219. Dr. Spiesshofer has translated the essay into English and the Frankfurter Allgemeine has graciously agreed to its re-posting here.

The essay and Dr. Spiesshofer's brief bio follow. 

"Destitución de un gobierno provocado por golpe de estado e intervención de un ejército" ["Removal of a government caused by coup d'etat and intervention of an army"]: Formal Interpretaiotn of Divination and the Political Sensitivities of States: The Ifa Letter of the Year and Political Scandal in Cuba

The intertwining of the State and the institutions of religions are an old story in virtually all of the globe's principal cultures. One need not scamper far into the history books to have described the way in which religion, especially when it has become institutionalized and interlinked with political systems, can sometimes appear to serve the institutions of political authority. That shifting can be as small of interpretive choices, or as large as the corruption of the core rituals and practices of the faith to suit the needs of leaders.  That corruption could be merely political (e.g., the religious institutions are permitted to continue to exist, or their leaders praised and rewarded), or economic (leaders are paid off). Usually, though, the corruption becomes an institutional factor; church and state are so interlinked, so entangled, that it is difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. 

In these cases, it is not necessarily inevitable that either the state or the faith community leadership are corrupt (or corrupted), though that happens often enough that one could be excused if one started with the presumption of personal corruption. In some cases, the cultural expectations of alignment between the apparatus of state and that of religion work to ensure that their operations tend to converge interests and practices. Of course, at that point two perspectives are possible.  The more ancient one posited that such alignment was natural and that the expression of the state was another form of the expression of the religious leadership (at east in public, with squabbling reserved for the back rooms). The more contemporary one treats the acts of the leadership of the faith community as mere political expression, that is as an interpretation of the divine that can be as flawed as any other form of human interpretation of text or act. Most interesting is when the (mis)interpretation come from ether the state or its key opponents; at that point the issue becomes not merely corruption, but an expression of a political opinion rather cloaked in the language of religious practice.

It is at this point that the rituals of alignment--especially divination--becomes corrupted, or corruptible.  That corruption can be said to attach to the divination (or or relevant spiritual communion) itself, or to the interpretation that is made form the divination. And yet at the very moment of the consciousness of corruption, at that very moment, the power of the religious community and its divination is made uncomfortably transparent. Where religious and political communities misalign then corruption assumes a quite different texture--it is manifested post hoc rather than ex ante (that is after the fact rather than before), and treats the misalignment as a failure of operations, or, at worst, as a threat to its political authority.

New Draft Paper Posted for Comment: "And an Algorithm to Entangle them All? Social Credit, Data Driven Governance, and Legal Entanglement in Post-Law Legal Orders"

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2020)

I am delighted to post for comment a draft essay that I have recently finished (or or less).  Entitled, And an Algorithm to Entangle them All? Social Credit, Data Driven Governance, and Legal Entanglement in Post-Law Legal Orders, the essay considers some of the ramifications that follow the transnationalization of law (explored earlier here). Those ramifications are especially important for (first national, and then international) legal systems. These systems, once existing apart and above other forms of governance, now find themselves entangled within rather than above an increasingly complex web of governance orders.  Traditionally understood law "systems" with all their (sometimes much valued) baggage now must find a place within an emerging governance landscape in which multiple systems must accommodate each other within global governance. "These possibilities are radical not in the sense of requiring a substantial break with the past but in the sense of suggesting the ways in which Jessup’s vision ultimately requires a shifting of perspectives about the relationship of law to the state, the state to the societal sphere, and both to transnational law and the multinational enterprise" (Here).  

Legal entanglement, however, assumes a considerably different character when governance orders move from traditional legal pluralism (see here), with its emphasis on transnational legal orders (see here), to the necessity of accommodating emerging forms of data driven governance.  This essay, then, considers the nature of that entanglement  with Chinese social credit systems and Western markets based privatized data driven systems. 

The abstract and Introduction follow.  The paper may be downloaded by clicking on the link provided below. 

Iuris Dictio: Perspectivas contemporáneas del derecho de comptetencia; No. 24 (Dec. 2019)

Publicación arbitrada del Colegio de Jurisprudencia de la Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Fecha de Publicación: Diciembre 2019
Páginas: 172

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/iu.v24i24

Publicado: 2019-12-16

Número completo

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 Dossier 

Iuris Dictio es una publicación arbitrada que se orienta al estudio del Derecho. Su objetivo es difundir investigaciones originales y recientes que contribuyan al análisis y discusión delcomplejo fenómeno jurídico. Con el objetivo de que el debate se difunda de modo extenso, periódico y en el marco de una academia internacional socialmente responsable, Iuris Dictio se publica de manera semestral y todos sus artículos son de libre acceso y circulación. La revista fue fundada en 1998 y está adscrita al Colegio de Jurisprudencia de la Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Se basa en la filosofía de Artes Liberales y, en tal virtud, acoge a especialistas de diversas instituciones y experiencias académicas como parte de su equipo editorial. En su afán de entender al mundo contemporáneo, la revista intenta que cada uno de sus números conjugue el análisis generalista del Derecho con la especialización requerida por determinados temas jurídicos, a través de la publicación de artículos y reseñas innovadores y de calidad por parte de personas interesadas en el quehacer académico. Iuris Dictio se orienta a un público especialista en el Derecho. No obstante, la sección de Entrevistas busca tener un alcance más divulgativo que apunta a que personas que no necesariamente conocen a profundidad el derecho puedan acercarse al quehacer jurídico. 

 
El acceso a los artículos se puede obtener haciendo clic en los siguientes links. 

The Orishas Speak: The 2020 Letter of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra del Año para el 2020 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) and a Preliminbary Interpretation

(Pix ©Larry Catá Backer, La Habana Cuba 2017)

Every religion connects the structures of divinity to the human communities around which their worship is structured and social, political, economic, and cultural communities are organized. To that end, the priestly caste platys a very specific role as mediator, interpreter, and as the incarnation of a social order grounded in divine principles and rules.

In most states, the priestly role has been transformed.  But it is useful, as one examines the priestly role in modern western states, to consider a more traditional relationship between the priest and the state.  One of the more interesting manifestations of the role of religion within political life is that of the priests of the practitioners of the old religions of Africa as re-established in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Marxist-Leninist Cuba.  (here)

That priestly role is exercised in very specific ways among the great traditions of Western Religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  It shows a more variegated vigor among Non-Western religious traditions.  These are well known.  Yet most of these have sought to marginalize the great traditions of African religions as a barbaric variant of primitive idol worship that had been suppressed elsewhere.  And yet those religious traditions remain as vibrant, their theologies as complex, and their practices as rich as those other religious traditions that have sought over many centuries to supplant them.  And so it was in the early hours of the 1st of January that leaders of the various branches of the Afro Cuban religious communities met.

La comunidad yoruba cubana espera ansiosa las revelaciones que transmite el grupo de Sacerdotes Mayores de Ifá que se reúne el 31 de diciembre para dar a conocer, cada 1 de enero, la Letra del Año. Esta es la ceremonia religiosa más importante de Osha Ifá. Comenzó a realizarse en el siglo XIX, desde entonces los babalawos de diferentes ramas religiosas se reúnen para entregar las predicciones y cuidados que se deben tener en cuenta durante el período que se inicia. Los refranes y recomendaciones que aparecen en la Letra del Año son esenciales para que los devotos sepan cómo conducirse en aras de vencer los obstáculos en el año que comienza. Además, es muy importante conocer los orishas que gobiernan, los signos y ritos asociados a estos.
[The Cuban Yoruba community anxiously awaits the revelations which will be transmitted by the Principal Sacerdotes of Ifa who met on 31 December to divine, every 1 January, the Letra del Año. Thsi is the most important religious ceremony of the Osha Ifa. The practice started in the 19th century, and from then on the babalowos of the different branches of the faith would come together to deliver their predictions and cautions  that would to be taken into account during the year. The various parts of the Letra del Año are essential for those faithful as a aguide to their conduct in order to overcome the predicted obstacles and challenges which begin with the new year. At the same time it is important to recognize the orishas who will govern the temper of the year as well as their attributes. ] (CiberCuba, Letra del Año 2020 para Cuba)

And so the great priestly caste of the Cuban branch of the great West African Religions have once again come together to seek divine guidance for the nation, and its religious communities, for the year to come.  To that end, at the start of every year the leaders of the great indigenous religion of Cuba conduct, through a series of ceremonies, a general divination for the country.  The results of that divination, and its advice, is organized into a "Letter of the Year" (Letra del Año) (on the history of the Letras del año see HERE (Historia de la Ceremonia de la Letra del Año )).

La Letra del Año comenzó a emitirse en Cuba a finales del siglo XIX, sin poder precisar la fecha exacta. Por datos y documentos se revela que babalawos procedentes de las diferentes ramas religiosas existentes en el país comenzaron a reunirse para efectuar con todo rigor las ceremonias establecidas, que concluían el primero de enero con la apertura de la Letra del Año. (EcuRed, Letra del Año) (The Annual Letter was first produced sometime near the end of the 19th century.  Existing evidence suggests that the Babalawos of the different branches of the faith in the nation started to gather together  to invoke with all rigor the appropriate ceremonies that concluded on the 1st of January) with the opening of the Letter of the Year).

The object of the annual letter is to provide guidance for the nation and its people.  More specifically it is meant to provide guidance for faith practitioners otherwise unable to receive more specific guidance within their own branch. For the last seven years I have written of the annual letter of the Cuban Council of the High Priests of Ifá (Consejo Cubano De Sacerdotes Mayores De Ifá), the practitioners of traditional religion brought over from West Africa with the slave trade and now naturalized as a powerful indigenous religion throughout the Caribbean and now growing in the United States. (e.g., 2019; 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015; 2014; 2013; 2012). The 2018 Letter was particularly relevant--it stressed that 2018 was to be the year of great revelations that would begin to have transformative effects (more here 2018). 

2020 marked the 5th year of an important change, in which many of the most important branches of the faith came together to produce a unified letter. ("El documento, que copiamos íntegramente a continuación, incluye el signo y el orisha regentes, además de la oración profética. El documento se ha elaborado conjuntamente entre la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba y la Comisión Organizadora para la letra del Año Miguel Febles Padrón." (here); more in English HERE).

The 2020 Letra (Adelanto (oddus and ruling manifestations) and interpretation/suggesitons follows, along with the somewhat abbreviated full predictions and interpretations of the  Yoruba Cultural Society and the Council of Major Priests of Ifá  (with thanks to IPS CUBA for the images).  For this post I include my own interpretation-refections of the 2020 Letra in the form of brief comments on the predominant orishas and on the key oddus which form the basis of the official divination.

In my next post I will distribute my own Letter of the Year, which was also received 31 December 2019, along with commentary. You are invited to consider both now and during the course of the year--as metaphor, as commentary, or as poetry.