HAVANA, Cuba. – Now they thought that each ministry would take care of a municipality for garbage collection and, horrified by the new “good idea”, I wonder which ones will be in charge of the garbage dumps in peripheral neighborhoods (many of them with high rates of marginality and unhealthiness). , of extreme poverty) such as those of Arroyo Naranjo, Cotorro, San Miguel del Padrón, La Lisa (among the most affected) and which will be responsible for the sanitation of the most “cuquis” areas of that “parallel universe” of Playa and Plaza, especially from the blocks near 5th. Avenida and those closest to the residences of those who generated the “initiative”, which is, apparently, where the only Community Services have always operated, and we all know why.
I imagine that those who distribute and distribute keep for themselves what corresponds, so I foresee that they will be the “poor little” ministries of Public health and Energy and Mines, those of Internal Trade and Economy, those of Labor and Social Security, those of Education, which are responsible for serving neighborhoods such as those of Reparto Eléctrico, La Güinera, Mantilla, Vieja Linda, Párraga; while the powerful ministries of the Armed Forces, Interior, Foreign Investment and Tourism will be responsible for the best of Kohly, Siboney and Cubanacán; After all, it is like cleaning up the garden and patio of your own house.
Because the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture, even with the limited budget that keeps them running, are already in charge in their own way of other “cleaning tasks” related more to the “virtual” image, which is tries to sell to the outside, that with the horrendous real aspect of a country that is sinking between garbage dumps and sewage waters, between misery and the many abandonments that people, over the years, have assumed as irresolvable, even as part of their “identity”. ”.
They say they have declared war on garbage (because before that, apparently, they had some kind of “tolerance” or “collaboration” agreement, of friendship with the rot), but the attack strategy revealed, knowing the poor quality of its troops, does not convince anyone, since it has been precisely some of those ministries that are directly to blame for having allowed the accumulated garbage to escalate to the point of becoming a serious health problem.
Institutions such as Public Health, which have among their duties to deploy strategies that protect and benefit the citizen, demand and pressure for the Government to prioritize health care for its nationals, have been distracted by the other “priority” of export medical brigades to the worldneglecting the true emergencies of an impoverished health system where the lack of supplies is combined with the exodus of professionals and labor in general due to poor salaries, terrible working conditions and, above all, the impossibility of good medical practice. .
Ministries such as those of Domestic Trade, which fail to place the “orders” on time in the warehouses, which do not declare war on corruption in their warehouses and stores, which do not have a system to process the garbage generated in their establishments and who dumps mountains of boxes, cardboard and rotten food on the corners, who is more concerned with capturing MLC than with dignifying the Cuban peso, I don’t think he has the qualities of a good soldier for this little garbage war; nor the Armed Forces, obsessed with inaugurating the Tower K and indifferent to the “KK” accumulated in the vicinity of 23rd Street itself.
And we will not continue talking about the other “soldiers” summoned to battle, not so much because of a matter of space in my text but because it will be enough to have as proof of inability—and even indolence—the irritating blackouts, the poor state of public transportation. and roads, the disaster of banking, the mockery of pensions and salaries, the increase in crime on the streets.
So the responsibility for what happens with the garbage is already becoming guilt since those who today are ministers and vice ministers in office are very aware of how much they have collaborated with that last-minute enemy, compromising not only the lives of us “those from below” but of everyone, including generals, leaders, high-level foreign guests and even tourists who still like to practice that high-risk sport that is visiting Cuba.
For some, however, the true and definitive solution would be to eliminate or modify the laws and decrees that prohibit private initiative from creating companies dedicated to sanitation and garbage collection, and for payments for these services to be assumed by governments. local, from the income they obtain from the collection of taxes and others, or from the contribution with money or resources from state companies and individuals interested in improving the image of the environment where they are located.
To a certain extent it could be a viable strategy, at least much more intelligent than turning ministries into brigades of street sweepers, although it is good to remember that long before declaring war on garbage, they had already declared it on MSMEs and self-employed workers, and that this other war will only end with the forced stateization of everything that smacks of “private” and “independent”, two words that, together with the phrase “capital accumulation”, cause severe allergies in the Cuban communists.
What I think about the most recent war, on the other hand, is that it will last little, it will lose effect after a few weeks when the ministries begin to retreat, in a clear retreat of surrender, due to the lack of fuel, because the change of tasks within their companies accelerate the labor exodus and retirements, because it is impossible to produce, export, wait in line for the chicken, wait for the bus for hours at a stop, tend to the self-consumption garden, stand guard, attend the repudiation rally and sweep. the streets of Marianao at the same time. So the war on trash is itself trash. It will be brief and will not end in victory.
