The Cuban economist Mauricio de Miranda Parrondo also condemned the last pearl of the official discourse on the Island.
LIMA, Peru – The recent statements of a doctor of sciences invited to the program Squaring the boxbroadcast by Cuban Television (state), have caused a strong controversy by questioning the place of central foods in the Cuban diet, such as potatoes and rice, in the midst of a prolonged production and supply crisis.
The comedian Ulises Toirac and the Cuban economist Mauricio de Miranda Parrondo reflected on social networks about the latest pearl of the official discourse on the Island.
In a biting tone, the comedian recalled times when you had to “thread very carefully” to sneak in a joke with political overtones and overcome censorship on television, while now the officials and authorized figures themselves make laughable speeches in front of the country.
“And it turns out that nowadays anyone comes and in the middle of a food situation that makes you want to cry, it occurs to them to say that we shouldn’t eat so much rice or potatoes or spaghetti! I just don’t know whether to insult me or nod my head in the same tone as ‘they’ve hit rock bottom and move forward’, or break down laughing,” Toirac wrote.
The artist pointed out the imprint existing on the Island as a result of Spanish colonization and the arrival of African slaves, as well as Chinese migrants and centuries of cultural heritage. “Don’t you know that all of them brought their customs, religions and foods?” he asked.
In Cuba, despite the official’s statements, millions of people consider potatoes and rice not only as basic foods, but as symbols food safety in a context of chronic shortages, inflation and deterioration in purchasing power.
“The normal people of this country no longer choose what they are going to eat. They choose the privileged ones. People reach out for whatever they can (…) Respect, please. It is already known that they are in the wrong. Don’t give any more signs, people are on fire!”, denounced the comedian.
For his part, economist Mauricio de Miranda Parrondo referred to the “confidence of such statements” that condemn the consumption habits of a hungry people.
The treasurer highlighted that in the midst of the controversy, many viewers have overlooked strong statements by the other invited engineer, José Carlos Cordovés Urquiza, general director of industrial policy of the Ministry of the Food Industry.
“He stated that ‘there would be no choice’ but to sell some products in dollars in the domestic market to ‘raise’ (there is persistent, the idea of extracting income from society that as it is now has almost nothing to extract and from their relatives abroad) the foreign currency to acquire the necessary inputs to relaunch the food industry,” he stressed.
Miranda Parrondo pointed out that the Cuadrando la Caja episode is another example of the level of disrespect that the official media on the Island, governed by the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, feels among Cubans.
“They disrespect us and despise us because we have allowed it; because we have remained silent; or at most mocked (because of that preference for the joke that Jorge Mañach spoke about and about which Don Fernando Ortíz also wrote) of the string of stupidities with which they have tried to deceive us to hide their ineptitude, expressed in a structural crisis that has become a debacle,” he highlighted.
The debate on food sovereignty and import substitution is not new in Cuba. Since the beginning of the so-called “Special Period” in the 90s, the State has promoted speeches and policies aimed at reducing external dependence and modifying consumption patterns.
“Enough of immorality and shamelessness,” said the economist.
