HAVANA, Cuba.- Most people in Cuba tend to speak out loud. That is why when I am in the doorway of my house I hear some conversations from those who are walking on the sidewalk. I have felt the curiosity to write down some of them; and the conclusions I draw are very clear: few talk about personal things, most refer to the problems that exist in the country, and that affect them as well as their families, and the whole of society.
From what I have compiled I transmit some fragments. These are conversations that show how difficult life is for any citizen on this island.
This is what they say
-“The water hasn’t arrived” “I had to go in at 12:30” (at that time it was 6:00 pm / my neighbor with the water collector).
-“I’ve been around the neighborhood and I can’t find toilet paper for the child, not even in MLC” (a woman with a three-year-old boy in a car).
-“Just in case I put: the Revolution takes care of children” (A group of high school students)
-“I hope they don’t turn off the electricity today, because yesterday we had two blackouts.” (A couple with two school-age children)
-“Fifty pesos three malangas, no way! I can’t handle that” (a lady who regularly passes by the house told me).
-“The whole night without sleeping because of toothache, and without a pill to take” (an elderly man, almost toothless, along with another very similar).
I imagine that anywhere in the world people who walk down the street or meet someone they know talk about perhaps even trivial problems, but in Cuba even conversations are linked to day-to-day difficulties. This allows us to affirm how difficult it is to live in this country, convincing us each time that there is no solution to these issues.
The regime’s speech
And it is that outside the virtual and deceptive language that the regime maintains, there is no concrete action that allows visualizing, in the short term, a solution. At least for some of the problems that have lasted more than 60 years.
And it is that Raúl Castro’s speech in 2007 always comes to mind, in which he stated that all Cubans should have the possibility of having a glass of milk. 15 years have passed, milk was withdrawn and now almost not even children can drink it, because it has become an unattainable and non-existent item in the country.
Unfortunately, Cuban families, when the children turn seven years old, cannot supply them with more milk. But more painful is that many children have never been able to eat foods like beef steak; a good fish or shellfish. They have not even been able to have an ice cream or a soft drink. And what about going to the beach, having toys, at least two pairs of shoes; something like a bicycle, rollerblades, or a doll.
In general, life in the country is very sad and difficult. From the time ordinary Cubans get up, when they don’t have coffee for breakfast because the quota is barely enough for three or four colas, until when they go to bed, their bellies are often empty, especially at the end of the month.
Naturally, all this is made worse for children and the elderly. Some elderly people, with very low monetary resources, solve their moments of hunger with herbal teas such as: orange leaves, soursop, linden, chamomile and even paciflora.
Continuity
There is no doubt that those in power at the moment are “continuity”. They could rather say that they are the sequel to what was badly done, and it remains in the same line without caring about the people at all, much less the development of the country.
It is difficult to find a “president” as vilified as Miguel Díaz-Canel, at the head of a dictatorship that lies even in front of the United Nations Organization. This week he affirmed that in Cuba there is no Compulsory Military Service.
Meanwhile, for the government of the island, the task of the moment is to make the Summit of the Americas a failure, and for this they have already given precise instructions to some of the “puppet” leaders of Latin America, so that they begin the show of the no assistence.
To carry out this type of sabotage events or discredit a personality, or someone who opposes the dictatorship, they are efficient. For the rest they feel “blocked”, and incapable of producing, providing services or creating any type of material good to help the people of Cuba to get out of this great pothole in which they are stuck.
OPINION ARTICLE
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