Cubans have seen their standard of living deteriorate like never before in the last 100 years.
HAVANA, Cuba. – For the vast majority of people who live on this planet, enjoying electric light service is a normal event in their lives. It is not at all considered an element that indicates a high standard of existence, such as owning a good car, living in a comfortable home or being able to vacation outside their nations.
For the average Cuban today, however, having electricity service in their home is practically a luxury. In this sense, it is confirmed that the Cubans of the Island, by the work and grace of the Castro regime, have seen their standard of living deteriorate like never before in the last 100 years, a time when at the end of the 19th century electric current was stably inaugurated in the country.
The average Cuban lives with the permanent anxiety that at any moment his power will be interrupted and a blackout will occur, and thus he will be forced to alter his daily routine, in addition to having to give up his favorite radio and television programs. If the blackout comes at night or early in the morning – a situation that has occurred very frequently in recent days – then we will have to fight against the relentless mosquitoes that will make it difficult to fall asleep.
Later, when after several hours of waiting in the dark – a period that usually lasts longer in the towns in the interior of the country – the light returns, you have to run to do things before the next blackout returns: recharge your mobile phone and any lamp that serves to illuminate us in moments of darkness, use the washing machine, and even cook if you depend on a queen pot or other household appliance to prepare food.
Added to the inconveniences caused by the blackout is the impact on drinking water service to homes. Many sources of pumping the precious liquid depend on electricity for their work. After which citizens must contact a private tanker car – if they wait for the State to provide one for them, they may die of thirst – to fill the cisterns in their houses or apartments. Pipe cars that regularly charge between 3,000 and 5,000 pesos to provide that service.
The officials of the Electric Company and the Ministry of Energy and Mines now have almost no way to justify the recurring anomaly in the electrical service. When there is no shortage of fuel, a failure occurs in the dilapidated thermoelectric plants, which generates a deficit in the installed generation that is impossible to mitigate.
On the other hand, the population is tired of official speeches that announce a hypothetical improvement in the electrical service every time a member of the high nomenclature goes out to negotiate abroad. What has the promised Venezuelan, Vietnamese, Chinese or Russian aid been done to solve the energy crisis that Cuba is suffering? What was the fate of the famous Turkish nonsense with which President Erdogan wanted to help his friend Díaz-Canel?
The future looks extremely bleak for Cubans in energy matters. If this debacle that we currently face, when we enter the winter stage and electricity demand decreases, is repeated in the summer months, when high temperatures cause an increase in electricity demand, we foresee an increase in suffering for the population.
Even the saving work of non-state economic actors – saving because these are the ones who make up for state shortages – could be affected because they will have an electricity consumption plan that, if exceeded, will lead to the closure of these establishments.
