This sign says it all: “Transfers are not being accepted, connection problems”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — The employee moves the mouse with agility. He connects the hard drive that a client has brought and begins to copy folders with movies, music and video games. The heat and successive operations activate the computer’s internal cooler, and a purr fills the small place, one of the many points available to buy the paquete semanal [weekly packet] in the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, in Central Havana. In the midst of so much technology and digital files that come and go, a sign stuck on the computer lands in a more analog and rudimentary world: “Transfers are not being accepted, connection problems.”
The Cuban government’s attempt to extend electronic payments, a fundamental pillar of the so-called bancarización — banking reform — runs into countless obstacles every day. To the suspicion of merchants, who see in virtual money a strategy of the authorities to have greater control and surveillance over their income, are added the difficulties with the mobile phone data service, indispensable for any operation of this type. “The inspectors come and want to fine us because we don’t have the option of shopping through QR codes, but today the internet hasn’t worked for us all day,” complains the young man, while collecting cash from a woman who arrives in search of the latest episodes of a Turkish soap opera.
In the midst of so much technology and digital files that come and go, a sign stuck on the computer lands in a more analog world
In much of the neighborhood the situation was being repeated. A market with powdered milk and vegetable oil where customers put their hands in their pockets and take out a lump of bills to pay the bill. A private restaurant that says on the menu that you can pay for the portions of vieja ropa and tostones with just “a click of the mobile” but that did not have a connection to the web this Friday either. A religious object store where not even the orishas had managed to activate the 4G signal on the saleswoman’s cell phone. Everyone, at some point in their business, had the little square module printed with all the information for electronic collections, but in no case did it work.
Not even the ’orishas’ had managed to activate the 4G signal on the seller’s mobile phone
“They can’t blame us individuals because Etecsa is one of the group who invented this bancarización thing,” said the technician from a nearby appliance repair shop. “They invented a solution and created another problem,” he continued, while an old woman sitting in front of him counted a dozen 100 and 200 pesos bills to collect enough cash to buy a rice cooker. A few inches from the woman’s wallet, a piece of paper, crumpled and stained by moisture, showed the tangled structure of a QR code and the chimerical phrase: “Quick and safe, pay here.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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