Translating Cuba

Source: Yoani’s Twitpics

Many people who don’t know Cuban could have read this article* by a Frenchman who presents himself as an expert on Cuban issues, which encouraged me to offer some clarifications about what can be done with money in my country, information that I have first hand for being a Cuban who lives in Cuba, where the dual monetary system has resulted in a national currency called “national money” and known by the acronym CUP**, which is deeply depreciated, with salaries which are paid in it insufficient, and the other which is the equivalent of hard currency, known as the Cuban Convertible Peso, or CUC**, which is the currency required for almost all products and services.

To ride in a private taxi known as “almendrones” — after the “almond” shape of the old American cars used to provide this service –implies accommodating yourself to the fixed routes that these collective taxis travel. If you go from Marianao to Central Havana, it will be 20 pesos, but if you go to Alamar is will be twice that because you have to transfer to another car, and if this simply trip is after ten at night, the fare doubles again.

If you want or need a home, you should start by inheriting it or building it. Rental housing is a rarity among Cubans, and even if the tax is rent in CUP, the agreement between the parties takes the CUC as a reference, and one-bedroom apartment goes for about 100 CUC.

At the risk of overwhelming my readers, I want to comment on the foods mentioned in the list, because you should know, as the expert does not clarify, that in Cuba the same food can have four prices: The price of food in CUP in the subsidized basic food basket at the ration stores, the market price for the same food not in the ration stores in CUP or its equivalent in CUC, food on the market in CUC only, and last, but not least, the food offered in the black market.

The products in the first group delivered through the ration book for each consumer are:
Soft bread at 5 oz. (per day); and monthly per person rations of 10 eggs, 1 lb. chicken, 1/2 lb. of chicken instead of fish (last year there was no fish), 1/2 lb. of “mincemeat” made from soybeans, 1/2 lb. sausage, 5 lb. kg. rice, 1/2 lb. beans, 5 lb. white sugar and 1lb. turbinado sugar, 2.1 lbs. of spaghetti, 4 oz. of 50% blended coffee and 1 cup of vegetable oil. Children under the age of three receive compotes, up to age seven a quart of milk, and up to age thirteen a quart of soy yogurt. (Sorry if I have not been accurate in converting pounds to kilos, but foods are sold by the pound, and make not my forte. [Note: the translator has converted them back to pounds.])

This monthly allowance costs a little more than 1 CUC. I invite my readers to do the simple exercise of physically checking of these foods to better understand what comes next.

Once the subsidized food runs out, you have to go to the market governed by supply and demand, where the prices vary drastically. As the production is not abundant, either because of so much idle land or because of droughts, cyclones of the Blockade, rice that costs less than 1 CUP here costs 8 CUP for two pounds; grains are more than 24 CUP for 2 pounds, and if you don’t have a child under seven, no matter how much money you have, if you want to drink milk you have to pay for it in hard currency, with a tetrapack of one quart costing 2.40 CUC, or 1.20 CUC for a can of condensed milk, or 1.60 CUC for evaporated milk, or 5.40 for a pound of powdered milk.

As an unrepentant coffee drinker, I know that a cup of “mixed” coffee (with peas or other fillers in it) at any kiosk costs one CUP; a fiction of coffee, a fake; if you want coffee-coffee, you have to pay 3 CUC for the cheapest ground coffee. I’m not the same with alcohol but there is nothing more agreeable than a beer with Sunday lunch, a luxury I only allow myself two or three times a year, because a beer costs 20 CUP or 1 CUC.

But where the gentleman who wrote the article is most greatly confused, is in the price of proteins, so coveted in Cuban because of their scarcity, despite being frowned upon in the modern diet.

Pork, the most consumed and “economical” costs 50 CUP for two pounds if you buy large pieces because in small portions it costs up to 80; eggs are sold at 1.50 CUP or at the equivalent of 8 CUP in hard currency stores.

I do not dwell on the price of other foods because to explain what I can and can’t buy exceeds my patience and would exceed yours. Meanwhile, the cost of electricity if going up; it’s 9 cents only for the first 100 kw, and in my house with three people, with no appliances other than the refrigerator and the heater in the shower, we use 220 kw a month, which is around 60 CUP.

The article, designed to denigrate a well-known figure, manipulates data, with ignorance or malice, which casts a shadow on the credibility of the writer, to use his own words.

Translator’s notes:
*The link in Regina’s post does not work so we have not been able to confirm the article she’s talking about, and will not, therefore, speculate about who its likely author is.
**The monetary values relative to the U.S. dollar are approximately $1.10 per CUC and 24 CUPs to one CUC.

January 18 2013

My lawyer has already filed an appeal which is available for reading in my blog.

This appeal details each and every one of the violations of law committed by the same Justice that has condemned me for “writing with a ’certain’ bias, and drawing letters of a very suspicious size.”

The Justice that seeks put me in a cage is the same one which — a month before failing to prove my “guilt” and condemning me to five years — send the agent Camilo after me to harass, threaten and warn me that I had already been sentenced, a month before the Court issued its judgment.

A process with no guarantees where they invent accusations and dictate a priori judgment. Agent Camilo is so happy in his role as henchman stalker that he does not cease in his efforts to persecute and threaten me, as I showed in a couple of videos.

Again I appeal to international public opinion to denounce the abuses suffered in Cuba by all those who profess no idolatry to the dictator and his criminal system of government.

Translator’s note: Apologies for not having subtitles for the video

January 18 2013

Dear Rafael Correa,

I am dismayed by your government’s introduction of a letter of invitation as a condition of entry to your country. The clarification leaves me more confused: “The paper should state that the Ecuadorian or the foreigner with an immigrant visa who invites a Cuban citizen has sufficient funds and pledges to cover all costs, including medical care, during the stay of the guest.”

I say to you, Correa, that in Cuba we are very humble and do not like to boast of economic wealth, but many people in my country do not need any other citizen of the world to cover their expenses.

As a Cuban, whose salary is not enough to visit Ecuador without a visa or Europe with a visa, I am deeply offended by this drastic change just a few days from the Cuban immigration reform.

If we were Brazil, tomorrow we would include a regulation that asked not only for letter of invitation, but a reserved round trip ticket, bank statements and a hotel reservation from the citizens of your country.

Instead, I hope that my country will continue training, for free, your students in our universities, healing your sick and assisting your nation in social development programs.

Latin-Americanly,

Elaine Diaz

www.facebook.com/elainediazrodriguez)

January 16 2013

Jorge Hojas Puñales

For those of us who comb our grey hair, or those who now haven’t any hair to comb, the French utopia dealing with attempted social change, in the context of that society, was an unreachable goal, notwithstanding the fact that it served as a program. And on a daily basis we see that as regards our own society, and in particular its future, it has transformed into a mirage; it is as if our goals, dreams and hopes, were on the horizon, that line which we can never reach.

How far away we are from being able to say with enthusiasm and credibility that in our society the law is respected, complied with and obeyed by all the bodies which make up our society.

We would like to prepare all the information possible, in order that people may have a sense of all the rules, orders and legal regulations which have been published in the Republic of Cuba’s Official Gazette, produced by the Ministry of Justice in more than 50 years.

Almost every day the Organisations of the Central Administration of State (OACE) publish regulations, and, not at the same frequency, laws, decrees, and legal decrees are put out in relation to the National Assembly of Popular Power (ANPP), the Council of State (CE) and the Council of Ministries.

To preach the law with due respect and devotion, it should not be necessary to undertake actions against those who flagrantly break or violate it, or with impunity fail to observe it. For example, it is sad to see them demolish a building because its construction was illegal. Why does that happen? Simply because of the total lack of respect for the law, both on the part of the person carrying out the work and also the person who has benefitted from the failure to observe it, both private individuals and companies.

What role is performed or should be performed by the lawyer or advocate in the OACE, an organisation, a company or association? As far as we are concerned his main role is founded on the preaching of respect for all current legislation, ensuring his behavior adheres to and complies with it, which is almost impossible to do, given that his boss’s wishes take precedence; he can’t act as consultant or advisor, because at best he is not listened to and at worst he is kicked out for going against his superior’s  decisions.

Everything that we have described, merits a special illustrative space showing how the laws are violated or infringed, which according to us (all of us) we approve. There is an old saying: “killed himself like Chacumbele”. Are we (all) Chacumbele?

January 13 2013

A group of internal dissident leaders on the Island, led by Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, unveiled on Wednesday morning, January 9th, Project Emilia.

This initiative, like the Citizen Demand for Another Cuba, arises from the incontestable fact that the Cuban State is not subject to the law. This, citizen freedom and human rights are undervalues and have succumbed before the needs of the Communist system as expressed in the 1976 Constitution, modified in 2003. Thus, the Emilia Project considers the Constitution and the National Assembly of People’s Power with its organs of State power illegitimate.

The document also calls for the Cuban people to subscribe to this project. Once the signatures are collected, it will be presented directly to the International Criminal Court, the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council.

The 2003 modification of the 1976 Constitution was the government’s reaction to the Varela Project, promote from Civil Society by the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, who died in July, 2012, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas

The Emilia Project takes its name from Emilia Teurbe Tolón, the fighter in the War of Independence who made the first national flag.

Listening to Dr. Biscet reading the document reminded me of a couple of sentences I had read recently in one of the winning essays in the Freedom Road Contest’s 4th edition. They bring light to the cause of freedom for Cubans, as opposed to the Battle of Ideas which is the Communist Party’s ongoing propaganda in the mass media in the country.

“All that freedom requires is that the individual can do something to restrict the actions of the government. I do not believe that imparting positive instruction to the government about what it should do is part of freedom, but the truth is that there can be no freedom if we can not exercise the right to prevent the government from doing certain things.

The only moral principle that once made possible the growth of an advanced society, has been the principle of individual freedom, which means that the person is guided in making decisions  by rules of right conduct and not by specific orders of another individual.” Friedrich von Hayek: The Road to Serfdom.

To be able to change Cuba in a non-violent way, is the aspiration of all members of Civil Society. It is the Communist State which is not in a position to cede territory because it will end up succumbing. Violence is an attribute of government where there is socialism, communism, collectivism, populism.

January 18 2013

When I was a child, I heard my grandmother talk about the hard times of cholera, and of how her family had escaped from this terrible disease. That was all I knew of this plaque, pure history.

And it turns out that now, in the 21st century, in “my beloved planet”, that terrible word is mentioned again. After those stories told by his grandmother María, I again heard about this pandemic when I enjoyed reading the famous novel by García Márquez: Love in the Time of Cholera, passionately losing myself in his unforgettable character Florentino Ariza.

I was surprised, it’s true, that for so many years we had weathered the danger of such a plague, because our beloved island is increasingly sinking into more precarious hygienic conditions die to the apathy and neglect in all sectors, in all social spheres. Thanks to our relentless sun, we have survived some diseases.

I have written a great deal in my blog, about the lack of hygiene and cleanliness in public places, among them, unfortunately, polyclinics and hospitals, as well as cafes and stalls, State and private (some), selling light and not so light food for public consumption, especially for those who do not have hard currency and are forced to go to them.

I avoid at all costs, and so I tell anyone whom I can within my power, not to consume these drinks made with flavored powders, because the lack of safe drinking water is very common, especially in places like Old Havana, where there are the largest number of tourists and local visitors.

Another of the reasons I resist, when the impertinent fumigation brigades, try to break into my house when they want to fill it with smoke from burning oil, is that time has shown that it is completely ineffective in liquidating the famous mosquito, while the hygiene of the environment and the city are so precarious.

Now, more worryingly, and in what must be emphasized to the authorities and the population in general, is the need to maintain the highest possible hygiene in our homes and our environment, so that this outbreak of cholera does not become endemic as has its other relative, dengue fever.

January 18 2013