Punching Bag / Rosa Maria Rodriguez Torrado

A “bus” in provincial Cuba. Source: www.terminalia.org

Cuban society is the crazy punching bag on which the Cuban leaders and the national media train, and sometimes beat up. If there is an epidemic of dengue fever or some other illness it’s the people’s fault because they don’t maintain adequate hygiene in their home and in the city; as if we were responsible for vector control, trash collection and street cleaning.

Of if some neighborhoods lack water, while others are flooded because the leaks aren’t fixed, or the dumpsters are overflowing… it’s our fault. They also criticize us for not properly covering our water tanks, and breeding the Aedes aegypti female mosquito, which carries dengue fever.

In the first place, why should we store water at all? If we were guaranteed that it would flow from the taps, no one would take the trouble to store it, much less in the inadequate containers where we do so, because the plastic tanks they sell in the store are prohibitively priced for the average Cuban. So We must make do with what we have, as the majority of the population solves its problems.

The city buses always break because they’re always overloaded. It’s common to hear on the television or read in the press reproaches about people writing their names on the backs of the seats or the bus stops — something clearly wrong — but they don’t call attention to or make any mention of the over exploitation by the competent State authorities, which constitutes official and institutionalized mistreatment of the transit equipment.

We can’t freely enter and exit the country because we will conspire with the enemies of the regime — a vain and speculative pretext — nor can we watch international television channels, because they are full of slanders “against Cuba.”

We can’t freely access information or the Internet which is the fault of the United Stations and the transnational media corporations, who constantly defame the revolution. If there are blackouts, it’s our fault for consuming too much electricity, and if the salaries are low it’s the sin of the workers who don’t produce, etc.

Then, you must agree with me that the authorities, instead of putting on the gloves to beat the undeserving culprits and injustices of society, should hang them up and give new people or groups, with new or different programs and mentalities, a chance to promote the common good and happiness of Cubans from an effective power, so that we all live together in our national home and democratic, plural environment with the genuine rule of law and social justice.


August 28 2012