The country is falling apart and I’m talking about french fries. Do I think it doesn’t affect me? Of course it does, greatly. Although overflowing with situations about which I could comment, I didn’t feel like doing so. The new year seems like nothing more than an interminable prolongation of the old. Like an over-chewed piece of gum that turns to a piece of plastic in your mouth.
We ended 2011 with a series in the media about the fifty-third anniversary of the Revolution, speaking badly of the United States and clamoring for the return of the five heroes. As if it were a mantra. You don’t even need a dictionary to know the difference between a hero and a spy. Ultimately, 2012 has continued singing the same tune.
Meanwhile, commodity prices continue to rise, as do scams, robberies and assaults.
The small jar of one hundred grams of Nescafé Dolce just fifteen days ago cost 2.15 CUC, now all of a sudden they have risen it to 3.80 CUC. No public protest, everybody goes along very quietly, muttering, and when a brave soul complains out loud, others are slip away and say they haven’t heard a thing. Much is said in the press and television, about the rise in prices in Europe, the outraged in capitalist countries, but we are not informed about our own outraged. Must be because it has become chronic and seemingly incurable, being an everyday part of the moral and material burden we carry with resignation.
The newspaper Juventud Rebelde, however, exposed a scam on a citizen from the Monaco neighborhood: on December 20, he bought a Spanish nougat 3.30 CUC, apparently sealed at the origin. However, when he opened it on the 24th for Christmas dinner, imagine his surprise in discovering that the content was a piece of board painted brown. There was no one to complain to, as it had already been many days since the purchase in question. This same thing is happening with packets of Turquino coffee at 3.45 CUC, which appear to be factory fresh, but when opened turn out to be filled with bad coffee, what many citizens call “dishwater.”
Realizing that with so much good news, my attitude these days is that the only thing I’m ready for is making french fries.
January 10 2012
