By Iroel Sánchez on August 30, 2022
photo: Roberto Suarez
It is very hard what we are going through in Cuba, so to look for culprits in these circumstance is more than a logical temptation, although not always fair. No management is perfect, much less one that is carried out under conditions of war without quarter that not only has economic effects, but also political and psychological ones, which makes any mistake multiply its consequences. Justifying oneself with it is not an option either, it should not make sense for those of us who know how our people, guided by Fidel, have faced and overcome the most difficult circumstances since the revolution. The only possible option is to expose the truth before that invincible people, as is being done now, I believe.
However, when I see a Cuban resident living in this island asking in the role of cybernetic prosecutor why we did not repair the thermoelectric plants in 2021, I look at myself, I see and touch myself, still alive like him. I look at the death rate from Covid here and I find that it is half of the rest of the countries of the Americas, and then I remember that without income from tourism and remittances, with all the sources of foreign exchange cut off by the genocidal Trump Administration and his continuator Biden, Cuba spent the money it had and the money it did not have to make him, me, and our relatives and friends, twice as likely to survive the pandemic as any inhabitant of another nation in this continent, while preserving jobs and salaries, which generated a huge fiscal deficit that must be solved urgently, as must be solved the undesired effects of an order that today is recognized had design errors .
And those who are happy because someone says what they want to hear denied us in that same year 2021 even oxygen and offered vaccines when we were already vaccinated like everyone else, and although all that did not cost a penny to that someone or to me, to our fenced in economy that could not repair the thermoelectric plants in time it did cost, although that is invisible. And yes, I share my light and my blackouts with him, as I will share the fate of the bombs with the “opponents” who believe the missiles come with address, ID number and a big sign that will say “only for communists”, if someday, thanks to opinions like his, those in front of us are wrong and believe we are divided enough to not be able to defend ourselves.
But if that does not happen, and thanks to the fact that Facebook is not Cuba and its people are not what the empire pays to put up on the screens about us, then this difficult moment will pass, as others no less difficult have already passed. I will share with him again doctors and vaccines, although not respect and affection, because, as the word of the Master says: “Poverty passes; what does not pass is dishonor”.
Source: La Pupilia Insomne