So When Is the Much-Touted Recovery Coming?
HAVANA TIMES – A friend tells me he has lost his phone. Someone stole his backpack when he wasn’t paying attention, and his cellphone was inside. I tell him that losses are always bad news, but at times like these, even more so. He also tells me about the absurd experience that followed.
When he went to the Communications Company to report the loss of his cellphone and asked whether he could buy another phone line, they told him that the phone lines currently being sold were only for replacements (for people who had lost theirs). He replied that he had lost his too, but they then explained that his loss had happened recently—the replacement lines were only for people who had lost theirs about a year ago.
I told my friend that, in Colombia for example, one of these phone lines costs just one dollar. They sell them to anyone without even asking for identification. And this is what we experience in almost every aspect of life—something that overwhelms us and feels as though it is slowly killing us: the excessive control the State wants to exercise over everything. And what has been the end result?
Chaos upon chaos. And this complete lack of efficiency, affecting even the smallest things, is truly criminal. Something as simple as trying to get a phone line so you can communicate, only to be told that you can’t have one now—that you must wait at least a year.
And if only communications were the only thing in shambles. We’re talking about education, healthcare, transportation, food, electricity, water… it’s everything. It is truly devastating to have to exist like this. To know from the outset that through legal channels you won’t get anything. And that you will end up dealing with the illicit market over and over again, constantly, because otherwise it is impossible.
Adding to the tragedy of living in Cuba is having to endure political speeches at “patriotic events” proclaiming that “no Cuban will be left abandoned,” while in reality the exact opposite is what people are experiencing.
It is very difficult to believe that a government can continue holding onto power much longer under these conditions. And we are all living in a state of waiting, in that mindset of “something has to happen.” Waiting for change, without ever being allowed to rest.
At the same time, thousands of people embark daily on a one-way journey off the island. That is how things stand. And naturally, the speeches coming from those in power are heard less and less, while a separate world is gradually taking shape—until further notice.
More than a few people believe that notice will come soon.
Read more from the diary of Lien Estrada here on Havana Times.