Kabir Vega’s Diary

Because of the dysfunctional nature of our society, the majority of Cubans do not appear to value time. They waste their own time and force others to squander theirs. It doesn’t matter how severely this affects people…

Finding out you’ve run out of rice at around noon on a Sunday is a serious problem in Cuba, particularly when it’s a scorching hot day, the only place they sell the product has no awning to shield you from the sun and people cut in line and throng in the small locale so not to burn up.

Submissiveness is something that I’ve been aware of in Cuba ever since elementary school, my first social milieu. Nevertheless, I still can’t understand how those affected by a situation could decide to do absolutely nothing to try and change it.

In previous articles, I wrote about Dota, a very popular game among the young (even in Cuba, despite our well-known technological limitations). It has caused such a stir that there have been debates as to whether to consider it a sport.

A few weeks ago, my parents picked up a 15-day-old puppy from the street. They found him on the sidewalk, outside a house where dogs where barking ferociously in response to its desperate whimpers. It couldn’t see anything, as its eyes were glued shut by a cold, or walk.

Several weeks after having gone back to my English course and begun new routines, like attending a School for Workers and Farmers (Facultad Obrero Campesina, or FOC) – the only option available to me right now, if I want to complete the 12th grade.

In order to travel from Alamar to Vedado and attend my English class, I am forced to go through a diabolical daily routine I have already given a name to: “the battle over the P-11 bus.” You have to see it to believe it.