Osmel Almaguer’s Diary

With the money I’ll receive for my journalistic collaborations, I was planning to take care of some of my most pressing problems.

Several times a year the Cuban Telecommunications Company makes tempting offers to increase their number of cellphone subscribers. Typically, this is at the end of the year, when they offer a phone card balance of 30 CUCs (about $33 USD) to whoever buys a line for that same amount.

The government says that if Cuba’s companies aren’t profitable, then it won’t have the money to pay the workers a decent wage; while the workers say that if they’re not paid more, it doesn’t make sense to work hard all day.

Though private food services in Cuba haven’t succeeded in outstripping state-run food services, in the sale of day-to-day consumer articles this isn’t the case. This is due in large part to a strange solidarity between private vendors.

After several years of Cuba’s great “energy revolution,” the debts shouldered by the Cuban people to the government for the purchase the energy-efficient appliances are beginning to take their toll.

My mother’s scooter is red not only in color, but also because it belongs to the socialist state, that being an abstraction of what we are all supposed to be a part. That’s why the scooter doesn’t belong to her.

Everyone knows that Cuban baseball is not enjoying its finest moment. One problem that’s been fully discussed is the imbalance between its pitching and batting capabilities, with the latter possessing an overwhelming advantage.

I’m here at the bank where I’m unable to cash a check for 100 pesos ($5 USD), which I earned for the articles I’ve written. The cashier said the signature was invalid.

In a rigid but also chaotic system in which there are too many people experiencing unmet needs, things that begin as curious can turn into the pitiful.

Since the issuing of licenses was approved many people have gotten busy putting together their own businesses. This is occurring especially in the areas of food service and the sale of light articles like handicrafts, clothes, etc.