Veronica Vega’s diary

I grew up hearing that I was extremely lucky to have been born in a system whose government promised social justice, something that only existed in socialist countries, I was assured.

A person I hold in high regard recently expressed: “Cuba’s main problem is the Wet foot/ Dry foot Policy. Because of it, we Cubans feel like we aren’t responsible for changing for what negatively affects us in our own country. We resolve everything by jumping into the sea.”

My friend recently told me that he feels like he doesn’t understand Cubans anymore, and that he feels out of place. “I don’t know if it’s just me who’s got it wrong”, he said confused “but I see so much craziness everywhere.”

I’d begun a post commenting on Irina Pino’s “The death of my father.” I wanted to write about the brutal indifference in hospitals in Cuba, when processing a deceased person – something that also should be considered a service.

Cuba is returning to normal. What’s normal for Cuba is for people to struggle to survive, as Obama and the American Dream retreat, once again, to a distance of 90 miles.

That a foreign leader should speak of the real needs of Cubans for the first time in more than fifty years is much more than one of the numerous “surrealist” details of our history. It is the implacable victory of time and logic.

In Cuba, where emigration has been a pressing issue for decades, people tend to think that the solution to the most serious problems is to be found in a passport, a visitor’s visa, or a raft. Death, however, is a country more immediate than any other…

I am convinced that mediocrity does not actually exist. That is to say, I do not believe mediocrity stems from something we lack. It is, at most, a choice. We all have a unique gift, which could be as simple as having a pleasant personality, the ability to give others hope.

I want to thank readers for their comments regarding the post To Leave or Not to Leave Cuba. To my friend Rene, who appears to be sincerely worried about me, I would like to ask whether he’s offering psychiatric services.

In a conversation we had between the many of us who write for Havana Times, somebody brought up the topic of choosing to emigrate and the editor said that it would be a good subject for us to discuss: whether we would leave or not, and why.