Lockdown Tears at the Fabric of Our Society
By Ammi
HAVANA TIMES – It’s no secret that violence is on the rise in Cuba. Brawls on the street, at the beach, in lines, femicides… Everything stinks of poverty, hunger, death and desperation for ordinary Cubans. It’s as if they couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The breakdown of our society has sped up amidst the pandemic. “People are aggressive, you can barely talk or brush past someone.” The lack of transparency in the government media doesn’t reveal what Cuban people’s lives are really like today.
While the government is trying to counteract this with fraudulent propaganda campaigns to depict everything as perfect on the island, the Cuban people are fighting to survive with the bare minimum.
Women are suffering once again during this lockdown with a curfew. Many Cuban women are living the worse moments of their lives, right now.
The need for basic products (hygiene and food) is driving the vast majority of them to despair. They can’t choose between standing in a 3 or 4-hour line and exposing their children to the virus.
Plus, women are once again facing a rise in domestic violence as their partners are drinking heavily. This is due to a lack of work and the stress of five months in lockdown.
However, the news doesn’t cover the deaths of women killed by their husbands, or the need for a law to protect them.
Some are convinced that the psychological scars that COVID-19 leaves behind, will be unrepairable. I would dare to say that in spite of us having tough and resistant skin, today’s situation is heading towards a social explosion. Something might already be in the works. The breakdown of our society during this lockdown shouldn’t be measured in numbers, but in NAMES.
You are a wild optimist Stephen in thinking that “the ruling government” of Cuba might jettison Revolutionary ideals!
Cuba only has an administrative group of appointed officials described as “government”. It remains a dictatorship under Raul Castro Ruz, who is largely responsible for the revolution as the calculating power behind his figurehead brother. That was clearly illustrated by nothing changing when Raul took over the so-called Presidency and when Fidel died.
The chances of Raul’s Cuba becoming pragmatic are nil!
Ammi paints a very bleak, pandemic pessimistic, picture in her country, Cuba. As she witnesses all around her domestic violence increase, unemployed youth, drunken men/husbands probably through no fault of their own having to stay home because of the pandemic but probably more to do with the drastic, dire economic state of the country.
The pandemic is felt around the world in various degrees of discomfort but certainly not as soul destroying as men, women, entire families relegated to having to stand in long lines, mandatory masked, standing in an unbearable hot sun, for hours on end hoping that by the time they reach the front of the endless line there will be something to buy and bring home to children waiting to be fed.
In Canada, how many people I have spoken with who find wearing a mask for just a little while unbearable even in a cool, dry, Canadian climate. Compound that in Cuba with unbearable heat, scorching sun, face sweat dripping down, and daily, deep depression to the mix and one can surely sympathize with Ammi’s perilous pandemic plight and its ravishing effects on Cuban citizens.
In most democratic ruled countries, the health authorities provide health information through news broadcasts that can be fact checked so that residents know what is expected of them and what the future brings regarding the perpetual pandemic. Not so in Cuba apparently.
Ammi witnesses how her government through its professional propaganda Ministry machine fraudulently campaigns and states without compunction that everything is perfect on the island. How can that be? The ordinary Cuban on the street earning CUP pesos is not allowed to buy basic necessities, such as food, because the majority do not have access to the American dollar or it’s convertible CUC.
On the evening news does Cuban television interview ordinary Cubans who are struggling day to day to feed their families, moreover, families just trying to survive without proper pay or access to those stores that only the privileged few enter and satisfy their needs. No.
Ammi concludes that the very social fabric of the country is ripe for a “social explosion” enhanced by the pandemic. What can that mean and/or entail?
History tells us that when a country cannot feed itself and chooses not to address this admonition rapidly and directly, treats its citizens without dignity, falsifies news through overt propaganda that residents know to be untrue because citizens see the contradictory reality on the streets daily, all these negative factors lead to major potential upheaval in one form or another. Ammi has every right to be very, very concerned.
She alludes that “something” might all ready be happening. Let’s hope that that something be an optimistic future whereby the ruling government quickly gets its collective act together and jettisons Revolutionary ideals and works pragmatically towards making all Cubans proud, prosperous people, despite the pandemic.
Thank you Ammi The Future of all Tourist need to understand the Reality of Life in Cuba Now & the Years Before Cuban Lock Down. There has been So Much Hidden from the Rest of the World. Until Today.