Payday in Havana

By Eduardo N. Cordovi Hernandez

HAVANA TIMES – Today is the fourteenth of the month. Since the first day, the magnetic cards for withdrawals were already activated by the banking system, making available the corresponding salary for this month through a visit to an ATM.

Like me, many people “work remotely,” a term referring to the activity of carrying out tasks at home for which we earn a salary, a procedure that became popular during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Once it passed, this way of working has shown the benefit of its extension and establishment as a means not to overcome, as this voice seems too optimistic to me, but rather to assume with conveniences the economic crisis situation in Cuba and that is no secret to anyone.

The matter would not be significant if there were minimal and logical conditions to achieve the desired effect.

The reality is that there are not enough ATMs for the entire workforce to be paid with a magnetic card, even though not everyone gets paid on the same day. Likewise, even though the ATMs are available twenty-four hours a day, and some people may have some savings or other income allowing them to wait to get paid. Another option is to enter the bank to collect at the counter and not use the ATM. One can also make many purchases without using cash, using bank transfer mechanisms via mobile telephone apps.

These seem like many alternatives and that our state of technology is wonderful. But how sad, it’s not like that.

The meager number of ATMs that already generate enormous lines and crowds of people, and that, in many cases, involve hours of waiting, occur under the “hot sun of our eternal summer,” to put it in terms of tourist marketing. This insufficient number of ATMs is sabotaged because some (which sometimes are many) are broken, run out of money, or it simply rains, or even simpler, the power goes out. Let’s say, so that it’s not said that one is exaggerating, “for a couple of three-hour stints.”

One might think that choosing to collect directly at the bank counter will be faster. Well… not at all. Usually, only one teller is working, even if there are several empty windows. At the entrance of the bank, most users arrive and mark their place in the two lines: the one for the ATMs outside and the one for the counter inside the bank, but the population of interested parties does not decrease.

It is noteworthy the enormous number of elderly people who attend these marathons. These people often suffer from chronic illnesses, which means that they cannot stand for long, they have to go to the bathroom to urinate frequently, or can’t last standing under the sun, even with umbrellas, making the experience something like torture for them.

If one were not intelligent, one might think that everything belongs to a design whose purpose was to make people suffer. But who in their right mind could come up with such an idea? Well, don’t believe it. Many think it is deliberate. And even say it.

Well, today is the fourteenth, and I, for these and other reasons, have not managed to collect my pay yet. Which ones? Let me tell you, I sell my cigarette quota. Since my son is registered in the Ration Book corresponding to my family unit, I also buy the quota of everything that “belongs to him.” So, it’s as if I had two Ration Books for the purposes of cigarettes and food. It’s not the case with oil because it’s sold per household and not per person. Since I barely consume oil, I sell the container, a plastic bottle similar to those in which sodas are sold. It costs me forty pesos, but it can be comfortably sold for a thousand, and the eight packs of cigarettes from the quota cost me four hundred pesos, but I sell them for eight hundred with extreme ease. Besides, I may do some extra work until I manage to get paid.

Read more from the diary of Eduardo N. Cordoví here.