The Worst Things about Capitalism

Nonardo Perea

HAVANA TIMES — I’ve drawn up a small list which could have been endless, in which I’ve written down the worst things I’ve seen about capitalism.

Please take note that I use the 12 days I spent in the Czech Republic as my reference, the only capitalist country that I have had the opportunity to visit.

• When they tell you you have to be somewhere at 9 a.m. in the morning and you have to get there five minutes beforehand. This is unbearable. In Cuba, we’re used to arriving half an hour late, it’s normal here, and then we justify our lateness with any silly old excuse, like for example: the alarm didn’t go off or I had a stomach ache, etc.

• People smile at you, and depending on what time of day it is, they can say “good morning” or “good evening” to you. How awful it is to waste ones breath every living minute! Here, this type of greeting ended a long time ago, only some strange critters keep on practicing this courtesy.

• How clean the streets are, which is terrible, because they’re so clean that it makes you want to cry, and the best thing about it is that it reminds you of our own streets, more specifically my own streets in Marianao, where we have a garbage heap as well as a defense committee on every block.

• The food, how disgusting, is so varied and cheap that you’ll end up wanting to eat Cuba’s rice and beans, why would you need to try new flavors? This implies a large gustatory effort, by the way, which is very counter-revolutionary.

• The transport is the worst thing of all! A metro that passes by every 2 minutes and the trams come every three to four minutes. A disaster, at some point I thought that the result of so many trams moving at the same time could cause some kind of accident. Personally, I prefer to wait 10 or 20 minutes for a bus, or chase after one, or walk where I’m going which is much healthier.

• You can dress as you please, even put a bowl on your head, and nobody will shout insults at you; people are too respectful over there, they don’t care what you’re like, they make you feel free. I felt completely invisible, I prefer that they shout atrocities and throw stones at me, and that there isn’t a lot of freedom, it’s much more enjoyable.