To Whomever God Gives, St. Peter Blesses

Rosa Martinez

HAVANA TIMES — The title of this post is connected to my personality. That’s how I am. I’m glad if a neighbor builds a new house, paints their old one or makes any other home improvement.

I get the same feeling when someone gets a new job that results in a significant improvement for them – either in better wages, hours or working conditions.

If someone leaves the country, this all goes without saying. One more person is going to leave a little misery behind. And if they are leaving for good then I wish them well, wherever they wind up.

There must be more than one person who doesn’t like me and is even happy with my misfortunes, but I for one am a person who doesn’t enjoy misfortunes – not even for those who might be considered my enemies.

The people who I consider unpleasant, I try to keep at a distance, but even for them I hope they can get everything good out of life.

I’m saying all this because if I tell people that I was really upset that the singer Haila Maria Monpie (or simply “Haila”) was showing off her home on a video that has been circulating throughout Cuba, you might think I’m envious – but I’m not.

If someone has a lot of money and wants to spend it on buying three houses, it’s up to them – just like I wouldn’t care if they spent it all on shoes or flowers.

Everyone does with their money what they think is best, and neither me nor anyone else should interfere.

What’s unfortunate though is that a figure of Cuban culture like Haila is engaged in recording a video of her home and all the luxuries she has instead of opening a record company to support new talent.

Alternately, she could open a music school for children and youth of the capital, or at least buy toys for the many children in our country who are suffering from cancer.

If she had shown a generous attitude toward people in her area, maybe I still wouldn’t have like seeing her show that off for the whole world to see either, but I’m sure that in that case this post would never have been written.