Sights from Havana’s Streets
Photo feature by Elio Delgado Valdés
Text by Elvira Pardo Cruz
HAVANA TIMES — Cuba is unquestionably a rapidly aging society. The care afforded the elderly by our welfare system, and the country’s achievements in the field of medicine, serves to prolong the life of individuals. This has led to a phenomenon in which families are often composed of three and even four different generations, making the housing situation more difficult.
There is less and less space in the city and the square meters per inhabitant increasingly fewer. To what extent is the migration of peoples from other provinces in search of a better life in Havana understandable and justified? Is Havana not a part of Cuba? Would it not be more advisable to create new opportunities for people, help in the local development and progress of their respective places of residence?
When we go out to street, we see crowds of people who give us the impression that they do nothing the day through. What is their livelihood?
Cuba is a beautiful country. Agreeable environments are to be found across the entire island. It is up to people to impel progress and development for the benefit of their communities. Cuba’s social problems aren’t solved by simply moving from one province to another.
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We can’t say whether the sight of very old people in Cuba is one of the visible side-effects of Fidel Castro’s decision to make medical services free-of-charge. If colossal numbers of very old Cubans died in the space of one decade, it would be a sign that the free-of-charge medical services are starting to show fatigue in guaranteeing high life expectancy for all Cubans.
With the Antarctic ice slowly melting, we should ask the authorities to send the oldest of the old in Cuba to live in Antarctica because we are crusaders against overpopulation. The Cuban leaders don’t mind if the population of Cuba decreases, because they virulently oppose overpopulation, being heartbroken that the mullahs in Iran want families to have more and more children. (It would be a very, very evil thing for Raul Castro to send the elderly in Cuba to the countryside to starve to death just like Hitler banished homosexuals, euthanized, and retarded to death camps)
It is the generous welfare policy of the Castro family regime which provides an old age pension of 200 pesos ($8) per month. One has to respect the Cuban Doctors for the care they provide to all their patients. The Doctors receive even more “pay” from the generous regime a total of some $35 per month.
The problem of crowded housing is not peculiar to Havana. It applies across the length and breadth of Cuba. Permission is required for non-Havana residents to move into Havana. Neither is Havana alone in having crowds of people with apparently nothing to do and yet agricultural production diminishes in a country with hundreds of thousands of acres of good agricultural land lying fallow and reverting to bush.
The aging population is a consequence of younger generations leaving the country whenever opportunity presents itself – marrying tourists, absconding from touring sports teams, taking a raft or as recently described in Havana Times, entering the USA from Mexico as a political refugee.
The regime is building some new houses in our community but they are for the military not the citizens.
Viva Fidel
Viva Raul,
Viva los Castros
Que controla todo y todos
Gracias para la generosidad!
Very nice set of pictures Elio. What type camera are you using?