Christmas Threats
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi
After having taken a personal inventory of 2012, I’ve seen that the GECAL workers were more offensive than usual, and although we tried by all means, it was impossible to avoid confrontations. In mid-December, the situation worsened to the point where the threats escalated after the arrest and release of the independent lawyer Yaremis Flores.
At first I came to think there were prejudices and paranoia were it not that one of the most aggressive neighbors we had, said threateningly:
“The U.S. blockade doesn’t put ’this’ (the country) bad, but the internal counterrevolution!,” he shouted at the top of his voice while he stared at me, and I tried to calm my husband down.
We don’t allow ourselves to be provoked and so everything was left the same. That same day, around 11:00 in the morning, some GECAL workers, friends of the neighbor who shouted at us, began to walk around and put boards in the old backyard of the house, which adjoins the bathroom window and the kitchen. I talked to them beside the toilet and asked them to please not put anything there because that area is under litigation, the bathroom window is really low, they have plenty of room elsewhere, etc.
The request was what they needed for the crowd to grow and to begin uttering threats of hitting me. They even said that if I dared to call the police, the punishment would be worse. Good thing I decided to be quiet and move back just in time. That way, I couldn’t even see their faces, but we heard the shouting and the insults.
Although we carried on with the childcare activities, at dusk I made a complaint at the Aguilera police station. What goes around comes around… a few weeks later I refused when they tried to convince me to drop the charges.
So, a sad 2012 Christmas came to my family. As a complement, I had an interview with the municipal director of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in Diez de Octubre, where I had the opportunity to explain the reason for the prestige achieved by the daycare centers served by ACDEI. This academic year 2012-2013, the first group of preschoolers started school successfully.
The official asked me repeatedly how the idea came up to establish private nursery education. She said that officials of the Diez de Octubre Municipality of Education claim that I must go through the pre-school learning methodology. No surprise if it’s true what they say. Lying is a very popular business tool in this island. Our project is based on an NGO, the Cuban Association for the Development of Primary Education (ACDEI), which is about to be approved. At the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice (MINJUS) they angrily asked me the same thing:
“How did you get that idea?”
More surprises cause us to worry:
1. The children learn in appropriate conditions.
2. The owners and their employees gradually become educators.
3. We don’t charge for our services to the daycare centers.
4. That there be advocacy and outreach to the citizens of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In Cuba, being a Cuban citizen and defending our rights irritates the State. Any state entity thinks they are better than the ordinary citizen.
Gecal’s attitude is no exception, it is the rule. Months ago the police had explained to that constructive government group, in particular its director, that until the sentence is carried out in that area they can not perform any activities, or use it as their own. A bad memory? Yes, particularly when the applicant is a civil society activist who speaks to the public about the reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Regarding the continuing threats, it’s not long until we get used to it. The verb “to threaten” is used a lot in Cuban society.
He or she threatens,
They threaten,
We are all threatened…daily.
Translated by: Michelle Eddy
January 27 2013
The First Stage of Cuban Childhood Education
In 1961, with the creation of Children’s Circles (Daycare Centers/State Nurseries), the Cuban Pre-school Educational System is created. Until that time, there existed in the country approximately 300 initial education centers, essentially for children 5-6-years-old. In 1980, per Resolution 577, regulations for Daycare Centers are created, and in 1981, per Resolution 430, a new scholastic curriculum is established.
Per Law 76, decreed in 1984, Mixed Circles (boarding/nonboarding) and homes for parentless children are created.
Preschool children (5-6 years of age) were educated in Primary Education until 1992. Then, as it was deemed to be the last development period within the early childhood phase, its direction was determined by the preschool educational system.
Preschool education is not obligatory in Cuba (OEI, 1999), though it is the minor’s first education phase. It constitutes the first subsystem of the entire National Educational System. It is endorsed by legal documentation and in the Republic’s constitution.
The Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación/MINED), under the Direction of Preschool Education (Dirección de Educación Preescolar), outlines political education and methodologically directs the educational activities of the entire subsystem. It consists of the maximum technical and methodological authority. There are departments subordinated to provinces, municipalities, and regions. All are obliged to adhere to the educational politics and directions originating at a centralized level. They control and adjust educational activities in their territory according to the politics of the Cuban Communist Party (MINED, 2010).
This primary teaching has as its objective achieving the maximum integral and harmonious development of the child, from six months of age until five years of age; while consequently facilitating his/her learning at the commencement of primary schooling. In the practice of governmental education, this initial general education phase is essentially organized in two ways: institutional (child groups and preschool classrooms in primary schools), and not institutionally with the Teach your Child Program (Programa Educa a Tu Hijo). The same takes into account three fundamental variables:
– Children’s group for children 0-5 years of age.
– The informal ways (not institutional), from birth until 4 years of age, perfected with the program Educate Your Child (Educa a Tu Hijo) effected through the service of professional promoters, volunteer activists and the child’s family.
– Preschool grade at the school for children 5 years of age.
Generally, children gain acceptance into the children’s group such as in school per their age group, so far as they reach the corresponding year of age by the 31st of December. Education in Cuba is state-run; the majority of school settings are subsidized by the State. The children’s group charges a reasonable fee to the parents for the assistance services; educational and health services are offered for free. Only working mothers or those in a predetermined social situation have access to the service.
There is a group of children ages 0 to 5-years-old who are assisted in private nurseries generally when the mother works outside the home. In these locations the children are mostly looked after by women who carry out these activities by way of the state. A small part of this establishments belong to the Catholic Church and other institutions, where the preschoolers are availed better benefits and many more resources than those at children centers or regular nurseries.
At present those who wish to open a private nursery are required to apply for a health license, pay taxes, if not retired, and submit to periodic visits by inspectors. In the capital the minimal fee per child per month reaches 10 CUC ($9.00 USD), not including food, clothing and articles of personal hygiene for the child. In Havana, based on figures obtained by ACDEI, the majority of this nurseries offer assistance services. Governmental documents reflect children participating in the program Educate your Child (Educa a tu Hijo) since the age of 3. Available additional information regarding the development process throughout the country is not sufficient.
Translated by: Anonymous
October 11 2012
I don’t know why you think …
What a sad life if you don’t see!
don’t see the guitar
don’t see the woman
don’t see the sparrow flying away
when it’s about to rain
nor the little lizard
on the wall.
Song, poetry by N. Guillèn
I went from the internet straight to the police station known as the “eagle’s nest”. Earlier, some activists told me that about 5 pm at the Acosta police station nobody was there anymore. The brave activists of the civil society, who were there, were beaten and thrown in jail. Around about 7 pm, and in effect there was nobody around.
I was also at risk of being detained for the simple fact of going to the police station to ask about and show support for those arrested.
As they explained to me later, the State Security order was:
“Straight to the slammer with anybody who comes to ask questions!”
That Tuesday 6th of November, I saw at the eagle’s nest police station a relative of the activist Mario Moraga, who was also imprisoned. One way or another, God helped me, and a polite police official was prepared to see me. On learning about Laritza Diversent, the only independent lawyer being held there, they asked me if I was a relative, and with sincerity I said:
“We are like family. We work together for the rights of Cuban youth,” I replied.
He looked at me strangely, asked for my identity card and then went off inside the premises, I don’t know where. I had to wait quite a while, but I wasn’t being held.
When the card was returned to me, I went off with my tail between my legs. I hadn’t been able to find out hardly anything. The police weren’t authorized to give me information, they explained:
“The official in charge of the case will be here tomorrow. Ask him your questions.”
From Tuesday 6th November up to Friday 9th at midnight we passed an anxious time while they let us know little by little that Yaremis Flores, Laritza Diversent and other independent lawyers had been freed. Nevertheless Antonio Rodiles was still being held.
The way I see it, the important thing is that although I knew my investigations could mean I ended up in jail, I never felt aversion for any police agent. They have hit me on other occasions. Now there was someone who was looking at me with disdain. Others pretended not to notice anything. An official shouted at me for asking something, and I replied to him like I do to my students: with lots of patience, and in a gentle voice.
Teachers are facilitators and teach by example. Anger and contempt have to be banished by anyone who really loves the teaching profession, especially if those we are teaching are little boys and girls. I know it’s difficult. Nevertheless, quite clearly, this blog is essentially from the Cuban Association for the Development of Infant Education (ACDEI Cuba) and we dream that Cuban boys and girls will one day read these lines. We want them to know the feeling that always was and will be present in us and in those texts in very difficult moments. One of Nicolas Guillen’s poems best describes our feelings – he is the author of the unforgettable verses “A Paper Boat is floating over the Sea of Antilles.”
I don’t know why you think …
I don’t know why you think,
soldier, that I hate you,
if we are the same thing,
I,
you.
You are poor, me too;
I am from the lower class, so are you;
where have you got the idea,
soldier, that I hate you?
It pains me that sometimes you
forget who I belong to
for goodness sake, if I am you,
I am the same as you
So, what you have done is not a reason for me
to dislike you
if we are the same thing
I,
you,
I don’t know why you think,
soldier, that I hate you.
We will see each other, me and you,
together in the same street
shoulder to shoulder, you and me
without hatred, neither me nor you,
but both of us knowing
where we come from, me and you,
I don’t know why you think,
soldier, that I hate you!
Translated by GH
December 18 2012
2012-2013 School Year: Student Dead, Assasinated and Judgment Escaped
Someday the sun will shine
In my backyard…
The Shining by Stephen King
In the clear air it seems that imagination comes alive, leaving the reins of reason. Every day, Raisa Medina sees her son return from school to go out play again, while sky and vegetation lazily spin with a slow roll, an idle globe.
The words, the sounds are dispersed in a buzz. Since any court, with shouts of annoyance will respond:
- The sentence isn’t!
With a shudder, Raisa regains sanity and looks away from the precipice.
Son Alain Izquierdo Medina: 14 years old. Dead on the afternoon of July 15, 2011
Place: Mamocillo arbor, Havana.
Cause of death: anemia
Other aggravating factors: Climbing a fruit tree on a farm accompanied by two minors who were unharmed.
Guilty: Amado Interian, retired police officer.
Facts: Shot at the teenagers. Amado Interian had time to hide and tried to evade justice for the second time.
The act of valor shown from the mother of Alain Izquierdo, Mrs. Raisa Medina, the intervention of Dr. Laritza Diversent (www.elNuevoHerald.com) and other efforts carried out by civil society, including the complaint to the Committee of Experts UNICEF, managed to transfer him to jail.
However, with the boy Alain Izquierdo dead, the mother gets bad news.
- Your boy didn’t die from the bullets, but from anemia.
- Problems in holding the trial.
- Information unconfirmed: the guilty escape. Unknown prison.
Other than these facts, the woman is hindered. She wants the copy of the judicial sentence to be the victim of her son.
It is unnecessary to explain what the death of a child means to any progenitor. But day after day, this mother feels like they’re opening her in pieces. She suffers deadly hits, burying her son in an uncertain justice, for being a black woman she receives stabbings disguised as generous offers. Additional hits because of poverty. Like a colophon: NO JUDICIAL SENTENCE
The comments abound.
God allow the rumor of the murderer’s flight to be false. Hopefully God will intercede for that mother and at least give her the consolation of having a copy of the sentence of the crime. Otherwise, it’s a question of time. Other Raisas will suffer.
Sons and phantom daughters, wandering without hope since the beginning until the end of every school year. Death and the Ungovernability, parties through the streets of Havana, saying hello to other boys and girls.
- Will we get time to pray?
- Blessed Virgin, pray for the death of this boy. Make us feel better. Do not allow more terrible news.
“Retaliate against mothers”
“Cuban infants, better victims”
“They assassinate another black boy”
“Cuba: dead justice”
Translated by: BC CASA
September 15 2012
Spaceman Solo
The dancer dances surrounded by cords. He is lonely. Amid ropes, some chairs also take up the insufficient space. In front of the man, the spectators watch. Mozart’s music sounds different inside the show. The dancer wears white; he moves, suffers each gesture he makes. Desperate he raises a woman’s hand in the auditorium and take her into stage. They dance.
The woman follows the steps a few moments but it’s not enough. The artist sits her in a chair. And in that way he acts with other audience members. They dance. Each companion becomes part of his pain and performance; though he goes on dancing alone. The music ends.
“I’m cold, cold, cold,” the interpreter exclaims. Now on the stage are many people but no one helps. The guests on stage doubt. What’s going on? Should they help the artist? Except for the ropes, nothing moves. They are the stage and the obstacles of the dance.
“They arrest an artist as in a fugitive criminal hunt.”
This perfomance has other aims: To emotionally disturb other creators, friends and their families? To tear to pieces the beauty of the world of art and communication?
Orlando Luis Pardo was recently detained in a cell for several hours. It’s not enough being a photographer to capture the talent of the Cuban blogger’s images. I look for the picture “A newspaper seller.” It takes the breath away of the most unwary. The seller could be from Haiti, Ethiopia or Somalia, but no; he is Cuban. Yes, from Cuba; that exemplar island in education, health, beaches. It’s a shame the photograph makes him doubt.
“Is he really Cuban, that man of the picture, black, clown or poor; or all at once?”
The image of that person wearing rags and newspaper disturbs each onlooker.
The ropes that surround the best Cuban bloggers, male or female — very soon any blogger — resemble those of the work “Spaceman Solo” by choreographer Narciso Medina. Ropes with their own names: Harassment, Suspicion, Humiliation. Caustic spiderwebs, omnipresent to cause an immense loneliness; to paralyze the artist regardless the occupation: photographer, writer, sportsman. It’s the same.
Those ropes want to silence — especially — the humans with inspiration, a stunning gift that Nature deals at random.
The signs show that there is so much nervousness in the government’s highest spheres. There is no money, no youth, no magic wand effective to show how Generation Y broke the dike. On the contrary, the Blogger Academy discovers the recipe to forge talents. It does not even have to get close to the potential “abductees”. A cloud of infectious blogger air. Infection that in the end expands as a virus or a bacteria: invading a living creature and multiplying in him. Immediately, the change.
The bloggers Orlando Pardo, Yoani Sánchez, Luis Felipe Rojas, Wilfredo Vallín and many other lucid people are a problem. Their work is in the net of nets. To top it off, with a boomerang effect behind the detractors. Talent, communication and technology. The end of loneliness.
Translated by: @Hachhe
September 14 2012
Executions in Alphabetical Order
It does not matter if you are superstitious or not. In Cuba anything can happen; even the most unimaginable of things.The three Parcas, the Fates, are out on recess in Cuba.
Why deny that they are interested in the Spanish alphabet to cut the threads of their canvases? What will be the next choice? Silliness??
P,Q,R,S…
The sudden death of the renown opponent leader in Cuba, Osvaldo Paya Sardiñas is full of enigmas. Leaving all accusations and suspicions aside, ten months before another Sakharov prize winner passed away: Laura Pollan.
Pollan, Laura, with her first surname with P. Paya, another P. A mere coincidence, if the also well-known mason opponent Gustavo Pardo weren’t finally obliged to go into exile after being pointed as a CIA agent in the last rerun of the TV show “Razones de Cuba”(Cuba’s Reasons). First aired on monday march 22 of 2011.
Such accusation, for any Cuban, is a clear death sentence by shooting.
In the Greek mythology, the Parcas are three goddesses who determined human life and destiny. Known in Latin as Parcae and as Moiras in Greek, the Parcas assigned a part of good and evil to each person at birth, although by the own clumsiness the evil could be increased.
Melancholic maidens or severe elderly women, portrayed in art and poetry, always were represented as weavers.
Clotho, the Spinner, who spins the thread of life.
Lachesis, the distributor of fortunes, decides their duration and assigns their destination to each person.
Atropos, the Inexorable, carries the feared scissors that cut the thread of life at the right moment.
Did Lachesis intervene to save the life of the mason Gustavo Pardo?
Does the Inexorable Parca Atropos have a list of Cuban dissidents whose surnames have the initial P?
Around 15:45 of 23 July 2012 a gray hearse brought the body of Oswaldo Paya Sardiñas to the entrance of a church of Cerro, in Havana. The car plate was HXX190 or HXX901 or HXX091? It’s hard to remember in the middle of the emotional hit and three hours waiting.
The Funeral was supposed to start at 8:00, then changed to 11:00. The address of the church was another dilemma solved by SMS messages sent between friends and acquaintances. It was recommended to forget the doubts and wait in the park outside the church, next to the news agencies cameras and the political police.
The hearse plate adds 1 and is an interesting number (9 + 1 = 10). The plate of the crashed car in which Para Sardiñas and other 3 companions were traveling (T 31402) also makes 1 according the numerologist criterion, those who practice the divination through graphs and numbers.
More than 400 people attended the prayer for the dead, a brief Catholic Mass in honor of the deceased. The applause of the attendees after the immense courage and activism of Paya lasted about 10 uninterrupted minutes. The priest’s voice was barely able to control the cheers and shouts of Freedom. Only when the troubled widow spoke, her voice turned the pain and anger int a respectful silence.
The National Anthem or Bayamo Anthem sang by the attendees, seemed like a scream more than a march. Paya died near Bayamo, at the east of the island.
The report of the UN Committee against the Torture (http://media.elnuevoherald.com/smedia/2012/06/01/11/28/ thvNr.So.84.doc ) states that Cuban civil society and its families are under risk conditions. Therefore the international community must be on the alert. Also Cubans, wherever they are.
It’s time to protect the Cuban alphabet letters of the Opposition, among them, to those more common or those they bother, as the S, the V, the F.
At anytime, the three spinners change the threads and letters. Their last patch started from the end. The Parcas played with the hunger of Z from Zapata. After the feared maidens they beat to death the S of Soto Villar. Amid this net, without a doubt, are other cut threads.
Perhaps a rough day, the severe elderly women will jump to the beginning of the alphabet to sweep away whatever they find. The decisions of the Parcas can not be altered, even by the gods.
A, B, C,…F,G,..
The blind scissors are the worst part of the thread. It’s never known when and which thread will be cut.
- Cut again.
- No, it’s fine.
- I wouldn’t be so sure.
- These threads are strong
- Go on! Cut them all!
Translated by @Hachhe
August 7 2012
Blogger, Therefore I Am
The execution of the sentence of case 174 from 2010 remains without solution and the procedures to get back my house’s backyard are still under a sabotage
On Wednesday August 22 I went for the umpteenth time to the Diez de Octubre Court. I was lucky. At least I talked to the President of the Civil Chamber. I asked her why she didn’t take all the incomplete work from the GECAL Director to the prosecutor’s office as she herself included in the act. She went mad!
- Your function is to resolve it! No?
One of those present began to laugh. She said something funny?
Suddenly the president of the Court arrived. I talked with him a few minutes. All I get was that he would give me an answer from his interview with the Chief of the Chief of GECAL in early September. I asked him for a copy of his formalities in writing. The laughter continued.
It occurred to me to ask if I could submit an appeal for the space the company Gecal wants to take from us, a name changed while still belonging to the Government of the province of Havana.
The magistrate recommended going to the Court of Cerro. With the changes, this is where the appeal on the grounds of unconstitutionality and other civil proceedings under the Diez de Octubre municipality are handled.
I went immediately to the Court of Cerro. They informed me that I have to do all the processing through a lawyer, even if all the documentation of the file is in the Court of Diez de Octubre (¿?).
I asked God for strength and managed to get myself to the center of town to talk to my lawyer. I asked if he would continue representing me. In sum, with prayers and inquiries, the general tour lasted three hours. A package adorned with the dismal urban transport. Walking is health.
Concluding that the blows of life give strength, I take every trip to learn some laws: Property damage, an appeal, writ of protection of fundamental rights. Not bad for an ordinary citizen.
I got home and found the pots empty. The refrigerator desolate. Non gratus!
I’m starting to believe that in Cuba it’s more fun to try to enforce the law than to cook.
I lost my interest in good cooking!
Also I have to write for the blog. At least Plapliplo is a break.
I hesitate for an instant.
-Family, wait a little bit.
Yes I’m a blogger: I post therefore I am
Translated by @hachhe
August 28 2012
I Am Going to Continue
I am going to continue believing when people lose hope.
I am going to continue loving, although others sow hatred.
I am going to continue building, when others destroy.
I am going to continue speaking of peace, although in the midst of war.
I am going to continue illuminating, although in the midst of darkness.
I am going to continue sowing, although others step on the shoots.
I am going to continue screaming, when others remain silent.
I will draw smiles, on faces with tears.
I will spread cheer, when I see pain
and offer reasons for happiness where there is only sadness.
I will invite those who stay put to walk with me
and raise the arms of those who have given up.
Because in the middle of the desolation, there will always be a child
we will look at, hopeful, waiting for something from us, and still in
the midst of a storm, somewhere the sun will come out and in the midst
of the desert a plant will grow.
There will always be a bird who sings to us, a child who makes us smile,
and a butterfly who brings us her beauty.
But… if some day you see that I no longer smile or call, just
come closer and give me a kiss, a hug, the gift of a smile,
that will be enough.
Surely life will have slapped me
and surprised me for a second.
Just your gesture will set me back on my path.
Don’t ever forget.
Gabriela Mistral
Pseudonym of Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, daughter of a rural professor, poet and Chilean diplomat. She was a distinguished teacher. In Mexico she worked on educational reform with José Vasconcelos, another important educator, philosopher and Mexican politician.
In 1945 the distinguished Chilean teacher became the first Latin American writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her literary pseudonym showed her admiration of the European poets Gabriele D’Annunzio and Frédéric Mistral.
August 14 2012
XII Session Summer Schools for Industrious Teachers
To Educate: Requires belief that change is possible
More than 250 teachers and educators involved at all levels of teaching from the provinces of Mayabecque and Havana exchanged and updated their educational experiences by participating in the 12th Summer School for Teachers. On this occasion it was held from 30 July to 3 August at the Queen Mary Institute headquarters in the capital.
The organizing team, made up mostly of members of the National Catholic Education Commission, promotes these activities in other provinces. Matanzas and Cienfuegos had their own school this year.
The annual event organizes workshops and lectures by local and foreign teachers, who are called facilitators for the role they play as instructors and counselors in each workshop.
The daily work sessions are intense, from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM. They also last several days, which correspond to the vacation period for teachers. However, the effort and enthusiasm among participants is supported by a high academic rigor and relevance of the topics covered.
In order to improve the work with toddlers, since June the Cuban Association for the Development of Childhood Education (ACDEI) registered five educators from private nurseries to attend the event.
Four people attended, including ACDEI coordinator. Day by day they were surprised by the interest awakened the association’s proposal. Surrounded by teaching professionals they learned:
- The knowledge gained during a year is relevant when compared to other nurseries in the city.
- The constant inquiries from attendees about the project show surprise and interest in implementing the objectives of the Cuban program “Educate Your Child” in private nurseries.
- Children in the day care centers with pedagogical training this year will begin school assessed with various tests used by educators with the assistance of a psychologist. The results show that these little ones, thanks to work undertaken together with their parents, are ready to begin their school life.
- From now on ACDEI members and educators face new challenges. One of the most important is lifelong learning about teaching methods appropriate to the learner’s developmental history, family situation and home.
In short, we will continue fueling the dreams and self-esteem of the young children and their families with love, knowledge and the inseparable daily work.
August 7 2012
The Sugar Queen and Candies of Gold
The children’s party started at 4:00 in the afternoon. The girl’s father had twice postponed the celebration because of difficulties with the customs documentation of the package, a package of jams brought on an AIR FRANCE flight and deposited in Havana’s “José Martí” airport.
In addition to the decorator, the restaurant manager, the brightly colored cake, the clowns and the photographers, they had to wait for the sweets. Finally, amidst piñatas and light refreshments, the candies and chocolates were distributed to the more than fifty little playmates invited to the party.
The little girl took a few swings at the two dolls — piñatas adorned with flowers and shiny paper — and they exploded, raining down a shower of color that covered the floor of the rented room. The mothers present crouched down discreetly, along with their little ones, and picked up candies.
It seems no one remembers that Cuba was once the world’s leading sugar producer. Its inhabitants now pay around 0.70 CUC per kilogram of refined sugar.
While there are exceptions, and a limited supply is available, domestically produced candy is generally of lesser quality yet similar in cost to that priced in American dollars. For example, a 25 gram packet of Chico Chico brand candy costs 0.95 CUC. The average monthly salary in Cuba is 18 CUC, the equivalent of 20 US dollars.
Prices for candy on sale in shops and candy stores are:
Any brand / Hard or soft / for 1 (Approx 3 grams) / Minimum $0.05 CUC
Alka brand /Hard / for 9 (29 gr.) / Min $0.30 CUC
Menthoplus brand / Hard / for 9 (30.6 gr.) / Min $0.20 CUC
Soberana brand / Hard / 600 gr. / $2.85 CUC
Dori brand / Hard / 700 gr. / $3.40 CUC
This price list demonstrates how seven pieces of candy, the amount found in a small Alka packet, can cost as much as half a kilogram of sugar (0.35 CUC).
One piece of candy is a sweet delicacy, more a treat than a necessity. In a country where food is very expensive, it is unlikely one will find cheap sweets.
Proper childhood nutrition is vital, yet a kilogram of powdered milk costs at least 5.00 CUC — an extravagant price — putting it out of reach for thousands of Cuban families. What to do? Not buy candy?
To deny boys and girls this pleasure would be cruel. Childhood passes quickly. I believe it is better to pay whatever it costs and forget about the price.
The saying goes that a father and mother must, to the extent they are able, make sure their children’s lives are happy. Acting without remorse. Spending money without “closing your eyes and gritting your teeth.”
When the “little angels” are grown, what they will remember most are their toys and sweets.
Luckily, the hard times pass.
August 7 2012
