Cuba Needs a Vaccine Against Blindness

Cuba Needs a Vaccine Against Blindness
July 4, 2012

HAVANA TIMES — We Cubans urgently need a vaccine against blindness,
because many of us are either blind or going blind – which aren't the
same things.

And take note: I'm including myself, because sometimes this kind of
blindness can be picked up. That's right; it's contagious.

When we're in a bus, most of us seem like we're praying. We're usually
rolled up into balls and piled up on top of each other, but it doesn't
strike us that situations like this continue year after year. Yet
nothing happens. On the contrary, many people become infected with
blindness. Despite the crowded bus being packed to the rim, they'll say
the bus is empty.

It's laughable, because how is it going to be empty if passengers are so
close to one another they can barely breathe. I even think that that
someone could be raped and no one would notice. This situation I've
classified as Level 1 Blindness.

Level 2 Blindness occurs more frequently. In Cuba there's no haggling
over prices. You can go into any farmers market, and even if the produce
is rotten, the price is always going to be the same. It's regulated.

Fruits and vegetables might be in the most horrendous shape imaginable,
compelling the vendor to draw upon their blindness resource. So, with a
big smile from ear to ear, he or she will tell you how the produce is
simply delicious, or how the decomposed bananas are sooo sweet. Yet
finally we make the purchase – it's the only option we have.

We get home with the produce, wash it to get rid of the parts that are
in the worst shape, and then we take advantage of the best parts.

But then there's Blindness Level 3. Much has been said in the media
about the Coppelia open-air ice-cream parlor. Television broadcasts
stories about how the service is so good. But is that the truth? The
fact is that you have to visit it and then you'll realize that much of
what is said isn't true. I've corroborated that right on site.

I've seen workers who violate the rules of hygiene, coughing on deserts
without even covering their mouths. The ice cream is never really
scooped well, and the customers know they're served poorly.

But what happens? Nothing.

All of us turn to our share of blindness. Many things we see are wrong
but we have to turn the old blind eye, because the employees have to
live and make a living, and to do that they not only have to steal from
the state but also from the people.

Yep. Because when a butcher doesn't distribute each family's share of
rationed chicken correctly, those who they're robbing are the poorest
people. When you buy the rice — which we all know is more expensive now
— and the clerk gives you two ounces less than what you're supposed to
get, those who are being robbed are the people. But all we all know is
that the clerk is usually skimming a little off the top here and a bit
more there, because that's how they make their profit.

So, who's responsible for fixing this mess we're in?

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=73572