Elsewhere It's Called "Stealing," but in Cuba We Call It "Resolving"

Elsewhere It's Called "Stealing," but in Cuba We Call It "Resolving"

An uncertain summer awaits us, where they announce power cuts, higher
prices and where there is even a prediction of an emigration stampede.
Many Cubans, however, faced with the dilemma of solving their daily
problems or trying to change something, prefer to concentrate on
personal survival. They organize an escape from the national borders,
evade the laws or, what amounts to the same thing, turn to crime. There
are not only those who climb through the window of a warehouse at night
or grab the backpack of an innocent tourist, but also the warehouseman
who alters invoices or the custodian who breaks the seal of the
container he is protecting. There is a socially accepted way of breaking
the law that consists of stealing from the State. It includes the waiter
who adds to the prices or introduces goods into the restaurant the he
purchased to sell as if they were "of the house" and the shopkeeper who
changes the list of customers at the ration market so he will have
leftover goods.

The line of illegality also extends to the hotel desk clerk who, in
cahoots with the manager, rents a room off the register, the taxi driver
who makes a trip without turning on the meter, or the lathe operator who
produces a piece "outside" the production plan. The customs officer who
lets prohibited objects through, the police who don't impose a fine, the
housing official who speeds up an application, the teacher who raises a
grade, and the inspector who becomes blind to the violations he should
report.

The walls of the bubble that protect the speeches are strengthened by
the profits from these "misdeeds," but they also discourage public
protest. The fruits of so many illegalities end up on the counters of
foreign currency shops, they are exchanged for the rechargeable lamps
that will light some houses this summer. Meanwhile, outside, who cares
that the blackout reigns.

Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.

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Yoani Sanchez: Elsewhere It's Called "Stealing," but in Cuba We Call It
"Resolving" (22 June 2009)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/elsewhere-its-called-stea_b_218626.html