Necessity is the great equalizer

Necessity is the great equalizer

Marilyn Díaz Fernández, Sindical Press

HAVANA, Cuba - October (www.cubanet.org) - Although imposed equality is
the law of the land in Cuba's Communist society, we all know life is a
seesaw; somedays you are up, somedays you're not.

Somedays, though, circumstance becomes the great equalizer.

A few days back, several people patiently waited for some form of
transportation at the entrance of the old Siboney sugar mill, 20
kilometers outside the town of Sibanicú.

One was a doctor, another a captain of police; there were a lawyer, an
army officer, a drunkard and one that appeared to be homeless, and
lastly, an engineer. That would be me.

We all milled about, waiting for something to come by that would take
us, presumably, given the late hour, home.

Finally a semi truck stopped and its crew agreed to take us. The vehicle
had a fenced bed that had most recently transported cattle. Stepping
carefully around the fresh and very fragrant cow dung, we each found a
place to stand for the trip.

And so we traveled, young and old, men and women, more than fifty in
all, holding on the the bars in the fence and all equally anxious to get
to our destinations.

For the length of the trip, neither age nor gender, neither a university
education or military rank, differentiated us. We were truly equal