Por Alain Rivero
HAVANA TIMES – Cubans are once again facing a “special period”—that is, a crisis in everything, including, of course, energy—reviving the ghost of the dreaded blackouts of the 1990s. Back then, people coped with their bitterness through dark humor, calling them “alumbrones” (light-ons), because power was available for such short bursts of time.
It feels like a show of problems meticulously crafted for the entertainment of those who suffer through it.
- Blackouts lasting four, eight, even twelve hours…
- Power on and off in the morning! Off and on at night!
- Off and on four times! Off and on twenty times!
- You don’t have electricity today but your neighbors do? Don’t worry, tomorrow neither you nor your neighbors will have it!
Try it now, and in just a few days you’ll remember the “joy” of living in medieval times!
So much so, that many participants in this mandatory “reality show” have asked the “organizers” not to bother restoring electricity if they can’t even clearly say when it will be available—if at all—as a technology and not just a dream.
But of course, a scrawny, beaten dog doesn’t even have the right to stop eating. If it tries to fast in surrender or protest, the despotic master only needs to shove it in a cage or strike it again to remind it that not even death belongs to it. And so once again, cold, hungry, and in pain, the master shouts that it’s had enough to eat and sends it off to guard the property, at which point the creature comforts itself by thinking:
“If my master pretends to feed me, I’ll pretend to stand guard.”
That’s what the scrawny dog thought, with rebellious eyes, but is that the right attitude?
Electricity is not a luxury. It’s not something you can do without. It’s an inherent need of the modern world. Maybe state employees can pretend to work, but printing services, scanning, photography, USB transfers, day-to-day services that require actual customers, can’t just pretend when the power goes out.
And not just in the private sector. Even in a state-run shop where the only payment method is via bank card, if the power suddenly goes out, customers have no choice but to return the merchandise and leave empty-handed. It’s even worse when it’s a legal procedure or any bureaucratic process that requires officials to access a database or follow a digital protocol.
Yet nothing compares to the terror of a home without gas, where lunch and dinner depend entirely on a small electric stove. When the power goes out, the blame always falls on the mother for not anticipating it, for not reading the blackout schedule. But even if she does, it doesn’t matter—the schedule is never followed. By the end of the night, there’s only half-cooked or poorly prepared food, furious parents, and children crying from hunger, boredom, and the punishment of being sent to bed exposed to heat and mosquitoes.
Never in history has anyone been respected for their submission. If you lower your head so they don’t hit your face, you’ll only end up offering your neck on a silver platter. Since ancient times, between opposing factions, enemy countries, kings and subjects, mutual respect between the high and the low has only emerged when the lower side shows that, even if it gains nothing, there’s a limit to what can be taken from them. There is one thing that cannot be stolen:
“Dignity…”
Maybe if the dog had shown its teeth, maybe if it had shown some dignity, the master would respect it, and today, it would be eating better.
