By Tania Díaz Castro, UPECI
HAVANA – Elderly Cubans who make up 14 percent of the population are
the ones suffering from the economic collapse of the Castro government.
Not only is the problem of housing affecting them, but the price of food is
beyond their monthly income, which is less than five dollars for the great
majority.
The panorama of the daily life of the Cuban elderly is visible to all. Every
day they go out on the streets, looking for the four or five pesos (less than 25
cents) needed to be able to put in their stomachs some of the food sold at
modest prices for local currency: poor quality cold cuts, sometimes rotten.
Old Havana is the municipality with the greatest number of elderly, who can
be seen begging from tourists, or trying to sell them something.
They can also be seen in other areas where, for example, they buy a
newspaper for 25 centavos and sell it for a peso. It can be said that they make
a joke of police efforts to prohibit private sales on public thoroughfares.
The Federation of Cuban Women has participated in a plan to resolve the
problem of the lack of specialized institutions for the elderly. One idea, for
example, is for someone to look after an elderly person in exchange for his or
her dwelling.
According to government estimates, 1.5 million Cubans are elderly. That
means that by the year 2025 Cuba will have one of the oldest populations in the
world. Why is this? Is it because on any given day the state hospitals carry out
an untold number of abortions? Or is it because the massive exodus which Cuba
suffers is composed of young people?
Recently a 76-year-old woman who lives in Vedado told me that she went to
the shops of the Electrodomestic Repair Company to see about repairs for her
Soviet-made refrigerator. She was told that it would be repaired in 2008. She
wasn’t exaggerating because the following day I read an item in the press
that said the company had around 500,000 malfunctioning refrigerators and that
every year it repaired 100,000 of them.
So, when my friend reaches 83, she will receive her repaired refrigerator.
Versión
original en español
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