FROM
CUBA
Skeptical Cuban housewives calculate cooking
options
HAVANA, Cuba - April 21 (Ariel Delgado
Covarrubias / www.cubanet.org) - Housewives
in Mayarí, in the eastern Cuban province
of Holguín, await the recently announced
availability of electric rice cookers with
mixed feelings; it will be nice to have
a new rice cooker, they say, but will there
be electricity available to use it?
Most households in the area cook with kerosene,
made available for sale by the government
in rationed quantities. What will happen
to that supply when it presumably is no
longer necessary because the rice cookers
have been widely distributed, is another
question worrying housewives.
"I really don't know what we are going
to do when we have the rice cookers and
they don't release any more kerosene,"
said Mariela, who didn't want her last name
used. "With the constant blackouts,
we won't be able to cook."
Electric blackouts are frequently scheduled
in the area as an energy conservation measure.
They usually happen from 5:45 in the afternoon
to 11 in the evening.
"It is absurd. If they say the problem
with electricity will go on for several
more months, what sense does it make to
sell us electrical equipment now that we
won't be able to use?" asked another
housewife. "Of course, they will take
away the kerosene, and the State will save
all the money, but we will not be able to
cook with the blackouts."
She finally added: "If that happens,
we will have to go into the bush to collect
firewood to cook."
Versión
original en español
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