PINAR DEL RIO, January 24 (Víctor Rolando Arroyo, UPECI) – A few
thousand residents here will soon be able to buy one or two lightbulbs for their
homes, after waiting for two years and complying with strict bureaucratic
procedures, officials have announced.
In 1998, an official campaign announced that Cuban families were going to be
able to buy "energy-conserving bulbs" and to that effect, officials
inspected every household in the country. In the end, only a few such bulbs were
offered for sale.
To boot, the "energy-conserving bulbs" turned out to be of
sub-standard quality and were rejected by consumers. They were withdrawn from
the market and haven’t been sold for two years. Yet, in the dollar market
they are available at the equivalent of two days’ pay for the average Cuban
worker.
The government touts its achievement in the total electrification of the
country, but thousands of homes, schools, health facilities and others are in
the dark for lack of lightbulbs.
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