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Danae Suárez: I’ve always felt responsible for defending values that are eternal but unfortunately have been forgotten in a world that tends more towards the depersonalization of the human being. So what better place than my country to assume the task that each conscious citizen should assume: To work for a better society. I will never forget the famous phrase of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” I’m therefore committed to ensuring that my drop is not missing.

The Monthly Food Ration

May 27, 2011 | | Print Print |

Danae Suarez

My quota.

The small business that my family decided to start in order to survive was renting an apartment.  In this case it meant renting out my grandmother’s apartment, where I had been living for a while, independently and far from my parents.

I had to give it up so they could rent it to other Cubans, which also meant that I had to return to the home where I was raised.

This was a sad decision that I had to accept since I had no other means of covering my most basic necessities.  However that’s not the central issue of this article.

What was curious was related to the fact that I had left a neighbor in charge of picking up my entire food allocation that the government “gives” us Cubans once a month through our ration books.

On previous occasions I had always collected the products a portion at a time whenever I went to the bodega [the neighborhood ration goods store].  Though I already knew that it was only a small and insufficient amount, I’d never before seen everything together in a single bag.  That was the opportunity my neighbor gave me when she told me two days ago that she had already picked up “all of it” and that I could come and get it.

I think the photo speaks for itself; but to be more explicit, I listed the products that we each get once a month:
12 eggs
A cup of cooking oil
A half pound of chicken
5 pounds of white rice
10 ounces of grain (red beans)
1 pound of brown sugar
3 pounds of white sugar
A package of coffee

That’s everything.  It speaks for itself.

It’s evident that “government support” is purely formal and yet our poverty is such and so great that among the most common concerns of Cubans is what will happen when we see the materialization of the recently approved economic and social policy reforms which include “the orderly and gradual elimination of the ration book as a form of normal, equitable and subsidized distribution”?  They add: “Then things are really going to get tough.”

Note: The list (as well as the photo) does not include rationed toiletries because my interest here is centered on food.  Also, Cubans are free to purchase additional food products at market prices, though purchases are greatly constrained by our low monthly incomes averaging around $20 a month.

 

 


What's your opinion?

  • http://talesoftheheroiccity.wordpress.com Michael Shaw

    People also get bread rolls (1 per day) at a cost of 0.05CUP each, I believe

  • casey strong

    It is incredible for me to finally see with my own eyes what for years Cuban Freinds could only try and explain to me.

    The hardest part for me to understand is how can anyone in power not provide for their Citizens needs and at the same time deny them the right to try and fill the shortfall themselves.

    It is one thing to reduce the Social benefits to individuals because of Economic hardtimes but to pretend that the reduction can be absorbed without offering at least the hope of an alternative is ridiculous.

  • John Wheat Gibson, Sr.

    Mr. Strong has identified the problem that the currently proposed economic reform is designed to address. The obverse problem Cubans will face, if the buying and selling of real estate become legal, is how to avoid the ascendance of a dictatorship by a plutocratic oligarchy, as in the U.S. and Europe. Perhaps taxation and the criminalization of money in politics can preserve Cuba’s economic democracy. The outcome remains to be seen. The mafia that formerly owned and ruled Cuba through Batista wants its lucrative playground back. That same mafia now controls Florida, Nevada, and much of the rest of the U.S., so the blockade will not be lifted any time soon.

  • Barbara

    Well truly that is astonishing ! No fresh fruit ! no onions? potatoes? tea? beef?

    We spent 3 weeks at Hemingway Marina several years ago, paid a local with a beat up private car to get around; couldn’t find a small fan anywhere for our boat cabin, very few vegetable markets and when you did find one the vegetables were mostly stunted . Took several bus tours and amazed there was no farms to be seen in the countryside, always a bunch of people standing on the highway waiting for a bus . When we left I gave our driver a bunch of canned food , bag of rice, pounds of red beans, etc. Took children’s card games, domino games, pens, etc and gave them to a school in Havana. The Cuban people are so very nice and I hope to get back there