If It’s About Abuses…

If It's About Abuses… / Fernando Dámaso

Fernando Damaso, 25 December 2016 — Some official journalists, who seem
to be following orders from on high, have taken against the
self-employed and their prices, which they consider too high for the
ordinary citizen.

Of course no one has written a single line or even a word about the
prices in the state sector, which are much higher than those charged by
the self-employed.

It is no secret to anyone that the Ministry of Finances and Prices fixes
prices, two, three, four and many more times above the cost of the
products, usually of low quality, which are produced or imported and
sold in the network of State stores.

The case of Haier refrigerators, which are purchased at rock bottom
prices in China, due to their obsolete and discontinued technology, are
sold to Cubans at elevated prices (and in addition you can only get one
if you trade in a working refrigerator for which you are not given a
single cent), constitutes the palpable demonstration of a shameless scam.

The Haiers, without spare parts and without any ability to repair them,
break down and languish in houses whose inhabitants haven't even
finished paying for them.

DVD equipment, TVs, air conditioners, rice cookers, "Queen" pots,
electric cookers, exploding coffee pots and other poor quality articles
at high prices, are added to the long list of official robberies. The
same thing happens with dozens of plastic items, which the state buys at
ridiculous prices and sells as if they were made out of gold, silver or
porcelain.

With regards to these outrages, which affect and bleed the pockets of
ordinary Cubans, official journalists remain silent and complicit and,
if questioned, repeat that healthcare and education are free, something
completely false, because both services are paid for by every Cuban,
with what they don't receive for their labor in their miserable wages.

This reality is very difficult to hide. If anyone has any doubts, make a
tour of the hard currency stores and — why not? — also those that sell
in Cuban pesos, where a single screw costs three pesos, one brush
eighty, a gallon of emulsified paint 85 to 120, and enamel paint 280,
and so on.

Distinguished journalists, here are the abuses to the pockets of all
citizens and not just ordinary ones.

Source: If It's About Abuses… / Fernando Dámaso – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/if-its-about-abuses-fernando-dmaso/