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The crisis does not distinguish species
September 20, 2022
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Energy is an engine of economic opportunities that
transform and develop society.According to the World Food Program, the energy used for cooking represents approximately 90 percent of household energy consumption in developing countries, therefore the ability to access it is a fundamental factor in achieving safe and sustainable food.Among the energies for an efficient, affordable and reliable kitchen, there is electricity.Electricity is crucial in the home, to produce, process and preserve food, for the lighting that cooking requires, for the refrigeration of perishable products, for the operation of household appliances, and even for the storage and flow of drinking water that It is needed for the preparation of food.In the community, electricity guarantees the institutional kitchen (of schools, workplaces, among other official institutes), as well as the commercial kitchen (cafeterias and other stalls), in addition to survival and resilience exercises in times of crisis and uncertainty.
Cooking is a central activity in Cuban culture, which traditionally has two hot dishes a day, in addition to mostly slow cooking.However, in the current national energy crisis, the different ways of preparing food in the Cuban family have been seriously affected.Already since 2016 Cuba had problems in the availability of oil that demanded "strict savings and efficient use of energy and fuels" (Granma, 07.08.2016). In the summer of this year, of an installed capacity of 6,558 MW, the availability was only about 2,500 MW. This figure represented 38% of the programmed capacity, and was similar to that which was available in 1994 during the Special Period. Currently, energy insecurity in Cuba causes effects that involve up to four weekly power outages in the residential sector, during the day or night, lasting from four to eight hours in each case. As a result of these blackouts, which often coincide with peak hours, families, especially in remote districts of provinces such as Mayabeque, Cienfuegos, Las Tunas, Holguín and Granma, have seen their ability to cook limited, and have resorted to alternatives such as cooking in advance. and preserve, or cook with firewood or charcoal.
From revolution to insecurity in energy
Access to energy is closely linked to social justice, access to food and water as conditions for raising the standard of living and reducing gender inequalities.In its absence, energy insecurity is understood as the lack of access to adequate, affordable and reliable sources of energy for a healthy and sustainable livelihood, and is a challenge above all for subgroups such as women and children, who are particularly vulnerable.
Food insecurity may have a more serious perception in cases such as Cuba, where households had already adopted modern cooking energies for decades and therefore have less capacity for improvisation, experience, resources o space for the usability of alternative solutions in the face of power outages or “blackouts”.
The adoption of household appliances was carried out in Cuba in an almost mechanical way twenty-two years ago, during the so-called "Energy Revolution". This was an ad hoc program in response to the effects suffered by the National Electro-energy System through which it was decided to replace the old thermoelectric plants with more efficient electric generators. But the most remembered aspect in Cuban homes was the exchange of old refrigerators for more modern Chinese appliances, as well as the delivery of electric cooking modules. Since then, traditional foods in your kitchen, such as rice or beans, have required a greater dependence on electricity in a good part of the country, with the use of electrical appliances such as rice cookers, queen pots, and electric or induction cookers, among other household items delivered under state supervision. The main consequence of the program within Cuban homes was the transition from liquefied gas to electric power.
Whereas, until the beginning of 2006, the vast majority of households cooked with liquefied gas and polluting fuels such as kerosene, in a few months some three million households, just under a third of the country, converted almost entirely to electric cooking. . The homes were equipped with electric burners, a rice cooker (electric), a pressure cooker (electric), as well as immersion heaters among other items.
This change modernized the way of cooking, reducing and optimizing times. Family kitchens abandoned the old pressure cookers and began to depend on new electrical appliances, especially those homes with regulated distribution of manufactured gas.As a result, an increase in peak electricity demand was created with two pronounced points in the day during meal times. Three years later, the total demand for electricity had increased by 33%.
Impact of energy insecurity on the right to food
In a kitchen modified and dependent, by state decision, on electricity, blackouts have a serious impact on food products. The need to preserve freshness through refrigerators is a priority that is not always within the reach of all families.The inability to store food safely has a number of consequences. The decrease in supply and economic loss are the most immediate. If this situation is added to the impossibility of preserving or storing food that lasts longer or is easier to cook given the shortages and price inflation, the implications between power outages and power are aggravated. We must also bear in mind that sales of kitchen modules with electricity are currently carried out preferentially for families served by Social Assistance.So it is the most vulnerable groups with limited income who have the greatest incidence of insecure access to energy for cooking, and therefore, to food.
We can conclude that energy security, however revolutionary it may be, does not guarantee food security in the long term.Ironically, the pursuit of the former may thwart the ambition for the latter. The loss of perishable food and the inability to use stoves and other household utensils, coupled with high food prices have serious consequences for food security. To which must be added the inevitable modification of the diet due to the absence of fresh food, and the stress and daily uncertainties of the working group as they do not have the necessary cooking time. In addition, Cuba lacks other neighborhood initiatives that could help subsistence in these conditions, such as neighborhood food banks, perishable product collections, neighborhood soup kitchens.In general, these circumstances do not seem to be sustainable when there is a general lack of access to basic factors for a dignified life.Systematic blackouts can harm or worsen people's health through nutritional insecurity. If we add to this the socio-economic inequities of already vulnerable sectors, we could be talking not only of a serious neglect, but also of a difficult solution in the medium term.
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Inseguridad alimentaria y resistencia cotidiana
La inseguridad alimentaria puede llegar a reproducir y naturalizar inestabilidades, a su vez los actos desesperados por conseguir alimentos son a menudo gravemente penados por los Estados sin contribuir a una salida de la espiral de la violencia. La realidad cubana está cifrada por la supervivencia, “buscarse la vida”, “la lucha”, el “vive y deja vivir”, el “invento, luego resisto”. Una resistencia cotidiana afanada en cubrir, por otros medios, lo que el sistema salarial y las subvenciones estatales no son capaces de garantizar. Una gran parte de los entrevistados en FMP alegan destinar tres veces su salario oficial a la adquisición de alimentos, en muchas ocasiones esta diferencia está cubierta por remesas familiares, en otros por actividades ilegales que ayudan a “solventar” la economía familiar. En un estudio similar, el 52% de 2223 personas entrevistadas en 12 provincias del país, admitió acudir al mercado negro para completar los alimentos que no encuentran en las redes estatales.[15]
A la pregunta de quién está garantizando el derecho a la alimentación en el país la mayoría de las personas entrevistadas aseguraron que es la familia, con sus propios recursos. Una entrevistada expone, por ejemplo:
Totalmente la familia. El Estado no garantiza nada, ni siquiera para los niños. El resto [fuera de la canasta básica] lo tenemos que garantizar la familia como se pueda, y por más esfuerzo que se haga no es suficiente.[16]
Otra entrevistada residente en Santiago de Cuba secunda:
¿Garantizar? Totalmente nadie, vivimos mayormente del mercado informal, si las personas que tienen acceso roban pues encuentras, si no pueden hacerlo pues no hay. Las tiendas MLC, las bodegas, carnicerías, agros, no tienen un surtido equilibrado ni estable. La familia manda dinero, pero si no hay. (Ídem)
Ante acuerdos ilegales para asegurar la dieta familiar, los entrevistados no solamente no vinculan sus acciones a un objetivo político explícito, sino que niegan cualquier relación con este y justifican sus acciones con la necesidad de sobrevivir con frases como “ladrón que roba a ladrón, tiene cien años de perdón”.[17] En consecuencia, gran parte de la población ha aceptado y normalizado la dependencia parcial a transacciones ilegales.
Las acciones semi-ilegales e ilegales en este sentido definen el día a día a la hora de asegurar alimentos mediante el mercado negro, la reventa, el “acaparamiento”, entre otras figuras que el Estado, por su parte, criminaliza sin ajustarse a una realidad completamente dilatada por estas acciones cotidianas. Los delitos motivados por la inseguridad alimentaria son tipificados en exceso, contribuyendo a la naturaleza criminogénica de la pobreza, ya que este tipo de criminalizaciones perpetúa el ciclo de vulnerabilidad de familias de menor acceso. Esto llega a ser especialmente preocupante para minorías vulnerables, que viven de manera más dramática la marginalización. Por ejemplo, evaluaciones de FMP, como el Mapa de Hambre en Cuba, arrojaron una sobrerrepresentación de personas negras y afrodescendientes en los grupos de menor acceso a alimentos, no receptores de remesas y de menor pertenencia a emprendimientos privados.
Penalización arbitraria y extensión del ciclo de violencia
Como hemos comentado anteriormente, la criminalidad no es un fenómeno aislado sino causa y consecuencia de otras condiciones sociales y políticas. En Cuba, el dilatado control del Estado sobre la producción y la resistencia diaria de los cubanos para sobrevivirlo genera un régimen de libertades frágiles y condicionadas, operando en un ámbito de subalternidad y exposición a leyes que muchas veces estigmatizan y propician mayor corrupción. De esta manera el “acaparamiento” y la “reventa” de alimentos es muchas veces una reacción a la escasez y la miseria; la llamada “recepción ilegal de mercancía” es así la única manera para adquirir productos básicos inexistentes en las redes estatales.
La penalización descontextualizada – y a veces de aplicación selectiva – no solamente muestra una normativa arbitraria, sino que asegura la extensión del ciclo de la criminalidad. Como hemos visto en las entrevistas, el desempeño gubernamental, en la forma de mediaciones y regulaciones percibidas como ambiguas, desventajosas o restrictivas, es esencial a la hora de evaluar el surgimiento y reproducción de actividades marginales, opacas e informales. Si el peso de la ley o de la acción policial recaen con mayor fuerza en formas de sobrevivencia y no pareciera haber una voluntad real de coactar desde el origen estos flagelos – como es el caso de la tan esperada ley contra la violencia de género – se demuestra una administración de doble estándar que termina ubicando a grupos sociales más desventajados en un espacio de subordinación fronteriza y ambigua.
Según el International Handbook on Informal Governance, el acceso condicionado a los alimentos y las circunstancias que perpetúan la incertidumbre y la espera, pueden leerse como prácticas de dominación recurrente. Esto tiene consecuencias significativas en los grupos vulnerables cuando la tendencia estatal de erradicar lo que se consideran actividades informales se ve acentuada por periodos de reacomodo, y de nuevas medidas, como ha sido el caso de la tenencia de dólares, por ejemplo.
Es indudable que la mentalidad, el lenguaje y los hábitos de la sociedad cubana se han transformado, precarizado en los últimos años debido a las económicas que sufre el país. Añadir el reconocimiento de una inestabilidad a niveles desproporcionados, que limita aún más el libre desenvolvimiento de la sociedad, puede ser un golpe de gracia a los que nos preguntamos sobre la trayectoria futura de la nación. Urge abordar la realidad cubana en todos sus matices, ahorrando estigmas y controles desmedidos, para poder alcanzar un enfoque eficiente que neutralice la creciente criminalidad y que nos asegure un acceso digno a los alimentos.
[1] https://www.wfp.org/conflict-and-peace
[2]https://observatoriocubano.com/2022/12/16/hijos-legitimos-del-comunismo-roban-en-los-campos-de-cuba/
[3] http://www.escambray.cu/2023/equinos-en-conteo-regresivo/
[4] https://www.14ymedio.com/cuba/sacrificios-ilegales-poblacion-Sancti-Spiritus_0_3477252247.html
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eg9iSM6Rio
[9] Lentz EC. (2018). Complicating narratives of women’s food and nutrition insecurity. World Dev;104:271–80; Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nation. (2017). How can
food security interventions contribute to reducing gender-based violence? Issue Brief.
[10] https://www.foodmonitorprogram.org/entrevistas-inseguridad-energetica
[12] https://www.foodmonitorprogram.org/entrevista-hay-que-volverse-artista
[13] https://www.foodmonitorprogram.org/entrevista-conseguir-comida-el-cubano-no-piensa-en-mas-nada
[14]https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2022-11-01-u1-e199894-s27061-abandonan-bebe-recien-nacida-alquizar?fbclid=IwAR2uZj06ERbuzzsT9A8dHmxomi_ESu4_-OGzkmlqTInVq7i0W1FAxmWxMqM; https://adncuba.com/tendencias/hallan-sin-vida-un-bebe-abandonado-en-basurero-de-la-habana?fbclid=IwAR2zbyT-svp5BSfH_uhw-iG5Y1gWHAHAwLmNUNhmEEdmXPhjTZB9-1Q-PS4; https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2019-08-01-u1-e186450-s27061-piden-ayuda-bebe-abandonado-hospital-cubano?utm_medium=buffer&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=cibercuba_noticias&fbclid=IwAR0pNewRoVvrJRgdizeBlSWUNc1P5lNVIeLsGIdvBK7eP2fCZAm89nGA5fs; https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2020-10-05-u185759-e185759-s27061-piden-ayuda-bebe-recien-nacido-abandonado-hospital-habana?utm_medium=buffer&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=cibercuba_noticias&fbclid=IwAR1XsBYP_wVUXmMdKn0OSLbfsqrfldm4KrsBmuR9gjTj0mipAmfbP7ZDk4g
[15] https://www.foodmonitorprogram.org/encuesta-de-seguridad-alimentaria
[16] https://www.foodmonitorprogram.org/entrevista-conseguir-comida-el-cubano-no-piensa-en-mas-nada
[17] Para ver más sobre las prácticas cotidianas de los cubanos en el mercado negro consultar: https://www.foodmonitorprogram.org/entrevistas-mercado-negro-y-sobrevivencia