The crisis does not distinguish species
September 28, 2022
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n last September 25, the vote was carried out
vote to endorse the new “Family Code”. As has been mentioned in various press releases, including some of the publications that have been made on the Food Monitor Program portal, this family code includes some new provisions that are quite innovative in terms of recognizing various types of family and, in addition , recognizes socio-affective relationships that include same-sex couples, which allows the establishment of relationships between family members in the second degree of consanguinity, despite having custody disputes, and determines the co-responsibility of food among the different members who have purchasing power to meet this need.
At first glance, both the content of the new code and its submission to a popular referendum give the impression of a renewal of the so-called "popular democracy", a product of the Revolution, although it is not, however, as had already been noted in editions previous acknowledgments of the situation of many family nuclei that are not made up in the manner of the traditional family, is a de jure Recognition, of a de facto situation already established for a long time.
These "advances" in terms of legal recognition of part of the population in Cuba do not solve the most crucial problem of family composition. Despite recognition of people in vulnerable conditions: minors, the elderly, people with disabilities, etc., to whom sections are dedicated, there is no effective provision in terms of assistance.Despite including the word "disability" 92 times in the new Code, as well as including the word "food" 92 times, for practical purposes, this code recognizes the inability of the guardianship of the State to provide a service that from the beginning of the Revolution was one of the greatest flags of the Regime: nobody goes hungry in Cuba.
And it is that the situation of food insecurity does not give up. The rise in the price of the dollar on the international currency market, which is due, among other things, to the increase in interest rates proposed by the United States Federal Reserve, _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ya has a strong impact on the chicken and flour market for Cuban households that translates into price inflation.The exchange rate exceeded the indicators of the Special Period, reaching 150 Cuban pesos (CUP) per dollar, affecting the exchange rate of the MLC and the Euro, which is dizzyingly close to 200 CUP in both cases.Despite the fact that there are apparently favorable provisions for Cuban families, what the new Family Code actually manifests is the State's inability to provide the right to food. In a more or less direct way, the State transfers the problem of food to society, but it still does not grant the openings and freedoms necessary to be able to guide a free market or mixed economy that has the necessary conditions to be sustainable.
It is worth saying that the State has begun to have new measures so that small and medium-sized companies in the non-state sector (euphemism to say private) can produce and export some staple foods. Thinking about the future, the regime is looking to create the conditions so that these companies can compete on an equal footing with State exporting companies. In reality, as CubaNet reported last month, it is a reconversion of established companies, most of them state-owned, and the implementation of a cumbersome process for private companies, which surely will not have the possibility of participating on equal terms. conditions due to the procedures to which they must be submitted.
And the endorsement of the Code comes with sinister omens. Material responsibilities are transferred when the capacity of the State will face the greatest tensions to its diminished power. Already with an approval of 66%, its own supply remains in the hands of society. In the middle of the cyclone season, Ian is approaching the western part of the island, already with "lethal for people" winds and with the certainty that it will make landfall near the capital, according to the report of theNational Hurricane Center from United States. According to this analysis, floods, landslides and heavy rains are expected in this part of Cuba. It will be necessary to add, then, to the power cuts, difficulties for the terrestrial supply, of drinking water and other essential services for the Cuban society. This, without counting the forecast of material damage and the potential loss of life, human and animal, that hurricane winds can bring.
This symptom of trying to resolve material situations through legal means is a sign of the weakening of the State and, eventually, it could be the door for more demonstrations in the remainder of 2022.
En una batería de entrevistas realizadas por Food Monitor Program, relacionada con la inseguridad energética, se evidenció que la escasez de energía también suponía una escasez de agua, dado que muchos hogares dependen de bombas eléctricas para este suministro. En estudios subsiguientes de nuestro programa también hemos constatado que la gran mayoría de las instituciones educativas en Cuba carecen de un suministro constante de agua potable, elaborándose los alimentos con reservas en cisternas que no tienen la calidad indicada. Por ello los alumnos, recomendado por los mismos directivos de estos institutos, deben traer envases de agua de sus casas para ser consumida durante la jornada lectiva.
Pero el caso de la Habana no es aislado. La misma prensa oficial informa que el suministro de agua en las provincias orientales está al 25% de su capacidad, y se espera que este suministro se vea más afectado por la sequía que se avecina. Y el problema de no poder satisfacer la demanda con la oferta de agua actual se traduce a una elevación de los costos de este preciado líquido, dificultando el acceso, en términos monetarios, de una población que con mucho esfuerzo económico alcanza a conseguir los bienes de primera necesidad. Esta situación va por el mismo camino de los problemas de suministro de electricidad que ha tenido la isla en el curso de este año y del pasado, que tuvo medio país a oscuras en febrero, por ejemplo.
Por supuesto, el 22 de marzo, día internacional del agua, el presidente Miguel Díaz-Canel hizo un llamado a la sociedad cubana a cuidar este “precioso líquido” en su cuenta de Twitter. Mientras tanto, en la cumbre de G-77 + China, Inés María Chapman, viceprimera ministra cubana, sostuvo que el Estado cubano estaba haciendo todos los esfuerzos posibles para mejorar el suministro de agua potable, siguiendo las líneas del plan de Acción de Agua 2018-2028 y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS). Sin embargo, afirmó que sus éxitos han sido magros a causa del “criminal bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impuesto por el gobierno de Estados Unidos”. Ese ha sido, en palabras de Chapman “el principal obstáculo” para alcanzar las metas propuestas por los ODS. Pero la realidad es que el régimen cubano insiste en disponer sus recursos económicos para el sector turística y empresarial en detrimento de la calidad de vida de sus ciudadanos.
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Y es la administración cubana se ha habituado a que su rol es ese, meramente comunicativo. Recientemente, el presidente cubano se reunió con representantes de la FAO para discutir la estrategia de comunicación de las acciones previstas en la ley SSAN, que ya tiene tres meses de haber entrado en vigor. La propuesta de la actividad estatal, dígase su responsabilidad pública, está en “comunicar” los métodos y mecanismos para el aprovechamiento de los espacios cultivables en los hogares cubanos: jardines, techos, macetas (ya en otra columna de FMP habíamos indicado que los cultivos domésticos no representan ni el 5% de la tierra cultivable en Cuba). Entonces, ¿de qué sirven estas iniciativas si no hay un suministro de agua potable suficiente?
Parece ser que la responsabilidad del Estado se reduce a la divulgación de normas y planes que no cuentan con los medios para ser viables y que su única respuesta posible es que la culpa es de “otro.” Sobre estrategias comunicativas de gobiernos en desarrollo esta ha sido una crítica recurrente, el enfoque en la “comunicación”, “instrucción” o educación” no solamente indica una falta de voluntad gubernamental para emprender soluciones, sino la postura facilista de radicar el problema en la “ignorancia” o “malas prácticas” de la ciudadanía, lo que constituye otra forma de autoritarismo y represión.