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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Pig in a “Box” / Yoani Sánchez

Pig in a "Box" / Yoani Sánchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez

tablilla_preciosThe market is almost empty. It's still very early and
someone is writing the new prices for a pound of pork on a blackboard.
It seems a simple gesture, that of the hand that has changed only one
digit in the price of the ribs, the legs, or the processed fat. But in
reality, what is expressed on that slate — with its numbers traced in
chalk — is a real market cataclysm. The internal Cuban economy suffers
from a weakness such that the slightest price increase for a pound of
steak or butter is enough to disrupt our fragile commercial framework. A
few centavos added to the price of a food sends the thermometer of daily
anxiety upward, raises the barometer of concern.

Indeed, a certain state of alarm is running through the country lately.
Pork is scarce because of the dearth of feed; its import has declined
and local production barely gets off the ground. The self-employment
sector suffers from a scarcity of the product which forms the basis for
the so-called "little boxes," which almost always include rice, some
kind of starch, and a little meat. This lunch "in hand" is the mainstay
of many Cubans who work far from home, and also constitutes the basic
unit for the private businesses selling ready-made meals. When the price
of this lunchbox rises it pulls everything with it. The shoe salesman
adds a bit to his merchandise to recoup his loss on the midday snack;
the shopkeeper who paid more for her sandals tries to make up the
difference from unsuspecting customers who don't count their change; and
the retired housewife writes to her son in Frankfurt or Miami asking for
a bump in her remittance, because life is very expensive. And this whole
sequence of problems and angst begins in a pigsty, the place where feed
and care should be converted into pounds of meat, but are not.

16 May 2012

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