Alcoholism, Corruption and other Demons

Alcoholism, Corruption and other Demons / Miriam Celaya
Posted on August 12, 2013

The surprising disclosure in the official media of something that has
quietly taken place in the past (ethanol poisoning), could be due to
several interrelated factors: suitability to meet the Government's angle
to provide informative coverage about the "fight against corruption",
interest in offering an image of a government sensitive to what happens
in society, showing the purported effectiveness of health institutions
and of the internal agenda in facing such adversities and taking
advantage of the events making a point as a moral lesson, among other
motives that I'm sure escape me.

Of course, news like this will always be disclosed in the press, in
addition to second or third intentions relating to policy junctures and
strategies of the government, only that it would be much more effective
to delve into the essence of the matter and not only in its external and
immediate effect, because what is at stake here is not simply a case of
unscrupulous people who peddle toxic substances for the consumption of
certain groups of individuals from disadvantaged sectors of society, but
from the combination of many evils of the Cuban reality, expressed in a
situation in which authorities and official media are also jointly
responsible.

The event that took place in a Havana neighborhood places us at the tip
of the iceberg of the widespread crisis of an economic downturn, the
failure of our utopia, hopelessness, loss of values and the absence of
perspective. The overall decaying of the system is authenticated in all
areas and levels of national life, and it far exceeds the government's
ability to address the crisis. It is the metastasis of the terminally
ill "model", unable to cure the nation's moral damage.

This time, there was the combination of rampant corruption, widespread
alcohol addiction and low purchasing power of the poorest sectors of the
population, all factors that contribute to the trafficking of various
toxic substances, as well as other commodities, just as bad or even more
macabre, such as the well-known case a few months ago of trafficking in
human fat tissue stolen from corpses at the Guanabacoa Crematorium,
marketed as edible fat in the illegal market, or of the sale of the meat
of stolen lab animals, carriers of various diseases. Only Cuba's
deteriorated conditions, or in societies as distorted as ours could
similar events take place.

The illegal trade of alcohol is widespread in the Island's capital.
Almost all neighborhoods have one or several of these dealers, from both
clandestine stills and from theft of the legal networks of stores and
warehouses. Cuban wit has dubbed these concoctions with different names
which, in the way of the marginal language, translate into the effects
of their ingestion: mofuco, tiger's laughter, man and earth, train's
spark and the like. Though Trafficking and consumption have always
existed, they have proliferated since the 1990s' crisis, when even the
ration card, unable to keep up the hefty subsidies of the previous
years, guaranteed a monthly quota of rum for each family nucleus.

Alcohol affects memory
That's why few Cubans remember the weekly meetings of the leaders of the
Communist Party and the Popular Power, televised every Tuesday, which
the people dubbed "Meeting of the Fatsos" because of the participants'
glowing looks, in contrast to those of the hungry and emaciated
population. In one of the reunions the then First Secretary of the
Provincial Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, Jorge Lezcano,
cynically stated that what the population could not lack was rum.
Alcohol consumption was, therefore, an official policy aimed at dulling
people's thinking: alcohol to forget our frustrations in the midst of
the worst shortages in the last century of Cuban history.

Social expectations have not improved with the passing of the years, and
alcohol consumption has increased at the same time as the average age
for its consumption has significantly decreased. In a country where
there are more frustrations than expectations, it is not surprising that
alcoholism has reached truly alarming levels

For now, the case of La Lisa drunks is already out of the media, and it
will soon be forgotten among ethyl vapors and other essentials. We don't
know if the cuckolds and abused ones du jour will be the surviving
victims and, as such, will be charged with the crime of receiving. It
may be that workers who stole methyl alcohol from a warehouse owned by
the State and those responsible for the management and administration
thereof will be the scapegoats more severely punished this time.
Responsibility will be refined only to a reasonable level. At any rate,
everyone will again drink whatever they can and the saga of unlawfulness
will continue its unstoppable march, while the chief culprits of such
disastrous events will go on, unpunished.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Translated from Cubanet

12 August 2013

Source: "Alcoholism, Corruption and other Demons / Miriam Celaya |
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http://translatingcuba.com/alcoholism-corruption-and-other-demons-miriam-celaya/