When you spend a good part of your waking life scrounging around for glimpses and bits of information of what is going on in Cuba, you come across a lot of bizarre stuff.
Some things make you cry, some things make you angry. Very few make you laugh. Some make you do all three. With some you just scratch your head.
Here’s one of those head scratchers from Monsters and Critics:
Havana – A Cuban court sentenced a young man to four years in jail for breaking a bus window, Cuban media reported Wednesday.
This story made Granma. They actually wasted good toilet paper to print this. (The less ink on Granma, the better it is to use it for its alternate and more appropriate purpose.)
Intrigued, you scratch your head and you read on:
The reports said the court considered the man guilty of ‘high social danger’ and of having caused financial damages. Because of the defendant’s actions, the bus missed nine trips and failed to provide its services to 1,923 people, the Communist Party daily Granma said.
The harshness of the penalty apparently has to do with the growing anger of Cuban youths over the economic situation on the communist island, according to observers. Their frustration is directed among other things to the buses that Cuba recently bought from China.
In recent months, there has been an increase in the number of attacks on the new buses, and Granma had already reported in the past that Cuban authorities had taken measures to fight vandalism against the new vehicles.
Head scratching done. They wanted to make an example out of this poor frustrated youth.
Back in May, fidel, in one of his reflections addressed Cuba’s youth. He said at the time: “If the young people fail, everything will fail.”. In castro-speak that means that the youth better get with the program or else…
My question back then was: What if this is the generation that chooses the or else?
This bus window breaking rebel chose the or else. The University students collecting signatures for scholastic autonomy did also. Those 70 young people who got thrown in the slammer for protesting the sham municipal elections and marching through Havana wearing CAMBIO bracelets chose the or else. Darsi Ferrer chose the or else-emphatically.
It seems, and not only to me, like the Cuban population is now saying CAMBIO … or else.
“…the bus missed nine trips and failed to provide services to 1,923 people.”
If they are cramming 214 people in the bus per trip, windows will surely break as they busses’ walls burst from overloading.
Obviously, the charges (as well as the sentences) are all exagerated like everything else having to do with such a ridiculously oppressive judicial system. What an embarrassment.
Keep up the good work. Merry Christmas to all
JG