The collapse of a concrete balcony in a crumbling Old Havana neighborhood, outside the Potemkin zone for foreign tourists, killed three Cuban pre-teen girls this past Monday, as previously noted here and here. A consequence of chronic neglect and systemic dysfunction, due to a totalitarian dictatorship that controls everything but solves nothing, this sort of tragedy has happened before and is bound to happen again. The matter is old and no real surprise, but now news travel much faster and wider.
State media did not report this till the next day, Tuesday, in a bare-bones fashion no doubt calculated to make as little as possible of the incident, since it reflects badly on a regime which has done practically nothing to solve the appalling housing conditions long endured by ordinary Cubans. It was not until Wednesday that Cuba’s titular president publicly addressed (or was allowed to address) the tragic event, via Twitter, in a very brief, pro forma note, both too late and too little. However, the regime’s Foreign Minister had publicly expressed his condolences on Tuesday — for the death of Kobe Bryant, that is, someone largely unknown on the island. Of course, the black American establishment has to be catered to, but ordinary Cuban girls are hardly that important.
Yet again, as always, such is the class of Castro, Inc., or rather, such is its complete lack of class. We are talking about what amounts to criminal negligence, but naturally the regime, I mean the “revolution,” is not responsible and cannot be blamed. Needless to say, blame will be conveniently placed elsewhere, as usual, but never on the truly guilty.
Lord, the disgust.
According to locals, though the building in question had begun to be demolished, nothing had been done to cordon it off or warn people of danger to keep them out of harm’s way–all of that came after the fatal collapse. This is par for the course, meaning “normal” in the Bizarro world that is Castrogonia.