While bread is already scarce in Cuba, cakes are even harder to find. The shortages of flour and eggs caused by the mismanagement and corruption of the Castro dictatorship has made cakes a rare treat. However, one Cuban has made the best of a bad situation and celebrated his birthday with some hard rationed bread, using matchsticks as candles because like everything else in communist Cuba, candles are hard to find as well.
Via CiberCuba (my translation):
Cuban celebrates his birthday with rationed bread
A Cuban celebrated his birthday with old rationed bread and four lit matches as candles, sending a clear message about the scarcity of food on the island.
His post in the Facebook group “Nostalgia Cuba 2.0” straddles the line between reality and jest. It elicited laughter but also prompted reflections on the crisis the country is going through, where eating a piece of bread is a luxury, and speaking out about shortages can lead to legal repercussions.
Reactions to the post quickly poured in. “Where did you get the matches from?” one person asked. Another pointed out a happy coincidence: “Ah… you got bread on your birthday! Well, many congratulations.”
Some sarcastically congratulated him on displaying “creative resistance as indicated by the president of the lemon growers,” while others claimed to have “neither bread nor matches” to celebrate.
The optimism of Cubans has been shaken in 2023, a year marked by food shortages, inflation, state repression, and an increase in extreme poverty.
Despite this, many people on the island maintain their faith that something will change, supporting each other and wishing this man on his anniversary: “Health and thousands of loaves for the next year.”
Well, killing the goose that laid the golden eggs has consequences. Cubans were appallingly STUPID.