From our Bureau of Socialist Waste Management with some assistance from our Bureau of Rats, African Snails, Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes and Other Ecological Wonders of Leftist Latrine American Utopias
You won’t find much coverage of this intensifying crisis in Castrogonia in the world’s news outlets. Chances are you find any coverage at all. But if any disaster of this magnitude was taking place in any other city on earth, you can be sure that it would get plenty of attention. Aaaaah, but this is Cuba we’re talking about. It’s a socialist utopia. This bit of news must be hidden away. It gives the wrong impression about socialism, even when the disaster is blamed on a non-existent U.S. “blockade”. . .
Abridged From 14yMedio, via Translating Cuba
Mayelín moved a week ago to the municipality of Diez de Octubre, and now that she walks daily on the Luyanó road, she says that all the neighbors live in a kind of “olfactory numbness.” According to the 28-year-old Habanera, there are more trash dumps along the road than she can count, some even in a “wild” state, with small vermin and their own ecosystems. Living among the waste is already difficult, she says, but with the smell they give off “it’s impossible to breathe.”
On the pavement, says Mayelín, “a river of sewage passes through that comes out of a broken pipe, and, on its way, it collects all the liquid from the food, dirt and rot of the garbage dumps. The smell is unbearable, and it even upsets my stomach, but I have noticed that it only bothers me.” With little time living in Luyanó, the young woman has realized that her neighbors, although they complain about the garbage and other problems, don’t seem to care about the stench of the landfills.
“I think that living constantly among garbage, without a vehicle ever passing by to pick it up or an unobstructed pipe through which the water can leave, has forced them to adapt. I, who moved recently, am still sorry, but I am horrified by the idea that we can so easily normalize this situation because we have to,” she laments.
In Barrientos, as the area of the neighborhood sports complex is known, a huge garbage dump extends for several meters – horizontally and vertically – on the corner formed by the streets of Pedro Pernas and Manuel Pruna. In the middle of the road where the waste does not reach, stagnant water prevents the passage of passers-by.
“Every morning when I take the dog for a walk I have to go around the pestilent mass to cross the street,” says Yunior, a resident of that area. According to the young man, the trash dump, one of the largest in Luyanó, has begun to attract its own fauna. Cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes and some rats that occasionally can be seen are not the only tenants. “African snails have also begun to appear. Wherever there is a piece of earth and grass, you’ll find one,” he says.
The invasive species, which years ago starred in the Public Health ads on Cuban Television for its danger to human life, has begun to roam freely throughout the Island. “Now that they are everywhere and there are no resources to kill them, the government has stopped talking about them, as if they were suddenly harmless. It’s obvious that they don’t want to create alarm,” Yunior reflects.
“The amount of bugs attracted by the garbage dump is so great that my dog, who likes to hunt flies, goes crazy chasing them. It’s funny, but when you think about where all that filth comes from, you lose the desire to laugh,” he explains.
While it is true that the less visible neighborhoods suffer the worst part of the garbage epidemic by being away from the eyes of foreigners and leaders, it is also a fact that, in the current state of the capital, not even the privileged areas are exempt. A video recently published by Martí Noticias showed the fountain of the National Hotel, one of the most emblematic sites in the city, right in front of the Malecón, where diplomats and guests of the regime go. In the images you can see a green crust of moss and garbage in a pool of fetid water.
The same happens with the bay of Havana , which is covered with cans, plastic cups and plastic bags when a storm removes the water.
Yes, this will be “overlooked.” The usual suspects want something quaint or exotic, not rotting garbage piles.