Cuba and Planned Obsolescence

Cuba and Planned Obsolescence

June 16, 2013

Daisy Valera



HAVANA TIMES — If memory serves me right, the first electrical

appliances I ever used were the Orbita fan which afforded me a cool

night's sleep the few nights without power cuts, the iron that smoothed

out all of the uniforms I ever had to wear (from primary to high school)

and a green Aurika washing machine which always looked on the verge of

falling apart when tumbling clothes dry – and always, incidentally,

remained in one piece.



Many of these appliances, manufactured in the former Soviet Union over

30 years ago, continue to be used in Cuban homes. "Russian irons"

continue to be repaired at workshops and the metallic jars for the

Soviet-made Eta blenders continue to be produced at street-level.



It comes as no surprise that, during the flamboyant "Energy Revolution"

Cuba undertook in the early 2000s, many people who owned

Frigidaire-brand refrigerators or air conditioning units made in the

USSR, refused to trade these in for their new Chinese counterparts.



Not long after these replacements were made, some of the appliances

which have been roughing it for decades conserve their aura of

immortality, while the modern Haier refrigerators and Liya rice cookers

pile up like junk at repair shops and warehouses.



Today, Cubans are becoming accustomed to the disposable and fragile

nature of a new generation of electrical appliances and begin to feel

pangs of nostalgia for the times of durable – and repairable – devices.



It is within this context, a world governed by the

buy-throw-away-buy-again logic, that the SOP ("Sin Obsolescencia

Programada", "No Planned Obsolescence") movement arises. Planned

obsolescence, a concept that is almost entirely new to Cubans, refers to

the practice of deliberately producing short-durability objects in order

to keep consumers purchasing new products.



Though "consumerism" is not one of the more serious ills endured by a

country with constant shortages, planned obsolescence affects the lives

of Cubans for two fundamental reasons:

— The appliances sold in the country are not manufactured locally, but

imported.

— Cubans earn ridiculously low wages.



A Cuban earning an average salary (450 Cuban pesos a month) would need

to put away his entire wages, every month for over two years, to be able

to purchase an iron, a blender and a TV (about 20, 50 and 400 CUC,

respectively) at a hard-currency store.



This fact alone makes the abovementioned, short-lived electrical

appliances irreplaceable treasures in Cuba.



The SOP movement, impelled by Spanish engineer Benito Muros, aims to

sell products that aren't designed to have a short lifespan and are

environmentally-friendly, drastically reducing the volumes of waste

materials produced by today's modern products.



Muros' company, OEP Electrics, has created a light bulb "without planned

obsolescence" that has a guaranteed lifespan of 25 years and can be

repaired and reused indefinitely. In addition, the light bulb saves up

to 92 % in electricity and produces 70 % less carbon dioxide.



If the Cuban State is at all interested in an energy revolution that

actually yields results, it should lend an ear to the SOP movement and

do away with Cuba's so-called energy-saving bulbs, electrical stoves and

fearsome Parker brand DVD players.



A positive first step, for instance, would be to build a plant for the

manufacturing of Muros' bulbs on the island.



Source: "Cuba and Planned Obsolescence - Cuba's Havana Times.org" -

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=94737