Are Private Small Business Owners the Scapegoats?

Are Private Small Business Owners the Scapegoats? / Gladys Linares

Posted on November 25, 2013



LA HABANA, Cuba, November, www.cubanet.org – To us, the most interesting

part of the National Television News is the weather report. "There is no

use in watching the news," says Julio, an octogenarian neighbor, "just

to hear that the whole world is screwed up and in Cuba everything is

going very well".



After a speech on July 7th, 2013 by General Raul Castro Ruz, first

secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and

president of the Councils of the State and Ministers, a speech in which

he criticized the Cuban people's loss of values and the chaotic

situation of the country, the news started transmitting on Tuesdays a

series of reports titled "Cuba Says".



The one aired this week has given rise to a series of commentaries among

the people, for example, that the large amount of inspectors imposing

high penalty fees and suspending licences is part of an arranged

operation, without doubt created against the private small business

owners, because in the State's good service centers everything seemed to

be too organized: employees wearing uniforms, talking about hygiene

norms… for many it was obviously staged.



A neighbor was commenting: "Before giving the private owners the

licenses to process and sell food products, they were inspected by

Public Health, because that is what happened to my son before he could

open the restaurant. How is it possible that right after they get closed

because they don't meet the requirements?"



"They are clipping their wings, it's not like they are becoming rich

with their businesses", another man says, "They are not fooling anybody:

they gave out all those licenses to mask the massive layoffs in 2010,

but as always, that's a way to keep them in check and controlled".



The lack of hygiene in the state centers where they process and sell

food products is nothing new, unfortunately. Just to give an example,

the bread that people eat daily, is left on a counter for hours, full of

flies. The same employee handles the bread, money, and writes down on

the food booklet with his bare hands. When the bread is covered we all

know it is because an inspection is due. They deliver the bread to the

so-called Paneras — where the bread is sold but not baked — transporting

the bread in carts pulled by horses, a cart or a bicycle cart, and it is

stored in open boxes, made out of plastic, wood or woven baskets.



People prefer the service of privately-owned cafeterias because of the

quality of the products, the speed and quality of customer service that

most of them offer, while in state-owned cafeterias the menus are very

limited, and many times flies are part of the menu. Even the more

expensive establishments, like some of the pastry chain Sylvain, have

missing glass on the counters and flies have free access to the pastry.



The cockroaches find a home in hospitals, urgent care facilities, and

doctor offices, but also in food processing establishments: lunchroom,

bakeries, and restaurants of selling in the national currency, the Cuban

peso, or in CUCs, the Cuban Convertible Peso. This is the case of Plaza

Carlos III or the cafeteria in La Rampa Movie Theater.



In the "bodegas", where food rations distributed by the State are sold,

rats are also found camping, that is why some employees have a cats in

these establishments, hidden from the view of the customers. A neighbor

was telling me how she didn't dare to buy the rice last month, because

she saw how the seller killed a mouse inside a rice bag and he didn't

even bother to throw it away.



The lack of concern on the part of the Government about the lack of

hygiene is detrimental to the health of the population. The water

pollution, the bugs in the trash that is not picked up for days, and

other ills, are some of the consequences. People need their problems to

be addressed with a real solution, instead of drawing attention away

from them and using the small business owners as scapegoats.



Gladys Linares



Cubanet, 21 November 2013



Source: "Are Private Small Business Owners the Scapegoats? / Gladys

Linares | Translating Cuba" -

http://translatingcuba.com/are-private-small-business-owners-the-scapegoats-gladys-linares/