Island life

Cuba is the small island nation that could. It keeps on going despite invasions, embargoes, hurricanes and predictions of its imminent demise.

By Lia Lenggogeni

In small towns and big cities alike, this Central American country shows fortitude through cracked grandeur. Battered Ladas (Soviet-made cars) and Korean cars, Chinese buses and vintage Cadillacs zip by on surprisingly good roads, while trucks filled to the brim with locals meander through the lush countryside. Crumbling, pastel-colored colonial buildings and ration shops occupy the landscape. Not to mention walls of propaganda by the ruling communist party, the CDR. In the afternoons, people play chess, sip coffee, sit on their porches or stroll along the many beaches.

But belying the rum, the cigars, the romantic façade, life is not exactly a beach for the Cubans. With free education, universal healthcare and heavily subsidized basics, their worries are obviously different from ours. When told that Cuba is unique with its picture- perfect 1950s landscape and cars, a man looked bewildered as he responded, “But they’re all broken!”

Broken buildings or vehicles aside, the more popular issue with outspoken Cubans is censorship. All media is state-controlled, with three national newspapers and a smattering of regional publications. Electronics, including computers, are prohibitively expensive. Internet connection is bad (comparable to some Indonesian providers) and access to it very limited.

Several people from different cities told me this was to prevent Cubans from comparing their lives with people from the outside world. A gallery worker in Santa Clara said the easiest way to dodge the censors was to do it through the arts. He pointed to a painting, “This dog could be my dog, your dog, or it could be the government itself. The ambiguity lets the painter off the hook”.

Only recently did the government allow the sale of cell phones. As it is not considered a basic necessity, along with such items like mineral water and toilet paper, it is sold in “hard currency” or Cuban Convertible pesos (CUC for short). Cuba employs two currencies, CUC and Moneda Nacional pesos. The CUC was introduced in the 1990s as an equivalent to the US dollar, because the greenback was accepted as legal tender until six years ago.

Nowadays, the dollar is valued at less than a CUC, 85 US cents for 1 CUC, and 1 CUC is equal to 24 pesos. CUC pesos are used to pay for nonsubsidized items and services such as upscale resorts. There are CUC bars, restaurants, homestays, hotels, buses. All foreign tourists are almost always expected to pay for goods and services in CUC, and prohibited to even enter a peso store because peso stores sell highly subsidized goods. Even in peso restaurants, waiters will give tourists a separate CUC menu that has exactly the same items as on the peso menu, only with much inflated prices. Only certain establishments allow foreigners to pay in pesos, such as the cinema and street food vendors. A tobacco farmer who also rents out horses to tourists, scoffed at my offer of pesos and said, “They’re worth nothing”. He proceeded to show me the contents of his wallet: all CUC banknotes.

The quality of CUC goods and services themselves are not exactly leaps and bounds above the ones paid for in pesos, but there are obvious advantages. The CUC accommodation, for example, is much cleaner than their peso counterparts. The CUC intercity bus, or the Viazul, has its own waiting room in the bus terminal and you can buy the tickets on a whim. The peso bus, on the other hand, is not as tolerant to last-minute travels. Although the bus, called the Astro, is basically the same type of bus as its sister Viazul, it is strictly for residents (foreigners who want to ride on an Astro have to show proof of residency, such as a Cuban student identity card) and prospective passengers have to put their name on the waiting list hours before the desired travel time for a realistic chance of landing a seat.

Getting in Line

Maybe because a lot of their time is spent waiting around, Cubans have elevated queuing into an art form. There are queues everywhere. To enter the money changer, for public transport or to get an ice-cream cone. It took me 45 minutes to get into a peso ice-cream parlor. At first glance, the lines look chaotic. But here’s the genius part: when a new person is about to join the line, they have to shout “Who is last?” to the crowd in or near the line.

An answer will be shouted back at the newcomer, “Me!” or “The young guy in the blue shirt!” The newcomer can then choose to stand in line or even leave the place and come back later, knowing that everyone else has acknowledged him and automatically saved his place in line, so when he decides to join the queue again, he can ease into it without causing a fuss, just as long as he remembers who was in line before him. And everyone respects this system. Yes, there is no rigid line, but there is no stampede either.

Not everything is a headache waiting to happen. The quality of healthcare and education is top-notch. Although a doctor’s monthly salary is only 20 CUC and their medical facilities not exactly sparkling new, Cuban doctors, strong proponents in preventive care, have proved themselves to be very handy on local and international soil. According to the WHO, the life expectancy rate is high at 78 (compared to our 67, and similar to the United States), the infant mortality rate is the lowest in the region and, despite a permissive lifestyle, HIV/AIDS transmission is very low, even lower than in the US.

Operacion milagro (Operation Miracle) is a joint venture with Venezuela, where Cuban doctors provide free eye surgery for Venezuelans in exchange for cheap oil. Because of its success, the program has been extended to other Latin American countries. And even with the language barrier, the Cuban doctors were so popular among the people of Yogyakarta after the devastating earthquake in 2006, they were asked to stay longer than the other international aid teams. Pharmaceutical research is excellent, with a recent important finding in lung cancer treatment.

Top Marks for Education

Education is taken as seriously as healthcare, as reflected by the standardized facilities of schools across the region, and the literacy rate is 99.8 percent. A typical school lunch for students: rice, bean soup, pork strips, bread, salad and fruit (no need for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution here). The only film school in the country, EICTV, sits in a massive compound in the town of San Antonio. The extensive grounds host dormitories for undergraduate and graduate students, a separate housing complex for Ph.D. students, a gym, a basketball court, massage facilities (“These creative types need to let off steam, otherwise they go crazy!” explained one of the administration staff, a Mexican girl who has lived in Cuba for years), a swimming pool (again, to release tension and to practice underwater shots), an editing room, a sound room, a canteen and a gift shop.

The school, awarded the Roberto Rosellini Prize by the Cannes Film Festival, has also hosted world-famous directors such as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Stephen Frears. They left graffiti on the campus wall as a souvenir for students. The tuition for this excellent school? Zero pesos for locals, 15,000 euros per year for international students. Artists are supported by the government, and gifted artists, athletes and doctors returning from Operacion Milagro have first priority when it comes to cars and housing.

To boot, Cubans’ attitudes are pretty good all around.

“They’re tough, resilient people,” says Mrs. Monry Malik, wife of the current Indonesian ambassador to Cuba, who takes regular classes at the local university. Rather than discarding vintage cars, they equip them with more modern, available spare parts and use the cars for taxis. To make do with dwindling rations, locals plant fruit and vegetables in their backyards to add more to their plates.

Without multiple TV channels, they amuse themselves with music, dancing, baseball and ice cream. Despite the anti-US stance their government has, the average Cuban is not angry and not preoccupied with “yanquis”. They are generally very helpful, polite and quick to strike up a conversation with strangers without being intrusive. Cubans have an enviable joie de vivre and are some of the friendliest people in Latin America.

Unlike other Latin American countries, racial tension is a rare occurrence. The Afro-Caribbeans get on well with the European descendants, and after Fidel took power, the government eradicated all racist policies so everyone could receive the same services and apply for the same jobs regardless of their skin color. Violent crime is extremely rare, and in a refreshing change of scenery, even high officials mow their own lawns.

All in all, how Cubans queue pretty much illustrates life in the country: chaotic yet orderly.


Footnote: Indonesia has an interesting history with Cuba. After establishing diplomatic relations in early 1960, Sukarno was the first foreign head of state to visit Cuba after Castro came to power. During the New Order regime, the embassy was moved to Mexico, but reestablished its presence in the country from 1995 to serve Cuba and the Bahamas. Under its current ambassador, Banua Radja Malik, the embassy has had several cultural events, including an Indonesian film festival and photography exhibition last March.

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