News SOS for Journalists Latin America Culture

Photos Photo of the Day Videos

Fatigue Barely Allows You to Enjoy the Lights On in Havana

A childhood friend assures me that this is like when the eye of the cyclone passes over us and it seems that calm has finally arrived.

By Yoani Sanchez (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – I haven’t heard Caruso in days. The neighborhood rooster has stopped singing in the middle of the night, its discordant crowing starting long before sunrise. Did it finally end up in a cooking pot? I peer over the edge of the rooftop and see little lights here and there. Not a single blackout in all of Havana that I can see. That worries me more than the fate of the cheeky rooster on the block. What will come after so much electricity? I wonder.

They say that those who have lived through a war can suffer from what is known as “combat fatigue.” the physical and mental exhaustion, the disorientation, and the anxiety make up the trauma of a soldier who has experienced battle. But here nothing has ended; this is merely a brief respite. A childhood friend assures me that this is like when the eye of a hurricane passes us overhead and it seems that calm has arrived. People become complacent and leave their homes, but soon after the eye of the hurricane the worst winds and the most extreme tornadoes arrive.

It’s not like we’ve had time to let our guard down, because now we have electricity, but we still lack water. In Cuba, you always have to keep one foot in the trenches of precariousness.........

© Havana Times