The UN and the European Union will send 94 tons of supplies for those affected by Hurricane Oscar in eastern Cuba.
By 14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES – The two total blackouts that Cuba has suffered in the last three weeks are an economic, political and social disaster that deepens the multidimensional crisis that the country is suffering, experts consulted by EFE agree. As of Saturday, Cuba is still recovering from the total blackout caused three days ago by the passage of Hurricane Rafael through the western provinces of the island. Just 19 days earlier, a breakdown in a key thermoelectric plant also caused the National Electric System (SEN) to collapse and left the entire country in the dark for more than three days.
The consequences of these multi-day power cuts are impossible to list: from the paralysis of almost all industries to the loss of refrigerated food in stores and homes; from lines at service stations to the suspension of water supplies; along with the paralysis of schools and the effects on hospitals, transportation and the precious tourism sector. At the macroeconomic level, the impact is evident. “I would expect a very significant fall in the gross domestic product (GDP) this year,” says Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, who predicts “the third recession since the pandemic” for Cuba.
In his opinion, the country has fallen into a “poverty trap” and has run out of “capabilities and possibilities for recovery.” “Even if things are done well, there is no longer the capacity to get out of this crisis,” he argues.
Tamarys Bahamonde, an economist and doctor in Public Policy, believes that “in a country with such precarious conditions – social and economic – as Cuba, the impact of the paralysis of the productive sector and the provision of services is devastating. There is no growth, no development and no satisfaction of human needs in the 21st century without electricity,” she concludes. In addition to highlighting the impact on the productivity and efficiency of companies due to the direct and indirect costs of blackouts, Bahamonde emphasizes the situation in which prolonged power cuts leave people. “The income of the majority of Cubans does not allow them to navigate this context of food insecurity and energy crisis simultaneously with success,” she says.
Rita García, director of the Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue, emphasizes this point. She refers to the “terrible physical and mental exhaustion” of “every elderly person, every child, every mother” in this situation. “People can’t stand it any more: it’s terrible. More hours (of blackout) than during the Special Period [after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of its subsidies to Cuba]. We’re working 20 hours a day and we’re desperate,” she says of the city of Cárdenas, in Matanzas. García also describes the “tension” that it means for her institution to maintain the care of 120 very vulnerable elderly people, for whom they provide daily home delivery of food.
For her part, Cuban sociologist Cecilia Bobes believes that in this situation there may be “isolated protests,” although not an “outburst similar to that of 11 July” of 2021, the largest anti-government demonstrations in decades. The “extreme precariousness” fuels “indignation,” “anger” and a “feeling of injustice,” explains Bobes, but it also provokes sadness and hopelessness, which is demobilizing, as is the need to ensure survival and the deployment of “resources” by the authorities to avoid protests.
For social anthropologist Katrin Hansing, a professor at the City University of New York and an expert on Cuba, the prolonged power outages are generating “a lot of uncertainty,” a “very negative energy” that causes “anguish,” “anxiety,” and “stress.” “We have woken up to the new reality that at any moment the power can go out for a long time, and knowing that produces not only enormous uncertainty, but also permanent discomfort,” she explains. Hansing argues that these total blackouts have put the spotlight symbolically, but also more generally, on “a system that is very fragile,” something that encourages doubts about “the future of this country.”
In this context, several countries and institutions have offered their help to the island, but the donations are far from being able to cover the country’s economic needs. The United Nations system in Cuba reported this Saturday that it will send, together with the European Union (EU), more than 94 tons of essential supplies valued at 600,000 dollars, as part of the aid to those affected by Hurricane Oscar. The contribution will arrive in the province of Santiago de Cuba between this Sunday and next Wednesday and consists of medicines, medical supplies, water storage tanks, hygiene kits, chlorine tablets, tarps, mosquito nets, solar lamps and tools, among others.
The shipment is part of a coordinated action plan between the Cuban authorities and the United Nations Agencies, Funds and Programs, to benefit almost half a million people in the province of Guantánamo. The aid will reach the east of the country via four flights financed by the EU. Logistical support has been provided by the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot Network managed by the World Food Program, according to the statement.
With this action plan in response to Hurricane Oscar, announced at the end of October by the office of the United Nations coordinator in Cuba, the UN seeks to mobilize up to 33 million dollars.
Editor’s Note: A response to the considerable damage to infrastructure and agriculture from Hurricane Rafael in western Cuba is still forthcoming.
Translated by Translating Cuba.
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