Life in embargoed countries: the Cuban case.
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Perhaps you have heard about some countries in the world who are under economic sanctions and because of that reason, citizens belonging to those countries are not allowed to do “certain things” other people are indeed allowed to do...common things may i say, like access to some websites on the Internet or using credit and debit cards issued by banks in the USA and other countries.
Those countries are widely known as “Embargoed Countries” because they are under economical sanctions and aren't allowed to trade with companies belonging to the imposing country. By definition an embargo in terms of economical effects is “a government ban on moving commercial ships in and out of certain ports, or a restriction of trade for a specific product or with a specific country.”
Some countries like Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria are examples of embargoed countries by USA government while Crimea(a region of Ukraine) is embargoed and sanctioned by Russia. Not everyone can impose sanctions against another country: only a few powerful economical countries(like USA, Russia and China) and some International Organizations like UN(United Nations) can effectively impose some kind of economical embargo.
The method used does not vary too much from country to country: export restrictions are imposed by law and economical sanctions prohibit companies in the imposing country from trading with the target country under penalty of a large fine. The imposing country may lose markets and investment opportunities to competing countries but target country is usually the most affected one given his poor social and economical condition, because mostly, the embargoes happen from a powerful country to a weak one.
Citizens of seized countries, as you can imagine, do not have the same way of life than citizens who live in countries with no economical restrictions...but they have a life indeed, a modified life full of needs and restrictions but, miraculously, those people have adapted to live under those conditions...and somehow...live happily! :)
Before speaking about the Cuban case, regarding how's to live in an embargoed country, i think i need to quickly step into why some countries are sanctioned, because, let's be fair, it is a question that many people ask themselves when listening for the first time those facts: *country A is sanctioning country B...damn...*why??
Why...?
Two quick answers:
...because they can and want and
...because it is believed by imposing country, that target country has violated some “international rules”, like being an international sponsor of terrorism or because target country has violated basic human rights against its own population...so basically the embargo is a punishment measure.
Those “corrective measures” are applied on behalf of humanity...or at least the imposing country(or its government) believe that, althoug, paradoxically, the people who lives in target countries think those measures are a crime against humanity itself because the consequences of the embargo are suffered by the population and not by the countries leaders(or rulers :) ) so, the lack of food, as an example, will put a whole country population in a hurry but not their leaders, who will continue living at people´s expenses...nothing change, nothing happens, and the embargo becomes a vicious circle for a life.
All over the years we can find many examples showing us an embargo imposed by one country to another, some of them last few months or years while others have entire generations living under some kind of restrictions, so you can born and die without knowing nothing more than needs :(
Cuban Embargo(which cubans prefer to call “the blockade” or “el bloqueo”, in spanish) is known as the “longest and cruellest embargo in human history” because it lasts for more than 60 years by now and have three different edges to cover, which makes it a really complete embargo: it´s a commercial, economic, and financial embargo, that´s why cubans call it “the blockade”...nothing in, nothing out...
We cubans have adapted to live in a country full of needs and no matter the reason we have been imposed an embargo(political differences, everyone knows that :) ) we have a life. We born, raise and die living our lifes in a beautiful country and, with some changes, we have managed ourselves to live our own peculiar way of life.
Living under an embargo: reinventing ourselves!
To live in a seized country has many drawbacks but it gave cubans the possibility to reinvent themselves and the economy as well. Due to economical effects of a long lasting blockade cubans have been forced to be extremely creatives: from alternative products replacing well known and widely used international products to create jobs in trades that do not exist in other parts of the world...let´s see some peculiar aspects of a real cuban way of life!! **:)**
*❶* We do not have Coca-Cola...so we made our own Coca!
As Coca-Cola is a product licensed in the USA, Cuba is not allowed to import it from nowhere. That´s why Cuba make its own Coca-Cola replacement, curiously named TuKola.
Fig 1. *A cuban repaclement for Coca-Cola: TuKola. In the picture we have a regular TuKola and a diet version of the same drink(the white can) (https://www.todocuba.org)*
*❷* We have Internet access through a single submarine cable.
Early´s 2000, Cuba had only access to satellital connections to the World Wide Web(slow and quite expensive). Despite many submarine cables passed near the island, Cuba was not allowed to use any of them, because of the embargo. So Cuba and Venezuela were given the task of build a submarine cable connecting the island to the main South American network infraestructure.
It was more expensive than connecting Cuba to one of those near cables owned by USA institutions but at the end the new millennium welcomed Cuba to the world of fastest and cheapest Internet connections!
Fig 2. *ALBA-1(in red) the submarine cable linking Cuba with Venezuela. Ready for Service in 2012. (https://www.submarinecablemap.com)*
We must note that there are two more cables linking Cuba with Puerto Rico and even the USA, but those cables only serve conectivity to the USA Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay.
*❸* Ration book...what a heck is that?! **:o**
Ohh yes!!! In Cuba, given the weak economy and the restrictions imposed on commerce and international financial transactions the internal retail commerce has been affected heavily. Due to slow wages and that imported things are expensive, cuban government has imposed subsidized food rationing and to register and control the whole process each cuban family is given a “ration book” which is plain and simple a small notebook where each month is annotated the food ration each family corresponds(sugar, coffee, rice, beans, cooking oil,...)
Fig 3. *A typical cuban ration book (https://oncubanews.com)*
Ration books are not new in human history. Their typical use case is in war situation where the whole economy crash or a blockade is imposed over a given country and then ration books came to save the day allowing a parity in the distribution of the little food that still exists in that country. USA as an example, used ration books during WWII...but that time was war time...today in Cuba there is not a war but still have our ration books. :)
Fig 4. *A typical cuban ration book...showing the page dedicated to meat and chicken deliveries (https://oncubanews.com)*
*❹* We have our own Pay-Per-View service...Welcome to a weird Cuban Netfilx and a World Wide Web at cuban style!!!
Weird isn´t? But in Cuba most citizens do not have access to services like Pay-Per-View TV or Netflix. So seizing the opportunity of the recently opened Internet service for all cubans, many people(with a higher money average than the media) has invented our own “internal network” and in parallel, our internally distributed Pay-Per-View service.
Using thousands of Wireless devices like Ubiquiti NanoStation M2 or M5 and MikroTik SXT or LHG5 and more specifically Gigabyte LAN Switches and thousands of meters of LAN UTP cables, cubans have made an internal and community network allowing them to chat, play, mount specialized sales websites and even stream pay content previously downloaded(and pirated :) ) from the Internet.
The network is called: SNet(...from Street Net) and has many services like the real Internet: classified information sites, virtual stores, BattleNet servers, chatting servers, internal email servers and so on...
Fig 5. *A screenshot of SNet logo, the cuban internal Internet!! (http://falcowebb.com)*
You can find even streaming services. The most popular is one called “El Paquete”, or “The Package”, in english. It is a compilation of TV shows, Youtubers shows, PC programs databank, cartoons, manga anime, comic books and films; everything ordered and categorized and distributed sometimes in external HDDs or streamed directly from a server in one residing “node” of that networks.
Fig 6. The “Package” is distributes sometimes in external storage devices like this shown in the photo.( *https://www.cibercuba.com*)
Subscription cost is about 50 cuban pesos($2 USD) on a monthly basis and updates to the package are added on a daily basis(incremental updates)...nothing bad for not having Netflix isn´t?
*❺* Lacking job opportunities? ...let´s invent new jobs!
Due to the negative effects of the embargo the cuban economy has poorly developed over years, although diversified, the internal commerce is not a high level commerce and the wages perceived by cubans who work directly for government owned institutions do not earn more than 40 USD a month which is low not to speak about the inflation levels. That´s why many cubans opt for small jobs created mostly by creative minds trying to solve some problems underlying in the cuban society.
Have you ever heard about “lighter refiller”...as a daily job for anyone?
If you walk through any Cuban market or city parks you´ll be aware that almost in every corner there is a man sitting down in a tiny chair with a tiny table full of lighters...Those men are lighter refillers...
Fig 7. A typical cuban lighter refiller working on the streets.
*(https://walterlippmann.com)*
The lack of new jobs opening have forced the cubans to invent new job positions like this peculiar profession which try to reuse disposable lighters that otherwise would have been thrown away at the end of their useful life...an example of a clean and clever recicling technique.
Final thougths...by now
As you can see dear reader, living under an economical and financial embargo has forced cubans to “reinvent the wheel”. I am sure life in other embargoed countries do not differ too much from the normal cuban way of life but we have some specificities due to we are a communist country and cubans are innovative by nature.
If you come to Cuba sometime, make sure to sharpen your eyes because you will find that living in an embargoed country has many disadvantages but people always try to bypass those difficulties being creative...and giving you something new to photograph and some interesting stories to tell to your grandchildrens. :)
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