USD in Cuba keeps rising in price, and since I don’t know much about economics, all I can do is panic. It has started to climb steeply, right at the moment when we most needed it to remain stable. It feels as if, economically, Cubans can’t catch a break.
Along with the rise of the dollar, food prices have obviously also gone up. Practically everything consumed here is imported from abroad. Therefore, if foreign currency increases in price, then everything increases.
Right now, a simple pound of chicken is equivalent to approximately 10% of a doctor’s salary. What’s most upsetting is that the rise hasn’t been slow and gradual, but rather has happened in giant leaps. There’s no way to adapt. People are buying less, but…
There’s one type of product that continues to sell a lot: alcoholic beverages. Everywhere I go, there are at least two people drinking together, especially beer. Of course, the heat plays a role.
Men are the most prominent in this “sport.” And those who have some kind of business—legal or illegal—even more so. At the end of their workday, they start buying and drinking until they reach near drunkenness or outright drunkenness. That’s thousands of pesos spent that could well be used to improve their business and aspire to a better life.
I feel jealous of the way they earn money so easily, and just as easily waste it on nonsense, when in reality, it’s not like they have their lives figured out. It seems nobody wants to stop consuming imported products that depend on the dollar’s price.
People here don’t have the vision to produce their own goods and products. Everything has to come by ship. Alcohol comes first. The stability of my family and my wallet will have to find its own path.
I’m not saying it’s easy to start producing local products, because in Cuba, in general, people don’t know anything. We haven’t learned anything—not about economics, not about finance, not about production. But learning is possible. The tools to learn are there. All that’s needed is to start redirecting the money used on alcohol and invest it in a smarter way.
English isn't my native language. Text translated with DeepL