March 27, 2008
Microwave Propaganda
It’s all over the papers, the internet and even the TV news in Miami.
Cuba is entering the 80’s, if you believe the AP. You see, Cubans are being introduced to microwave ovens made by Daewoo. WooFreaking’Hoo.
According to the AP, in this Miami Herald article:
LAS GUASIMAS, Cuba -- Ana Magdalena Melian, a spry 91-year-old, had never seen a microwave oven until one landed in her kitchen courtesy of the communist government.''There were some rich people in Havana who had a microwave, but the rest of us didn't dream of one,'' said the great-grandmother who uses the new Daewoo DC to prepare flan and defrost chicken.
About 3,000 households in Las Guasimas, a town just southeast of Havana named for a stubby evergreen tree, were issued microwaves in December as part of a pilot program.
La Sra Melian is one resourceful ol’ cookie. You’ve got to hand it to her. She figured out how to make a flan, which requires a bunch of ingredients that are scarce and expensive in Cuba and is somewhat tricky to make even with a good stove, (at least in my case), in a Daewoo mini-microwave oven in no time at all. And she’s 91! (lookout, Marta).
The microwave ovens are part of a pilot program in which the regime is studying whether to make the microwaves available for sale to the public. Really, more like a propaganda program designed to make it appear as if the "new" regime is making changes that benefit the lives of ordinary cittizens.
I’m assuming the study is going to be difficult to conduct because of the lack of electricity and food to cook in the microwave ovens. Maybe they should study how to provide these essentials. Oh yes, I forget, they’ve been studying that problem for nearly fifty years. Any day now…..
The sad part of this story, even sadder that they’re making microwave ovens available to people who have nothing to cook in them, is that the regime, the only importer, wholesaler and retailer, is planning on financing the purchase of the microwave ovens to its citizens-probably with interest. And you guessed it - they are conveniently the only financiers as well.
Considering that an average Cuban makes $15 a month and assuming that these Daewoo microwaves go for $90, these ovens represent 6 times a median Cuban monthly salary. So let’s say you make $35,000 per year in the US, it would be like you paying $17,500 for a microwave oven-or like going to the Toyota dealership, getting a nicely equipped Corolla, parking it in kitchen – and toasting your toast on the engine block.
This fact, isn’t overlooked by everyday Cubans, who are smart enough to figure out how to make flan in a microwave, after all:
Melian said her family now loves ''el microwave'' but the idea of having to pay to keep it scares her. ''We still are missing a lot in our lives,'' she said. ``This helps, but at what price?''Her neighbor, 76-year-old retired truck driver Sergio Rodriguez, uses his microwave to heat rice and milk.
''If they want to charge me, it will take 20 years to pay off,'' said Rodriguez, who lives with his daughter and two grandchildren.
Posted by Gusano at March 27, 2008 12:15 PM
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So let’s say you make $35,000 per year in the US, it would be like you paying $17,500 for a microwave oven-or like going to the Toyota dealership, getting a nicely equipped Corolla, parking it in kitchen – and toasting your toast on the engine block.
LMAO
Posted by: Val Prieto ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 27, 2008 12:54 PM
The other, even sadder part, is they're about to discover -- as anyone in the US who even halfway knows their way around a kitchen long ago has -- that the microwave is overrated. It's good only for thawing and reheating if you ask me. Ain't no substitute for a real gas oven/stove.
Posted by: Zhangliqun at March 27, 2008 02:03 PM
Guess that is the difference between here and CUBA in living standards. To Sergio - my "mini-micro", not a Daewoo, a Samsung (close enough) is 14 years old. My larger one, 23 years old, is a Sanyo - and is a cast off whose original owner gave it to me rather than than throw it out after buying a new one. If the Sanyo is any indication, your Daewoo just might last long enough for you to pay it off, whether you or the Regime last that long is another matter. May you live at least long enough to see the Regime go.
-S-
Posted by: Dr.Shalit at March 27, 2008 02:30 PM
Oh Whopiiii ! from what I heard from Holguin was that microwaves were distributed yesterday in Baracoa also, You know the town that got hit by that Wave and the houses received a lot of damage and people lost their bedding and all kinds of goods ?
What's a microwave going to do for these people ? are they going to sleep in top of it ?
It would have being better if they had distributed matresses,sheets pillows, clothing etc.or perhaps even a chicken or two, to do in the microwave.
In top of that people were made to sign a promisory note, is this a force sale ?
Posted by: Peter Perez at March 27, 2008 03:17 PM
''There were some rich people in Havana who had a microwave, but the rest of us didn't dream of one.''
Wait a freakin minute, you mean there are rich people in the socialist workers paradise? How can that be? I thought castro and communism made everyone equal.
Hmm.
Posted by: JackW at March 27, 2008 03:33 PM
Honey, if there were rich people in Cuba during the 1970s you can be sure they were (are) from the Cuban Communist government elite.
Posted by: Firefly at March 27, 2008 03:44 PM
Firefly,
Exactly.
Posted by: JackW at March 27, 2008 03:48 PM
rich people in Cuba w a microwave oven
Compare Cuba and the US in the 1950s with TV: the US first in the world in TVs per capita, and Cuba fifth in the world.
Today, microwave ovens in US are trivial consumer items. In Cuba, they are luxury items. When the PSF Fidel apologists are confronted w such facts, they reply that Cuba is not a "consumer" society. I do not see these PSF apologists for Fidel going without TVs,microwave ovens, PCs, and the Internet in THEIR homes.
Posted by: GringoTex at March 27, 2008 08:56 PM
Remember those "free" regrigerators? They were "given" to the Cubans for $300 plus they had to trade in their old refrigerators after paying to have them fixed. Then the Cuban government, in its infinite largesse, gave them loans at 10% interest. But word has it that many Cubans are REFUSING to pay the government back. So probably the same thing will happen with those miraculous microwaves. And yes, you can make a good flan in the microwave.
Posted by: Mariana at March 27, 2008 10:11 PM
Dear Cousin Miami Mafia: Pls, send $$$, we need microwaves and cell phones, Love, Cousin Commie, CDR #1093, Havana. PS: We proudly display the pic from your last visit when you wore your gold medallions and gave us all that pacotilla, love the Orlando Magic T-shirt but the Mets ballcap centerline was off to the side and it had a label "Made in China"
Posted by: Doorgunner at March 29, 2008 11:26 AM
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