Distributed by CubaNet-Org.
FROM CUBA:
By Carlos Manuel Guerra Gonzalez, Patria Agency
CAMAGUEY, December 1996, (Patria Agency).- If we watch closely everything that happens around us, we can notice how there are many events which occur daily and which affect the inhabitants of this island.
In Cuba, rains affected a good portion of the national territory, mainly the eastern region and Camaguey. It is about Camaguey that we are talking about in this article. Of how these constant rains hurt many homes, mostly of poor families of little, if any, income.
Many of the homes crumbled totally or partially. This could be seen by the entire population in different parts of the city. All the families affected were taken to transit shelters or temporary housing due to the lack of construction materials which the State maintains to repair these homes.
But the other side of the coin is what the people see when, in various locations throughout the city, there are several facilities being built for the use of international tourism. To cite only a couple of the smaller projects, let me mention the swimming pool at the Grand Hotel and the parking lot and its management of Havanaut Corp. for car rentals, this last one which was almost completely finished within 30 days.
There are many other tourism projects which are not lacking in cement, sand, gravel, or any other construction material, all of which are produced nationally. In addition to all these projects, as in the aforementioned case of the swimming pool, the material is lost, wasted down the street, while entire families from Camaguey languish living in homes built more than 300 years ago, without maintenance.
However, the tourists are provided with modern and comfortable buildings, in which they can happily vacation. What we donit know is for how long we can continue to put up with this situation to which the government subjects us.