The Gardens of Indigence

The Gardens of Indigence / Cubanet, Gladys Linares
Posted on March 15, 2015

For the environmental project, "A Rose-Colored Planet," children would
be responsible for beautifying the green spaces of the capital.
Dilapidated Havana requires much more than a community gardening
project: sanitizing the city is the urgent business.

Cubanet, Gladys Linares, Havana, February 27 2015 — Now it turns out
that children have the responsibility for creating green spaces for the
enjoyment of the public, and ending more than fifty years of
governmental neglect.

This is unheard of!

In the article, "They celebrate the work day in order to promote the
beauty of gardens," the newspaper Juventud Rebelde describes the
environmental project, "A Rose-Colored Planet," and an interest group
composed of 500 children that would be responsible for beautifying the
green spaces of the capital.

Will children be able to solve the problem created by the public
services that go around collecting the large garbage and debris heaps
that proliferate in the city, with 14-ton front-end loaders that destroy
the sidewalks, curbs and gardens, and leave craters that become breeding
grounds for mosquitos, rats, and other carriers of disease?

Any idiot knows that the complexity of this task requires much more than
a community project, because the duty of maintaining green spaces in
good condition — as well as of implementing public health and sanitation
projects — falls to the public administration.

Will children be able to solve the shortage of wheeled bins needed to
collect the 20-thousand cubic meters of waste that our city generates?
This dearth of bins is often the result of mishandling by Comunales *
workers (who are not held accountable for their actions), or acts of
"social indiscipline" such as wheels being removed, junk being discarded
in the bins, the bins being set on fire, etc. Such actions convert
densely-populated neighborhoods such as Diez de Octubre, Centro Habana,
Arroyo Naranjo and San Miguel del Padrón into sites for those large
garbage heaps referenced above.

Will our children be able to require that the workers who are currently
installing the water meters in Marianao not leave behind debris,
trenches and water leaks upon completing these projects?

But it is not only Aguas de La Habana which leave behind their mark of
shoddiness. The gas company does it, too, when they complete some road
"repair" project. They claim that covering-up and fixing the sidewalks
is the Comunales'* responsibility, and despite efforts often made by
area residents, these projects are not finished adequately.

All this negligence on the part of the State has provoked an
exacerbation of acts of "social indiscipline." In the absence of parks
and recreational areas, the children play in the streets, annoying the
neighbors. In the absence of containers, the public alleges (rightfully)
that garbage cannot be kept inside the house, so they throw it in the
street. Perhaps it is no coincidence that we hear so often of neighbors
and relatives of friends dying of leptospirosis, as happened last week
to a young man and his dog, who lived less than 100 meters from one of
those garbage heaps.

"A Rose-Colored Planet" includes among its objectives the creation of
gardens for the enjoyment of hospitalized children and residents of
elder-care facilities, applying the methods employed in French gardening
— a fine and noble task. Starting at early ages, this community project
develops civic consciousness, which we so need today.

But much more than children's projects is needed to return Havana to its
green lushness.

Translated by Alicia Barraqué Ellison, and others

Translator's Note:

* Comunales is the state-run waste management company in Cuba. For other
articles in Translating Cuba about related issues, click here.

Source: The Gardens of Indigence / Cubanet, Gladys Linares | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-gardens-of-indigence-cubanet-gladys-linares/