The Urban Marabou

The Urban Marabou* / Fernando Dámaso
Posted on March 6, 2016

Fernando Damaso, 5 March 2106 — Poor taste and anti-aesthetics have
spread across the whole country. Havana is an excellent example of this.
None of its suburbs or districts have been able to avoid it. In Nuevo
Vedado, in Tulipán Street, between Marino and Estancia Streets, an
African-Cuban religious-cultural centre has been put up, made out of
waste materials which, instead of embellishing the location, has made it
ugly. Apart from making everybody who passes it miserable, with its
profusion of flags, full-size unartistic figures, worthless paintings
and aggressive and dangerous metal sheets, it also afflicts its
neighbours with music from early morning until late at night.

If it had belonged to any individual, the Planning Authority would have
ordered its demolition by now, and would have ordered them to open up
those sections of Marino and Estancia Streets, between Tulipán and
Lombillo Streets to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, both of which have
been closed and appropriated for its private use by the Ministries of
Transport and Construction.

There is a repeat of the problem in the ramshackle facilities for the
farmers' market in Tulipán Street on the corner of Protestante, where
poor taste and anti-aesthetics are also on display, made even worse by
the dirty environment at that location.

It seems that urban regulations don't apply equally to all situations,
and that there are some strange "exceptions."

*Translator's note: Marabou is an invasive weed that has spread across
much of Cuba's agricultural land.

Translated by GH

Source: The Urban Marabou* / Fernando Dámaso | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-urban-marabu-fernando-dmaso/