I'm a Veronica.

Apr. 7, 2010 at 11:30pm with 20 notes View comments

The other day I overheard a conversation about energy-saving lightbulbs. It reminded me of a funny thing that happened while I was living in Grenada.

Now. Regardless of your feelings about Cuba, and/or whatever diplomatic issues the United States has had with Castro, historically… You should know that in the Caribbean, Cuba and Castro are generally seen as (for lack of a better word) saviors. Sugar daddy, even. Castro, apparently, has some brilliant PR. For example. The devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina got a huge amount of coverage in Grenada. It was a news trifecta for them. It was about the United States. It was about racism. And it was about suffering due to a hurricane. Shortly after the hurricane Castro made a speech in which he offered to send one hundred of Cuba’s very finest doctors to Louisiana to help with rescue efforts. The complete text of this speech was (translated and) published in one of Grenada’s two weekly newspapers. (There were no dailies.)

Many people, including Bean’s father, demanded that I explain why the United States had not responded to this gracious and generous offer. Why we were – and I quote – “ignoring the best-trained doctors in the world”. My only answer to this, because I was trying to be noncontroversial, and also because I’m not about to try to change anyone’s mind on this particular issue, was simple. We don’t need them, I said, and left it at that.

Several months later, the lightbulb business happened. Emissaries allegedly from the Cuban government arrived at our house. They were on foot. They were young, they were pleasant and one of them spoke English quite well. I offered them ice water, which they accepted gratefully. Then they asked us to tell them how many light fixtures we had in the house. We obliged. They left and went on to our neighbor’s house. They did this throughout the entire neighborhood, and, as far as I know, all over Grenada. (That’s what they told us. But I don’t recall ever hearing anyone mention it.)

A couple of weeks passed and they returned. They had lightbulbs for us. These lightbulbs, they declared, would last for seven years. All we had to do to get the lightbulbs, free of charge, was give them the bulbs we were currently using. This was, they explained, a gift from the people of Cuba to the people of Grenada. And so we obliged. We accepted their magic Cuban lightbulbs and gave them ours.

The magic Cuban lightbulbs lasted four months.

[Update: When I posted this story on my “real” blog, Letters from Grenada, I heard from a Jamaican reader who said the same thing had happened in his country and that it had turned into a major political scandal. Which I found very interesting. Because, seriously? What is the point of all that, Cuba? I would very much like for someone to explain this to me like I’m four years old, because I don’t get it. Is it just propaganda? Are you just shoring up your already stellar reputation within the Caribbean? Do you think that people will not notice that your lightbulbs suck? Or have you been gaslighting the world and your own people for so long now that you believe your own baseless stories?]