By Lucas Garve, Independent Press Agency in Cuba, (APIC).
HAVANA, July 10, 1996. (APIC).- It can be read on the wall, next to La Nueva barbershop, at la Calzada de Managua, in Mantilla, right under the listing for the hours of operation of the establishment, a sign which reads: "We won't cut hair on anyone with lice".
Lice are like wildfire in Cuba during this special period of socialism or death, a close second to the olimpic size Cuban rats, which are disdainful of common rat poison, something in which the city inhabitants place their faith to combat the rodent invasion.
Old Havana was declared by UNESCO a patrimony of humanity, a truly honorable designation which soon turned to regime conversion, thanks to capitalist procedures. This meant that new stores, where they offered all types of articles, appeared, to be sold for dollars, even if they were not importing the simple mouse traps.
During my long gone childhood, lice was a far removed reality, and only as an adolescent did I hear the adjective lice ridden, usually uttered with the goal of insulting someone. But presently, lice have taken a life of their own, in conversations between parents, between classmates, between friends.
Anti-lice shampoo costs a little over 3 dollars, and of course, this in itself is discriminatory, for the simple reason that more than 80 percent of the population in this country doesn't have access to hard currency.
Then, what is to be done about the lice problem? The solution might be to get a bottle of lindano solution (lice poison), almost nonexistent and highly toxic, whose use is prohibited by the World Health Organization and has been for years, or abate powders, also toxic, or a hot wire comb, to kill them in a rudimentary but yet effective manner, or shave your scalp.
The special period of crisis has affected hygiene and personal grooming. So far in 1996, the supply stores (grocery stores) have sold, through the ration card, two bars of bath soap and three bars of laundry soap--- these bars are of such a small size and primitive quality that they leave much to be desired. In the open market you can purchase homemade soaps, which are dangerous to your health. It's the same for shampoo.
For some months now, the Interior Commerce Ministry has been supplying some stores, where you can get shampoo at 35 pesos (national currency equivalent to 25 pesos per dollar at unofficial exchange rates) without rationing.
In the "shoppings" they sell Lux soap, Palmolive, Refresh, Tropical Dip, and even the most expensive brand name soaps, starting at 30 cents (on the dollar), and the best brands of shampoo are sold at about 2 to 3 dollars per bottle, on up.
That's how things are while the war against lice seems to be lost, even if
this island had been declared as "READY FOR THE DEFENSE". We are all
threatened.