Page 12 - aruba-today-20170916

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 16 September 2017

Pic of Cubans at dominoes in Irma floodwaters sparks debate

By MICHAEL WEISSEN- on the right trying to col-
STEIN lect trash and unblock
ANDREA RODRIGUEZ drains, I imagine,” Ba-
Associated Press lan said. “And there I
HAVANA (AP) — As Hur- see the people playing
ricane Irma flooded the dominoes, an unusual
working-class neighbor- case not because of the
hoods behind Havana’s dominoes but because
seaside Malecon, a of the moment.”
photographer for the If Balan had shown up
Cuban Communist Par- a little earlier, he would
ty newspaper watched have seen those same
two men pulling broken men working to unblock
furniture out of the calf- drains and clear trash,
high water. according to six neigh-
Nearby four others sat bors interviewed by AP.
on plastic chairs play- “This was not any kind of
ing dominoes in the filthy indiscipline,” said Angel
water, which reached Caballero, a 54-year-old
halfway up their legs construction worker who
to a makeshift wooden was playing dominoes
table balanced on their but did not appear in
knees. Juvenal Balan In this Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017 photo released by Granma, men play dominoes in the middle of a the photo. “While some
snapped a photo and flooded street as others pull broken furniture from calf-high water in the aftermath Hurricane Irma, of us were working to try
posted it online with a in Havana, Cuba. to get the water to go
comment declaring it (Juvenal Balan/Granma via AP) away so it would not rise
“incredible” that the more and run into our
four were playing while other said. reading all sorts of things munist Party newspaper, houses, others were tak-
“others work together to A day later the plati- into it about contem- Granma. ing turns playing.”
mitigate the damage.” num-selling Cuban reg- porary Cuban society,” “Our rich and infinite Irma’s floodwaters have
Then, something unex- gaeton band Gente de said Michael Bustaman- jokiness is one thing. In- now receded and the
pected happened. The Zona had an entirely dif- te, an assistant professor discipline and irrespon- debris has been col-
photo went viral and ig- ferent spin. of Latin American history sibility is another,” he lected, leaving water-
nited a furious and com- The band posted Balan’s at Florida International wrote. “We must reject stained walls as prac-
plicated debate about photo on its official Face- University who tweeted the image that craziness tically the only visual
the state of Cuban soci- book page, cropped about the photo this and thoughtlessness are reminder of the storm’s
ety. to focus on the domino week. “Some are seeing part of our nature. ... It havoc in Havana. That,
Many on the island and scene and not the men a sign of social irrespon- is not a joke but rather and pictures like Balan’s.
in Cuba’s sprawling in- collecting trash, and de- sibility or a symptom of fuel for mocking us that Eddy Dennis, a gray-
ternational diaspora clared: “Putting a good a crisis of morals. (Other) in the middle of a situa- haired 51-year-old park-
saw Sunday’s scene as face on bad times.” people are seeing the tri- tion created by Irma’s ing attendant seen
a textbook example of “The essence of the Cu- umph of the Cuban spirit gigantic, devastating pulling furniture from
“social indiscipline,” a ban spirit is reflected in over incredible odds.” impact, in the middle of the water, said what
commonly heard phrase this photo!” the band or There were similarly the Havana streets, sub- the image showed was
in the country that’s used its social media manager polarized reactions to merged to their waists, neighborly cooperation
to bemoan the flouting wrote. The cropped im- other images this week four men were playing and mutual effort in the
of prized civic values age got more than 8,000 of Cubans having fun dominoes.” face of Havana’s worst
like cleanliness, polite- likes and drew a similar amid the crisis: women Balan told The Associ- flooding in years, if not
ness and helping one’s reception on dozens of laughing and appar- ated Press that he was decades.“It was some-
neighbors. But for others other pages aimed at ently dancing in knee- taken by the contrast of thing communal that all
the photo symbolized Cubans. high floodwaters, teen- people working to clear the neighbors were do-
another, equally Cuban In Italy, expatriate Cu- age boys diving from an floodwaters on Aguila ing in the spirit of unity,”
quality: good-humored bans spent days arguing overpass into a flooded Street, four blocks from Dennis said.“Those who
resilience in the face of about the meaning of tunnel converted into an the Malecon, and the got tired would sit down
difficulty, even disaster. the image on an Italian- ad-hoc pool. domino players. and play dominoes. We
“What savages!” one language chatroom. Writer Oscar Sanchez “I’m seeing women with had spent the whole
woman wrote on Ba- “Cubans on the island Serra addressed the so- brooms, families trying night on our feet, and it
lan’s Facebook page. and in the diaspora are ciopolitical implications to get trash out of the was a way to de-stress in
“Throw them in jail,” an- taking this image and in an essay in the Com- water. I see these men the face of disaster.”q