A video shared on Instagram shows several men manually pushing a fairground ride in Cuba while a crowd watches, in a scene that starkly captures the impact of the electricity crisis on the daily lives of Cubans.
The recording, published by the user elmas_psao, accumulated 502,000 views.
The narrator describes in real time how the owners give momentum to the device and points out: “The engine is at the back, the red one, that’s the powerful engine,” he says, referring to the young man who, perched on the metal structure, swings his body and manages to move the ride with the children inside.
"When you think you've seen it all, these people come along and surprise you like this," he adds.
The reason for the effort is clear in a single phrase: "There is no current, I push you with my hand."
Another witness of the scene states: "This has not been seen in any country in the world."
The video generated hundreds of comments lamenting the situation that the Cuban people have found themselves in.
"Human engines. It increasingly resembles India," said a young resident of Texas.
"Labor inspection, employee safety, occupational risk, child safety... Cuba is regressing to the Paleolithic, and that hurts them," quipped another user.
A user revealed that the video was recorded in Ranchuelo, Villa Clara.
Several readers identified the owner of the attraction as Tony, a native of Cruces, Cienfuegos, who has been operating that mobile apparatus—known as the dragon—for years, traveling through towns and cities in the region.
In August, during popular festivities celebrated in Cienfuegos from the 14th to the 16th of that month, the authorities prohibited self-employed workers from connecting their amusement rides to the electrical grid.
The decision forced them to improvise.
A video filmed around that time showed several men manually pushing a small Ferris wheel with children sitting in it, and they were doing the same with Tony's dragon. At that moment, the province of Cienfuegos was experiencing a generation deficit of 89 MW and blackouts lasting between 50 and 60 consecutive hours.
That incident was reported on Facebook by Darián Rodríguez Abreu, who wrote: "The government makes existence increasingly difficult every day by prohibiting self-employed workers from connecting their devices to the power supply so that children can have at least some fun, and therefore they have to be operated manually."
Filed under: