socialism

12/03/24

A man sits down beside me at the bottom of the hill. I am waiting for the bus. He has just carried down a big bag of produce for a woman. She has been visiting his farm and heading back with her 2 children to the town. He is so happy that I understand Spanish. He wants to explain to me the injustice he feels has been done. He tells me that he had lived in Managua for 20 years but had come 30 years ago to work on the coffee plantations on the island. Then the revolution and the land was nationalized. The plantation owners went home, he said, and the land divided up and given to party members. Those who had paid for their cards, he said. He hadn´t paid so he had to buy his land from another. And work it to survive. Now there is no money. Only working to survive.

Another man, the other day, told me that he had received a portion of land. He has built a hostel on it and his family works hard on it. Nonetheless, he too is not happy with the government. They gave us land, he says. But nothing else. It is true, the roads are beyond belief. The electricity service is pretty off and on. "What about health care?" I say. "Drugs are free." Free for you, he says. We get prescriptions and have to buy them ourselves at the pharmacy.

And yet, I must say, the general feeling is one of great contentment and stability. People are very famiy oriented and appear happy enough.