It's not hard to imagine the desperation of the parents of a child who ends up in Intensive Care due to food poisoning from spoiled candy. Nor is it hard to imagine their desire to change time and erase the exact minute, to avoid the needles, the fear, the tightness in their chests within those green walls. But if it involves the irresponsibility of others, it's also easy to imagine the hurricane of helplessness that must have engulfed them.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- A few days ago, an incident that sparked hundreds of comments and reactions went viral on social media. Candy in a state of decomposition, even moldy according to the photos, caused severe food poisoning in a young child.

Why they bought it in that condition, the dim lighting, and the child's insistence are not the subject of this article. My concern began long before… Some time ago, I bought a cake at one of the most popular—and expensive, it must be said—sweet shops in Las Tunas. It was a birthday present. When they cut the first slice, the surprise turned to a grimace. The guava jam filling was fermented. Not just slightly, a condition almost imperceptible to a palate hardened during the Special Period; it was rotten.

The next day, a relative took it to the shop, and there, without much surprise from the vendor, they apologized and replaced the cake. That bothered me immensely. How dare they sell something that's no good, that can cause serious health problems, especially when, in most cases, a child is waiting to enjoy it?

I don't feel any aversion toward non-state management models. On the contrary, I'm one of those who think that they've been sustaining this country for some time now, supplying necessities and even providing excellent goods and services. Now, regarding stability and quality, I feel they need effective mechanisms to ensure the "joke" of consumer protection.

I ordered a shrimp pizza, and an hour later, they brought it to me with five shrimp that were practically burnt. According to the waiters, they were from the day before and had to be reheated. Seriously?! I was paying for the dish as if they were just going out to catch the shrimp. At my son's birthday party, at another establishment, they assured me that the stench of the cold cuts was due to a faulty refrigerator that wasn't cooling properly. Anyway…

Almost always, it's a salesperson, not the owner, who has to deal with the situation and make excuses as best they can; however, this is still irresponsible and offensive. We already know that the Cuban economy is causing us suffering, but if the products have gone bad, if they stink, if they've fermented… they have to be thrown out and the losses calculated. That's how it works in this capitalist model that everyone wants to copy.

Another common feature of the prosperous Western model is that any food chain is excessively careful not to provide spoiled products for fear of multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Setting aside the differences, what are we doing here? Who pays for the hospital expenses of these parents, which, even though healthcare is free, involve transportation, food, and so on? Does an event like this have any repercussions?

I personally believe we are living in a jungle. Even more so now that the electricity supply is so unreliable, inflation is rampant, and it seems that everything is justified by the excuse that we are in a complex context, with a tightened blockade, where more important things are happening than complaining. Under this pretext, atrocities are piling up, and inspection bodies are becoming less visible.

What happened in that candy store isn't an isolated incident; just read the comments on social media. I think that the people trained and paid to ensure compliance with food hygiene and safety standards have a long road ahead. There are aspects of the national landscape that we cannot change, but this is within our control.