Some people say that life in countries occupied by the United States is better than before! what do you think?

God bless the Cuban people who have had enough to eat!

It may be hard for people living in a consumer society to imagine that there are still people living under the food stamp system on earth.

Cuba, an island country with a population just half that of Beijing, has established a food rationing system since the 1960s. Since then, the government has distributed a pamphlet on food rations, which defines what a family can buy.

Nowadays, while some people on earth are eating 24-hour takeout and indulging in a dazzling array of online shopping sprees, many Cubans still need to try their best to cope with the eternal problem of food shortage: "Where can I find food today?" .

People shop in Cuban supply and marketing cooperatives. Francoise Guajour/ photography

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Utopian experiment of quantitative distribution

Back in 1959, Fidel Castro, an old friend of China people, and Ernesto Guevara, a revolutionary idol, were in high spirits, overthrowing the pro-American regime by guerrilla warfare and establishing a public-owned country.

Cuba, like a utopia of planned economy, announced the abolition of all employment relations, the distribution of jobs by the government, the implementation of free medical care for all and free schooling for children.

In the 1950s, three women were sitting in the bar of a nightclub in Havana. Herbert C. Rankes/Pictures

Before that, Cuba had always been a holiday paradise for American upper class. Luxury restaurants, nightclubs and casinos run by American capitalists are extremely luxurious.

1962, the United States government imposed a comprehensive blockade on Cuba.

It was at this time that the grain rationing system entered the historical stage.

Family members and dates of birth are written on each family's ration book. According to the manual, you can buy the prescribed food with very little money.

Although Cuba's agricultural productivity is low, and 80% of its grain is imported, it makes money by exporting sugar and minerals to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, and its life is fairly moist.

People buy staple food in supply and marketing cooperatives. Early pamphlets also included different types of Italian sausages, seafood, meat, vegetables and fruits.

According to research, the monthly rations of Cuban families include a bottle of cooking oil, a bag of washing powder, 80g of bread per person per day, 2.7kg of rice per month, 8 eggs, 900g of black beans, 900g of chicken,1.4kg of sugar, 65g of coffee and 70g of chocolate powder, in addition to a box of soap, soap and matches, and milk powder for children under 7 years old.

In order to show humanity, you can get extra cake or beer allowance on your birthday.

1990 Cuban children's birthday party.

On the small island with insufficient milk production, Castro even built the world's largest ice cream park in the capital to show that he is better than Americans and can entertain 30,000 citizens every day.

In the hot climate, eating a "socialist ice cream" with state subsidies has become everyone's happiness at your fingertips.

In order to commemorate the revolution launched by Castro on July 26th, 1953, Coppelia brand ice cream sold in the park has 26 flavors. Patz, 72, recalls that these include black cows and white cows, that is, vanilla ice cream with coke or lemonade.

However, the good days came to an abrupt end with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

199 1 year, Cuba lost 75% of its grain imports, and the attractive list in the ration manual plummeted. Overnight, there was only an empty wall in the supply and marketing cooperative, which contained beef, butter, rum, milk and even soda.

The country declared a "special period", but it was vividly called "thin period" because everyone lost 9 kilograms on average.

The shelves of supply and marketing cooperatives are empty. Francoise Guajour/ photography

The zoo also clearly witnessed the difficulties of the present situation.

1959 After Castro seized power, Cuba joked that the slogan of Havana Zoo was changed from "Please don't feed animals" to "Please don't take animal food".

In the "special period", jokes evolved again-the slogan became "Please don't eat animals".

In fact, there are indeed fewer animals. "Peacocks, buffaloes and even South American birds like ostriches have disappeared," said a Havana resident. "Hyenas have to be vegetarian, and tigers can only eat sweet potatoes."

Ariam takes the big fish home and the family can eat it for two weeks. The first thought that many people wake up every day is how to get food today. William martin/photo

Life has become the primary productive force on the island.

1962, Cuba passed a bill stipulating that all cattle and horses are owned by the state, and farmers only have the right to use them. Because cattle and horses work for the revolution, it is forbidden to kill them. Cattle and horses are old, and they should be sent to the state for unified treatment.

But in the face of hungry people, precious cows can't be saved. In order to prevent illegal eating of cattle, the government even stipulates that killing a cow will take 10 years in prison, which may be longer than killing a person.

Animals that are not protected by law may be even worse. Every night, children will hear dark rumors that the house cat in the street appears on a table somewhere.

Until today, beef is still a luxury for ordinary people. The quota of canned beef is 8 ounces per person for half a year. A butcher said, "I have forgotten the taste of beef."

By1993,30,000 Cubans had fled the country, and thousands of immigrants drowned or were killed by sharks in the Gulf of Mexico.

The lack of daily necessities has also become a struggle that almost every Cuban has to face, whether it is enduring power outages or looking for soap everywhere.

Fortunately, this land has never lacked optimism. It seems that every Cuban has lived as an inventor, using all kinds of strange tricks to resist the struggle in the world.

Some people say that in Cuba, the most useful mobile phone application is flashlight, because power failure is too common.

The toilet paper is missing. Cubans take a page or two of the official Grama newspaper as a substitute when they go out.

The new clothes are missing. Parents use skipping rope to make their children's sandals, feed bags and flour bags to make suits and palm leaves to decorate them.

The birthday cake has almost disappeared from the island. To celebrate, the children began to blow condoms into balloons.

Housewives in Havana have learned to chop up the cooked banana peel and put it in stew, telling the children that it is a "special period" meat.