I remember watching the YouTube video of Cuba’s DIY inventions man years ago and Alex Gil’s quote “technological disobedience has a feminist component, or at the very least matriarchal?” resonated with me since I would frequently catch my mother fixing something in the kitchen, bathroom, or in the living room whenever my dad wasn’t around or was to tired from work to fix anything. One memory that never fails to bring a giggle is when I came home from school one day and she was kneading dough with a coke bottle. I asked why she wasn’t using the rolling pin instead, and as soon as I finished my sentence, she showed me that the handles broke off and created a crack on the pin from top to bottom. When Ernesto Oroza said that women “assume enormous responsibility for the survival of the family. They organize activities, lead by example, inspire, push. They understand the biological rhythms of the house, the interrelation of all activities, the subplots of need, and not only as a reaction to the masculine tendency to delegate responsibility” brought back memories of my own mother pulling off MacGyver-esque tactics at home.

There is also another short video documentary that shows that even though Cuba has been cut of from the rest of the world, they still find means of staying in touch with media by creating their own homemade internet by downloading movies and shows and distributing it among the residents. This hard drive also houses apps for iPhone and Androids as well that most Cubans wouldn’t have access to. The video also dives into who distributes these hard drives and even the distributors don’t fully know the supply chain, all they know is that someone brings it to them on a weekly basis. Corporations such as Amazon are probably the biggest contributors that scratch that insatiable need for instant gratification. With the option to have something delivered to you at a minimum of two days, it is hard to say no to your impulses. But again, as the “See No Evil” article by Miriam Posner mentions, it’s hard to truly track down who touches the product from manufacturing to delivery. All of this creates less than optimal working conditions for people, but it should be up to us to push for more transparency and honesty from companies to truly know who they themselves are receiving their products. After all, it is us as the consumers who have the power to no longer support businesses that use suspicious trade ethics.

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