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>From new Cuba blog "Cuba's Socialist Renewal" http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above In this editorial, La Calle del Medio editor Enrique Ubieta takes a magnifying glass to revolutionary Cuba's notoriously deficient service culture. He points out that in liberating themselves from capitalist servitude and servility, Cuba's working people embraced a service culture in which, more often than not, those who serve feel that it is beneath their dignity to really serve, which means to take pride and pleasure in providing a quality service, understanding that the roles of server and served are mutually interchangeable: the conscientious waiter who puts a folded napkin under an unstable dining table hopes that the taxi driver who takes her home from work that night is punctual, pleasant and does not fill the cab with his vile cigar smoke. Importantly, Ubieta notes that while small salaries may contribute to indifference on the part of service workers, money isn't everything: much of the problem is due to what he calls cultural deficiencies, for which the only remedy is consciousness. Service providers must be more aware of their responsibilities, and those who are served must be more aware of their rights. The conversion of many small service entities into cooperatives and small private businesses should do much to improve Cuba's service culture. Breaking with the notion that the socialist-oriented society means state ownership and management of almost the entire economy, the Cuban Communist Party leadership proposes a harmonious synthesis of market mechanisms subordinated to social planning, rather than the premature suppression of the market — a return to classical Marxism's conception of the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/translation-is-service-pleasure.html ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
