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Sociolismo
''Sociolismo'' ("partner-ism"), also known as ''amiguismo'' ("friend-ism"), is the informal term used in Cuba to describe the reciprocal exchange of favors by individuals, usually relating to circumventing bureaucratic restrictions or obtaining hard-to-find goods. Overview It comes from the Spanish word ''socio'' which means business partner or buddy, and is a pun on the official government policy of ''socialismo'' (socialism). It is analogous to the '' blat'' of the Soviet Union or the term '' combina'' in Israel. It is a form of corruption in Cuba. The term is particularly associated with the black market economy, and perceived cronyism in Cuba's state controlled command economy. ''Socios'' can be black market operators who "facilitate" (steal) goods that are officially reserved for the state. They can also get someone a job or obtain paperwork. The system is used by anyone who needs to send an e-mail or print a resume but does not have a computer, or needs paint or cement but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corruption In Cuba
Corruption in Cuba is a serious concern. Cuba has suffered from widespread and rampant corruption since the establishment of the Republic of Cuba in 1902. The book ''Corruption in Cuba'' states that public ownership resulted in "a lack of identifiable ownership and widespread misuse and theft of state resources... when given opportunity, few citizens hesitate to steal from the government." Furthermore, the complex relationship between governmental and economic institutions makes them especially "prone to corruption." The question of what causes corruption in Cuba presently and historically continues to be discussed and debated by scholars. There is the traditional principles of governance it inherited from Spain which was known as a notoriously corrupt regime in its interactions with the new world. Jules R. Benjamin suggests that Cuba's corrupt politics were a product of the colonial heritage of Cuban politics and the financial aid provided by the United States that favoured intern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guanxi
''Guanxi'' () is a term used in Chinese culture to describe an individual's social network of mutually beneficial personal and business relationships. The character ''guan'', 关, means "closed" and "caring" while the character ''xi'' 系 means "system" and together the term refers to a closed caring system of relationships that is somewhat analogous to the term old boy's network in the West. In Western media, the pinyin romanization ''guanxi'' is more widely used than common translations such as "connections" or "relationships" because those terms do not capture the significance of a person's ''guanxi'' to most personal and business dealings in China. Unlike in the West, ''guanxi'' relationships are almost never established purely through formal meetings but must also include spending time to get to know each other during tea sessions, dinner banquets, or other personal meetings. Essentially, ''guanxi'' requires a personal bond before any business relationship can develop. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC, with the Guanahatabey and Taino, Taíno peoples inhabiting the area at the time of Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonization ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blat (Russia)
In Russian culture, ''blat'' () is a form of corruption comprising a system of informal agreements, exchanges of services, connections, Party contacts, or black market deals to achieve results or get ahead. In the context of corruption in the Soviet Union, ''blat'' was widespread because of the permanent shortage of consumer goods and services. This was due to the administrative-command economy and coexistent maladministration. Networks of ''blat'' made it easier for the general public to gain access to much-coveted goods and services. ''Blat'' also took place at the enterprise-level in the form of '' tolkachs'', employees whose explicit role was to exploit their networks to secure positive outcomes for their employers. The system of ''blat'' can be seen as an example of a social network with some similarities to networking (especially "good ol' boy" networks) in the United States, old boy networks in the United Kingdom and the former British Empire, and ''guanxi'' in China. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rationing In Cuba
Rationing in Cuba is organized by the government and implemented by means of a ''Libreta de Abastecimiento'' ("Supplies booklet") assigned to every individual. The system establishes the amounts of subsidized rations each person is allowed to receive through the system, and the frequency at which supplies can be obtained. While the food rations are not free, the ration fees are a small fraction of the actual price of the goods (on average, less than $2 USD for a month of rations, which is approximately 12% of their market value). Purchases of the goods can also be made outside of the system. Despite past rumors of ending, the system still exists. As of 2012, a coupon book taken to a ration shop provided family minimums for rice, sugar, matches, and oil, above the average wage of $30/month. While most Cubans do not have to pay for rent, healthcare, or education, ration fees often take up a large percentage of their monthly income, and the unsubsidized costs of their monthly ratio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Period
The Special Period (), officially the Special Period in the Time of Peace (), was an extended period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991 primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Comecon. The economic depression of the Special Period was at its most severe in the early to mid-1990s. Things improved towards the end of the decade once Hugo Chávez's Venezuela emerged as Cuba's primary trading partner and diplomatic ally, and especially after the year 2000 once Cuba–Russia relations improved under the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Privations during the Special Period included extreme reductions of rationed foods at state-subsidized prices, severe energy shortages, and the shrinking of an economy forcibly overdependent on Soviet imports. The period radically transformed Cuban society and the economy, as it necessitated the introduction of organic agriculture, decreased use of automobiles, and overhauled industry, health, and diet countrywide. Peopl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Sector In Cuba
Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded by Ringo Sheena * "Private" (Vera Blue song), from the 2017 album ''Perennial'' Literature * ''Private'' (novel), 2010 novel by James Patterson * ''Private'' (novel series), young-adult book series launched in 2006 Film and television * ''Private'' (film), 2004 Italian film * ''Private'' (web series), 2009 web series based on the novel series * ''Privates'' (TV series), 2013 BBC One TV series * Private, a penguin character in ''Madagascar'' Other uses * Private (rank), a military rank * ''Privates'' (video game), 2010 video game * Private (rocket), American multistage rocket * Private Media Group, Swedish adult entertainment production and distribution company * ''Private (magazine)'', flagship magazine of the Private Media Group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slang
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception, with no single technical usage in linguistics. Etymology of the word ''slang'' In its earliest attested use (1756), the word ''slang'' referred to the vocabulary of "low" or "disreputable" people. By the early nineteenth century, it was no longer exclusively associated with disreputable people, but continued to be applied to usages below the level of standard educated speech. In Scots dialect it meant "talk, chat, gossip", as used by Aberdeen poet William Scott in 1832: "The slang gaed on aboot their war'ly care." In northern English dialect it me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
System D
System D is a manner of responding to challenges that require one to have the ability to think quickly, to adapt, and to improvise when getting a job done. The term is a direct translation of French . The letter ''D'' refers to any one of the French nouns , or (French slang). The verbs and mean to ''make do'', to ''manage'', especially in an adverse situation. Basically, it refers to one's ability and need to be resourceful. In ''Down and Out in Paris and London'', George Orwell described the term as something the lowest-level kitchen workers, the , wanted to be called, indicating that they were people who would get the job done, no matter what. The term System D gained wider popularity in the United States after appearing in the 2006 publication of Anthony Bourdain's '' The Nasty Bits''. Bourdain references finding the term in Nicolas Freeling's memoir, ''The Kitchen'', about Freeling's years as a Grand Hotel cook in France. In recent literature on the informal economy, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compadrazgo
The term compadre (, , literally "co-father" or "co-parent"), known in Slavic countries as kum ( Russian and Ukrainian: кум, ; masculine derived from Balkan Vulgar Latin ''cómmater'' - "godmother") denotes the relationship between the parents and godparents of a child and is an important bond that originates when a child is baptised. It is widespread in Iberian, Latin American, Filipino Christian and Indian Goan Christian Brahmin families, as well as in some countries of Eastern Europe, such as Russia and Ukraine. The abstract nouns compadrazgo (Spanish and Filipino) and compadrio (Portuguese), both meaning "co-parenthood," are sometimes used to refer to the institutional relationship between ''compadres''. The analogous words in Eastern Slavic languages are kumovstvo (, ) or kumivstvo (, ). At the moment of baptism, the godparents and natural parents become each other's ''compadres'' (the plural form ''compadres'' includes both male and female co-parents). The female e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Informal Economy
An informal economy (informal sector or grey economy) is the part of any economy that is neither Taxation, taxed nor monitored by any form of government. Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countries, it is sometimes stigmatized as troublesome and unmanageable. However, the informal sector provides critical economic opportunities for the poverty, poor and has been expanding rapidly since the 1960s. Integrating the informal economy into the formal sector is an important policy challenge. In many cases, unlike the formal economy, activities of the informal economy are not included in a country's gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP). However, Italy has included estimates of informal activity in their GDP calculations since 1987, which swells their GDP by an estimated 18% and in 2014, a number of European countries formally changed their GDP calculations to include prostitution and narcotics sales in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
