The year starts and private businesses proliferate. The recently laid-off self-employed, with their classification somewhat vindicated, are no longer the badly named exploiters, quacks, et cetera, terms with which the regime disrespectfully referred to them. Now they need them so they are self-employed workers.
In my neighborhood, from the earliest days of Nuevo Vedado, there has been a hair salon once gorgeous and elegant, that after the year 1959 lost its luster. until it turned into a dark place with broken windows, no light, and big water problems. So, little by little, it languished until it turned into the misery it is today. Also, originally, it was separated only by a staircase to an entry where there was a barbershop. After that it was attached to a hairdressers. With time, the deterioration of both spaces accelerated, lacking an owner to take an interest.
Now, since the beginning of the year, the new hairdresser (old barber shop), with its new owners, has regained its charm. Moderate prices and careful attention are a part of its new image. However, the other side, the one belonging to the state, continues to be deteriorated and dark. Since the two are next door to one another, popular ingenuity has begun to refer to them as The Prince and the Pauper.
January 13 2011
