Argentine cacerolazos* join Quebec cacerolazos**

since i gave up my place in buenos aires, i've been grossly negligent in posting on argentina... that doesn't mean, however, that i haven't been keeping up on argentina news... 

the on-going telenovela that is argentina is endlessly fascinating, particularly the exploits of its fashionista president, cristina fernandez de kirchner... cristina is a hoot and would be vastly amusing if she weren't leading a country of nearly 40 million people... she is in her second term following the two terms of her husband, nestor kirchner, who died unexpectedly midway through her first term... she won the last election with 54% of the vote and recently moved to shore up her populist credentials by nationalizing the ypf oil company and kicking out the principal shareholder, spain's repsol... but i've been wondering how long it would take argentines to grow tired of the inflation, corruption and general economic mismanagement that continues to be a hallmark not only of her presidency but of argentina governance in general, stretching back for generations... the straw that broke the camel's back was no doubt cristina's decree limiting u.s. dollar transactions, a decision that led to an enormous increase in capital flight... now, it looks like the good citizens of argentina have had it and have joined their quebecois brethren in making a joyful noise and returned to the street protests that characterized their response to the 2001 economic collapse ...


Pots and pans to protest corruption in Buenos Aires

Middle class Argentines protest with pots and pans against corruption, crime, inflation and the dollar clamp

For the third night in ten days angry Argentines took to the streets of Buenos Aires and other major cities banging pots and pans to protest corruption, rampant crime and insecurity, inflation and the dollar clamp in the midst of an economy that is showing clear signals of exhaustion and growing questions on the current course of affairs.

when i left buenos aires a year ago december, annual inflation was running over 28% and, from everything i've been reading, it hasn't slowed down a bit... i honestly don't know how ordinary argentines make it day-to-day in that economy... i first went there in 2004 and paid 5 pesos for a haircut and the peso-dollar exchange rate was 3-to-1... when i left in 2010, i was paying 25 pesos for a haircut and the exchange rate was 3.8-to-1... i have no idea what i would pay for a haircut today but i do know the exchange rate is now 4.4-to-1... one other thing i do know is that, in an attempt to "make it" financially, argentines cheat, lie, steal and stick it to each other as much as possible and when they're not sticking it to each other, they're REALLY sticking it to the tourists, which usually results in this...

Argentina rapidly becoming too expensive for foreign tourists

Argentina is rapidly becoming an expensive country for tourists and evidence of this is the declining number of tourists arriving in the country in the first months of the year while the number of Argentine travelling overseas is soaring, according to Mario Lielman, chair of the Buenos Aires Tourism and Travel Agencies Association.

i have a very warm spot in my heart for argentina and argentines but, as i've come to learn, argentina is, in many ways, its own worst enemy...

* A cacerolazo or cacerolada is a form of popular protest practised in certain Spanish-speaking countries – in particular Argentina, Chile and Uruguay – which consists in a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils in order to call for attention. What is peculiar about this type of demonstration is that the people protest from their own homes, thus achieving a high level of support and participation.

** In 2012 in Québec, a province of Canada, citizens are currently using cacerolazo after the adoption on 18 May of Bill 78, an act which severely restricts rights to peacefully assemble. Bill 78 has raised the ire of the Quebec Bar Association, the Quebec Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, and others. While court challenges are underway, the "Casseroles" or "Pots and Pans Demonstrations" continue nightly in towns and cities across the province, concentrated in Montreal's various neighbourhoods. This joyful Montreal video of Cacerolazo in action has gone viral: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/25/montreal-pots-and-pans-video-bill-78_n_1546694.html

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

John Pilger: Obama is as reactionary and violent as George W. Bush, and in some ways he is worse

john pilger is right up there with chris hedges in his unvarnished critique of the crap that is piled on our heads daily by our handlers...

The width of a cigarette paper separates the Democratic and Republican parties on economic and foreign policies. Both represent the super rich and the impoverishment of a nation from which trillions of tax dollars have been transferred to a permanent war industry and banks that are little more than criminal enterprises. Obama is as reactionary and violent as George W. Bush, and in some ways he is worse. His personal speciality is the use of Hellfire missile-armed drones against defenceless people. Under cover of a partial withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, he has sent US special forces to 120 countries where death squads are trained. He has revived the old cold war on two fronts: against China in Asia and with a "shield" of missiles aimed at Russia. The first black president has presided over the incarceration and surveillance of greater numbers of  black people than were enslaved in 1850. He has prosecuted more whistleblowers - truth-tellers - than any of his predecessors.  His vice-president, Joe Biden, a zealous warmonger, has called WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange a "hi-tech terrorist".  Biden has also converted to the cause of gay marriage.

One of America's true heroes is the gay soldier Bradley Manning, the whistleblower alleged to have provided WikiLeaks with the epic evidence of American carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the Obama administration that smeared his homosexuality as weird, and it was Obama himself who declared a man convicted of no crime to be guilty.

[...]

The truth is that what matters to those who aspire to control our lives is not skin pigment or gender, or whether or not we are gay, but the class we serve. The goals are to ensure that we look inward on ourselves, not outward to others and never comprehend the sheer scale of undemocratic power, and to that we collaborate in isolating those who resist. This attrition of criminalising, brutalising and banning protest can too easily turn western democracies into states of fear.

[...]

That is why the people of Greece ought to be our inspiration. By their own painful experience they know their freedom can only be regained by standing up to the German Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and their own quislings in Athens. People across Latin America have achieved this: the indignados of Bolivia who saw off the water privateers and the Argentinians who told the IMF what to do with their debt. The courage of disobedience was their weapon. Remember Bradley Manning.

greece is offering us a model and a template for what we should be opting for in the way of resistance to the inexorable takeover by our super-rich elites... i am reasonably sure spain will be next up...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Roubini calls for a Greek default, Argentina-style, and a return to the drachma

i have been a first-hand witness to developments in argentina following the 2001 economic collapse and have posted on it repeatedly here... i've never ceased to admire the guts it took for argentina to unilaterally kiss off the world bank, the imf, the global banks and the super-rich elites that they serve and go its own way... needless to say, the howls of outrage and disbelief from the holders of the world's capital were deafening... but argentina kept on keepin' on and has enjoyed growth rates averaging 9% a year since then, while at the same time accumulating a current accounts surplus that allowed them to totally pay off $10B worth of imf debt THREE YEARS EARLY - IN CASH...

the downside, unfortunately, is that the endemic corruption that is part and parcel of every level of argentine government survives untouched, the rich continue to get richer, the real inflation level hovers at 27% (despite the "official" government figures that peg it at less than 10%) and argentina is in the process of selling its heart and soul (farmland, oil, gas and minerals) to china...

nonetheless, i think roubini is 100% correct... greece should do what's right for greece and its citizens and refuse to be held hostage to those same super-rich elites and their bankster buddies just so they can stay in the eurozone...

roubini in the ft...

Greece is stuck in a vicious cycle of insolvency, low competitiveness and ever-deepening depression. Exacerbated by a draconian fiscal austerity, its public debt is heading towards 200 per cent of gross domestic product. To escape, Greece must now begin an orderly default, voluntarily exit the eurozone and return to the drachma.

The recent debt exchange deal Europe offered Greece was a rip-off, providing much less debt relief than the country needed. If you pick apart the figures, and take into account the large sweeteners the plan gave to creditors, the true debt relief is actually close to zero. The country’s best current option would be to reject this agreement and, under threat of default, renegotiate a better one.

Yet even if Greece were soon to be given real and significant relief on its public debt, it cannot return to growth unless competitiveness is rapidly restored. And without a return to growth, its debts will stay unsustainable. Problematically, however, all of the options that might restore competitiveness require real currency depreciation.

The first of these options, a sharp weakening of the euro, is unlikely while the US is economically weak and Germany über-competitive. A rapid reduction in unit labour costs, through structural reforms that increased productivity growth in excess of wages, is just as unlikely. Germany took 10 years to restore its competitiveness this way; Greece cannot wait in depression for a decade.

The third option is a rapid deflation in prices and wages, known as an “internal devaluation”. But this would lead to five years of ever-deepening depression, while making public debts more unsustainable.

Logically, therefore, if those three options are not possible, the only path left is to leave the eurozone. A return to a national currency and a sharp depreciation would quickly restore competitiveness and growth, as it did in Argentina and many other emerging markets that abandoned their currency pegs.

Of course, this process will be traumatic. The most significant problem would be capital losses for core eurozone financial institutions. Overnight, the foreign euro liabilities of Greece’s government, banks and companies would surge. Yet these problems can be overcome. Argentina did so in 2001, when it “pesified” its dollar debts. America actually did something similar too, in 1933 when it depreciated the dollar by 69 per cent and repealed the gold clause. A similar unilateral “drachmatisation” of euro debts would be necessary and unavoidable.

Major eurozone banks and investors would also suffer large losses in this process, but they would be manageable too – if these institutions are properly and aggressively recapitalised. Avoiding a post-exit implosion of the Greek banking system, however, may unfortunately require the imposition of Argentine-style measures – such as bank holidays and capital controls – to prevent a disorderly fallout.

< wipes away crocodile tears thinking about bank losses >

also, thinking about greece and argentina reminded me that it was only one month and one year ago that i spent nearly two weeks with dear macedonian friends on the beach on the halkidiki peninsula in northern greece... i remember remarking at the time how similar the greek and the argentine mindsets seemed to me... both argentines and greeks, imho, are unequaled champions at living in the moment... when they're enjoying their free time, nothing else - and i mean NOTHING - else gets in the way... at any time of day, every greek family i saw had a large table either outside on the grass or on a terrace or balcony, complete with plenty of chairs, lots of food and drink, and no end of family and friends gathered around and my time in argentina is replete with memories of the same scenes...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Argentina seizes US cargo plane - the United States has "more interests than friends"

without a doubt, there's a lot more to this than meets the eye...

just sayin'...


US Air Force C17 Globemaster
in Buenos Aires

Argentina to protest US Air Force cargo incident

Argentina said it will lodge a formal protest with Washington after seizing what it said were undeclared weapons and drugs on a US military aircraft last week.

The US Air Force C-17 transport plane was searched and its cargo seized by customs officials on Thursday at Ezeiza international airport after arriving with experts and material for a hostage rescue training exercise, Argentine officials said.

In a statement late Sunday, President Cristina Kirchner's government said it would lodge a protest with Washington and ask it to cooperate in a probe into the air force's attempt "to violate Argentine laws by bringing in camouflaged material in an official shipment."

Argentina has said it seized "sensitive material" that had not been declared in a manifest submitted by the US embassy.

"Among the material seized, which the State Department makes no reference to, are from weapons to different drugs, including various doses of morphine," the foreign ministry said in Sunday's statement. [emphasis added]

Assistant US Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela called Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman on Saturday, but "refused to explain why they tried to pass this material," the ministry statement said.

The incident follows US President Barack Obama's decision to exclude Argentina from his first scheduled trip in March to Latin America. Obama will travel to El Salvador, Brazil and Chile but not to the latter two's South American neighbor, Argentina.

Timerman reacted to this decision by saying that the United States has "more interests than friends." He said Obama would not visit Argentina because "it won't buy arms or even sign a defense agreement."

here's additional perspective on the matter from mercopress...

In the protest note Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman urged the US government to assist local authorities in the investigation, called for an official apology and warned that the seized material would not be handed back.

“For the sake of Argentine security, they owe us a response” he stated and indicated that “this was not the first incident of such nature.”

[...]

In the protest note Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman urged the US government to assist local authorities in the investigation, called for an official apology and warned that the seized material would not be handed back.

“For the sake of Argentine security, they owe us a response” he stated and indicated that “this was not the first incident of such nature.”

[...]

Regarding the local government’s seizing of sensitive material, the State Department assured that they were taken after an “unusual and unannounced search of the aircraft’s cargo.”

“The actions taken by Argentine officials involved in this incident are puzzling and disturbing,” the State Department’s spokesperson said, adding that the material was inappropriately seized for which they are seeking explanations from the local government.

an "unusual and unannounced search of the aircraft’s cargo"... sounds to me like the argentine customs officials were doing their job, a move that obviously is not common where the "interests" of the sole remaining global super-power is concerned... leads me to wonder just how much interesting cargo gets transported around the world unchallenged... my hunch...? more than we can possibly imagine...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Sunday photoblogging - springtime in Buenos Aires

i say goodbye to this wonderful city on wednesday after 6 1/2 years... i just took a long walk through parque saavedra, soaking up the ambience and watching all the people enjoying themselves as porteños seem to know how to do so well... of all the places i have been to over the past years, argentinos and porteños have the knack of just "being" better than any other people i have ever spent time with, except, perhaps, for greeks and italians... i'm gonna miss it here - a LOT...!

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 2 comments

Preparing to say goodbye

i've been living part-time in buenos aires for the past 6 1/2 years and in my little house here for 5... i arrived back in ba yesterday to spend my last week... i am giving up the place and doubt if i will be back any time soon... i love it here and my time in argentina has been a wonderful, emotional and intensely spiritual time for me... when i look back to where i was when i first came, i can honestly say i've grown enormously...

so, why am i leaving...?

for one thing, good friends i made here have moved away and i'm not here often enough or long enough to make the effort to re-establish a social circle worthwhile, and that's not counting the fact that my "social circles" are small, usually consisting of a very, very few special friends... for another thing, the limited time i get to spend plus the cost of maintaining a place and flying back and forth is no small investment...

however...

as i was in the taxi coming from the airport late yesterday morning, i was treated to yet another magnificent, gorgeous ba day and today is even better... all of the jacaranda trees are in bloom and the falling blossoms carpet the sidewalks and streets... the birds are singing and the breezes are fresh and cooling... in short, ba isn't making it easy for me to pack up and go...

ah, well...

times change... i will be 63 next week and i have no doubt there are more adventures ahead...

sigh...


Jacaranda tree in bloom

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

if kosovars celebrated thanksgiving, i imagine it would look a little bit like this...



i'm working today although i'd rather be back in reno sharing thanksgiving dinner with the family... oh, well... i fly out tomorrow and will be glad to be out of this cold rain/snow mix and back in the warm springtime of argentina... unfortunately, that will only be a week and a half stint before i will indeed be back in the high desert winter...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Wow...! Argentina's Nestor Kirchner dies...!

and here i sit in buenos aires wondering why the day is so strangely quiet...


Nestor Kirchner

Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner dies

Argentina's former President Nestor Kirchner has died, after reportedly suffering a heart attack.

Mr Kirchner, 60, who had been operated on in September for heart problems, died in the southern Argentine city of El Calafate, local media reported.

His wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is the current president of the country.

Mr Kirchner served as resident from 2003 to 2007, and was being tipped to stand for election again in 2011.

He entered office after Argentina had seen a series of presidents come and go during a financial crisis 2001.

like so many who rise to the heights of political power, kirchner was obsessed with power and money... i was no fan but i concede that he did manage to pull the country out of its death spiral and did it with a flourish of populism all too rare in today's world... by the end of his second term, however, his true colors were abundantly clear and when he positioned his wife to succeed him - which she did in the 2007 election - i washed my hands of him... the fact that he was angling to get back into office in next year's election simply deepened my disgust...

all that said, however, even though i have decided to give up my place here, a place i have had for five years, argentina will always occupy a very soft place in my heart... as for nestor, may he rest in peace...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Autumn scene on Mt. Rhodopi, southern Bulgaria

i haven't been posting many photos lately... guess i've just not been in the mood... anyway, this one was sent from sofia by a good friend who spent a weekend in the south of her own country enjoying some mid-autumn scenery... i'll be heading in roughly that direction myself next week to continue some work i've been doing in kosovo... i'd say that i was leaving the warm springtime weather in argentina but it hasn't been all that warm here... in fact, the temps have been pretty much the equivalent of those in the northern latitudes, altho' the next couple of weeks in those climes will see regular dips below the freezing mark and probably the first snows of the season... for that matter, reno has just had two nights of hard freeze...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

A tale of the nuclear power programs of two countries

both from today...

the first is about that satanically-driven, axis-of-evil country, iran...

Iran injects fuel into first nuclear reactor

Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first atomic power plant on Tuesday, moving closer to the start up of a facility that leaders have touted as defying of international efforts to curtail the country's nuclear ambitions.

The Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr has international approval and is supervised by the U.N.'s nuclear agency. However, the U.N. security council has slapped four rounds of sanctions against Iran over a separate track of its nuclear program — its efforts to refine uranium, which could eventually be used to create material for a weapon.

and the second is about that tango-obsessed country parked somewhere in the southern hemisphere, the one that when i tell people in the u.s. that i live here part-time, they usually try singing the first bars from the signature song in the evita movie, "don't cry for me, argentina"... ha. ha.

Argentina announces production of enriched uranium for 2011

“We are returning to Argentina a right that we should never have renounced such as managing strategic nuclear resources that had been abandoned during the 1990s,” Mrs Kirchner said in a televised speech at the Pilcaniyeu uranium enrichment plant in the Patagonian province of Rio Negro.

The enriched uranium produced at the 30,000 square metre Pilcaniyeu plant will be used as reactor fuel, the Planning Ministry said in a press release.

[...]

Argentina re-launched its civilian nuclear-power program in 2006 amid worsening shortages of natural gas used to heat homes, power industry and fuel conventional electricity generation plants. Those shortages persist, with winter time rationing of gas to industry a seasonal fixture in the country's economic calendar.

Argentina currently operates two nuclear power plants--Atucha I, built with Siemens AG (SI, SIE.XE), and Embalse, built with AECL, in the province of Cordoba. The 360MW Atucha I came online in 1974, followed by the 650MW Embalse a decade later.

Argentina has already started a $1 billion life-extension upgrade of Embalse, which supplies power to the country's northeast, including the Cuyo and Centro regions and greater Buenos Aires.

two questions... did you know argentina even HAD nuclear power plants and, two, which country do you think is going to earn u.s. condemnation for its nuclear program...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Heading back to the southern hemisphere

it's been unusually hot with equally unusual calm winds and positively gorgeous for the past two weeks here in the high desert, but saturday put a stop to all that... it's been raining off and on since then and considerably cooler... all in all, more seasonable... a good time to head back south to an argentine springtime...! i can't wait to see the jacaranda in bloom...! i'll try to get it together to post some good photos...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Adrian Salbuchi: 12 "triggers" to usher in world government

worth considering...

Salbuchi - 2010 Forecast - Status Report at 15 June 2010 - Part 1 of 2



Salbuchi - 2010 Forecast - Status Report at 15 June 2010 - Part 2 of 2



Salbuchi - 2010 Forecast: Transition from Globalization to World Government -3 of 3

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Buenos Aires videoblogging

i took this video clip of a young man performing his martial arts exercises last week in buenos aires but, due to my rather slow upload connection there, couldn't upload it to youtube until i got back to the u.s... it was taken over in parque lima in barrio nuñez near my house...



he's really good...!

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Heading back north...

it's been chilly and raining for the past two days here in buenos aires... guess it's a good time to head back to the good ol' united states of amerika...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Starting to look like fall here in Buenos Aires

some leaves are changing and falling on the streets and sidewalks... but spring is hitting most of the u.s. now with the cherry blossoms in d.c. almost past their peak...



so, wednesday night, i begin the long trek back to reno... yeah, i know... i'm just one of those "snowbird" wussies... at least i have the good grace not to winter over in arizona or florida...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Happy Easter...!

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

From Buenos Aires - Holy Thursday photoblogging on a Good Friday

just another fabulous buenos aires sunset...


Thursday, 1 April 2010
Parque Lima, Barrio Nuñez, Buenos Aires

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Poor Argentina... If it isn't one thing, it's another...

most of us can't even imagine 30% inflation, but let me give you a small example of what i've experienced in the six years i've been living part-time in buenos aires... when i started coming to argentina in 2004, i paid 5 pesos ($1.50) for a haircut and usually threw in a one peso tip (not something the argentines do, i can tell you)... when i got my hair cut last month, it was up to 20 pesos ($5.50) and i threw in a two peso tip...

for those who are struggling to get by - and there are plenty of them in argentina - i simply don't know how they can make it...

Argentine consumers expect inflation in next 12 months to reach 30%

Argentines with the lowest income expect consumer prices to rise 30% over the coming year, up from the 20% increase they forecast in January, the Buenos Aires-based University said in an e-mailed statement.

[...]

A January survey of 56 economists by Argentina’s central bank forecast inflation of 10.8% over the next 12 months. The gap between the central bank and Di Tella is the result of the “scarce credibility that the official reports have,” the university said in the statement.

Economists and politicians including Vice-President Julio Cobos have questioned the government’s inflation reports since January 2007, when then President Nestor Kirchner began changing personnel at the national statistics agency.

Javier Paz, who tracks inflation at Buenos Aires-based Ecolatina research company said prices rose 2.2% in January from December. The government said prices rose 1% over the same period.

i posted earlier on the torrential rains over the past week in buenos aires... so, imagine dealing with prices rising into the stratosphere and then experiencing this at a railroad crossing...

Tsunami en Palermo Soho
(link to video clip)

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 2 comments

Only from the mouth of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

the telenovela that is argentina rolls merrily along as always... there have been a number of developments on the scene here that have been post-worthy, but, given my recent high pout about the state of world affairs in general, i've passed on the opportunity to reinforce their absurdity by paying them attention they don't deserve - until this stunning piece of idiocy passed in front of my eyes this morning...

Pork better for sex than Viagra?

Argentina's president recommended pork as an alternative to Viagra Wednesday, saying she spent a satisfying weekend with her husband after eating barbecued pork.

"I've just been told something I didn't know; that eating pork improves your sex life ... I'd say it's a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra," President Cristina Fernandez said to leaders of the pig farming industry.

She said she recently ate pork and "things went very well that weekend, so it could well be true."

Argentines are the world's biggest per capita consumers of beef, but the government has sought to promote pork as an alternative in recent years due to rising steak prices and as a way to diversify the meat industry.

"Trying it doesn't cost anything, so let's give it a go," Fernandez said in the televised speech.

cristina is a piece of work, known in some circles here as a total air-head "fashionista," who earned that sobriquet after traveling to italy to attend an international conference and spending most of her time shopping in high-end clothing and shoe stores... besides being an air-head, she's also the wife of the FORMER president, nestor kirchner, a situation we in the u.s. would have been facing had we elected hillary...

cristina, imho, offers the perfect application of the following...



and, no, cristina, i don't give a fig for the details of your sex life...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Saturday photoblogging from Buenos Aires

actually, these were taken this past tuesday when i was walking through the palermo viejo neighborhood on the way to visit a friend... i'm always taken by architectural detail and how they can almost be works of art in themselves...


A Buenos Aires home


A residential doorway


Another Buenos Aires home
(note the paving stones on the street)

obviously, these are from an earlier era but the city is nonetheless full of them, so full in fact that it's easy to walk down the street and not take notice of the richness of the detail...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments