Adrian Salbuchi talks to RT from Buenos Aires about Libya and high-class terrorism

from rt 4 days ago...

"When they decide to change the regime, they do so with the utmost violence, and it is a whole model. First they target a country by calling it a rogue state; then they support local terrorists and call them freedom fighters; then they bring death and destruction upon civilians and they call it UN sanctions. Then they spread lies and call it the International Community's opinion expressed by the Western media. Then they invade and control the country and call it liberation and finally they steal appetizing oil and call it foreign investment and reconstruction," Salbuchi explained.

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

Redefining the term "long day" [UPDATE]

it's almost 3 p.m. and i'm sitting here in the frankfurt airport waiting for a flight to d.c... i've been up since 3:30 this morning to catch an early flight from prishtina to vienna where the frankfurt flight was delayed... no biggie since i had almost 5 hours of layover in frankfurt anyway... i get to d.c. at 8 p.m. local time and two hours later board on a flight to buenos aires where i will arrive at about 11 a.m. local time on saturday... i already feel like something the cat dragged in but i guess i'll be able to stumble on through to tomorrow... if you never see any more posts here, you'll know i've succumbed to terminal jet lag...

[UPDATE]

an hour before departure time, frankfurt got about a half inch of snow meaning that the plane had to be de-iced before we could leave... it took them an hour and a half to do which wiped out whatever respect i had for german efficiency... we rolled in to the gate in d.c. at 9:20, not quite an hour and a half late which gave me a little more than half an hour to clear immigration and customs, re-check my bags and get to the gate... tight but within the bounds of possibility...

but...! guess what...? the immigration and customs area in the midfield concourse was C. L. O. S. E. D. so they had used the once-upon-a-time-in-the-distant-past very innovative but now hopelessly antiquated dulles people-mover thing to get everybody, terminating and connecting passengers both, over to immigration and customs in the main terminal, guaranteeing a big slowdown... to top it off, i was selected for screening at customs, so by the time they finished poking through my bags, i would have had to teleport across the field to the gate and even then, they probably would have already closed the door...

SO-O-O-O-OOOOO...

i'm at a hotel for the night and am re-booked for tomorrow night which means i will miss the baptism and family celebration for a friend's twin daughters in buenos aires on sunday...

bah... sometimes travel is SUCH a pain...

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

Two major storms deluge Buenos Aires

A lake forms at the intersection of Niceto Vega and Uriarte
Barrio Palermo, Cuidad de Buenos Aires

the weather everywhere seems to keep getting crazier... this past friday afternoon, for the second time in four days, buenos aires got nailed by torrential downpours and the last one caused disruption in subway and commuter train service... water was pouring down the stairs of the entrance to the lacroze subway station on the "d" line and shorted out the third rail of electrical service on several commuter lines... i can only imagine the chaos and even though i love big storms, i'm kind of glad i wasn't there...

see this article (in spanish) in the la nacion newspaper for more...

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

Argentina is often its own worst enemy

i don't think i've talked to a single argentino who doesn't believe that another economic collapse is inevitable... so, what you see people doing is engaging in an orgy of grabbing-it-while-you-can, charging ever higher prices, hitting the already-struggling poor even harder, and virtually guaranteeing that there will be, in a perfect demonstration of a self-fulfilling prophecy, an eventual collapse...

the prudent folks take their money and either park it outside the country as the snippet below describes, or they plow it into tangible assets like home improvement or other forms of real estate... during the day, my neighborhood in buenos aires, like so many others, is a cacophony of hammering, sawing, and trucks delivering building materials...

now, there's also the impact of the global economic freefall...

An estimated 34 billion US dollars have fled from Argentina

The Argentine Central Bank must ensure that the flight of capital does not erode the “wealth of the country”, warned a former head of the bank, who revealed that since the beginning of the crisis 34 billion US dollars had fled from South America’s second largest economy.

“The capital flight process begun when institutional mistrust and legal insecurity took roots in the last quarter of 2007”, pointed out economist Rodolfo Rossi.

He added that Argentina at that time “lost 8.8 billion US dollars; 23.1 billion in 2008 and 5.7 billion so far this year”.

Rossi said that the Argentine Central Bank under its current president Martin Redrado has acted “with prudence”, but his job is not only “to preserve the Argentine peso stability but also impede the country’s wealth from fleeing”.

He estimated much of those funds are in security coffers of overseas accounts, mainly neighbouring Uruguay.

Rossi said that President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner conflict with the farmers was the milestone which triggered the flight to a “general mistrust” which was emphasized when the private pensions fund scheme was nationalized.

“This was further distorted by the naming of political appointees in the private pensions fund board of directors and disposing funds with certain degree of discretionarily plus the intention of nationalizing all deposits”, pointed out Rossi.

but wait, there's more... here's a sample of this week's headlines...

Argentina April car production and sales down 32% and 29%

Argentina’s 2008/09 crop exports forecasted to drop 56%

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Is there any GOOD news out there...?

anywhere...? please share...



(actually, it's a magnificent, sunny, warm, brilliantly clear, autumn day here in buenos aires... some of the trees are in their fall colors and leaves are collecting on the sidewalks... it's the may 1 holiday and, as in most places around the world - except the u.s. - people are off work, schools are closed, and the signature smell of argentina, meat grilling over a parilla, is wafting through the air... i guess that's good enough news to tide me over for another day, eh...?)

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Swine flu hysteria, up close and personal

it's one thing to be in kabul or dubai and read about the absolute paranoiac idiocy accompanying the latest distraction for the masses, but it's another thing to see the hysteria up close and personal...

i spent monday and tuesday nights in dubai prior to flying back here to argentina... in the dubai airport yesterday, i didn't see one person wearing a mask... when i got to the sao paulo airport last night to connect with the flight to buenos aires, i saw a few folks wearing them, notable because i hadn't seen any one wearing them up to that point... the woman sitting across the aisle from me on the flight was wearing one but, lord almighty, the entire airport staff at the buenos aires airport were wearing them... even the taxi driver who took me home was wearing one... when i asked him about it, he mumbled something about being advised to do it on the news, but then, after a few minutes, probably feeling self-conscious, he took it off...

honest to pete... our controllers won't be satisfied until everyone on the planet are turned into quivering rabbits...

p.s. there are a lot of folks who wear masks or scarves over their faces in kabul (not counting the women) but it ain't about the flu... it's protection against the health-destroying pollution...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

C'mon, Porteños... Clean up yer goddam act....

porteños - as buenos aires residents are known - are passionate about their fútbol AND their hooliganism, but shooting little old ladies and middle-aged men, both innocent bystanders, is outrageous... it's only a F%*!@&^G GAME...!

An 85-year-old woman and 55-year-old man were shot when Boca Junior fans fought among themselves before their team's match against Argentinos Juniors Sunday, an emergency services official said.

The woman, who had nothing to do with the supporters, was hit in the leg while the man suffered a serious head injury after he was also shot, Alberto Cresenti told the TN cable news channel.

The latest bout of Argentine football violence broke out near Boca's Bombonera stadium, situated in a working-class district just south of the center, around four hours before kick off.

Media reports said rival factions of the Boca supporters group known as The 12 clashed in an area of fast food restaurants known as Parque Lezama.

During the fighting, at least one man opened fire and four or five shots were heard, local media said. More than 100 people were reported to be involved in the fighting. Six were arrested.

It was the second successive week that rival factions of The 12 have fought before a game. Last week, dozens were arrested during a pitched battle before the game away to Independiente.

i love the argentines, but this particular tendency needs to be stamped out...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Argentina's ESMA becomes UNESCO Human Rights Center

ESMA [Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada - the Navy Mechanics
School] was a fully functioning naval school during the time that
it was being used as a torture camp. The Officer's quarters, which
was located only a few hundred feet from a busy street in Buenos
Aires and is visible to pedestrian traffic, was the main building
used to house and torture the victims.

i posted on this back in october 2007... the esma building just so happens to be about five blocks from where i live in barrio nuñez... a week ago saturday, i walked past it on the way back from parque de los niños and paseo de la costa...

The grounds of the largest clandestine detention and torture centre in Buenos Aires during Argentina's "dirty war" crackdown on dissent are now a United Nations human rights centre.

Nearly 5,000 political prisoners are estimated to have passed through the main building of the former Navy Mechanics' School during the 1976-83 dictatorship. After being tortured with racks, electrical prods and other devices, an estimated 90 percent of the prisoners were executed, joining the 13,000 who were killed or made "to disappear." Rights groups put the number closer to 30,000.

The site became emblematic of the human rights violations committed by the region's military dictatorships during the 1970s and 1980s.

On Friday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and the head of UNESCO inaugurated the International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights on the grounds of the former school.

"The centre is a symbol of the contribution of Latin America to the promotion of human rights on a global level," UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said, referring to the ongoing trials and investigations of former leaders of the region's military dictatorships.

from my october 2007 post...

The Naval Mechanics School (ESMA), located in Buenos Aires, is one of nearly 400 concentration camps/torture centers that operated in Argentina during the dictatorship. It is estimated that over 5,000 people were interrogated and tortured at ESMA and only 150 survived. ESMA had specially equipped detention and torture rooms as well as "birthing" rooms. Many of the children brought to ESMA and other concentration camps with their parents, or babies born at these facilities, were either tortured and ultimately killed in an attempt to extract information from their mother, or were seized and given to military families. In recent years, efforts initiated by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been successful in confirming the "true" identity (using DNA testing) of about 85 of roughly 400 children who were "disappeared."

it was an ugly and horrifying time, and, to this day, few argentines really want to talk about it...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Heading back to Afghanistan

yeah, yeah, yeah... if i'm not a candidate for the dreaded fatal disease of "terminal jet lag," i probably will be soon... i'm writing this in buenos aires prior to heading off to the airport for the long, long trek back to kabul... i go to sao paulo, change for a non-stop to dubai (it's a 14-hour flight), spend friday night there, and fly on to kabul on saturday afternoon where i will see this lovely sign welcoming me to the country, a scene that i so desperately wish was their reality... ah, well... stay tuned...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Sunday photoblogging on Tuesday (special for mettle)

i was un-jetlagged enough on sunday to happily accept an invite from friends to meet them in plaza de mayo for a walk down calle defensa through the sunday market vendors and swarming turistas... we shared some great appetizer trays at a patagonian restaurant off the main drag and, all in all, had a great time...

the top photo below was taken in one of the cars of the first buenos aires subway line... note the tulip light fixtures and the polished wood seats and interior... the second is of a famous church and museum on defensa just off the plaza de mayo...


Coach interior, Subte, Línea A, Buenos Aires


Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, Calle Defensa, Buenos Aires

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Yes, Virginia, there ARE fireworks...!

at the moment (11:53 p.m., Argentina time), it sounds like all-out war around my neighborhood here in buenos aires... thankfully, it's "war" of the joyful, celebratory, hopeful kind... here's hoping that 2009 sees a redemption from the horrors of the past eight years, eight years that's seemed like an eternity...

the bbc has a record of the goings-on around the world...

and here's a couple of youtube clips of videos i took of the "war" taking place on MY street...





this one family right around the corner offered up a finale that was definitely in a league with some of the larger public displays i've seen... it went on, massive explosion after massive explosion and a continuous light show, for well over five minutes... the other neighbors were gathered in small groups on the street corners with their mouths hanging open and burst into spontaneous cheers and applause when it was over... like i said, the argentines love them some fireworks...!

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments