Argentina At Its Finest

Little by little Karlyn and I are slowly being exposed to the real world of Argentina. It is pretty easy to manipulate it in your mind to be this picture perfect world when you are a tourist. After being here for over three weeks, I think we are finally coming to grips with the reality of the day-to-day life here. Not that it isn't all picture perfect here for us, but there are so many problems ingrained in the structure of the government, politics, and society.

Karlyn and I were able to face this head on while coming back from Iguazu and we experienced a bumper to bumper standstill on one of the major freeways coming into Buenos Aires. Startled by the interesting commotion we didn't know what to think at first. As we slowly creeped our way up through the lines (creating our own road so to speak) we finally encountered the reason for the chaos. There, we saw a makeshift line of men with their faces covered standing across the road with their cars strategically placed to prevent any access from cars or people. At first, I was very startled and immediately thought back to the wild wild west movies where the horse drawn carriages are attacked by random assailants as they make their way down a treacherous road. Our driver, a three year Argentine veteran, consoled us explaining that this was a typical occurrence and it was completely peaceful, just meant to boldly broadcast their overall goals. It turns out these men were protesters from a nearby factory of Kraft who were unhappy with the recent layoffs at the factory and would not end the freeway standoff until all the protesters were able to resume their previous jobs. I was baffled by the fact that the police refused to intervene and that they were able to maintain their post for over two eight over periods that lasted two days. Due to some strategic persuasion from our driver, we were able to take an extreme detour on back roads following a random car with GPS throughout the countryside using trial and error techniques to evade the blockade. I felt like we were straight out of a movie and the car grew silent as we drove down one dirt road to the next only to finally reach an unbarred highway over an hour and a half later!

After returning home, I was very intrigued and perplexed by the whole situation. As I read through the paper, I saw many similar stories of strikes all throughout the city in protest to the government. As a seriously garrulous individual, I find every reason to talk and I am always very interested to learn about people's opinions on everything and I mean everything. From what I have learned, most people hate President Cristina Kirchner here. Some even claim that she is the worst president that they have ever had before. She is a Peronist leader and acts as a figure head while her husband, Nestor Kirchner, the former president here maintains power.

Throughout her time as president, she has crippled their primary product of beef by implementing a huge tax on all farmers for their cattle. This has resulted in Argentina having to import cattle from other countries for the first time in over a century and has simultaneously encouraged farmers to kill of their cattle in order to refuse the vast tax inflicted on them in a very dry season. Many people claim this will consequently trigger a major crisis, greater than the one now, in ten to fifteen years. She has also placed a huge tax on grain that normally is not maintained in bad seasons, like the previous year.

She was able to be elected because the Peronist party represents mainly the poorer sect of Argentina, which encompasses the majority of the country. They are often paid off for their votes and their livelihood virtually depends on it. Many people here receive some type of work pay (I am not sure of the name) and for this they receive an amount to "work". However, they are often not provided with work, so they are given an amount to live without doing anything. These people will not receive these contributions unless they continue to support the particular candidate who has the power to distribute them. Therefore, the majority of middle to upper class individuals are overpowered in vote size and cannot sway the overriding force of votes to counteract the Peronist tendencies. The vote often goes to those who are uneducated on the subject or are voting because of bribes. In fact, many also claim that she intentionally pays the majority of picketers here in Buenos Aires in order to bring about chaos in the city and portray the image that people from Buenos Aires are deeply unsatisfied with their government. She does this because her party and decisions constantly come in contention with the mayor's demands and the two have faced political standoffs since their time in office. Not to mention, a share of everyone's taxes go to the small city where Nestor is from in Argentina, which is definitely not a coincidence as his wealth has gradually accumulated throughout their time in office. (I apologize if I am slaughtering the politics here or wrong in any sense. This is just what I have learned from talking with other people.)

So this is the current state of affairs and I am fascinated to see what will happen. It's interesting to be right in the forefront of it all since the majority of the economic and political life in Argentina lies in Buenos Aires. For some reason, all of these events are a little too reminiscent of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I keep thinking back to the images of unrest she described when the US came shattering down and it seems like she seriously could have been using Argentina as her inspiration. From everything to the locals tearing up railroad tracks to secure the bus system to getting severance for doing absolutely nothing, I think many could gain a great deal of incite if they were to read this book. I, too, would like to read it again just to see the many similarities.

On the other hand, Iguazu was absolutely incredible. As Karlyn mentioned, it's hard to put words to something so vast and amazing. It is a masterpiece of nature and the pictures do not do it justice. We stood in awe as we crossed one bridge to the next constantly perplexed how they were able to build the bridge in the first place. We still have yet to figure it out and I would love for someone to explain how you would even go about starting a feat like that. In addition to Iguazu, we were also fortunate enough to see much of the Argentine countryside. It was beautiful and many pictures to come to illustrate this. However, the rest of Argentina is much poorer than Buenos Aires. I was truly able to feel the huge difference between the two parts as we drove through the small towns and I finally got the feeling that I was actually in a third world country. I am sure El Calafate will have much to teach us as well about the country, so much to come after the weekend.

Anyway, time to get back to the festivities. The birthday girl is just waking from a little snooze and it's about time we continued on with the festivities. I do believe tonight will be her fourth night being sung happy birthday. Needless to say, she is not very happy about this. I'll make sure to make it nice and embarrassing for her.