Things That Make You Go Hmm

After a final night of grilled steak, red wine, and tango, I packed my bags and said goobye to Argentina. This morning I arrived back in the USA, back to the country that is finally talking about an exit strategy to a war that was supposedly won two and a half years ago. It's not a great time to be an American abroad. But let's be honest, Argentina has its problems, too. And while I do not profess any expertise on the subject, I did try to understand something of the country's history, politics, and society. So without offering a deep analysis, allow me to post some random observations of the less enchanting aspects of Argentine life and the cotidiana of Buenos Aires.

Unplanned pregnancies among teenagers are relatively common, largely in the lower class. Significant numbers of girls as young as 14 become pregnant. Yet abortion is illegal, and efforts to distribute condoms in schools have been met with opposition by the Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church is named in the Constitution as the favored religion of the state. Until the 1994 constitutional reforms, it was mandatory for the president to be a Catholic. Menem, a Muslim, was behind the reforms.

Argentines like to think of themselves as more European than Latin American, and they remind you that at one point Argentina was one of the top 10 economic powers in the world (mid-century). The financial crisis of December 2001-January 2002--during which the country defaulted on its loans from the IMF, the peso was unpegged from the dollar and dropped precipitously, and five presidents passed through the Casa Rosada in as many weeks--is still a perplexing embarrassment to them.

People lack confidence in their leaders and their institutions. Corruption in various forms is so prevalent as to be barely veiled. One example: a party seeking votes in a poor neighborhood might drop off some handy domestic appliances. When you're poor and someone gives you a toaster, and no one else has given you anything, why not vote for them, right? Another example: a cop stops you for a traffic violation, and you suggest that there is a way for the situation to be resolved without a ticket; it's just a question of how much cash he wants to supplement his slim salary. Corruption aside, some things just don't work; like, for example, the postal service, which apparently is unlikely to actually deliver your mail to your door. As a result of this type of failure, and the legacy of the 1990s in which Menem sold public services to foreign companies, and the legacy of the last military junta of the 1970s, in which some 10,000-30,000 people are believed to have been abducted, tortured, and killed by the dictatorship, Argentines are little inclined to believe that any given politician is going to actually improve their lot. So there is a tendency to not pay taxes. And there is a tendency to work in and pay workers through the black market. The net net? A public that would like its sidewalks repaired, its eletric power to flow reliably, its nightmarish public hospitals to improve, its monetary value to strengthen, and its position in the world to be recovered, but that shies away from the type of public participation that might make that vision a reality. Or is it that nothing the average person could do would matter? That is the question.

Everyone says that formerly middle-class people now have to struggle to make ends meet. With the peso devalued, there are fewer vacations to Miami, less shopping, more second jobs. Yet in Buenos Aires, every night of the week except Sunday the restaurants are full. 'We don't think as much about the future,' portenos will tell you, 'we don't save for a rainy day. We are disorganized.' But when they have a bit, they enjoy it.

Crime is up since the peso is down. In express kidnappings, thieves abduct victims for a matter of hours while the victims call their families to raise whatever money they can. Usually, they are released. Lately, there has been a spate of robberies in which thugs enter the houses of old people, demand whatever money they have stashed away (not trusting the banks since they literally ran out of reserves in 2001, many hide their bills at home), and beat them savagely. The politicians and people alike are asking themselves why this is happening, and the feeling seems to be that powerless individuals will bully the weak to make themselves feel strong.

City buses abound, and the service is quick. So quick, that the drivers barely stop to let you on or off, and sometimes they don't stop at all, which means that you must practically throw yourself bodily in their path to get their attention. All of these buses spew heavy diesel exhaust, making the city so polluted that I, for one, could never keep my fingernails clean.

Resources are not particularly well conserved. At the supermarket, fruits and vegetables must be put in plastic bags in order to be weighed at a central balance. There is no residential or business recycling--not of paper, plastic, or metal. Petroleum products are not very expensive, and water is incredibly cheap.

In the absence of municipal materials recycling, the reselling of household garbage has been undertaken by a group of people known as cartoneros. At dusk, when residents put their bags on the sidewalk for pickup, a population wielding carts appears to sort through the muck and pull out whatever they think they can sell or use. If the carteneros have children, they are likely to participate.

Children themselves do a substantial amount of begging. They approach patrons of sidewalk cafes and even enclosed restaurants, asking for coins or trying to sell cheap items like pens. Every day on the subway, kids and other unfortunates pass through the aisles placing items in the laps of passengers. Rubber bands, stickers, candy, transit guides. Most people pass the items back, but some pay a peso, and it must add up.

I don't want this seem like a rant, so let me wrap it up. I found Argentines to be warm, talkative, and generous. The men are quite gentlemanly and the women vivacious. But there is a paradox that most of them would admit to. It is the paradox of a sophisticated people, with world-class art, an international mix of cultures, and a stunningly beautiful land, whose experience of democracy and capitalism has been marked by deep plunges into chaos, fear, and poverty. How could the land of Borges and Gardel, of horse-taming gauchos and elegant women, of delicious wines and fashionable clothes, of Spanish-Italian-Anglo-German- Armenian-Syrian- Jewish-Christian-indigenous blends, keep falling into the hands of an oppressive military or an apathetic congress? Well, how could a country founded on the principle that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are basic human rights allow slavery or re-elect an incompetent to the presidency? Some things just don't make sense. Or as the Argentines typically say, "Que se yo." What do I know.

Comments

[Mark Dorfman]

Glad I peeked in to see what's new on this blog. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, EuroLatinos tango while Argentina crumbles, and Americans go shopping no matter what. Pass the pipe.

[Jen]

Damn straight, "Que se yo?!" You run for office, I vote for you.

[Alex Wang]

Welcome back!