Advertisement
Published: March 26th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Que Quilombo!!! AKA what a mess.... This is definitely the third world. I learned a few lessons these past few weeks that I wanted to share. I promise I will post Mendoza info once I get all the pictures uploaded.
Farmers Protest Streets are blocked and lined with farming equipment. On the biggest travel weekend in Argentina, Semana Santa, farmers blocked all of the major roads causing delays some lasting more than 10 hours!!! They are protesting because the government is taxing them over 50%!o(MISSING)n exported good. The biggest problem with this situation is that 90%!o(MISSING)f farmed goods are exported. Farmers buy imported machinery and supplies in Dollars or Euros and therefore small and medium sized farmers can no longer exist with these high export taxes. Car accidents are up 10 fold and on the news at least a few people die a day because of this mess. Today the protests started within the city in support of the farmers. Plaza de Mayo looked like a scene from history filled with thousands of people packed in tight screaming and banging pans… a scene right out of history when the peso crashed and De la
Rua stepped down as president amidst similar pot banging protest called the Cacerolazo. The protests continue and get worse every day. No one has much faith in Christina it seems, but knowing that it was the farmer and the interior of the country that voted her into power it seems ironic that those are the ones protesting her so harshly a few months later.
I got stuck in this mess coming home from Mendoza yesterday. We were sent all through random fields and passed a million papers by protesters. It took us an extra 6 hours to get home making the trip about 19 hours long….. Luckily I wasn’t driving and slept the whole day in the back of the car but my poor host parents were non to happy
Traffic Violations Cops in Argentina are not surprisingly corrupt. They are always on a power trip and are not afraid to use it. We were stopped 10 kilometers outside of our cabana hotel site at 930 am in the morning for not having our headlights on. Apparently they stopped us, after letting a bunch of older cars go; because of what my host parents argue was because the car was new. It’s a big holiday weekend and we had big city plates, apparently if they think you can pay it, you get stopped for any little thing. Plus they figure that anyone travelling is just going to pay and not fight it because it takes too much time. This is actually a law in the country but here is the catch. They charged us for a grave offence, 400 pesos about 133 dollars which is SERIOUS money here and they took away my host dads license. It took about half of the next day to figure it out and fight with the judge. What a mess….
Weather Issues Hail, thunderstorms, floods have ruled this country for the last month. A few weeks ago Buenos Aires and the surrounding areas were ripped by flood leaving some places under 3 feet of water for a week! Their drainage system isn’t the best so 9 straight days of rain soaked the ground and let the sheik neighborhood of Palermo struggling. This past weekend (luckily when I was in Mendoza) there was a HUGE hail storm! This not only killed more of the crop but it left our heater and water pump damaged. So basically the protests aren’t the only thing that causing a lack of milk, eggs, meats, fruits and veggies
New Thoughts A few weeks ago I met up with a bunch of UVA students on a short study trip to Buenos Aires. One of them asked me if Argentina can succeed. I told him yes but now I’m starting to doubt my answer. I told him that the work ethic in this country is stronger than I ever imagined and the amount of new small business and government support of entrepreneurs is fantastic. What I realize now is that this country is full of paradoxes. When one area rises another falls and protests. This is a society of protesters and a society of socialist ideals. Human rights are a huge issue here and with free education and healthcare they are still struggling daily to get things right. Will Argentina succeed or will Argentina fall to another set of corruptions? Truthfully, Argentina has potential to be great but they are a society of people who fight to succeed, hard work is always at odds with corruption. Success is all relative but internationally I do not personally feel that socialism will lead to economic success for Argentina. To invest here you must be careful and know that the will of the people is just as strong as the injustices they entertain.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0495s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb