15th Jun 2010

Rather than escaping into religion SWF gets deeper involved...

By SWF in Buenos Aires

I find it very difficult to untangle the news and politics in Argentina. Every time I think I’ve got the handle on a particular topic, an Argentine friend will give me some background. And there seems so much background here. And, not only does everyone and everything seem to be linked to each other in some past scandal or incident but lying in political life seems to have developed into a fine art.

People tell me the Kirchners are over. There was a quelled investigation into the fact that their finances increased 158% in one year and the business of them buying a hotel. I have begun to understand why people don’t pay any taxes. And I have started to feel disappointed too even though it’s not my country. The MP’s expenses scandal in Britain which I wasn’t there for seems quite tame compared to what goes on here.

Recently the news has been dominated by the central bank and Kristina trying to withdraw the country's reserves to pay debt (as I understand it a load of bonds have come up which need to be paid) without going through the correct procedures i.e. congress. She sacked the head of the central bank and he refused to go saying he wanted to protect the reserves and she needed go through congress i.e. follow the legal procedure. Kristina then cancelled her trip to China, and appointed a new head of the bank. It seems Argentines of all political persuasions are angry at that decision. I have been surprised at some of my friends' reaction, they seem angry and humiliated as to what kind of image this gives Argentina to the rest of the world, feeling that Kristiana canceling her trip to China makes the country look unstable.

One Argentine friend of mine said, ‘what would you do if you had to make the choice between paying your debts or feeding your children?' And although the debt might now be paid every day, I watch children as young as my four year old nephew working to be fed. I watch children go though the cities rubbish late at night, I watch young children and sometimes even toddlers on the Subte at all hours walking along selling cards, stickers, juggling, playing a mini fake bandoneon for the entertainment of the tourists. They often are even too young to even understand what they are doing but have been taught to do their particular activity again and again all day. Sometimes I see them run through the carriage, jumping on and off the train at stations hoping to do better in the next carriage, or rushing through the carriages trying to overtake the competition and sometimes they get into fights, and then sometimes you see them playing, they forget for a brief moment what they have to do, sometimes their hauntingly adult looking faces revert back to their childlike selves and they live for a moment the childhood they should be having.