The Paro Returns for a week (at this point)

As I'm editing my monografía, I want to inform all that the paro/strike/blockade has returned to Buenos Aires once again. There was a news break this evening that for the next 7 days there will be a a blockaide of all farm-products, we'll see, it could surely be more. This is a return of the "paro" I blogged about several weeks ago when the city was without meat for around a month. This time it's including all farm products.

Accordingly the government has closed negotiations with the farmers. The farmers subsequently decided to reopen the blockaide until the government decides to start negotiating again. It's an interesting situation that will be developing over the coming weeks.

Article on Clarín (in Spanish)

Smoke Filled Aire in Buenos Aires--eeeek!

Sorry I've been lax for posting last week. I had full intentions of writing several things, however with the advent of smoke all over the city I had little energy or desire to do anything other than sleep.

Buenos Aires has been filled with smoke since last Wednesday. I first noticed this foul smelling smoke's arrival after my class at USAL on Wednesday evening. I left USAL and boarded the bus in the midst of the smoky fog. Believe it or not, the colectivo (bus) actually slowed down due to visibility--this is a first for Buenos Aires because the buses never slow down.

This was a complete accident. We are now entering winter in Buenos Aires and the farmers have harvested most of the season cereal crops. Many farmers will burn their land to return ash to the land at the end of the growing season. They also burn the fields to prepare new crop land for plantings for the next year. This year many farmers are turning pasture land into land to plant soybeans and corn since it is economically lucrative.

Usually this isn't a huge problem. The farms start at the perimeter of the Provincia de Buenos Aires outside of the city and move toward the center of the country. The wind generally flows from Buenos Aires Northwest and the smoke generally misses Buenos Aires completely. This year the wind decided to play cruel games on all of us by changing direction to South East, therefore sending all of the smoke directly to Buenos Aires!

I should mention that it could have been a lot worse. I am putting a figure that was in the Clarín (Argentine newspaper/diario) on Friday. You can see that along the left panel there are 3 pictures showing the spread of smoke from 12PM to 4PM. On the larger picture here is a diagram of all of the smoke in the region and Buenos Aires is marked as "Capital Federal". If I was in Tigre or San Pedro the smoke would have been much worse.

None of the Argentines were happy, as you might predict. Anyone with respiratory problems--asthma, allergies, and the like--were suffering. I am included in the allergy group. It felt like being in a Pennsylvania Bar all night with that high concentration of smoke--my eyes itched, it was hard to breathe, and the worst was being tired.

The president, Cristina Kirschner, released a statement. She seems out of touch to me when she mentioned that the smoke ruins clothing--who cares about clothing! What about all of the people with medical conditions?!?! The Argentines gave her no slack on that comment, often just cursing when the comment was mentioned.

I read many articles in the newspapers about the smoke problem, and I was left wondering in the all of the articles the horrible ramifications for Global Warming. It seems like few people care about global warming or conservation here in Argentina, sadly. I tried to talk to María about its impact on global warming and she didn't understand why this was bad for the environment. I think South America really needs some public education on this issue.

These pictures were taken on Plaza de Mayo in the Microcenter on Sunday. The smoke had almost receded at this point--on Thursday you wouldn't have been able to see most of the building. I should have taken pictures then, but I had no energy or motivation to do so since I was quite sick.

Hopefully I'll be posting more this week! However, I have a busy week since I lose time Thursday-Saturday while allergic. Un beso!

Demonstration in BA

I came home from class two days ago, María told me, "¡No hay nada carne en este ciudad! / There isn't any beef in this city." I immediately knew why.

Over the past few weeks there has been a brewing controversy between the new president Kristina Kirschner and the agriculture sector. I will attempt to summarize what I understand about the situation.

Kirschner is imposing taxes on the Argentine farmers raising crops and cattle, thusly reducing their profits. The farmers are outraged because now in the worldwide market soy grain is a very lucrative crop, and they feel as though this tax is unfair if Argentina continues a free market economic policy. They started striking two weeks ago by blocking the main arteries into the main cities of Argentina--Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Cordoba, Rosario, etc--and are not permitting trucks to get through to deliver meat or milk. They are blocking the roads with farm equipment like combines, tractors, grain drills, et al. At this point it seems they're allowing chicken through, but beef is nonexistent within the city and the milk is being rationed.

What has been really interesting has been the response by porteños. As an American citizen--raise on a farm--I would never expect Americans in general to support farmers. I actually don't even think American farmers would support themselves in the way that they're doing here in Argentina. At any rate for the past 3 nights the porteños have been taking part in a protest of solidarity for the farmers. Between 8PM and 10PM they have been going on the balconies of their apartments and partaking in cacerolazos, literally translating to "big casserole". The people take pots and pans out to the balconies and bang them and are joined by a chorus of honking horns from the buses and cars throughout the whole city.

It's contagious. It starts in one barrio and progressively fills the city with this eerie form of protest. It is really neat. María and I went out on the balcony and were banging some pans both nights.

Last night I was on the way to our program director's house for dinner and I was walking on the streets during the cacerolazo. It was really interesting to take it all in. In a very haphazardly organized fashion, porteños were all coming together for farmers; it was amazing.

Here's a video from Reuters showing some of the protests that have also been going on:



Last night María and I watched Presidenta Kristina Kirchner's address to the nation, we thought was about the strike. The address took place at place filled with Peronist Supporters (her political party). The address included the Argentine national anthem and the Peronist party song. The funny thing was that she started her speech out with a long lament about not treating her fairly because of her gender as a female. I was disappointed by this, as well as many other Argentines, because the topic at hand had nothing to do with her gender.

When she finally talked about the protests, she said that the farmers would have to halt the protest in order for her to talk to with them. The point of the protests in the first place was for the president to come up with a different way to approach the problem. After her speech the farmers initial reaction was to continue with the protest.

Today it seems that the reaction has been to have a 48 hour halt for negotiations. There still with be a large protest on Plaza de Mayo tonight.

At the dinner last night several students from the program and I were grappling with how to describe our American perspective on the nonviolent form of protest to our host families. I tried repeatedly to explain to María that this type of thing just wouldn't happen in the US. She kept saying that we're a democracy and we have a 2nd amendment. I agreed, but explained that it would be halted. María just didn't understand why.

I used this example: I said that if I spoke against the government, I would be able to say whatever I wanted, but it could potentially impede my ability to get a job with the government in the future and/or depending on the remark I could be investigated. With the Patriot Act--that's still enacted--anyone who is suspicious--and suspicious is a term that is used vaguely--can be investigated. For example, while I don't condone the actions of the governor from New York, I would rather not have the government snooping in my bank records--or whatever else for that matter--like they did in his case.

This has been an awesome experience. I am experiencing a process of Argentine culture that is far different from my cultural perspective in the US. I didn't plan on coming to Buenos Aires to see cacerolazos, but it is impacting my experience.

I have picked out a couple articles/blog posts in English that describe the current situation if you'd like to hear more:

• Tax Hike Fight (Reuters)--Slideshow showing protesters in BA.
• Argentine Farmers Call off Strike (Reuters)--Article from today talking about the response to Kristina's speech.
• Line of Sight Blog Post--Interesting blog post about the return of the cacerolazos.
• Adventure in Argentina Blog Post--Another study abroad student recounts her current experience in Mendoza.
  

Farmers on Strike

Let me begin by saying that Argentines in general have more political demonstrations than what we're accustomed to in the United States. It is good that they are that way because over the years it has lead to a lot of liberties and fundamental Human Rights laws that are in result of demonstrations (i.e. Las mamas de los deparaceidas, casino workers, wage cuts, revolts over presidential leadership, economic situationas, et al.).

Yesterday I read my first article in English about the farmers on strike here. I find the situation fascinating. The farmers have been using their tractors and combines and are blocking major highways around Argentina. The day before Easter Vacation (Thursday) they blocked something like 15 highways leaving Argentina towards the provinces.

They are protesting the price of grain and the export taxes.

I wonder how the US would react if our farmer would strike? I wonder if our farmers actually would strike? Farmers continue to get the short end of the stick in the US, while the government often ignores them in favor of stronger advocacy groups.