Money, money, money

I'm not one to hide my mistakes. A few days ago, when the powers that be discussed over the money needed to repair the damage caused by the deluge in Rosario, I wrote "Hmm" (and I thought "We're doomed"). However, after initially giving AR$5 million to the municipality of Rosario, the provincial government set aside a total of AR$620 million for the whole affected territory, of which AR$30 million are for us. The province has an anticyclical fund, where surplus money is saved for bad economic times (i.e. to compensate for the cyclical crises characteristic of capitalist economies, especially Argentina's). Part of the money will be drawn from there; another part will come from restructuring the budget, and the rest will be borrowed from the national government.

So Rosario will get about the equivalent of 10 million dollars. That should be enough, according to mayor Miguel Lifschitz, to get the city back in shape in 60 to 90 days. Lifschitz said another thing too — that this is the beginning of a new relationship between the city and the province. Vice governor María Eugenia Bielsa, in a radio interview, replied that the mayor's words were not appropriate, as it should hardly be notable that the province is (as always) giving Rosario what Rosario is entitled to. I love the subtleties of politics. (What Lifschitz said was uncalled for and a provocation; what Bielsa said was a lie.)