Is it me, or there's no news? Real news I mean, not those things you get to watch on TV. Check this:
- Power cuts to homes and industries continue. The government continues to deny they're part of a crisis. Here in Rosario, the head of the power company EPE said, just like that, that things will be OK in about 10 years, "though we'll begin to notice changes in just 2 or 3 years".
- The company also unveiled a project to educate schoolchildren about power conservation, using cartoons, with a hero named "Superwatt" and villains called e.g. "Frigoman" (a fridge) and "Dr. Derrochón" (Dr. Waster). OK, that could qualify for the "weird news" section, but the pathetic incompetence of EPE is definitely not news.
- INDEC is being reformed, but the government continues to say that the inflation figures were OK all this time despite the insultingly obvious tampering they've suffered since at least January. President Kirchner now says there's a lobby of big financial groups who want inflation to rise so they get more profit from the inflation-indexed bonds they bought. No news here either: deny reality, blame someone else, invent conspiracies.
- The dollar-peso exchange rate went up a notch yesterday, and everybody was suddenly hysterical, as if the world was about to end. Almost instantly, the old money people warned that they might be forced to raise the price of beef. No news. The aristocracy that has owned most of Argentina's productive cropland and pastures since their ancestors slaughtered the Indians that lived in them back in the 1880s has always found reasons to charge more.
- Politicians are playing musical chairs again, each one fearing he or she will have no place in the list of winners and will have to get a real, decent job until the next election. Boring!
Stumble it!
But, but, Pablo, you forgot the cause célèbre of the week: Cristina kicked off her presidential campaign with a coup de main … in Spain. Just a little entente cordial between neighbors. But how could she forget (being so european and all), that most everyone is taking their annual congés. How déclassé.
ReplyDeleteLos reyes, who of course were vacationing at their summer residence, the Marivent Palace in Majorca, gave her lunch, but of no photography was de rigeur, comme il faut. Quelle horreur! And she was wearing her best haute couture outfit too!
Maybe “L'État, c'est moi” should be her campaign slogan (apologies to Louis XIV).
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
[Well if you live in the Paris of the South, on comprend le français. ¡Chan!
John
I almost forgot – following on from your comment about the dollar-peso exchange rate, I was amused by this quote from yesterday’s La Nación:
ReplyDelete“Inflación. En este contexto signado por la inestabilidad de la moneda norteamericana, comenzaron a surgir, desde diferentes sectores, advertencias por la repercusión en los precios internos.” [italics mine]
I better rush out and exchange some more dollars for pesos (the stabile currency it would seem) …
I suspect that, if instead the exchange rate had fallen, there would also have been predictions of increasing inflation.
John
Why are you so angry man?
ReplyDeleteYour political posts are going from bad to worse. Just stick to Rosario and stay away from talking about things that, because you don't fully understand, let your readers see a very resentful and sometimes paranoid side of you.
Love more, enjoy and be happy!
I hope you publish my comment and may be comment back... for a change.
Thanks
Andrea
Maryland
Andrea, I don't have the obligation to publish anyone's comments or to reply to them. This is not a forum, it's my blog. I understand that you disagree with me, and I'll reply now, but just one thing before that: you don't get to tell me what to do. I'll continue to speak my mind about national politics because I live here and it affects me and yes, I'm a bit angry sometimes. It just happens. Not today; today I was thinking that I should write something to keep the blog going and there were no real news, so I may just humourously say that.
ReplyDeleteYou're living in the US, so I guess you're already as accustomed to gross lies from your government as we're here in Argentina. In case you're a Bush fan or you've been abroad for such a long time you've forgotten what it's like, it's the same as always. Back in the 1990s we had a "productive revolution", now we're having a "growth crisis". Back then the dollar was too cheap for profits and the government was "absent", now it's too expensive and the government is "interventionist". We almost got into a civil war, millions lost all they had, and the ones responsible are still giving speeches and happily sucking from the state's tits. You should be amazed that I'm not angrier.
Despite that, rest assured that I can relax and love and enjoy life, not all the time, but mostly. Have a nice day, and come back to read and comment. I suggest that you try to give something: either your own opinions, or why exactly (in concrete, not general terms) mine seem to be so wrong.