Droppin’ Some Knowledge, Part 2 - Argentina vs. Uruguay
You love every second of it don’t you Tony, you old dog you
This past Friday leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean arrived in Vienna, Austria to meet with their European counterparts and discuss trade, among other issues, at the EU-LAC summit. (Yawn). That’s the boring part. The fun part is this: just as the Presidents were lining up for the photo shoot, one black suit after the next, a bikini-clad girl bursts onto the stage and throws up a sign, as you can see above. The girl though, Evangelina Carrozzo, is no ordinary chica - she’s the crowned Carnival Queen from this year’s celebration in the Argentine city of Gualeguaychu, an otherwise undistinguished city accept for two facts:
- It’s home to Argentina’s largest and most important Carnival celebration, so she’s no small-time beauty, mind you
- Sitting just across the river from Uruguay, it’s currently ground zero for one of the fastest growing political solidarity movements in Argentina: opposition to the building of two enormous paper mills (the place where wood gets made into paper, pencils, etc.), on the grounds that the mills - which would sit on the Uruguayan bank of the river - will drastically contaminate the river
Thus, her sign - and intentions - should make perfect sense. One of the more interesting twists to the whole fiasco though, aside from the lascivious look in Tony Blair’s eyes (front, far left), is that Greenpeace paid for her flight to Vienna and orchestrated the whole show. Greenpeace has long been known for their outrageous publicity stunts, but this one could’ve hardly been executed better; Evangelina managed to get through security (posing as a reporter for a small town Argentine newspaper), strip, and do her little dance all before security caught up to her. My guess is she counted on the security guard having to, uh, “adjust himself” before he could accost her, buying herself a critical few extra seconds to get the point across.
Relating this to the title of the post, Argentina and Uruguay have been sparring over the issue of the paper mills (”papeleras”) for awhile now, though relations have really been deteriorating as of late. Historically and culturally almost identical - Uruguay used to be part of Argentina, and their people share almost indistinguishable ethnic backgrounds, eat almost the same food (lots and lots of meat), and have the same unique Spanish accent absent in the rest of Latin America - the two countries have usually enjoyed excellent relations. Hell, even Carlos Gardel, perhaps the most famous tango singer of all time and an Argentine icon was born in Uruguay.
For Uruguay, the papeleras are as far from petty sibling rivalry as you can get; they’re pinning an enormous amount of economic hope on the project. With foreign investment estimated at 10 % of the current Uruguyan GDP (around $1.7 billion dollars), the two mills (one is being built by a Spanish company, the other a Finnish one) are expected to employ thousands of people and jump-start the economy. Uruguay says the mills are safe and won’t contaminate the river; Argentina, especially those living in Gualeguaychu and the surrounding area, begs to differ. In fact they’re doing more than begging: they’ve actually been, in the long Argentine political tradition, taking matters into their own hands.
For the past few months protestors have been physically blocking the road from Argentina into Uruguay through the Gualeguaychu region, effectively halting all trade and tourism into the country of just over 3 million people. This actually affected me on a personal level - when my family came to visit in February we wanted to go to Uruguay for the day, but there were no seats available on any of the ferries running between Buenos Aires and Colonia, Uruguay because all of the tourists that would ordinarily pass through Gualeguaychu instead were directed through Buenos Aires.
The effects of this whole “kilombo” - the perfect Buenos Aires street-slang term to describe the situation, which means “a big mess” - are significant: Uruguay is threatening to pull out of MERCOSUR, the regional quasi-functional economic alliance between Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Even worse, Uruguay’s President, Tabare Vazquez was just in Washington last week, shaking hands and smiling with *gasp* Bush and discussing the possibility of signing a free-trade agreement with the U.S. In this part of the world, Brazil and Argentina are the big dogs, and no, they definitely don’t appreciate it when somebody disrespects their author-i-tay, snubbing them in favor of Washington. Right now Argentina’s President, Nestor Kirchner (red tie, front center), is requesting that the whole matter be sent to the Hague for review.
Critics of Argentina (and some non-Uruguayans) say possible river contamination isn’t the real issue here; it is, to best sum it up, just old fashioned “player - hating.” Basically, they say, Argentina’s jealous that it’s little brother, who it’s used to dictacting terms to, if not bullying around, landed such lucrative contracts on its own. Were the tables reversed and Argentina had the rights to these mammoth projects - especially considering its improving but still difficult economic situation - the health and welfare of a local river would be the last thing they make a fuss about. Regardless, the Uruguayans deny any susbstantial contamination will result, and say the mills will be unharmful to Argentina.
While the extent of the paper mills’ contamination may be debateable, one thing´s for certain: the conflict won’t resolve itself amicably anytime soon. Next year is an election year for Kirchner, so it’s extremely unlikely that he’ll let this issue - which is proving to be a politician’s dream, as it’s one of the rare themes Argentines of all walks of life can actually agree upon - pass along without exploiting it for political gain.
Tags: Argentina
May 14th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Finally, I was beginning to think that you ran off with some young aregentinian never to hear from you again. Very interesting post, however, while you make references to some of the political “asses” in the picture you fail to say anything about the most important one in the picture…
Don’t forget that this Wednesday is the Champion’s League final…Viva Barca!!!
May 18th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
you’re going to get some hate mail from any uruguayans out there reading this entry…they really do try to differenciate themselves from argentines and hate being compared. in uruguay they actually use ‘tu’ much more than ‘vos’ although the argentine influence in the language is becoming more pronounced; you’ll see billboard adverts that say ‘vos tenés’ and also ones that say ‘tu tienes’. i even saw an advert that said ‘tu entendés´.
last time i was there, there was a huge full page editorial in the main sunday paper that went on and on about the ‘cultural, linguistic, political and physical pollution floating over from the other side of the river plate.’
you’ve got it spot on with the fact that if the tables were turned, the argentines wouldn’t giving a flying fuck about contaminating the river, the environment doesn’t matter here unless it becomes political, when everyone jumps on the bandwagon. i say ‘go uragay’ and stick it up the arse of the big bullying brother.
May 18th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
oh, and you could have at least posted the re-touched photo…her arse looks like orange peel in that one…at least good old tone is having a good time of it, having seen cherie interviewed the other day i can understand his huge grin and pervy eyes. finally, why’s the guy with the crutches looking completely the other way? is he blind as well as crippled?
April 12th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
[…] Droppin’ Some Knowledge Vol. 2: Argentina vs. Uruguay […]
March 29th, 2008 at 7:26 am
http://www.risiinfo.com/risi-store/do/product/detail?id=10771&pcId=33&parentId=&rootId=13
Hey everyone, here is a link to a map of all the paper mills in South America. Seems Uruguay only has a few. The map isnt very clear, but you can see that Argentina has at least 20 throughout the region vs. Uruguay which has at most 5.
Seems Argentines should start protesting their own mills.
Oh and by the way, Uruguayos use VOS just as much as Argentines and it Isn’t an Argentine influence in Uruguay its a regional influence. People in the region speak very similar.