Chaska in South America

Some of you may have been watching the news and be aware of some things going on here in Argentina at the moment. For those of you who aren’t, Bush is here right now. Needless to say, Bush is not very popular here AT ALL… then again, is there anywhere in the world where he’s very popular? The reason for his visit is a big summit called La Cumbre de los Americas, which is a meeting of 24 presidents from throughout North, Central, and South America. One of the biggest things to be discussed is a free trade agreement for all of America, from Alaska to Patagonia. Bush is largely in favor of this agreement, but many countries are not, saying that this will only help the U.S. become richer but will do nothing favorable for the poorer countries. The main country that is against this agreement, and who has been the loudest to protest it is Venezuela. Their president, Hugo Chavez, was the first to stand up against the idea of this trade agreement. The summit is in a city called Mar de Plata, which is several hours from Buenos Aires, but life here has been affected by it as well. Over the last few weeks, there have been TONS of posters and flyers with anti-Bush slogans just about everywhere you look. There have been protests and manifestations, and it’s pretty clear that Bush is not welcome here in Argentina at all. One of the main people against Bush’s visit is Diego Maradona (the soccer star) , and he organized many anti-Bush events, including the main one that met in Mar de Plata yesterday, just before the meetings began. Hugo Chavez gave a speech that lasted over 2 hours at this event, and I watched the whole thing on TV…it was really interesting. Although this demonstration was very peaceful, there were several violent situations that happened yesterday, both in Mar de Plata and here in Buenos Aires. One thing that I have to say though, is that CNN and other American news stations are not accurate when commenting on these situations. Matt and I get CNN at home, and we were shocked at how exagerated the events of yesterday were described. The violence that occured was primarily by young delinquents who had no real political motive behind their actions, they just saw an opportunity to loot and cause trouble (sound familiar?) I hope that most of you already know this, and that you don’t take what you see and read in American media as solid facts. Anyway, sorry for going on about this whole thing so much…it’s just been something pretty big here recently, and I feel like it’s pretty important stuff.
Despite all the drama related to Bush recently, life here in Buenos Aires has been good. I can’t believe that I only have about a month left here. Originally I really couldn’t wait for December to get here, so all the fun travelling would begin. Now I really think I will be sad to leave here when the time comes. I’m still super excited about all the travelling coming up and can’t wait for it, but I’ve really started to get the hang of things here and am enjoying my life here. I really feel like I’m learning so much everyday…it’s amazing how much I’ve learned about all aspects of Argentina. My students honestly teach me so much, it feels like they teach me a lot more than I teach them! We have such great conversations about politics, poverty, the healthcare and education systems, and all kinds of other interesting topics…I really can’t tell you how much I love learning about this stuff in other countries…talk about having your mind opened and horizons expanded. I felt like this while I was in Spain and was learning all about their culture and issues as well. It’s soooo different to actually live somewhere, as opposed to just visiting for a short while! Just a couple things that some of you might be interested in knowing about life here in Argentina: A police officer and teacher start off making about 300 to 400 pesos a month ($100 to $135)… I really couldn’t believe this when I first found this out. The poverty line is 700 pesos a month, which means that a lot of the population is living under the poverty line. In fact, over 50% of children in Argentina live in homes under the poverty line. This is something that would come as really shocking to tourists who visit Argentina…the image you get when you visit is a very stylish, modern, European feeling country. Most of this extreme poverty came as a result of the crisis of 2001, and it will take a very long time and a lot of work to fix it. I’ve mentioned this before, but Matt and I started off complaining about our low wages here…the truth is, we’re really lucky to be making what we are.
Well, I’ve become really good friends with one of the Argentinian English teachers who works for the same school as me and have been hanging out with her a lot recently. Today, she and a couple of her students are going to take me out to a typical Argentinian “asado” (barbeque) . I’m sure I’ll be eating lots of interesting animal parts…I’m going to try my hardest to be brave and not be rude and eat everything they give me! I’ll tell you how it goes.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 5th, 2005 at 9:26 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.