Saturday, November 29, 2008



Bloqueos

On Thursday students and professors from a post-secondary art school staged a street show in Avenida de Mayo, one of the main avenues in downtown Buenos Aires. The show was a form of protest against the planned closure of the school and similar post-secondary schools where students go to study art in order to become art teachers. The schools are publicly-funded and students only pay a small, token amount in order to attend them. The municipality (or state, I'm not sure which it is) has said it wants to close or consolidate the schools, presumably in order to reduce the number of teachers, students and, corresponding the cost. Many students wouldn't be able to afford to go to a private art school, and, of course, the teachers don't want to loose their positions, hence, the Bloqueo (literally, "Blockade" but it can be any protest or picket where a street is partially or totally blocked). In this case it was well organized and looked like they got permission ahead of time. The photos above are of the same street. You can see that half of it had traffic flowing and the other half was full of placards with their schoolwork. That's the Casa Rosada in the background, where the President's offices are. There were probably a couple hundred students with a thousand pieces of work taped on these placards or set on the street or fixed to the walls of the buildings along this part of the street. It was peaceful and everyone was simply hanging out, with volunteers asking passers by to sign a petition against the closure. There was a print that I very much liked. The student who'd prepared it had already left, but her classmates were looking after her stuff and gave me her cell number. I called her to tell her that I like the print and to ask her whether she has to turn it in at the end of the semester or whether she would entertain selling it to me. She called me back a couple hours later and told me that her professor told her she could sell it if she wants. Unfortunately for me, she also consulted him on price and she wanted market price for a Gallery in posh Recoleta rather than a sidewalk on the Avenue. Oh well, next time don't speak spanish with an American accent. I suppose the bloqueos aren't all that different from protests and pickets in the States - they're for the most part peaceful, authorized, etc... But, they seem to be a more ubiquitous and accepted form of complaining here and occur in ways that range from the very organized and problematic to the impromptu and odd. For example, in April and May the government attempted to increase the export duty (or tax) on the powerful beef, soy and wheat industry (agriculture is the biggest industry here). Farmers or their supporters responded by blocking the highways leading into Buenos Aires with their trucks and such for a period. There was a period of days to a week or two where you couldn't find meat, milk, eggs and other staples in the market because of shortages. The government's position was that the farmers were making record profits from high worldwide commodity prices so that they should be sharing some of that with the rest of the country (just like the debate over record oil company profits at home). However, in addition to duking it out in the media and congress, the farmers blocked the roads in order to make their point in a way people, and hence the government, will feel more acutely. The police are reluctant to intervene and forceably remove protesters because they don't want to escalate things. They'd rather talk, negotiate, make half-promises and let the situation diffuse on its own. In this case, the farmers gave in and let traffic roll again. The export duty increase bill lost by a single vote in congress in July. That episode may have been the biggest news all year here, because of the food shortages and because the deciding vote against it was cast by the Vice President (imagine a Bush bill in the senate being defeated by a single vote cast by Cheney, then you have the picture).

At the other end of the spectrum are protests that seem odd. For example, there was a heat wave this week that caused power outages and, according to the papers, some of the people in the affected neighborhoods protested in the street for a while. Hardly seems worth the effort in 100 degree heat with 99% humidity.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008



Houses

One of the things I like best about Buenos Aires is how some of the older houses are designed. If you are in the heart of nicer parts of the center of town, in Recoleta or Palermo, most of the dwellings are very nice high rise apartment houses 10-15 stories high. However, in the neighborhoods just a little ways out of downtown, the apartment buildings give way to more single or two story homes. Some have beautiful stone and iron work, comparable to brownstones in New York or the woodwork on victorians in San Francisco. But others reveal nothing more than a concrete wall along a sidewalk with a single panel metal door. There's no front yard. To look at them from the street, you wouldn't even know that anyone lived there. Inside, the center of the home is an open air patio and the rooms and kitchen have doors or windows which open up to the patio. The patio serves a number of purposes. It provides daylight without the need for external windows. It circulates fresh air and provides ventilation. It provides an outdoor space (I've never seen a backyard in Buenos Aires). And you get to listen to the rain fall on the patio tile at night while you sleep. This is a picture of the patio at Rosana's house. What I like about this concept is that it's almost the opposite of what WE do. With houses being so expensive back home, and their price being measured in living space per square foot, the concept of having 'unused' space in the very center of a home is quirky or illogical because it takes away from the number and size of rooms and, hence, the resale value. But it seems to me that this is the way we should live. Is it the size of the room that's more important or the quality of light, air and flow? Which brings me to a related observation, which is that most things are noticeably smaller here ... houses, rooms, shops, streets ... the very space you have to move around in wherever you happen to be (though the widest boulevards I've ever seen are also here; you almost can't get across them in a single green light). People appear as though they are used to, and perhaps even prefer, close proximity and a lot of togetherness. As if, if they had the space and solitude that we enjoy, it might somehow feel wrong, like clothes a few sizes too big or lonely. It's not uncommon for a family of 5 or 6 people to live in a tiny two bedroom, one bathroom home. The second picture above is a little window that looks out from the shower. There are birds in the trees right outside, which sing most of the morning and afternoon. This morning while I was showering I saw two of them doing something that wasn't intended for me to see, not more than several feet away from the window. He was pretty quick about it.


Tuesday, November 25, 2008

When is a peso worth more than 1 peso? About halfway through last summer, in Salta, suddenly no one had change (coin money) or wanted to part with it. So, when you went to the bakery, to corner stores or to other mom and pop shops, they'd almost always ask you for correct change. I remember this one time (... when Rosana and I were in band camp), a store in the center of town refused to sell Rosana approximately 20 pesos ($6) worth of school supplies because she didn't have exact change. I was wondering how much money they'd lost over the course of the day in order to save 25 cents here and there. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is, and why the treasury doesn't just print more coins. But it ends up having a big impact on your daily life in unexpected ways. Case in point - there is a pretty good subway system in Buenos Aires, but it doesn't cover all the city. Most people take 'colectivos' (the local term for buses) everywhere. The good news is that there are something like 200 different bus lines covering the entire city of about 15 million people, it only costs 1 peso (30 cents) to ride them to the end of the line and you rarely have to wait more than 5 minutes unless it's really late in the evening. A taxi, by comparison, can run 20 or 30 pesos ($6 - 9) even for relatively short rides within the center of the city, so they are out of reach of most people for everyday use. The bad news with the buses is that those 200 bus lines are operated by about 200 different companies, they don't sell bus cards, they don't give change, there are no transfers and there's no 1 peso note (the paper notes start at 2 pesos). So, you have to constantly hoard your change. If you've got a buck in change coming to you, never ever give the vendor another 1 peso coin so that he can give you a 2 peso note back. That's a rookie manuever. He will always ask you politely if you happen to have 1 peso, and you have to always politely respond in turn that, oopps, sorry, no you don't. Or else you may find yourself a peso coin short of a bus trip home. I actually get excited when someone gives me a small handfull of change. There's a rumor that some bus companies have started a side business selling change - since they have it all - for a 2% or 3% comission. Which makes me wonder whether the government wouldn't do better nationalizing the buses instead of the airlines (the government nationalized Aerolineas Argentina recently). At least then it would make a little profit. The fun may not last much longer though. Supposedly, some bus lines have begun to sell bus cards.