Category Archive

It’s nearly a year that we’ve lived in Buenos Aires. A whole hell of a lot has happened and we don’t even know where to begin… But, we’re not going to get into all that right now anyway… Instead, we’d like to shamelessly self-promote a project that we’re involved in.

If you can read Spanish and would like to know what’s going on in Latin American and world financial markets then be sure to check out this free daily email newsletter at: http://moneyweekes.com/

Here are some of the latest articles:

Baja de Tasas, Sólo un Remiendo

Más Acerca de por qué el Sector Inmobiliario Mexicano es Prometedor

¿Cuál Será la Suerte del Dólar?

Semana Negra…¿Hay una Luz al Final del Túnel?

Saludos!

Much more to come as we approach our one-year in Argentina anniversary…

We apologize for going missing in action the past two weeks… Our excuse(s)? Meetings and travel in Europe, a move within Buenos Aires, and turmoil in business have kept us busy buried little bees…

We’re recovering our composure and will get back to our regular blogging duties as best as we can starting today dear reader.

In recent news, we moved to a new apartment that has TV. We’ve been told that the mayhem level in Argentina is going up in advance of the approaching presidential elections… that various factions have an interest in arousing the displeasure of the populous. So, the professional protesters, the ‘piquetaros’, labor groups, and other political mafia organizations are mobilizing to instill a feeling of unrest.

We didn’t see it before, but, on the evening news these days there is a fair amount of chaos around Argentina. The news is obviously sensationalized. But there’s a good amount of real footage of real trouble. And the robbery of Francis Ford Coppela’s house was the icing on the cake this week.

Anyway, our daily life here in BA moves on uneventful, in terms of outside disruptions. The weather has transformed into perfect spring. Life is good. Perhaps we should return to the bliss of no TV…

Today we’re standing-up the US Ambassador to Argentina… We were invited to a 4th of July party hosted by the US Embassy and the current ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne. We were invited not because of our connections to the embassy, we have none, but instead because of some Argentine business partners of our employer and their connections to the embassy.  (Of course, every American expat with a pulse was probably invited to this same event.)

Anyway, we say “no thanks”!

The 4th of July celebrates US independence from Great Britain. We feel that the US government currently embodies the imperialism from which the forefathers of our country revolted. The founders were the insurgent leaders against British military might and suppression in the colonies.

The founding-fathers of the United States were intelligent, worldly, and brave men… nothing like the men who currently lead our distressed country.

We grew up a few miles from Jefferson’s Monticello, a house which he designed himself, filled with innovations invented by him and books of learning that he actually read… He traveled the world and spoke multiple languages.

After leading the colonial army to victory on the battlefield, General George Washington had to be begged to leave the farm that he had quietly returned to and become the leader of the country.

To compare any of these men to George W Bush or Dick Cheney is laughable.

No, we celebrate the 4th of July in our own way, apart from any association with the current US government.

The plot always seems to grow thicker, like the recent half pardon (which will probably become a full pardon) of Scooter Libby. Just when you think they can’t sink any lower, they find a way to do it…

It tears our soul. There’s turmoil in the soul of America and the only solution is something better… and that’s what we’ll celebrate this 4th of July, that, and how our ancestors fought like real patriots against the suppression of liberty by the establishment super-power imperialists of the day.

It goes something like this…

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.  [Declaration of Independence]

And on… Amen!

Happy 4th of July!!

We must apologize, dear reader, for our sluggish editorializing on your behalf of late… That’s because we’ve been two-timing you… We’ve fallen into the embrace of another, blog, a political blog no less…

Much of our free time has gone towards promoting the candidacy of presidential hopeful, Texas Congressman Ron Paul at: http://goronpaul.blogspot.com/

We’re not really even ‘in to’ politics, but Dr. Paul, actually has us excited…

I know, I know, this is a blog about Buenos Aires. What do American politics have to do with anything? Well, as an American living overseas, it has a lot to do with it actually…

The US is powerful and highly influential around the world. Argentines know a lot about the US and American politics… because it affects them… You’ve probably heard that Argentina is anti-American, that’s true in a sense. But they, like most people in the world, understand the difference between the American people, and the US government.

Why don’t they like us? Well, I’m not going to get into the entire history of economic and political relations between the US and Latin America… but it comes down to the fact that they don’t like us pushing them around, manipulating things in the region, and acting with favoratism towards some countries and not others. You can argue till you’re blue in the face about whether we do this or not. But you’d be hard-pressed to deny that we don’t throw our weight around down here…

The fact is that our image as a bastion of democracy and economic prosperity is tainted by our bullying… So called, ‘foreign aid’ is used for political gain… We practice protectionism in agriculture to help American farmers, however the vast majority of those benefiting are in fact large corporations… In the past we have supported oppressive and anti-democratic regimes to advance our own self-interest.

Ron Paul is the only presidential contender who will put a stop to all that… Paul will end all foreign aid. He’ll put a stop to ‘corporate welfare’ and protectionism. He will put an end to our military-adventurism overseas. He will bring our military, currently occuping over 100 countries, home. He will close the thousands of overseas military bases. He’ll protect the US borders instead of the border between Iraq and Jordan…

He is a non-interventionist, not an isolationist… Look at how we trade with Vietnam now, how much better that works than fighting them and losing 50,000+ lives… Trade, not war seems like a good motto to me…

Then, we can stop ignoring Latin America and help them the best way possible which is to trade with them… and not the corporate sponsored, trade organization sort of (NAFTA)trade either, but real ‘free trade’ that brings prices down and increases the quality of goods and services.

By doing this we’ll make a lot more friends than enemies.

There’s a lot more that can be said about all this, but we’ll leave it at that.

Please take a moment to look into Ron Paul and see what he’s about. At his official website: http://www.ronpaul2008.com or my other blog at: http://goronpaul.blogspot.com/

(Also, be sure and check out the videos about him on Youtube.com… There’s a very interesting online grass-roots campaign swirling around the man.)

You might not like his positions on everything, but, he is honest and has real integrity. You can vote for him and not feel like you have to take a shower afterwards… Why take one of the ‘lesser of two (very evil) evils’ when you don’t have to?

Here’s Ron Paul at a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s show…

We like to think of the US as an efficient capitalistic business-friendly free-market sort of place. But the fact is that the US is a hot-bed of bureaucratic monkey-business just like so many other countries.

There’s plenty of red-tape here. Everywhere you go you need a permit or permission for this or that. We came back to deal with our taxes… get a new vehicle title, and other sorts of personal business issues… What an incredible waste of time and resources!

It’s infuriating when you think about it. You spend the first four months of the year working to pay your government masters. (Even if you don’t live in the US or use any government services…) Then you spend dozens of hours navigating their labyrinth of a system just to give them the damn money!

If you don’t think it’s a system of coercion, then just try not paying your taxes and see what happens… You’ll be harassed, threatened, robbed, kidnapped, and held hostage… all because you didn’t pay them tribute. It’s amazing that people tolerate this…

And where does the money go? We shiver at the thought. The waste. The pork. The wars. Ughhh. Our vote in ‘08 will be for the constitutionalist Dr. Ron Paul: http://GoRonPaul.com

His chances of winning are about as good as those of hogs taking flight and the nether-regions icing over. But sometimes a man has to draw his line in the sand and stand for something.

We were going to avoid this subject because it is a charged topic for Argentines and because of our scant knowledge of the accompanying history… However, at Discovering Buenos Aires our ignorance is one of our endearing traits, almost our raison d’etre here in BA, so, we’ll cast aside our better-judgment and give you our take on this 25th anniversary of the conflict…

We recently read an article over at the International Herald Tribune, which if we weren’t living in Argentina, we probably wouldn’t have noticed anything, but since we are here in Argentina it seemed to us that the article was slanted unfairly towards the Brits…

The Anglos have the attitude that Argentina should give up it’s silly claim on the islands. But, geographically (and historically as you’ll see), one would think that Argentina would have rights to the islands 300 miles from the Argentine mainland.

However, British imperial claims die hard even if they be thousands of miles away from Britain… British institutions are indeed strong and foster economic growth, ie. Hong Kong,  but does that give them ownership of dirt they “found” a million-miles away in some else’s backyard?

As we understand it this war was completely avoidable, as most tend to be, and because of the pigheadedness and arrogance of the countries leaders (mostly trying to score political points) just under a thousand had to die…

Also we hasten to mention that the Malvinas are desolate, fairly useless, little islands that no one would really need to fight about anyway…

Fellow blogger Yanqui Mike has some background details (which are accurate according to other sources, not that we don’t trust Yanqui Mike…)

“With independence, they [Argentina] got the Malvinas from Spain as a package deal.

“The UK then signed a treaty recognizing Argentina’s independence.

“The newly minted Argentina sent a governor, built a prison, and started to farm and trade. A few years later, the settlers gave birth to some babies…the first people ever born on the islands.

“Now comes the yanquis [USA]. The Argentine governor of the islands had placed some pretty strict rules on the hunting of seals. Not long after, he caught a US merchant ship illegally hunting seals and seized it.

“The US consul in Buenos Aires protested that his government didn’t even recognize Argentina’s ownership of the Malvinas.

“The US sent a warship to get the ship back but the yanqui captain overstepped his orders and destroyed the entire Argentine settlement.

“The UK then took advantage of the confusion and seized what was left of the islands without firing a shot. They later deported all the Argentines. That was 1833.

Of course this was a sore-spot for Argentina for many years… And more from Wikipedia about the period leading up to the war…

“…Argentina was in the midst of a devastating economic crisis and large-scale civil unrest against the repressive military junta that was governing the country. The Argentine military government, headed by General Leopoldo Galtieri, decided to play off long-standing feelings of nationalism by invading the islands, although they never thought that the United Kingdom would respond. The ongoing tension between the two countries over the islands increased on 19 March when 50 Argentines landed on the British dependency of South Georgia and raised their flag, an act that is seen as the first offensive action in the war. On 2 April, Galtieri ordered the invasion of the Falkland Islands, triggering the Falklands War.

“Britain was initially taken by surprise by the Argentine attack on the South Atlantic islands, but launched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force, and retake the islands by amphibious assault. After combat resulting in 258 British and 649 Argentine deaths, the British eventually prevailed and the islands remained under British control. However, as of 2007, Argentina shows no sign of relinquishing its claim to the Falkland Islands (the claim is included in the National Constitution).”

The victory was a political boost for the Thatcher government and a wave of nationalism swept the UK… The loss was politically devastating to the military dictatorship of Argentina, which was forced out and a democratic election took place shortly thereafter.

Because of the attack by the military junta Argentina’s claim to the islands has been discredited to this day. But the historical rights of Argentina over the Malvinas are undeniable. Of course, the people of the islands, the Falklanders, who have been there for generations and consider themselves British also have their rights.

Argentina is still healing from the wounds inflicted by the military dictatorship. The loss of the Falklands War was a painful part of those troubled times. But Argentina should not suffer forever because of the sins of unelected leaders during a period of turmoil.

There must be a diplomatic solution to this, similar to what Britain negotiated with the Chinese in regard to Hong Kong… The British can only ignore Argentina for so long.

Hugo Chavez led an “anti-imperialist” rally at a soccer stadium here in Buenos Aires to counter Dubya Bush’s visit to neighboring Brazil. Comically, Chavez will say anything to contradict and spite the Bush administration. Most Latin Americans and sane people in the world generally do enjoy a bit of Bush bashing (of course Bush is an imperialist). But Chavez is obviously a low-life opportunist politician and everyone knows it… who just like Bush is spending his constituents money to win friends and influence people in the region. What Americans don’t realize is that his approval ratings in Latin America are as low as Bush’s are in the US.

North and South Americans both realize that these two are a pair of power hungry idiots who should be tossed out of power as soon as possible.