Argentina has free health care, free education, free university. How do they do it? As far as I understand it, there isn`t much of an income tax, but all purchases have an internal tax of 21%. What`s interesting is that Chile, the long country to the west that shares Argentina`s relatively high standard of living for South America, has none of these socialist benefits. But then Argentina has the whole import tax compared to Chile where everything from cars to computers are much cheaper. The long, free border makes the relationship between the two countries seem even more similar to that of Canada and the US.
Another thing I really like about traveling is the great exchange that happens with other travellers. I`ve shared humour, words, accents, but especially music. And of quite a few notables, nothing compares to this one song that I heard Paz humming the other day. This is quite possibly the most catchy song on the planet and please consider that a warning if you`re not in the mood for a Latin tune in your head for the rest of the day: Suavemente.
Argentina collapsed hard in 2002. Basically their dollar was matched to the US dollar, which wasn`t sustainable for the economy. So they had to devalue the peso and prices skyrocketed. I don`t even understand what would have happened, like do you just wake up one day and bread costs triple what it did the day before? All I know is that people lost unbelievable amounts of savings, the state defaulted on loans, and there were 3 different presidents in 2 weeks. Fastforward several years, and Argentina continues to slowly get back on its feet, the crisis of 2002 a not-so far off black mark on their history. We met Mauricio at Rio Azul, a fellow from El Bolson who was instrumental in creating a widely used bartering system that facilitated the exchange of staples during the tumultuous time (no not staples for paper silly!). It seems that Argentina may be better suited to survive a global economic meltdown than I previously thought, because they`ve already lost everything, and learned to get over it.
The ballpoint pen was invented in Argentina. Is that really something to brag about?
Pastor's house features the classic local nudes calendar to raise money for a local organization of some sort. In a few of the pictures, the subjects are holding posters protesting a mine. I enquired about this to Pastor and Paz, and they explained that the proposed gold mine would be situated about a hundred klicks away near the town of Esquel. It would have a hugely detrimental effect on the river and the people in the region who live off the land, not to mention tourism. Most troubling and surprising was that the mine was proposed by the Canadian company Golder. Now it`s bad enough that northern Ontario hosts a plethora of abandoned mines, but this is a much nicer and more farmed region than northern Ontario. I am certainly not anti-progress, and would be happy to point out the various base metals we use without any thought of where they come from. But having worked for a mining company, it`s fascinating to see the other side of the coin, the one that is so easily dismissed in the office as just some local opposition. I mean every major mine has local opposition. The worst is that I always think of Canada as a peaceful, friendly nation that every other country respects and loves. The truth is, maybe that impression isn´t as true as it used to be. How much peacekeeping do we do these days? How does our involvement in Afghanistan change the world`s perception of us? And how many other holes are we opening up in the earth under the guise of local job creation while we ship the metals and the money across an ocean?
On a lighter note, the laundry detergent here must have some sort of hazardous chemical in it. My clothes have been dirtier than they ever have been while down here, and they come out of the machine looking brand new.
gooooood questions.
ReplyDeletei'm following this blog matt, loving the living-vacariously-through-you!!