I stayed up till early morning watching the Argentine senate debate and subsequent vote on the agricultural retenciones. Since I generally stay awake till 3am anyway and I’ve always been a news junkie, not falling asleep wasn’t difficult. Besides, it certainly was dramatic, finishing at 4:30am.
The VP Cobos, who had to cast the deciding vote in a tie-breaker, definitely looked like he wanted to be anyplace but in that position. It’s not often that a Vice President votes against his President, so the political fallout should be interesting to watch over the next few days. Of course, Argentina is a constitutional republic and not a parliamentary republic, so Cristina has several more years left as president. Next year’s mid-term elections should be fascinating. Despite Argentina’s checkered history of insurrections in the last century, the great thing about republics is that – over time – they survive political divides and unpopular presidents.
During this year’s political crisis in Argentina I tried to stay away from blogging about politics, and work demands kept me away from Tuesday’s massive demonstrations. Somehow, though, a part of me does wish that hundreds of thousands of people would gather in support of improved education, health care, or fighting prejudice and discrimination. (But that doesn’t happen in my own country either, though Obama is turning out good crowds). Ultimately, politics does so much come down to economics.
The other night I had a dream
…..I had gone into the small grocery in my neighborhood…you know, one of those Chinese-managed supermercados all over Buenos Aires. I brought my bread, eggs, salchichas, & Coke up to the counter. The cashier, rather than being Chinese, was Cristina Fernández de Kirchner….she rang up the prices on the register, which all seemed much more expensive than my last visit to the market, and passed the items on down the counter to the bag boy, who turned out to be Néstor Kirchner….but as he sacked my groceries, Néstor kept breaking the eggs……..I’ll let that image sit with you for a moment……………for those readers who don’t know… eggs, huevos, in Spanish has a double meaning.
That’s a true dream, seriously…..though I guess now it’s Cobos who is doing some egg breaking.
So, if I’m dreaming about this, then what do Argentines dream?
July 17th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I didn’t dream last night, or at least I don’t remember. I went to bed early, dreaming of the impossible but believing what the news channels told me, that the vote count was 37 to 35 thanks to senator Saadi’s sellout. I woke up at 4:15 to go to the bathroom, turned on the TV to confirm the disaster, and watched as Julio Cobos took the mike and started his “no” speech. I couldn’t get to sleep after that. Now I think I can dream of a slightly better country, if only because at least one person in the government is not a fanatic.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Pablo – Cobos is certainly a breath of fresh air: a politician with some sense.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Argentines dream about mate, futbol and tango.
Cobos 2011!
July 20th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
To be honest, I think Cobos’s gesture was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in politics in years. I admit I’m pretty stoked about Obama but I don’t expect any major curveballs from him. But Cobos totally shocked me, in a good way. Bravo, argentina!
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
That’s a cool dream.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Hi Jeff,
I did not dream about this. Perhaps I daydream of a better life condition in Argentina, my country, even if I do not live in it since 2003. I miss my Buenos Aires and I thank you for your lovely descriptions of the city in all its looks.
Your dream is very interesting”¦what a dream!!!! The symbolic broken eggs!!!!
I am trying to imagine Freud’s interpretation of this dream”¦.