Over at the BANewcomers list has been a discussion about whether a lot of the locals in Buenos Aires go to psychologists, as is stated in one of the guidebooks. I was surprised to see people on this list who hadn’t encountered the psychological fixation that drive so many Porteños.

Here’s what I posted to the list:

Almost every Porteño I know goes to a therapist and there seems to be no stigma about it as there is in the U.S. But it does seem to be a phenomenon particular to Buenos Aires and not to the rest of Argentina.

I asked my Argentine girlfriend about her perspective on therapy and Porteños and she replied, “It’s what we are.”

I got rather interested in this topic a couple of years ago and found a detailed book titled “Freud in the Pampas: The Emergence and Development of Pyschoanalytic Culture in Argentina” by Mariano Ben Plotkin. It’s a rather dry, academic text but does trace the history and background of the topic quite well. Most psychoanalysts here are followers of Freud and Lacan, which is very different from the U.S.

One theory for the prominence of psychoanalysis here is the rootless nature of the immigrant society that has built Buenos Aires yet so often looks back to Europe for its identity. Of course that gets into the squishy nature of the subconscious but it seems that pscyhoanalysis here is seen as a process for understanding life itself as much as for coping with a specific problem.

While the kids were protesting at the school (see previous post), a more violent skirmish was taking place a few blocks away near the Justice building as people started fighting hand-to-hand with police in riot gear. The incident was over the upcoming release of Omar Chaban, who has been in jail for months due to the December 30, 2004 fire at his nightclub that killed 193 people. Chaban will be released from jail, pending trial, as soon as he pays the $500,000 pesos bail that was set today.

The setting of the bail ignited fury among the parents of those who died in the fire. Windows were shattered as fathers and brothers of the dead confronted the police. The incident was shown live this afternoon on Buenos Aires TV as the violence escalated. Tensions were obviously very high as, in what must be an unusual tactic, the riot police climbed into their armored vehicles and rode away to safety; as the vehicles went down the street, families of the victims ran along side kicking the sides of the trucks.

In a country where justice against those who are wealthy and politically powerful often are freed by a seemingly less than fair judicial system, the families of the victims fear that this is just another indication that justice for the 193 who died in the fire will never be delivered.

So proclaimed (in Spanish) the handwritten sign taped to the gates of the Escuela Normal Sarmiento on Av Callao. Starting Wednesday, students took over the high school in a demand for improvements to the school’s buildings, which the students say have deteriorated to dangerous conditions. For the past two days, students have partially blocked Av Callao, one of the main downtown thoroughfares.

Since the school is located within walking distance of where I live, I decided to go over there and have a look for myself. Last night, students slept in the school and are still blocking access to the building. Numerous handwritten signs and banners are posted all over the front of the building. The building itself, from the exterior is quite attractive though I don’t doubt the bad conditions on the inside. Indeed, it makes me wonder about the conditions of schools that don’t look so good from the outside; they much be deplorable. School buildings in Buenos Aires are in bad shape. Last night, a TV program did a segment on the horrible conditions of a school in Quilmes (a suburb of BsAs). Yet, the Buenos Aires government seems not willing to acknowledge that there is any problem with the buildings and are calling the student protestors liars (even though the students have invited TV news crews inside the building on Callao to document the conditions).

Today, a couple of TV stations were posted in front of the school. I hung around for a while and watched as student leaders came out and spoke to the reporters and then went back inside.

To keep the students under control, a very large police presence was lined up across Av Callao. I estimated about 50 cops were there, about a dozen in riot gear and another squad of riot cops were sitting in a bus that was waiting on the street. I doubt if the students were going to get violent, but I guess that the police just wanted to make sure that nothing got out of hand.

I actually admire these young teenagers for taking a stand. It’s good to see that the next generation of Argentines has developed a social conscience and is willing to speak against the government.

In what could be the core of a P.D. James novel, two unrelated events this week are the focus of the art world in Buenos Aires.

First, is the shocking double murder of a former director of the Metropolitan Museo and his brother-in-law, a current administrator of the museum, in the museum early Tuesday evening. It’s being called a murder-suicide revolving around a business issue.

The same day, a painting stolen 8 years ago from a private owner in Buenos Aires surfaced in New York City at a Christie’s auction. Two years after it was stolen, the Pedro Figari painting La Pica, also known as Corrida de Toros, was brought for $80,000 in Uruguay though it was not realized to be stolen at the time. The painting is being returned to its original owner. The person who paid $80k is out of luck.

Ah, what a good mystery writer could make of these two tales.

As if to dramatize the economic conditions, more than 3,500 women – all between the ages of 40& 60 – lined up in Recoleta Tuesday to apply for 40 openings at a new movie theater.

My first question was why only women 40-60? It was because the ad actually specified women (sexo femenino) from 40 to 60. The application form itself was titled Mamas, Tias, & Abuelas. Obviously, sex and age discrimination are alive and well in Argentina. (more…)

In my ramblings through the Web today I came across the Global Voices Online site and its Monday World Blog Roundup. I really like what this group is attempting to do to broaden the worldwide conversation. But I noticed a stark lack of blog entries from Latin America. Maybe it’s the language barrier, but I’m not sure. In their wiki for global voices, a new concept called bridge blogging is defined, which I think is quite interesting and one that I will spend more time attempting to address in this blog regarding Buenos Aires. Indeed, it’s been more or less my goal all along for this blog to be more reflective about issues and conditions within Argentina rather than just be the diary of an ex-pat’s adventures in the city.

Definition of BridgeBlogs. “Bridges bloggers write for an audience outside of their everyday reality. for instance, when Ory Okolloh writes about corruption in Kenya, reaching family at home and readers at Harvard, she is bridge blogging. (And when people comment on her blog from outside Kenya, they’re bridging back.

Saturday night, after taking in a movie at Gaumont, we were walking around the Congreso area. As we strolled down calle Sarmiento, we noticed a large line of people standing outside one of the nightclubs. Having lived in South Beach for a few years, we knew that wasn’t an unusual sight but we did wonder who actually went to the clubs at 8:45 pm. When we looked closer, we realized that everyone in line was a young teen. Some of the clubs here cater to the pre-18 crowd in the early evening for alcoholic free entertainment.

As we continued walking across the street from the club, a young girl ran up to us and excitedly starting to ask us something. I couldn’t keep up with her Spanish but basically asked if we would pretend to be her parents so that she could get into the club more quickly. Evidently, if your parents accompany you to the door of the club then you can get straight in, otherwise you have to wait in line for a while. So, we figured that we would pretend to be cool parents who let our young daughter hang out at the clubs on a Saturday evening. Actually, the doorman hardly glanced at us as our young daughter waved good-bye to us and went inside for a night of fun.

From what I gathered, a number of parents drop their kids off at the club while they go a block over to Av Corrientes and take in a show and dinner. Then they head back over to the club to pick up the kids about 11 pm or so.

Of course, the funniest part of this whole episode was Ceci (who turns 32 this month) realizing that she´s old enough to have a 14 year old daughter!

Last night we went out to dinner with our friends Ceci and Nestor, who picked us up in Nestor´s old Citroen. Cars from the French automaker are very common in Argentina but I have never quite seen one like this one. The light blue paint has almost completely faded and flaked off on the outside. It´s also a convertible, if you can call it that. It´s the Citroen sedan model where there´s basically a tarp that stretches across the top of the roof of the car. (I wonder how waterproof the car is when it rains?). We hopped into the backseat which was partly missing. The right side of the backseat just consists of a few straps across the bottom of the seat. As the car shuffled off down the street, I heard the clanging of keys against the floor board. It turns out that the keys had fell out of the ignition. Evidently, you only need the keys to turn the car on and off. The Citroen also has an interesting transmission system. Like most every car in South America, it´s a straigt shift but the gear lever is located not on the floor or even the steering column (like some older American cars) but comes directly out of the engine and points straight through the front dashboard. Basically, changing gears is a task of pushing and pulling the stick forward and backwards. Upfront, the seats don´t appear much more comfortable than the back. The passenger side door doesn´t open and the driver´s seat sits rather low. Indeed, Nestor´s head barely comes above the steering wheel. I was curious as to the age of the car, so when we asked Nestor what year the car was manufactured, he jokingly responded, “1832”. Actually, it´s only a 1975 model. In some ways, the car – being entirely mechanical – is probably quite reliable. They actually drove it on a trip from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata. Of course, since the Citroen isn´t exactly a speed demon, the trip took them 7 hours. All of this makes for a rather intesting sight, but somehow it´s a car that typifies Nestor quite well and is almost what you would expect him to drive.

As for dinner, we ate at a fine Italian restaurant Lo Rafael. The food was excellent and well-priced, particularly considering that the entrees are large enough to serve two.

All in all, a nice enjoyable evening rambling through the streets of Buenos Aires in a classic Citroen.

I was going to the weekly march of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo when I got off the subte at the Catedral stop on Thursday. Walking across the street, I noticed the ceremonial guards lined up at the entrance to the Palacio Municipal. It appeared that something was about to happen….someone important was either going to arrive or leave. So, standing on the steps of the Catedral, located diagonally across the street from the city hall, I waited. Fortunately, I had also brought along my new, tiny Sony videocam.

Soon, sirens roared, the street was blocked and a police escorted motorcade pulled up. I saw that he grey Mercedes sedan had an unusual flag flying from its front fender but I didn’t recognize it: red and black with a sickle and a star, very communist looking (and somewhat frightening). Out of the sedan stepped an older African man. He was greeted by the ceremonial guard and met by Sr. Ibarra, the mayor of Buenos Aires (whom I did recognize).

It turned out to be the President of Angola Eduardo Dos Santos, who was in town on a state visit and had met with the President of Argentina earlier that day. Interestingly, it was a day for state visits, as the President of Uruguay was across the square at the same time. I late also saw his motorcade cruising down the street.

The strangest aspect of the day was that the Angolan flag was flying from several points in the city: around light posts in the Plaza de Mayo and, more eerily from the Congreso where the Angolan flag was displayed prominently alongside the Argentinean flag not just once but several times along the facade of the Congreso.

Obviously Argentina was making a big welcome for the President of Angola, a country which always seemed rather circumspect but maybe that’s my US-biased and, admittedly, I am uninformed about current events in Angola. Checking Google news, I see that the top stories regarding Angola: an epidemic of Marburg fever that has killed 277 and that Argentina plans to open an embassy in Angola. And, ah, there’s the important part: Angola is the second-largest oil producer in sub-sahara Africa. Argentina and Angola yesterday signed an oil accord.

How safe is Angola? Google News pops up two items of interest: Angola had the second highest number of fatalities among NGO workers (behind Afghanistan) and a link to an article citing ‘Oil is a curse’. I’m becoming more and more interested in Africa, perhaps I’ll find the time to read more about Angola and what’s happening in that part of the world. But, for now, it’s back to Buenos Aires.

Note: I do have video footage of the Angolan president’s arrival and will post it soon as the first of my vlog postings about Buenos Aires. But that will have to wait a few days, I need to get a new firewire cable first.