any update on the after effects of the farmer's strike

[G]

I have been out of touch for awhile but was shocked to read some of cousins request on what I can bring them back from my travels. Some wanted milk, others were asking for bread and others (mostly the boys) were asking for meat. First, I thought it a prank just to crowd my inbox and maybe awaken me to the fact that I had made the error or asking... what they might want me to bring them from my travels outside of BsAs ( been gone for sometime). I have heard about the strike and how the cacerolazos are out en force a few days back...has things gotten better or should I really bring organic Omega3 eggs, milk and some sort of meat with me. Just wanted to know if the emails I have been getting have some validity to them...still....I am sure things have been slowly getting back to normal both grocery shelf stocks and prices, right? Hope springs eternal, as they say.

 

[BAJoe]

Not to worry. If you can´t get a certain cut of meat one place, you can get it somewhere else. Same for vegetables, etc.
Nobody died of hunger because of the farmers´ strike. People were dying before and after for other reasons. When a government´s main worry is avoiding any hard-working person or business to make "TOO MUCH" profit, then we are staring at Communism straight in the eye!! And communism equals hunger and poverty. If not who would they "represent"?
All that these governments do is create MORE poverty and hunger so as to get more votes each time around. They do this by additionally stupidizing those poor to prevent them from realizing it´s the Government itself making and keeping them poor. And they actually believe this is the meaning of "Democracy"!!

 

[ghost]

Joe
Unfortunately what you say is so dead on right. I'm sure you will be beaten up for speaking the cold hard truth. But you see Argentina as it is. This is not Democracy.

 

[RWS]

Nor is it now a plutocracy, nor exactly a kleptocracy. Might we say that it is idiopathic?

 

[Celia]

I like to think of it as Superpancho Hell....
Whenever I get excited at a new place opening in my barrio (border of constitucion and monserrat) it turns out to be yet another kiosko/fast-food joint. I think the government is trying to quash entrepreneurism with all its bureaucracy and taxation and - around here, anyway - this class of monotributo business has become the Argentine equivalent of the American Dream.

 

[smith]

I'm waiting for the "workers' paradise" contingent to jump all over BA Joe. Don't you know that any tax is a good tax?
Imagine a country that in the 19th century built itself on agricultural exports to be the 5th (?) largest economy in the world, and now imposes a (what is it? 45%) tax on agricultural exports. Talk about cutting off your own pecker. Can anyone please help these wonderful people?
Smith

 

[RWS]

I wouldn't phrase the critique quite as Smith does, but it is valid. Additionally, we could note that public education in Argentina was at one time the best that could be found south of the Rio Grande del Norte and industrial raw materials more abundant, varied, and accessible than in almost any country outside western Europe: ideal ingredients (educated work force, necessary materials, inexpensive land), in short, to make an industrial giant. And what happened? Brazil -- Brazil! -- surpassed its better-educated, better-equipped neighbor to the South as the industrial powerhouse of Latin America. Talk about the world turned on its head!
So, then, how could this have happened? Well, the answer to that, we all pretty much know . . . .
What a diatribe! I should add that I'm genuinely fond of both Argentina and its people. If only the government could be reformed.

 

[G]

BAJoe, your words spoke the truth. There were and are still people that live with hunger even long before the recent storm of strikes.
30 days have started ticking away and will go by fast, and then after that - what? I hope a resolution and a binding agreement between the 2 parties is hashed out and signed fairly soon or we are back to square one, yet again. I am hopeful....

 

[G]

http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24977
If anyone is keeping track of the negotiations and its developments, here's a very good read.

 

[Matty]

Is another strike inevitable now that the planned May26th '08 meeting was cancelled? Is this getting petty between the 2 parties or is it mostly politics over economics really. I had seen some people from the city that went to yesterday's Rosario rally, relatives or were farmers themselves, at one time.
No need to worry still. I am sure the shelves will be well stocked still. Just checking if anyone else is following this little bit of news.