Argentina: Paraguayan guaraní becomes hard currency in the absence of US dollar bills

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Argentina: Paraguayan guaraní becomes hard currency in the absence of US dollar bills
Friday, October 29th 2021- 08:45 UTC
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Guaranís can easily be exchanged for US dollars in ParaguayGuaranís can easily be exchanged for US dollars in Paraguay
The demand for Paraguayan guaranís in the Argentine province of Misiones has been developed as desperate locals are unable to find US dollar bills with which to protect their savings from rampant devaluation and growing inflation, it was reported.

Local currency traders are already speaking of the “blue guaraní” market, as informal traders are unable to get hold of greenbacks, as Argentine pesos burn in the hands of Argentines who need to secure their purchasing power from one week to the next.

According to the Plan B Misiones website, Argentines are beginning to save in Paraguayan guaranís. ”As dollars are missing, in Posadas (Misiones' capital) the blue guaraní blue appeared and all the 'caves' (illegal exchange parlors) and arbolitos (street currency traders) on Bolívar Street are already operating” in guaranís.

Paraguay's ABC newspaper explained “the guaraní becomes a purchase option for Argentines, who will later use it on their trips to Encarnación, or they will simply use it as savings in the face of the gradual deterioration of their own currency.“

”This market for guaraníes against pesos is not only generated from the reopening of the formal border between Argentina and Paraguay, but it has already been generated from the intense trade through informal steps that it exploited and found new forms from the unprecedented closure of borders imposed by the Coronavirus,“ highlighted Plan B Misiones.

A businessman quoted by El Cronista explained that guaranís are easily traded for dollars in Paraguay, where there are no restrictions. “In fact, Paraguayan banks will not make a fuss over deteriorated guaraní bills but they would with a [deteriorated] dollar.” The guaraní is the oldest and most stable currency in the region and the exchange rate has remained unaltered since around 2002, the source quoted by El Cronista added.
 
A somewhat side-point: Sociological studies could probably be conducted around the Spanglish (or Spanish version of Globish) that is used by MercoPress.

”This market for guaraníes against pesos is not only generated from the reopening of the formal border between Argentina and Paraguay, but it has already been generated from the intense trade through informal steps that it exploited and found new forms from the unprecedented closure of borders imposed by the Coronavirus,“ highlighted Plan B Misiones.​

Huh?
 
Good catch, Ben, but I'm not sure that's what I'd call Sponglish, so much as just bad translation of poor writing. It's obvious from your writing that you know both Castellano and English quite well, so I do not presume to tell you something you don't know, but rather just remind you of what you do already know.

As I have mentioned many times before, I make my living, (meager as it is), teaching EFL. The basic structure of English and Castellano are in some ways different. What constitutes a run-on sentence in English, does not in Castellano. I read articles in Argentine newspapers in which the whole damn paragraph is one long, rambling, semi-incoherent sentence.

I see gobbledegook like this in the BA Times occasionally. They write in Castellano and then they either translate to English with Google, or translate manually but word for word. The old BA Herald, may she rest in peace, got that way after she was bought by the Ambito Financiero, whose management plainly didn't give a damn about the old girl.

***edit***
Your site name translates as Eagle's Wings?
 
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Good catch, Ben, but I'm not sure that's what I'd call Sponglish, so much as just bad translation of poor writing.

Very true. The first paragraph, though, also reads as Spanish.
Meaning if you are fluent in Spanish it reads as someone speaking Spanish, in English. As you correctly note in the following quote.

As I have mentioned many times before, I make my living, (meager as it is), teaching EFL. The basic structure of English and Castellano are in some ways different. What constitutes a run-on sentence in English, does not in Castellano. I read articles in Argentine newspapers in which the whole damn paragraph is one long, rambling, semi-incoherent sentence.

Correct as well. A couple of essays that often come to mind are Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, as well as Mark Twain’s The Awful German Language.
Average Arg writing recalls to a comical degree the vices that both decry.

Your site name translates as Eagle's Wings?

Yes. It’s actually a biblical reference (Exodus 19).
The community that I am a part of would (hopefully does) appreciate it as a cute name for a travel business.
 
The problem with Orwell's essay is that in it he blatantly breaks the rules he sets for others, as revealed below by Joseph Williams in his far superior work Style: Towards clarify and grace:

In probably the best-known essay on English style in the twentieth century, "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell described turgid language when it is used by politicians, bureaucrats, and other chronic dodgers of responsibility. Orwell's advice is sound enough:' The keynote [of such a style] is the elimination of simple verbs. Instead of being a single word, such as break, stop, spoil, mend, kill, a verb becomes a phrase, made up of a noun or adjective tacked on to some general-purposes verb such as prove, serve, form, play, render. In addition, the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds (by examination of instead of by examining). The range of verbs is further cut down by means of the -ize and de-formations, and the banal statements are given an appearance of profundity by means of the not un-formation.' But in the very act of anatomizing the turgid style, Orwell demonstrated it in his own. Had Orwell himself avoided making a verb a phrase, had he avoided the passive voice, had he avoided noun constructions, he would have written something closer to <inserts rewrite> If Orwell could not avoid this kind of passive, abstract style in his own writing (and I don't believe that he was trying to be ironic), we ought not be surprised that the prose style of our academic, scholarly, and professional writers is often worse.
 
The thing I personally find when trying to read the Castellano of the AR media is that while straight reporting is easy enough for me to understand, when I venture into Op-Ed I quickly get lost. The wildly florid verbiage just leaves my understanding in the dust.

The one notable (partial) exception for me is Mempo Giardinelli, whose work is more straight forward than most. Or perhaps I should say less obscurely arcane than most.
 
Don't worry about it. Chances are there is no meaning to be found. This you discover when you work, as I do, with Latin American academics, journalists and would-be thought leaders trying to bring their work into English. When you can't find meaning, or you can see several possible meanings and ask them which is the one they have in mind, often they can't tell you and the answer invariably is: put whichever you prefer. All very post-modern.
 
The thing I personally find when trying to read the Castellano of the AR media is that while straight reporting is easy enough for me to understand, when I venture into Op-Ed I quickly get lost. The wildly florid verbiage just leaves my understanding in the dust.

The one notable (partial) exception for me is Mempo Giardinelli, whose work is more straight forward than most. Or perhaps I should say less obscurely arcane than most.
" Wildly florid verbiage" is the best description I've seen :) there seems to be an irresistible tendency never to use a single word where 3 or 4 will do. I constantly find articles referring to a country, say Chile, where any subsequent reference will not mention the country name, but say something like "that self-same transandean republic". Or referring to, say, Messi, any further reference will not use his name but say something like "that well-traveled native of Rosario". I've come to the conclusion that the intention is not to transmit information but for the author to glory in his supposed knowledge...

Where does it come from? It seems to be a generic Latin American phenomenon, did it descend from the boats as well?
 
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