Argentine Mysteries

[tomdesigns]

Great read.. I actually think that one of the biggest problems this culture faces comes from one of your insights which is the all night and late night social habits. I have come to realize that a large percentage of the population lives in the perpertual state of sleep deprivation. Which literally cripples productivity and cognitive functionality. This is pervasive even in raising children.. I see children out with parents and family at 1AM on week nights all the time knowing there is school the next day.

IMHO this cultures sleep habits are one of the root problems that lead too and compound so many of the other issues that just do make any sense to us from the west.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation

 

[syngirl]

I think that the inefficiency of Potreños is to their advantage. Imagine what the unemployment rate would be if everything or almost anything was done with common sense? How often have we past a store that had 3 employees and no customers Actually if someone walked in there might not be enough room for the forth person. If the store was run properly they´d need fewer employees. Why do stores with more than 1 employee close for lunch? Why no keep the store open? It´s the same way in Barcelona, Catalunya. But there, they one step beyond. They put the metal gate down, so you can´t look in the window or read the store name. Great fear of being robbed... at 2:00 P.M.
Buenos Aires.....where the left hand doesn´t know what the right hand is doing.

The worst example of ridiculous numbers of employees standing around not doing anything -- Garbarino. Typically will have about 15 employees who all stand around chatting with each other and then get annoyed to have to leave the conversation because a customer actually wants some help. Usually rather than helping you, the first one you talk to will pawn you off to some other guy saying it's not their department (despite the fact that you asked about air conditioners and they are leaning up against one of them), and you'll get the run around to 1 or 2 other guys until someone can actually be bothered to help you out. Oh and then when you make the purchase you'll still have to deal with 1-2 more at the caja and then go over to pick up your purchase in a separate area, dealing with yet another 1-2 people.

 

[citygirl]

Or my favorite - the supermarket. There are approximately 487547 employees working there yet you have to bag your own groceries And of course, inevitably, the person in front of you waits until EVERYTHING has been scanned and then fumbles around for 5 minutes to find his or her credit card and DNI, then waits to get it back and sign everything before finally beginning the process of bagging up his/her groceries.

 

[AngelinBA]

Still a mystery to me - when you enter one of those stores with 3 employees and no customers, two minutes later the shop fills to overflowing with people who suddenly decide to shop there too. It's like they can't do anything by themselves, but if someone else is in a shop then it must be good!
The beginning of the end of one relationship with an Argentine male was on our way from BA - Villa Gesel for easter break. Apparently it is the 'done thing' to stop for a coffee at this service area where there is a petrol station, a McDs and a coffee shop. I suggested we try the McDs because it was almost empty and you can at least guarantee the mediocre quality of the coffee and cleanliness. But he insisted that as the coffee shop was that full, it must be good. Not only was it bad, the floor was swimming in the coffee that was so watered down it was light beige in colour and came from big urns a la church picnic style. There was almost no food and nowhere to sit. We stayed long enough to endure the large queue, pay for our undrinkable coffee and then got on our way again. I can't bear someone who so blindly goes with the flow like that.

 

[Brigadier]

Here its a little resume of our history: we was a great society until the 50's, we was the 6th economy in the world... so... what happen then ¿¿¿ basically the country started to went down. but why??... well it was a slowly and progressive process (only the desition of god could do it); the root of this was the convinations of diferent populations who came down here with the tail beetwen legs after the war, and grew up. This country provided a hugh land and relative small population, and lots of oportunities to make clean things and dirty things, but unfortunatelly we recibed the whorse kind of people at that time (nazis, cicilians, judish, etc), so then they started to mixed with the local people and grew up as I said.. over the years they were part of us and that was the begining... slowly the country become more and more corrupt and started little by little the hugh social diferences, the bad politicals, the liars, and all that crap!!...so once this happened there was no sprouting ago, the decay was inevitable. Over the time the country goes up and down, but always with a notable tendency to fall. That situation continued over the decades until the end of the 90's when it comes the cherry in the pai "the whole history worst social-economic crisis in 2001" (who goes wrong, ends wrong. Right¿), then after all this crapp over the decades and the final knock hit its quite understandable that the population become as idiots (unefficients, without hoppings, working with little desire, bad faces, etc, etc, etc). So you all gotta understand that we was choozen for to be the indian rabbit for this evil project of the detiny... now we are going up again and cuz the destiny has a hugh Doubt with us... we just have to get patience and maby we'll be again that we was before. Then... we are not any kind of idiots we are just under on the symptoms that the decline and crisis left. We had a work and efficiency culture, and it its still in us but hidden behind the symptoms. we wasnt the 6th economy by casuality, be sure about that !. So.. any who wants to point us to say "they are like this or they are like that".. first make sure to read a book and get informed before to give an opinion based only in that you see.

 

[tomdesigns]

So.. any who wants to point us to say "they are like this or they are like that".. first make sure to read a book and get informed before to give an opinion based only in that you see.

History is part of the problem obviously. And decades of crap have gone on and that would obviously have an impact on the Country and the culture. I do not judge Argentina or my friends here. I just make observations and try to understand what is the real issue. In Argentina there are a number of things working against the Culture... Not just your Political System either.

You can say the same of the U.S. it is not just the Political System it is also the Culture. 3 times more muder than any other country in the World. More wars... etc etc.

There are also good sides to the culture and Argentina.

 

[mariposa]

brigadier, you wrote
"but unfortunatelly we recibed the whorse kind of people at that time (nazis, cicilians, judish, etc)"

am i reading this correctly? the worst kinds of people, such as nazis, jews, sicilians, et cetera? i certainly hope there are not a lot of argentines like you. (but there may be.) i am simply horrified by what i just read.

 

[CedarPawn]

brigadier, you wrote
"but unfortunatelly we recibed the whorse kind of people at that time (nazis, cicilians, judish, etc)"

am i reading this correctly? the worst kinds of people, such as nazis, jews, sicilians, et cetera? i certainly hope there are not a lot of argentines like you. (but there may be.) i am simply horrified by what i just read.

Because of course, the mere suggestion that one group might not be as good as another is offensive to our delicate mindsets! Brigadier, that opinion is unnacceptable and we demand a grovelling apology!

 

[mariposa]

are you trying to suggest this is funny? if so, well, i'd better not say it out loud.

 

[John.St]

... but unfortunatelly we recibed the whorse kind of people at that time (nazis, cicilians, judish, etc), so then they started to mixed with the local people and grew up as I said.. over the years they were part of us and that was the begining... slowly the country become more and more corrupt and started little by little the hugh social diferences, the bad politicals, the liars, and all that crap!!....

It is not only Argentina.

I have almost 22 years of experience of teaching telecom engineers, among them Latinoamericanos, living in and visiting a number of Latinoamericano countries.

Latinoamericanos are exactly as intelligent as people in the rest of the world, but for reasons I can only guess, about two thirds of them are completely unable to organize, to stick to plans decided upon, etc. The remaining one third are as efficient as in any western country and express strong feelings about those who aren't - they loathe the rest.

The usual excuse is that it is everybody else's fault; we were colonies, etc.

The independence of the Latinoamericano states were only 30-42 years later than the US. US 1776 = 234 years; e.g. Mexico 1810 = 211 years = 90%, Argentina 1816 = 194 years = 83%, Chile 1818 = 192 years = 82%.

Percentage: How many percent of the time the country has been independent measures against the US, which was also a colony once.

Ad. Sticking to a plan (and being on time):

You only have to invite 10 Latinoamericanos to a party, get their confirmation and see only 6 or 7 of them show up - the rest ran into something else and stopped there, as if they cannot concentrate on future events or don't care about promises given or prefer whatever entertainment they happen to fancy this minute. Living in the present only is OK, provides a more pleasant life in some respects - as long as you realize that this is the prescription for staying underdeveloped and poor.

The first time I was in Argentina, we were 6 engineers waiting from 08:57 (meeting set to 09:00 sharp) until around 10:15 for the Argentino project manager to show up.

When he was told by our project manager how much we were charging for the waiting time with the invoice text "Waiting for Dr. Xxxx to show up", he realized he would be fired ASAP if we sent the invoice.

Now it suddenly became possible to stop wasting our expensive time in the future - at future meetings every Argentino engineer was on time, so it is not impossible to be on time, but some silly notion prevents it (Royalty always show up late?).