What, In Your Opinion, Is Argentina's Culture

[Farenheit]

Another thing to add would be "informal". An example from last week - I went into my local branch of Santander Rio to ask about opening an account (note, prospective new client to impress!!). The girl at the front desk was snacking on a candy bar. She continued to eat it while talking to me, breaking off a piece, popping it in her mouth, chewing. Imagine that happening in Barclays Bank! It's not easy to fire people here because of juicios so things are pretty lax. Plus there's just more informality, kissing colleagues and sharing round cookies in front of customers etc...

 

[Lamb]

Argentines have the uncanny ability to turn anything they are doing (something done very well or extremely badly) into part of their culture. The are able to criticize, fight for, and blow things out of proportion for their own fracas but will not tolerate even a well-meaning a foreigners comments. They are proud of not only their talents, but their melees as well. It kind of reminds me of a cross between a bad mood version of Charlie Chaplin and Zapp Brannigan.

Seems like a lot of issue end with the summation "...es lo que hay." as the catch-all escape to the continued hardships in their history. People here have weathered many storms, and continue a few days later like nothing happened... but if you gauge that same principal on some of the looong drawn out weekly scandals presented ad-nauseam on local talk shows, then it's contrary. They certainly are proud of their suffering too.

I mentioned in another post how they sneer at capitalist, colonialist society, but I think that secretly they would not hesitate to be the big dog, opportunistically, and apologetically grabbing at power to do some of their own capitalizing. We got a guy at my office like this... and he's fiercely proud of this trait.

I used to find a lot of them saying they despised Europe, but had great admiration for the Roman Empire. Uhm conquering anyone?

 

[Napoleon]

I used to find a lot of them saying they despised Europe, but had great admiration for the Roman Empire. Uhm conquering anyone?

Well... like the Roman Empire, Argentina puts great pride in it's WATER SYSTEM. After cholera epidemics in the 1830s, 1850s, & 1860s, the government (finally unified) came together in 1869 to establish the First water treatment plan in the Western Hemisphere. (2 years before NYC.) It wasn't up and running in time to prevent the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1871, but the Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes located in the entire block surrounded by Av. Cordoba&Viamonte/Riobamba&Ayacucho is a monument to the nation's dedication to Clean Water Para Todos.

I've often taken groups (or routed people) to the museum up on Piso 1 that tells the history of the Water & Sanitation system of Buenos Aires. And they must be doing something right, because (1) You can drink the tap water anywhere in this country, and (2) You've never heard of something like this that was just discovered in London's sewer system:

Britain's biggest 'fatberg' removed from London sewer

Britain's biggest ever 'fatberg' has been removed from a London sewer.

Thames Water say a "bus-sized lump" of food fat mixed with wet wipes formed in drains under London Road in Kingston upon Thames.

The blockage was discovered after residents in nearby flats complained they couldn't flush their toilets.

Thames Water believe if it wasn't removed it could have led to sewage flooding homes, streets and businesses.

Gordon Hailwood, Waste Contracts supervisor for Thames Water said: "Given we've got the biggest sewers and this is the biggest 'fatberg' we've encountered, we reckon it has to be the biggest in British history.

"While we've removed greater volumes of fat from under central London in the past, we've never seen a single, congealed lump of lard this big clogging our sewers before."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/23586290

 

[Lamb]

Well... like the Roman Empire, Argentina puts great pride in it's WATER SYSTEM. After cholera epidemics in the 1830s, 1850s, & 1860s, the government (finally unified) came together in 1869 to establish the First water treatment plan in the Western Hemisphere. (2 years before NYC.) It wasn't up and running in time to prevent the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1871, but the Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes located in the entire block surrounded by Av. Cordoba&Viamonte/Riobamba&Ayacucho is a monument to the nation's dedication to Clean Water Para Todos.

I've often taken groups (or routed people) to the museum up on Piso 1 that tells the history of the Water & Sanitation system of Buenos Aires. And they must be doing something right, because (1) You can drink the tap water anywhere in this country, and (2) You've never heard of something like this that was just discovered in London's sewer system:



http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/23586290

Im from a country with some of the cleasest tapwater, its about the quality of bottled water in most places, but it hasnt caused any special appreciation for the Roman Empire in me somehow.