bugsbunny said:
The way I see it is that there are quite a few embittered people here on the forum who seem to have large amounts of time on their hands to run everything about Argentina down, forgetting that it is a developing country and therefore not like their home country where everything is milk and honey...
Yeah, that's what a lot of people think, still, who even come here every few months to stay and go home, come back again, etc. Argentina has managed, somehow, to get this romantic image internationally, the Paris of South America, the land of Tango, etc. I know I had that attitude when I first came here.
When I came here first, I didn't come as a young person looking for adventure, someone who had no clue as to what living outside of my home country was like - I'd spent more than a decade traveling the world for business and spending a lot of time in various countries. I understood quite well the difference between the US and the rest of the "undeveloped" world. I didn't have on rose-colored glasses.
First, calling Argentina a developing country is kind of off, a bit, and seems to want to put the country on a par with places like Paraguay, Bolivia, etc. Argentina has been on a cycle of boom/bust for decades, might even be able to say a century. Governments from fascist to democratic, from military dictatorships to a queen who thinks she should placed on a par with god. A country with some instances of good education, a much different spirit than many other countries related to how they see the world and their place in it, etc. Not just a country who is still trying to remove the yoke and taints of colonialism (although they like to use that excuse a lot when they expropriate foreign companies and talk about, yet again, taking the Falklands back from Britain).
Argentina is currently working towards a dictatorship after a few decades of emerging democracy (again), after a brutal military dictatorship that ended in the early 80's and anyone who thinks that this is a well-functioning democracy at this moment doesn't have any problem with the dead voting, the people in power buying votes from the poor and even poor immigrants from even poorer (for the moment) countries with no citizenship here are about to be able to vote in national elections. Permanent residents can already vote in local elections - but there are some 2 million additional votes that can help elect Cristina's favored candidates to congress which may allow her to change the constitution and extend her presidency (kind of like Chavez did in Venezuela). Those additional votes have a constituency that consists of a very high percentage of ignorant immigrants from other MercoSur countries who look at Cristina as another Eva - a fighter for the poor, someone who cares deeply about them and will ensure they get their just rewards.
Cristina, the president, likes to compare herself to Eva, while spouting policies taken right out of Peron's and Chavez's play book. She has a lot of power and is gaining more. A lot of Argentinos who understand what she is doing, who even supported her husband Nestor's policies, are concerned about what's happening here.
Did they show the march a couple of days ago in international news feeds? Tens of thousands of people (I've heard estimates of between 50,000 and 100,000 - the higher end surely being a bit of an exaggeration) showing up to protest the current policies of the government in Buenos Aires alone, with major cities and some smaller around the country doing the same? And yet, those are the more well-off people in Argentina, who are unfortunately a relatively small minority in their own country.
It may seem that a lot of us simply have a lot of time on our hands and are missing home. Ain't the case for most of us ex-pats who have lived here for some time. In fact, we are concerned. We are concerned because we live our lives here and we see what has been happening over the last couple of years.
If you go back and look over time in this forum as to what the general complaints and discussions are, you can see a definite progression.
Yes, we used to complain about some of the things here, like the attitude of Perteños which many of us consider to be rude, inconsiderate and downright ego-centric, the business attitude that seems from many to be "screw unto others when you can or you're an idiot", the labor laws which so extremely favor the workers, the "tenant's rights laws which have caused anyone who actually wants to rent property long term to have access to a second property to be used to guarantee the lease, the often complete lack of customer service (I had to ask a waitress last night three times to bring me the check at TGI Friday's, then twice to bring me my change and we were almost late to see the movie in the same shopping mall where the restaurant was), people who just let their dogs' bowels loose on the sidewalk and don't think even once about picking up the spoor, and so many other things that do indeed belong in the category of frustrations that we are not used to, for the most part, in our home countries.
Absolutely. But for the great majority (myself included), it was merely letting off steam because we understood for the most part what we were getting into, but that doesn't mean we just shut up and keep it bottled up inside.
But lately a lot of us have become quite concerned about the political and economic situation. When "developing" countries start doing things politically and economically that are seen as jumps towards some kind of oppression, one tends to become a bit concerned. As an example, latest rumor I've now heard all over the city (first saw someone else report on this website as a rumor, nothing more, but last night one of my sister-in-law's friends was merely the latest Argentina to tell me this independently of expats) - the government is considering annulling all Argentine passports, making everyone who wishes to travel re-apply for passports, which means they have to prove that they are working and paying taxes legally, etc, etc.
Dollars are impossible to get unless you go to the black market (or find someone who wants to sell dollars privately), directly due to Cristina's policies of currency controls.
import restrictions have caused a lack of things like electro-domestic appliances, difficulty finding spare parts for those, for cars, etc. Inflation has gotten to the point where you have to go out of your way to get money into the country (for those who earn their money outside) so you don't get ripped off by the government's obviously artificial price for dollars (which makes the same problem for all other currencies, like the euro, as well).
One of the biggest questions most of us (and a large number of Argentinos as well) are asking is - will the economy collapse and Cristina lose power before she is able to go as far as she wants? The government just recently expropriated YPF, a Spanish oil company doing business in Argentina, a business who made the most profits for the country, with the excuse that they were not spending enough on exploration, without them mentioning that her policy on oil and gas prices are making it nearly unprofitable for oil companies to do so. Then I read the other day that both Chevron and China are talking to YPF to see about helping them with their exploration and production.
Cristina is taking cues from Chavez in Venezuela (as well as Peron) as to how to fuel her pipe dreams.
Argentina is on the brink of serious economic problems which could be manageable with different policies over the long term, but it seems the policies that are being implemented on a monthly, sometimes weekly, basis seem to be for the short term to desperately keep things going long enough for her to get things like YPF going and turn Argentina into her version of a worker's paradise.
Hell, no one outside of Argentina really wants to the peso, either. When I first came here, the peso was worth about 3000 Guarani (Paraguay's currency) and now is worth around 600. Paraguayans consider their smallest money to be 1000 guarani and now consider that their currency is more valuable than the Peso.
My wife (who's Paraguayan) and I brought her (then 11 year old) sister to Buenos Aires to go to school here, looking for better opportunities than where she came from in Paraguay. Be careful raising kids here - there are some pretty loose thoughts about what kids are allowed to do, particularly in a large city like this. Be prepared for pressure starting around 12-13 to go to all-night parties sponsored by parents, with copious amounts of alcohol and drunk teenagers tearing houses apart and leaving afterwards with said teenagers roaming the streets int he wee hours of the morning. Partying is taught here more strongly than studying and work ethics are taught. But that's ok - that's just a quirk of the culture which can be overcome - but be aware of what you will need to deal with.
Is it all terrible, all the time? No, certainly not. Are things getting worse and those of us who live here and have for quite some time are concerned about it? Yeah, sure, who wouldn't be with at least one eye open on the possibilities that may arise from a third-world country in turmoil?
I wouldn't bring a family here, now. I don't think that it's a horrible thing to do, I just don't think it's the right time unless you want to add a bunch of additional worries to the other things that normally come with expat life that everyone has to deal with anyway when moving to another country.
