Cry For Argentina - Part Three, The Disconnect

(nothing fancy here, just a shot taken in the Bosque Palermo after a shower. I liked the water on the grass, and the Bay-esque lens flare)

Possum been sick

Apologies for the long hiatus, but I have been a very sick varmint. The Flu this season is a nasty one, and very tenacious. I came down with it four weeks ago, and only now am I getting back toward something approximately normal.

Paro Total

Yesterday, Monday June 25th, was a Paro Total here in Argentina. This means a general strike, and nothing happens. All public transport is shut down completely, there are very few taxis available, and most businesses are closed. Here in my neighbourhood, it was very much like a Sunday. I canceled my classes, and took the day off. After all, I support the aim of the strike, which was to protest vigorously against the socio-economic policies of the current Federal government.

People as commodity

So I went to have a look at the peso-dollar exchange rate this morning, and Bloomberg is the handiest place to check that. When I was there, a recently-posted video caught my eye, and I decided to watch it as I sipped my first cup of coffee. And I was quietly horrified. The talking financial heads in the video are discussing us as though we were a commodity, like pork bellies. Which, of course, is exactly what we are to them. Something to be invested in, if the risk-reward ratio is favorable.

Who is this guy?

I was curious as to the identity of this Mauro Roca, the one obviously Latin commentator, whose English sounded to me very much  like that of an Argentino. So I had a look at his bio, and it appears he went to the national University of Cordoba, Argentina. He also worked for the IMF, Goldman Sachs,  Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers. Yes, Lehman Brothers, the once 4th-largest investment bank in the US, whose involvement in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, (and eventual bankruptcy), triggered the financial crisis of 2008, from which the economy of the world has yet to really recover. So the man has shit and blood on his hands, up to his elbows.

The Disconnect

This is what gets me, this is the whole schwerpunkt of what I'm trying to say here. There exists this massive disconnect between on the one hand those of us who live in the normal world, who are trying to survive the effects of the economic policies formed by the investment bankers and their puppet governments. And on the other hand the sleek men in their expensive suits, who calmly discuss our fates as though we were livestock to be managed - shear these, slaughter those over there, sell that third group for dogfood. They literally do not seem to consider us as of the same species. 

Make no mistake, my friends, things are grim in Argentina right now. The economy is in free fall, and things are only getting worse. The sick, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor have been the primary victims of this cruel government, but all of us are suffering the effects in ways we do feel very close to the heart, and the stomach. Yet the talking heads in that video I linked at the top of this rant, calmly discuss an "accelerated adjustment", one whose  real world effects I truly dread, as though it had no effect on real people. Because to them, it doesn't; they don't consider us real. 

Summary

I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes, thinking, "No shit, Sherlock! Now this is revealed unto you?"

And it's not like that. I have known for a long time. I suppose I have always known, to be honest, that I would never be better than a second-class citizen in anyplace run by the rich. Which is every place.