Oliver Balch in India

Indo-Pakistan Cricket Spat

2010-01-30T19:41:36Z

Everyone can recall the torture of being picked last for teams at school. The stock response is to blush profusely, shuffle along in the wake of the captain that doesn’t want you and never turn up to gym class again.

In the relentless tit-for-tat relationship between India and Pakistan, team selection takes on a different order of magnitude.

For the three years now, the playboy owners of India’s 20Twenty cricket teams have got together to bid for their squads for the upcoming season. On offer are 66 players from 11 countries. Each team must have a minimum of seven Indian players. That leaves up to four non-Indians to choose from. Unlike the school playground, selection is by cheque book. The better the player, the more zeros on the end.

The usual selection of star Australian, New Zealand and British players went under the hammer. But not one Pakistani player made the grade. Hence the hoohah.

Rather than slink off shamefaced, Pakistan’s governing cricket board has called foul. Its chairman Ejaz Butt has pointed the finger at the highest echelons of the Indian government. He accuses it of effectively blacklisting Pakistani players by not offering via guarantees.

India claimed no such via restrictions applied. The decision on who to choose and who not to choose, it say, is up to the owners themselves. The Indian Premier League is all about “big business and big sport”, as the NYT puts it. The TV-friendly format has worked, popularizing the game among a global audience. So all the more galling for Pakistan’s top players to be left out.

In a fit of pique, the Pakistani cricket board has refused any of their players to take part in India’s lucrative Premier League.

In practical terms, it’s an empty gesture. Even if their players wanted to play, they’ve not been invited. But it could effect Pakistan’s involvement in future seasons. Diplomatically, too, it signifies a rachetting up of the row to a new, more serious level. Pakistan’s interior minister went as far as to say that it showed that India was “not serious” about the peace process between the two bickering nations.

Pakistanis are understandably stunned and hurt that none of their own made the final cut. Indian owners have offered less than convincing arguments as to why Pakistani players weren’t picked. It certainly seems odd. Pakistan is the current world champion of Twenty20 cricket. In players like batsman Rana Naved-ul Hasan and Umar Gul it boasts some of the star performers of the abbreviated version of the game.

Most commentators see a political snub behind the affair. The involvement of Pakistani militants in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai still grates. But it’s unlikely that an edict came down from government central office. More likely, India’s cricket owners worried about the hassle factor: Hindu nationalists screaming from the terraces, terror threats at games and general bad blood among fans (and advertisers?).

Easier just to go with the golden boys from Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Same talent, same flair, but a safe choice. The loss is India’s. Just as it was John Forrester’s loss when he left me out of his Under-11 soccer team.

Kirchners On the Ropes

2009-06-29T13:45:17Z

I waited and waited and waited last night for Argentine strong-man Nestor Kirchner to speak. Just after midnight, I joined the general flow of people towards the door. All was quiet at campaign HQ. That boded ill for the country’s ruling party. Things, obviously, had not gone well at the mid-term polls.

The scene couldn’t have been more different from two years ago. In the same conference hall in the same Buenos Aires hotel, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (Nestor’s wife) had waved to the cameras and blown kisses to the millions who had voted for her.

The popularity of Argentina’s first elected female president (known simply by her first name, ‘Cristina’) has plummeted since that triumphant night in 2007. A protracted conflict with the country’s all-powerful rural bloc last year cost her dearly. She’s never really bounced back.

Yesterday’s mid-term was her chance to turn that around and breath new life into the “K Model” of politics. It didn’t happen that way. A centre-right coalition headed by dissident Peronist Francisco de Narvaez and backed by the business tycoon Mauricio Macri (former chairman of Boca Juniors) pipped the Kirchners to the post.

Analysts are busily assessing what the result means. One thing is clear. This is good for Argentine democracy. Congress has become an increasingly lame dog under the Kirchner reign, which began with Nestor’s election in 2003. Both enjoyed a parliamentary majority in the Lower House. Now that’s gone.

Logic would suppose that they will need to tone down their centrist presidential style and seek to rebuild alliances in Congress. But logic and politics are uneasy bedfellows, especially in Argentina. The new deputies elected yesterday won’t sit until December (the midterms were brought forward from October to July 28). A deluge of policies could feasibly be pushed through between now and then.

The worst case scenario would be that the Kirchners refuse to take the parliamentary route. With strong support among the ‘social classes’, as Argentina’s disenfranchised are called here, they could seek to rule through the street. It would be the first time. Argentine political activists like nothing better than a march or strike. The electorate might have shown a disgruntlement with the Kirchners, but the unions remain behind them. It’s amazing how much trouble transport workers can make if they decide to down tools (or, worse, block roads).

There was a longer-term issue at stake at yesteday’s elections as well. 2011 marks the end of Cristina’s presidential term. A strong win in the mid-terms would have set up Nestor to replace her in the hot seat, or at least one of their allies. Now the presidential race has been thrown wide open. Expect to see the Kirchner quorum diminish in coming months as Peronist legislators throw their weight behind other contenders from with the ruling party.

Sunday’s mid-terms mark a turn in Argentine domestic politics. The Kirchners’ six-year grip on power has loosened. It’s unclear how things will now pan out. It’s bound to get messy. But true democratic politics is a messy game. And with presidential elections in 2011, there’s all to play for.

Indigenous get day in court

2009-06-07T18:46:15Z

Clashes in the Amazon jungle. Indians armed with wooden spears. Bodies found with their throats slit. It sounds like a chapter from the blood-soaked chronicles of Pedro Pizarro, the sixteenth-century conquistador.

But this is modern day Peru. Protests in the country’s indigenous-majority north-eastern region were put down by armed police late last week. At least 22 police and nine protesters have died, the BBC reports. Indigenous leaders say closer to 30 protestors were killed and around 150 injured, many with bullets.

It’s not the first time this remote area has witnessed bloodshed. Fuel and transport blockades have disrupted Peru's Amazon region for almost two months. The indigenous groups want lawmakers to repeal laws that encourage mining in jungle regions. Critics say that over two-thirds of the Peruvian Amazon territory is now leased for oil and gas exploration.

The case is not an isolated one. For a decade or more, local inhabitants have run an international campaign against US-based mining firm Newmont for alleged environmental destruction at its mine in nearby Cajamarca. Neighbouring Ecuador has faced similar protests by indigenous groups who oppose natural resource extraction in their native lands.

The Achuar people of the north-western Amazon demonstrate a new tack in indigenous campaigning. A warrior tribe by tradition, they have chosen to fight their battle in an environment that their corporate adversaries understand: the law courts. In 2007, the Achuar filed a class action lawsuit against oil giant Occidental Petroleum in Los Angeles. Their lawsuit alleges that the US company dumped around nine billion barrels of toxic waste water into streams and rivers over a three-decade period. The judge is still deliberating to to whether the case can proceed.

An increasing number of affected communities are seeking legal redress in the US. Last month, for example, members of Nigeria’s Ogoni people brought Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell before a US federal court in New York. They accuse the oil major of colluding with the Nigeria military junta in the 1990s and, by extension, for aiding and abetting human rights violations.

Two mains reasons explain this shift towards international cases of this kind. Firstly, the plaintiffs lack confidence that their national courts will provide them with a fair hearing. In corrupt corners of Latin America and Africa, their fears are well-founded. Secondly, thanks to some clever lawyering, such communities now have access to the US justice system for the first time. Litigators have unearthed a statute that has lain dormant for almost two centuries. Under the Alien Tort Claims Act, anybody can theoretically bring a case against a US-domiciled individual, government agency or company for gross human rights violations.

The Shell case promises to be a landmark. If the company is found guilty, a flood of similar cases against large companies can be expected to follow. Then the indigenous of the Peruvian jungle will have an alternative recourse to fighting it out with heavily armed police.

Venezuelan media on alert

2009-05-12T02:00:28Z

Venezuelan premier Hugo Chavéz has launched a vociferous attack against the opposition media, accusing radio and TV channels of conspiracy.

“Enough is enough”, the former paratrooper warned during his regular Sunday television broadcast (in Spanish). “They’ve gone to far.”

Chavéz, who recently won a referendum eliminating limited presidential terms, issued a veiled warning to audiovisual media that their licences could be revoked.

“They [the public airwaves] are not yours, and they are subject to making responsible use of them”, he warned.

The threats come after a week which saw Venezuela’s self-proclaimed ‘21st Century Socialist’ nationalise private oil service companies.

It is by no means the first time that Chavez has had a run-in with Venezuela’s anti-government media. In 2007, the licence of the popular television network RCTV was not renewed after accusations that it aided a coup attempt five years previously.

Everyday Venezuelans lamented the loss of their favourite soap operas. Advocates of media freedom took a more serious view of the case, accusing Chávez’s administration of blatant censorship. Venezuela, it should be added, has been on the International Press Institute’s Watch List since 2000.

Chávez’s political style has always been confrontational. The press represents an obvious target. The opposition media only serves to stoke the fire, doing little to hide its loathing for the country’s elected premier.

However, suggesting the media are involved in a militaristic attempt to unsettle his administration (Chávez blamed them for “promoting war” and “instigating the military to make pronouncements, saying that the President must die”) has a ring of paranoia to it.

So far, Chávez has only threatened the initiation of “investigations” into alleged coup-mongering by the press. But don’t be surprised if more radio stations and TV channels are ordered off the air in the near future.

Paraguay's Lugo proves no messiah

2009-04-14T23:15:57Z

Whiter-than-white politicians surely can’t sleep well. Only saints have no skeletons in their cupboard. For the rest of us mortals, rattle hard enough and something, sometime, will eventually appear.

In the case of Fernando Lugo, president of Paraguay, it took eight months for his secret to come to light. When it did, it did so in the form of a two-year old boy.

Love-children are not new to South American politics. The Peruvians enjoy particular kudos in the field. Four months passed after the election of Alan Garcia, the current president of the Andean state, before the result of an extramarital affair was revealed.

His predecessor, Alejandro Toledo, took ten years to admit to being the father of a 14 year-old girl. The allegations reached national proportions when a Supreme Court judge admitted visiting the President at home and trying to persuade him to publicly recognise his daughter.

Lugo admitted his paternity to reporters yesterday. The confession proves he is no saint. But he was a Catholic, supposedly celibate bishop at the time of the child’s conception.

The news is depressing. Not so much because of his moral hyprocracy. That much can be expected. But because it gives the political opposition in long-suffering Paraguay the rope with which to hang him.

"He presented himself almost as a god sent from heaven, but it turns out he was just like any other man and that represents a con", said Deputy Oscar Tuma, summing up the tone adopted by Lugo's critics.

The corrupt and bloated Colorado party ruled Paraguay for more than six decades. Lugo’s election last year was greeted across the world as a sign of hope for the beleaguered state.

Now his mandate – based largely on his moral credentials – is in doubt. Still, he has at least confessed. By the standards of the Catholic church, that’s a first step to redemption. Paraguayans – a conservative bunch by and large - might not prove quite so forgiving.

Best headline of the day? Inca Kola News’s ‘Life of Brian’ take-off: “He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy’.

Â¡Bienvenido, Barack!

2009-04-05T23:05:35Z

Latin America is on tenterhooks. Obama is visiting the USA's backyard. Well, Trinidad and Tobago at least. Date for the diary: 17-19 April.

Every year, the 34 presidents of the America’s get together for a high level chinwag. Speeches are made. Dinners scoffed. And, back in good old GW’s day, protests would be held.

But the arrival of Obama in the White House has thrown more than one Latin American leader into a spin. For more years than the average voter cares to remember, the mighty USA has played the role of imperialist poster child for the region’s populist leaders.

If you’re poor, it’s because the Yanquis exploited your natural resources. If you’re worried about global terror, it’s because of “Mr. Danger” (as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez liked to call Obama;’s predecessor) and his neo-cons in the White House. If your wages are lousy, it’s the fault of NAFTA, CAFTA or the bilateral trade agreement of the day. If short, anything and everything is the fault of the bullying big brother up North.

The Obama era makes that argument harder to sustain. Cuba’s Fidel Castro, the man who owes more to nemeses in Washington DC than anyone, went as far as to argue that the US electorate would never elect a black man. They did. Now he says that Obama might have “good intentions” but the "Empire is much stronger than him".

A cross-party Congressional delegation is currently in Havana looking to smooth the cracks of nearly half-a-century of bilateral acrimony.

Likewise, Chávez has had to rethink his strategy. A cooling towards the USA seems to be taking place in Caracas. The Venezuelan premier went as far as to say that he’s willing to press the “reset” button on US-Venezuelan relations. This is the man who claims the FBI is obsessed with masterminding his assassination.

The situation in Bolivia remains less clear. Evo Morales threw out the US ambassador last year, accusing him of spying. That’s the diplomatic version of telling a country to 'Go F*** Itself'. Not an easy one to come back from, even with a change of officeholder.

As for the rest of the region, presidents are toppling over themselves for a photo op with Obama. Brazil’s Lula da Silva got there first, all smiles for the camera during a recent visit to Washington.

Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner meanwhile was (I’m reliably informed by a first-hand witness) hopping round the room like a schoolgirl when Obama phoned her soon after his election. They discussed Borges. And Kirchner told him he reminded her of General Perón. From a self-styled Evita, that’s flattery personified.

The presidents of Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and most of Central America (notably minus Nicaragua) are long-standing chums of the US, whoever’s in power. They too will be in the queue for a private audience at next week’s Summit of the America.

For all the attention that he’s generating here in Latin America, Obama has remained fairly silent so far on Latin American affairs. Expect Venezuela and Cuba to dominate the media’s attention. But the significance of the Trinidad meeting will all be about building bridges in the corridors. As well as the photos ops, of course.

ChÃ¡vez's cheque book diplomacy

2009-03-31T13:24:05Z

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president and media phenomenon, is well known for his antics at home. For those out of touch with his singular leadership style, check out YouTube for his Sunday show Aló Presidente.

Now attention is being drawn to his activities outside Venezuela’s borders. Chávez likes to cast himself as the modern day Simón Bolívar, the great liberator who freed South America from Spanish rule.

Bolívar dreamt of uniting the independent republics of the continent in a common federation. Chávez has taken up that call, terming it the “Bolivarian Alternative” for South America. There’s work on a regional development bank, stronger trade relations and closer political ties.

But such “cooperation” comes at a cost. Precisely $220bn over since 2005, if a new report is to be believed. Venezuela has become well known for offering subsidies, oil exchange programmes and other forms of financial support under President Chávez. But until now, no-one has tried to quantify exactly how much.

According to Centro de Investigaciones Economicas, a Caribbean think-tank, the money is primarily earmarked for fourteen allied countries. Most are from South America. Bolivia and Cuba are perhaps the best known. Around 90,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude arrive in Havana every day, for example. In exchange, Cuba sends its doctors to help Venezuela’s disenfranchised (Chávez’s primary voters).

Venezuela’s Bolivarian ambitions have stretched since Bolívar’s day. Now Russia tops the 21st Century socialist gravy train. Chávez has invested $34.5bn in the former Soviet Union through arms purchases and energy agreements.

Where does the money come from? In short, oil. The state-run energy company PDVSA has benefited from record high prices in recent years. And Chávez’s regime has not been slow in taking advantage of this cash cow. Now that world oil prices are crashing, it’s unclear how Venezuela’s strategy of cheque book diplomacy will shape up in leaner times.

One country that could feel the pinch is Argentina. International investors have been tempted to give the country a wide berth since it defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2001. Venezuela has ridden to the rescue, buying up government bonds to the tune of $5bn in recent years.

Argentina’s president Cristina Kirchner, is due to speak at the LSE in London later this week. Her relationship with Venezuela has caused problems in the past. In the run-up to her election, airport officials detained a Venezuelan businessman who was found with $800,000 in his suitcase. The money was allegedly destined for Cristina’s election campaign.

What strings are attached to Venezuela’s largesse is not clear. A worthwhile question, perhaps, for any journalist attending Cristina’s LSE speech on Friday?

Royal carpet in Sth America?

2009-03-09T13:56:15Z

South Americans don’t quite know what to make of the British royal family. I suspect most are mildly suspicious. Monarchs are bad in the books of most independent Republics.

But I think there’s also a soft spot for Queen Liz and her brood. Certainly Princess Diana (“Laydee Dee” in the phonetic) was a big star in her day.

The local press takes them far too seriously though. The fact that Prince Charles is visiting Chile today at the start of his week-long tour will inevitably stir media comment about links to Pinochet and the Falklands’ War (at least here in Argentina).

A few weeks ago there was a huge hoo-hah about Prince William doing a stint at the military base on the Falklands. It was interpreted ("A Prince in the Middle of a Republic") as if his uncle and former Falklands veteran Prince Andrew has personally sent him to pick up where he'd left off.

Prince Harry can always be trusted to lighten the tone though. When he was last in Argentina, he raised so much hell with the booze and the local girls, that he was sent home (“for security reasons” – though whose security, his or the polo players’ daughters, was never clarified).

The continent’s Anglo descendents - the offshoots of empire and great grandchildren of railway engineers – are the exception. Most still live in the 1950s, when Britain still swaggered on the world stage and memories of Charles' grandmother as Empress of India were still fresh.

Prince Charles is due tonight at Santiago’s Prince of Wales Country Club to participate in a business round table on climate change. Whatever you think of the British royalty, it must be cool travelling the world and being hosted in far-flung places named after you.

Bishop Williamson: the silent blogger

2009-02-21T10:35:00Z

Bishop Richard Williamson's five-year sojourn in an Argentine seminary came to an abrupt halt this week. The controversial bishop, who claimed the gas chambers are a myth and that only 300,000 Jews died during the Holocaust, was given ten days to pack his bags and leave the country.

The Church never seems to do itself any favours when it comes to the media. Admittedly, most secular news outlets pay little heed to the institution's main message, preferring headlines like 'Randy Reverend in Love Tryst' to stories on civic outreach or sermons on loving our neighbour.

Still, knowing what the media agenda is, you'd think a comms expert from the flock would step up and give them some basic instruction. The Williamson story provides a good case in point. When the news first broke, I travelled out to the bishop's seminary on the edge of Buenos Aires. Instead of providing a spokesperson, they padlocked the gates and hid away inside.

I phoned as well for an entire week. I finally got to speak with the telephone receptionist, but only because I met her at the seminary gates arriving for work. Apparently the phone lines were down. An unfortunate coincidence to be sure - especially given that the Pope was trying to get through too.

Williamson no doubt didn't want to add fuel to the flames. But by saying nothing, he let reporters speak for him. After a fortnight or so, he did eventually break his silence, giving an email interview to Der Spiegel.

The frustrating aspect of this whole saga was that Williamson has his own blog. For a week or more, the world waited for some clarification on his opinions on the Holocaust. And what was the bishop blogging about? A film with Meryl Streep that he'd just been watching and "the varied wealth and dynamic force" of Beethoven's Third Symphony!

Argentina: How to Survive a Financial Crisis

2009-02-17T13:52:43Z

If you want to know how to survive financial collapse there are 40m experts on the subject in South America. They are called Argentines.

Six years ago their financial system melted and almost overnight a sophisticated economy became a basketcase, turning millions in the middle class into paupers.

What did Argentines do? In brief, this: they got angry, they got depressed, they improvised, they coped, they rebounded - and they stayed worried.

"Argentines are used to a more unstable form of capitalism than in Europe or the United States. As a result, they are more creative in their responses," said Marcela Lopez Levy, author of a book 'We Are Millions', about Argentina's collapse.

If so, northerners better start acquiring some Latin dexterity. Step one, it seems, is to let the anger froth.

From sleek Buenos Aires to wilderness Patagonia Argentines had reason to be furious: banks froze savings, the peso lost three quarters of its value and more than half the population slid into poverty.

Millions marched to demand politicians' heads; the president duly resigned (fleeing the palace in a helicopter), as did three successors. The demonstrations morphed into formal protest groups with drums, saucepans and road blocks the preferred weaponry of the aggrieved picketers, the 'piqueteros'.

These social movements reflected profound alienation, said Sergio Berensztein, a political analyst. "They demonstrated a complete rejection of the political parties and a desire to replace the government."

The famously neurotic citizens of Buenos Aires rival New Yorkers in their attachment to therapy and when the crisis hit demand for psychological care rocketed.

"The public mental health centres were very busy," said Hector Basile, of the Argentine Association of Psychologists. "The middle-classes were more nervous than ever but they didn't have the money any longer to go to a private psychiatrist."

Rates of suicide and serious mental health problems did not soar, however, partly thanks to step two: community solidarity. Marooned by imploding state services, people huddled on street corners to devise solutions and debate everything from organising soup kitchens to writing manifestos denouncing global capitalism.

More than anything, these so-called "neighbourhood assemblies" helped vent frustration at the crisis. "They were like group therapy on the street," said Lopez Levy, the author.

Necessity bequeathed step three: invention. With cash devalued to a third of its initial value money was eschewed in favour of barter. Some 5,000 barter or 'truque' clubs, operating by word of mouth and the internet, had well-heeled professionals swapping goods and services with blue-collar workers. Some $7m of paper scrip went into circulation and reportedly $400m in goods was traded.

The clubs were an improbable safety net for the middle class, said Ibsen Martinez, a journalist, and the system collapsed after thieves stole million of barter coupons and went on a shopping spree.

A boom in recycling proved more enduring. Groups of collectors known as "cartoneros" scoured bins for glass, paper, cardboard and other salvageable material. Buenos Aires subsidised a train to transport them in from outlying shantytowns.

Another innovation was worker-run cooperatives in which laid-off employees took over idle businesses. "We took it back," said Ricardo Ruiz, of Cortidoros Unidos Limitada, a leather processing plant. "We broke the locks, turned on the lights and started the equipment up. We´re running things now."

Many cooperatives failed but some thrived. "I can quote you Marx or Lenin but this is not about ideology. It is about what works. And this is working," said Luis Caro, a leader of the National Movement for Recovered factories, which boasts 10,000 members.

An export-led commodity boom helped resurrect the economy, halve poverty and boot out the hated IMF, whose policies contributed to the crisis. As the country regained its shine many emergency initiatives petered out.

To countries now facing their own financial meltdowns Argentina is a hopeful example. Its swift recovery, however, has not extinguished the trauma. Argentines are braced for another crisis, said Lopez Levy. "They don't expect things to change so they just try and weather the storm as best as possible."

The Falklanders: Sheiks of the South Atlantic?

2009-01-30T01:43:51Z

Early evening chatter in the Victory bar in Port Stanley used to touch on squid hauls and cruise liner schedules. Now, as the locals sip on imported pints of British beer, a far more lucrative proposition is grabbing their attention: oil.

According to the latest seismic surveys, the Falkland Islands are sitting on an estimated 18bn barrels. Prospecting companies operating on the islands say they plan to start drilling later this year. With an already affluent population of about 3,000, Falklanders are anticipating a windfall that could make them one of the richest populations on the planet.

But the Falklanders aren't quite the oil barons of South America yet. Naturally, first it needs to be proved if there is really oil to be found. The oil prospectors are talkling it up, as you'd expect them to. But they've not even got round to drilling yet. With oil prices plummeting, the margins are growing tighter too.

Then of course there's the Argentine reaction to think about. If anything is going to spark another war between these two old foes, it's billions of barrels of black gold turning up underneath the Falklands.

To get a taste of what could be to come, the Argentine daily Clarin today ran a heated piece after my piece appeared in The Guardian. It was pointed out that the oil companies had the temerity to begin exploration without going cap in hand to the Argentine government for permission.

News of the Falklanders becoming the Sheiks of the South Atlantic might just have to wait though. It seems that Prince William's time to do the honourable thing has arrived. The heir to the throne is due to follow in his uncle's footsteps and defend Britain's fair isle.

Strictly speaking, the Falklands is only an 'overseas territory'. But then that doesn't sound quite worth getting out of bed for. Tally ho William. Do granny proud.

Carnival-tastic

2009-01-24T02:18:44Z

Dressed in a skimpy gaucho two-piece, Maria JosÃ© pouts and twists her way past the screaming crowd. On her heels prances an army of masked Incas, leaping, whooping and pummelling their bare chests until their war paint runs.

Glitter-strewn Mayan maidens swirl and shake behind them aboard elaborate floats, the silver tassels of their bikinis dazzling in bursts of camera flashes.

In case you find yourself in Argentina and at a lose end at the weekend, hop on a bus and head out to Gualeguaychu. From its laid-back, siesta-somnolent vibe, you'd never guess this quiet town three hours outside the Argentine capital sports one of South America's most colourful carnivals.

Every Saturday until the first week in March. Go, jump on that bus, you won't regret it.

More at: Guardian Travel, Saturday 24th Jan 2009

Cristina's air mile bonanza

2009-01-24T02:11:50Z

Cristina Kirchner, Argentina's illustrious president, travelled to Cuba this week. The local press are giving her a hard time. First she got ill and had to postpone the trip.

Her doctor says she's suffering from stress and heat exhaustion. The country's taxi drivers are convinced to a man that she was having some (more?) plastic surgery done.

They also say that she's too fond of flying off around the world rather than manning the ship at home. The milometre of the presidential jet has so far clocked up 75,000km under her watch.

Her most ignoble trip since being elected in October 2007 was a flying visit she made to Italy last year. It was for a UN-organised emergency summit on agriculture (prices were allegedly going through the roof because countries like Argentina were devoting land to biofuels and soya [for pig swill and chicken feed] rather than food to fill the bellies of the world's growing population).

After lecturing the world's leaders on the need for sustainable agriculture, she popped off for a tour of Rome's jewellery stores. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Argentine farmers were blocking roads and supermarket shelves were growing empty as a vitriolic battle with the country's rural heartlands over increased export taxes was unfolding.

Cristina has trips to India, Korea, Spain and the US scheduled for the coming months. The presidential retinue never had such air mile opportunities under her husband and former president Nestor. It was enough just to drag him out of his provincial fiefdom in Santa Cruz state to fulfil his presidential duties.

But at least Cristina got her photo taken with Fidel. Quite an achievement. It's the first images the Cuban people have seen of their frail ex-leader in several months.

Good to see Fidel's still wearing his trademark tracksuit. It's difficult to make out the brand from the photo. When the lingering living legend first became ill and swapped his battle fatigues for more comfortable wear, the communist icon used to wear Adidas.

The photo's not that clear, but I think the famous triangular stripes of the US brand can be made out. Is there a sponsorship deal running here, I wonder? As for Cristina, points for guessing if she's had any surgery. Additional surgery that is.

Sex for food

2009-01-13T21:17:21Z

The financial crisis touches us all in different ways. Job losses, mounting personal debts and cancelled holidays are all part of the reality for the year ahead.

For Argentina's poor, the reality is even starker. Kids busking at red lights or juggling on the metro is common enough. People going through the rubbish (known as 'cartoneros') has also become a part of daily life since the country's own, private financial implosion at the end of 2001.

Statistics published recently suggested poverty figures had crept back up to the levels they were just before the last crisis: i.e. around 11.8 million people (around 32% of the population).

Numbers are easy to ignore though. Less simple to pass over is a news item that I saw in the local La Nacion newspaper today. Apparently, children as young as eight years old are prostituting themselves for food.

The case involves up to 200 children between eight and thirteen years old, who sell themselves for sex in Buenos Aires' Central Market. In exchange, their clients (other shoppers) provide them with something to eat.

SofÃa Kordecki, who's responsible for child rights for the local municipality, admits that the problem is difficult to contain.

It's harder still without the cooperation of the unions operating in the market. "They won't admit the need to work with consumers [in the market]", she says.

"What's clear is that the children won't prostitute themselves if there are no clients", she adds.