The Silver River

Today I've been reading about Florencia De la V, a famous Argentine transsexual. Inspired by this post on Buenos Aires Daily I thought I'd try find out more. There isn't a great deal written (at least not in Spanish) but I was able to find out (thanks wikipedia) a bit more. She's an actor and ex magazine editor. I'll need to find out more.

I have often contemplated the relatively homogeneous ethnic makeup of Argentina. Having lived most of my life in countries or cities with diverse populations one can often assume that everywhere in the world is like that. From my few trips to Argentina I can recall that Buenos Aires is not. Today I spotted this article about African immigration to BA. It suggests that as Europe has effectively closed it's doors to African immigration more Africans are making their way to Argentina where getting in and staying is easy. It's a fairly light and one sided article and I would love to understand more.

Perhaps it's obvious but I can't help but get the feeling that Argentina is on the brink of something profound, nationally, socially and economically. Of course, it might always seem like that and it's only my relatively recent attention to the Argentine news that (for me at least) is creating this sense of anticipation. The more I find out the more I get the feeling that the changes taking place, particularly the Peron style renationalisation of local industries and the recent senate defeat of the proposed agricultural export duties signify the start of something profound. A country brought to it's knees by economic collapse has recently enjoyed consistent growth, re-calibrated its ambition and its economy and is now poised to redefine itself. The political rhetoric is increasingly talking about rebuilding Argentina, taking responsibility and about regeneration - quite reminiscent of the Peron era. My prediction is that this process will be painful, disruptive and dram...

UPDATE : Here is a bit more on the renationalisation from BBC News. Even though I know next to nothing about national and or global economic models it has never stopped me from having an opinion. I am always excited when I hear stories that challenge what seems to be a formidable and irreversible move towards free market economies. Menem's heavy handed privatisation policy during the 80's paved the way for the loss of a significant portion of Argentine industry to foreign investors. Admittedly this saw an influx of foreign investment, but when the economy collapsed in 2001 this offered little protection. This combined with the peso-dollar pegging meant local industries suffered. Production moving overseas to cheaper countries and stagnant local economies. Then I spotted this little story in the FT: Argentina to buy back state airline In 1990 Iberia took a 83.5% stake in Aerolíneas Argentinas . The airline continued to under perform and was taken over by Marsans in 2001. Rising ...

I ' m getting mildly hysterical. I have approximately 6 weeks of work left and can barely control myself. We ' re getting close. The " saving " is coming along okay (marginally better than I had hoped – touch wood), the flat is rented (our stuff goes into storage tomorrow). At the risk of jinxing it, I don ' t think we can stop now. We ' re going to BA! It is still 8 weeks until we go, imagine what I ' ll be like in 8 weeks. Anyway, a major contributor to my heightened sense of excitement is the research I ' ve been doing. At the moment I ' m spending hours scouring the internet and reading the blogs to find out as much as I can about the city. The blogs vary in quality dramatically, but for all the frivolous and tired ones there are superb insightful and considered writers. I guess the mad exodus to BA from the states in the early 00 ' s and the relatively good connectivity of the city has helped create quite an active and verbal (they ...

Just spotted this article about the hunt for Nazi " Dr Death " who is believed to be living in Southern Chile or Argentina. Aribert Heim would be 94. The centre trying to locate him suspect he is still alive because no family members have made a claim for money and other investments contained in an account held in Berlin in his name. To do that they would have to produce evidence that he ' d died. The centre, along with the German and Austrian governments, are offering a reward of € 315,000 for information leading to his Heim's capture. Zuroff said the centre had already received information "that has strong potential" to help efforts to find Heim. He was also known for using many of the body parts of the people he killed as decorations. He used one victim's skull as a paperweight. Yikes! The Guardian