For several months I've listed Buenos Aires Expatriates Group among the links on yanquimike.com.ar
I can't bring myself to link to that organization any longer and I would advise you from becoming associated with it.
It is neither particularly Buenos Aires nor Expatriate nor a Group. That in itself is no indictment.
However, the site prominently displays an innocent looking forum under its masthead that might probably lead a casual visitor to believe that it is all three of those things. That would be an error...and an error that is actively encouraged by that website.
The "group" is rather small judged by the attendance of their somewhat monthly gatherings. Anyone attending those gatherings is liable to have a pleasant evening devoid of the invective that is encouraged in that prominent forum.
However, the open forum...the most prominent feature of the site...will give an impression that anyone attending the "get togethers" holds the same general opinions of xenophobia and distain for porteños and argentinos. This is not generally the case among the "members" I have met but the confusion is understandable.
If you'll allow me a prediction, to some degree or another, there will come a backlash to foreign residents here if for no other reason than we are such a new phenomenon. The open forum of Buenos Aires Expatriates Group, and anything like it, will become a focus of that backlash...unless moderated.
Unfortunately, the "site admin" and "moderator" of the site encourages and participates in the such comments. Therefore, we're not likely to see anything along the lines of badly needed reform.
My advice: stay away. Any association with this group could well come back to haunt you.
6 comments:
your saying that free speech should be curtailed in other words.
If you (freely) become a member of a moderated forum, you're (freely) accepting that you can't just let out some things. On the other hand, there are plenty of forums where xenophobia is accepted. That's free speech in my book.
Good point...and well expected.
Let's discuss this in detail at
www.baexpats.blogspot.com
Anonymous' terse, unemotional, and skewed logic may be recognizable to those having read the forum. Pdf, on the other hand, not having drunk the Site Admin kool-aid, refuses to forget that the forum is supposedly moderated.
Simply put, the Site Admin has the responsibility to administer...but refuses to do so. This is a disservice to all Buenos Aires expats both in and out of this so-called "group".
As it stands:
Non-Buenos Aires persons are represented as being in Buenos Aires.
Non-expats are represented as being expats.
The term group (or at least the term "members") implies that the forum users might actually be accepted... beyond simply creating a forum nickname.
Free speech is not the issue. Misrepresentation of forum participants as Buenos Aires expats is the issue.
Eventually all Buenos Aires expats will be painted by the inevitable reaction to the forum's hate-speech... which, of course, is free.
I have been reading that group forum, for a week or two, out of curiosity (as I'm an Arg expat in Europe and I find this "Expats in Bs As phenomenon" fascinating).
My feelings about the Expats Group Forum issue: you may want to ignore them or denounce their xenophobia (or whatever other nasty stuff they bring out), the reality is, they will still exist, they still live in Bs As/ Arg and they will keep thinking and behaving the way they do whether you read them or not. At least if you read their forum you'll be aware of their existence and informed of what they're up to.
I would recommend reading their stuff even if you disapprove of it because it'll give you a clearer picture of who's who in you community. Pretending they're not there by not reading them is not going to change them, nor it's gonna make them go away. You don't have to participate, but by reading it alone you'll have a more complete idea of what's going on among yourselves.
...Sorry: correction to my post above
Where I wrote "they will still exist, they still live in Bs As/ Arg" I should have written "SOME OF THEM live in Bs As/ Arg" etc.
Surely not everyone posting in there is based outside Arg.
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