Tuesday, March 27, 2007

¿que dicen ellos?

I don't know what to say (maybe that's what they SAY about me) but I've been reading a wonderful blog recommended to me by the mysterious 99. It's a jewel!

It's more than a jewel, really. It fills a real need along with Mercedes Stuart's intuition as to what Argentines are curious about as regards us foreigners and what we're saying.

A self-described cuarentona now living in the US after living in 4 other countries during the past 20-some years, she started reading blogs written by extranjeros living in Argentina. She realized that a lot of Argentines are probably not going to pick-up another language just to slog through some blogs.

So Mercedes does the heavy-lifting...and translates into Spanish the posts she likes and the ones that hispanoparlantes would be curious about.

I personally know from emails and comments that porteños are interested and often surprised by what we strangers think about this place...and what we are writing.

Lo que dicen ellos has become one of my favorite places to check into from time to time to see what Mercedes Stuart is saying.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

More Flights between US and RA?


...U.S. and Argentina Initial Expanded Civil Aviation Agreement

First Tourism Surplus in History


...from La Nación in English

Vonage: Hello? Hello? ...Update with Good News

Vonage service to go dead in 2 weeks?

According to an 8-K filing with the Security and Exchange Commission, VoIP Inc. says it has entered into a two year deal to provide Vonage what it needs to get around the jury verdict. This should satisfy the court on one of the three counts of infringement and keep it from shutting them down. Vonage is denying that this is related to the Friday's upcoming meeting with the judge and are standing by their pledge to keep the service up and running.

Beloved by expats and international travelers, the already money losing Vonage lost in a jury verdict for Verizon which claims that Vonage has been infringing upon their patents and using them to take more than 1 million customers away.

The jury put a dollar figure on the harm suffered by Verizon...

...but Verizon doesn't want the cash; they want Vonage to stop.

The judge approved the Verizon request that could make Vonage lines go dead but said he won't sign the death warrant until a meeting with the companies in two weeks. Vonage has requested a stay.

Vonage says they are confident that they will come out of that meeting with an additional 120 days to appeal the jury's ruling.

But analysts are not so sure. Bloomberg is reporting,
"My impression is they have to shut down'' if Vonage can't develop a way to link calls that replaces the one that violates Verizon's patents, said Clayton Moran, an analyst with Stanford Group in Boca Raton, Florida, who covers Vonage. "That's obviously disastrous.''
The report goes on to say that Vonage is working on "technical work-arounds" that will avoid using the Verizon patents. A company spokesman says, "We are confident Vonage customers will not experience service interruptions or other changes as a result of this litigation."

Thursday, March 22, 2007

"fairness and good taste"

It's been a while since we directed your attention to a bunch of people you should avoid:

However, the current brouhaha on their front page forum is just too tasty for me to avoid comment. You can hold your nose and go read it or you can check out the yanqui mike summary so you don't have wallow in the bashing.

The so-called group is about as funny as the Bush Administration... and about as dangerous.

I mention dangerous because the old "Buenos Aires American Expat Meetup Group" recently merged with them due to a disagreement with Meetup.com

I'm sure they didn't know what they were getting into.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Las Malvinas son Argentinas


Over the next 3 months or so we're liable to hear quite a bit about the Malvinas. Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the chain of events that came to be known as La Guerra de las Malvinas or the Falkland Islands War...even though no declaration of war was ever made.

The desolate little place (so desolate that it never even had any indigenous peoples) has an interesting history that involves the Dutch, French and even Yanquis in addition to Spain, Argentina and the UK.

It was discovered by the Dutch and the French built the first settlement, naming them Îles Malouines after St. Malo. Hence, the Spanish name Malvinas. A couple of years later the British built a fort on the islands without even knowing the French were there.

Spain eventually signed a treaty with France and Britain limiting its holdings in the New World... that included the Malvinas. Spain took over the French colony (they later reimbursed them) then they simply kicked the British out.

The Brits came back for while but ended up abandoning their colony. The British later signed another treaty renouncing all colonial ambitions in South America "and the islands adjacent" in exchange for an agreement on who was the boss of the west coast of North America.

Then the Spanish abandoned the islands, too. Like I said, the place is desolate.

About 15 years later the British invaded Buenos Aires twice in two years and were defeated both times. That made Argentines so cocky they declared independence from the mother country that never lifted a hand to help them with the invasions.

With independence, they got the Malvinas from Spain as a package deal.

The UK then signed a treaty recognizing Argentina's independence.

The newly minted Argentina sent a governor, built a prison, and started to farm and trade. A few years later, the settlers gave birth to some babies...the first people ever born on the islands.

Now come the yanquis. The Argentine governor of the islands had placed some pretty strict rules on the hunting of seals. Not long after, he caught a US merchant ship illegally hunting seals and seized it.

The US consul in Buenos Aires protested that his government didn't even recognize Argentina's ownership of the Malvinas.

The US sent a warship to get the ship back but the yanqui captain overstepped his orders and destroyed the entire Argentine settlement.

The UK then took advantage of the confusion and seized what was left of the islands without firing a shot. They later deported all the Argentines. That was 1833.

Argentina has never relinquished its claim to islands.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Who's got the CAT?

Update: Juan Pablo got it!

The legend is that Cacho Einstein thought up this little puzzle.

But what appears to be verified is that Cacho really did say that only 2% of the world could ever arrive at the correct answer.

The readership at this blog is certainly within that 2%... well, except for maybe some anonymous stalkers from a well-known for-profit website.

Give it a try... there are no trick questions or clues. Answers on Wednesday.
An industrious paseador de perros has four (4) expat clients on one particular street in Palermo Hollywood.

Five (5) expats live next door to each other in different colored apartment buildings on that street.

Each expat has a different nationality. The five expats drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigarrettes and all own a different breed of dog... except one.


That one expat lives with a cat.

Who's got the cat?

Clues:
1. El ponja lives in the beige apartment building.
2. El turco has a poodle.
3. La franchuta drinks vino.
4. The grey apartment building is on the left of the white one.
5. The grey apartment building dweller drinks agua con gas.
6. The expat who smokes Parisiennes has a pequinés.
7. The expat in the brown apartment smokes LM menthol.
8. The expat living in the apartments in the center drinks mate.
9. The Jockey Club smoker lives next to the one who has a salchicha dog.
10. El yanqui lives in the first apartment.
11. The one with a retriever lives next to the LM menthol smoker.
12. The expat who smokes Derby drinks cerveza.
13. El ruso smokes Particulares 30.
14. El yanqui lives next to the celeste apartment building.
15. The Jockey Club smoker has a neighbor who drinks coffee.

Send your answers to the email address at the very top right corner of the webpage (you know, letters at blahblah punto com punto ar.)

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Driving in Buenos Aires

"You mean you DRIVE in Buenos Aires!"
Yep. It's really not so bad once you get the hang of it. The are, however, a few things you have to know.

If you have a US drivers license it will only be good for a short time here in Argentina. I'm not going to get into how long it will be good...that will only lull you into a false sense of security.

If you already have an International Drivers License...that too will expire before you know it. You can get one here in town at Automóvil Club Argentino, a wonderful place with a great history behind it and a museo in the lobby.

BUT IF YOU PLAN TO STAY IN ARGENTINA FOR ANY SERIOUS LENGTH OF TIME YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST GET A REAL ARGENTINE DRIVERS LICENSE OR YOU WILL GO TO JAIL AND/OR BE FORCED TO FLEE THE COUNTRY LIKE A RAT FROM A SINKING SHIP!
There. Could I be anymore clear? The trouble is that if you get into an accident that involves personal injury or a bunch of property damage everybody could go to jail until the police sort things out. If your drivers license is expired...your insurance won't cover the accident and unless you have a ton of money to make everybody happy...you'll be sneaking out of the country. There are fine instructions en castellano here.

And if you start now...everything will be much easier than if you wait until your foreign drivers license expires.

Take your DNI and your unexpired drivers license to Dirección General de Licencias in la concha de la lora at Avenida Roca 5252 and be prepared to wait all day. If you get there early in the day it probably won't take as long as that.

I showed up a month before my Illinois license was to expire and they gave me a freshly minted Argentine license that was good for another 4 years...and I dint even have to take a test, written or otherwise.

That's really enough for this post. However, we probably should broach the subjects of driving in the city, parking, driving in the provinces, driving during different times of the day, drinking and driving and... of course...

...the traffic ticket.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Día del Escudo National

Tomorrow is the day of the national seal.

There it is. You've seen it. Whether you're a tourist or ex-pat or an immigrant it's stamped all over your paperwork.

The basics: It's a blanco y celeste ellipse with two outstretched clasped right hands in the bottom part that are holding up a spear that is topped off by a red stocking cap and surrounded by two laurel branches that cross and are tied at the bottom with a bow of ribbon in those same national colors. On top of everything is a golden rising sun with 21 rays that alternate between flames and points.

Cool... but what's up with that brim, Jim? You know, that santaclaus lookin' thing.

Maybe you've seen it here... or here... or here.

That might not surprise you... but what about this ...or this?

That's the gorro frigio or Phrygian cap. Better known in yanquilandia as the liberty cap or in France as le bonne rouge, a great old symbol from the enlightenment of which the Argentine founders were members.

It dates back to ancient Greece where slaves celebrated receiving their liberty by wearing it.

One place you won't see, though, is on the statue at the top of the US Capitol dome... even though the architect designed it that way.

It seems a malcontented Senator named Jefferson Davis objected to its association with slaves... or so he said.

Friday, March 09, 2007

According to The Economist...

The most expensive cities in the world.

Thank God for Tashkent.

Rank (2006) City COUNTRY Index
1 (1) Oslo Norway 132
2 (4) Paris France 130
3 (6) Copenhagen Denmark 126
4 (7) London UK 125
5 (2) Tokyo Japan 124
6 (4) Osaka Kobe Japan 118
6 (3) Reykjavik Iceland 118
6 (8) Zurich Switzerland 118
9 (12) Frankfurt Germany 116
9 (10) Helsinki Finland 116
11 (13) Seoul South Korea 115
12 (9) Geneva Switzerland 112
12 (11) Vienna Austria 112
14 (16) Milan Italy 108
14 (24) Singapore Singapore 108
16 (14) Hong Kong Hong Kong 107
16 (14) Munich Germany 107
18 (19) Berlin Germany 106
18 (16) Sydney Australia 106
20 (21) Brussels Belgium 104
20 (16) Dublin Ireland 104
20 (n/a) Nouméa New Caledonia 104
20 (21) Stockholm Sweden 104
24 (19) Melbourne Australia 103
25 (24) Lyon France 102
26 (23) Amsterdam Netherlands 101
26 (29) Moscow Russia 101
28 (27) New York US 100
29 (27) Düsseldorf Germany 99
29 (26) Manchester UK 99
31 (35) Barcelona Spain 98
31 (31) Rome Italy 98
33 (35) Madrid Spain 97
34 (32) Hamburg Germany 96
34 (43) Vancouver Canada 96
36 (35) Chicago US 95
36 (40) Luxembourg Luxembourg 95
36 (43) Montreal Canada 95
39 (35) Los Angeles US 94
40 (35) Perth Australia 93
41 (32) Brisbane Australia 92
41 (40) San Francisco US 92
43 (47) Toronto Canada 90
44 (40) Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire 89
44 (52) St Petersburg Russia 89
44 (46) Washington, DC US 89
47 (45) Adelaide Australia 88
47 (48) Houston US 88
47 (52) Tel Aviv Israel 88
50 (29) Auckland New Zealand 87
51 (51) Shanghai China 86
51 (32) Wellington New Zealand 86
53 (48) Istanbul Turkey 85
53 (48) Taipei Taiwan 85
55 (54) Athens Greece 84
55 (54) Miami US 84
55 (54) Minneapolis US 84
55 (58) Prague Czech Rep 84
59 (63) Lagos Nigeria 83
59 (58) Lisbon Portugal 83
61 (58) Detroit US 82
61 (58) Seattle US 82
63 (58) Beijing China 80
63 (63) Boston US 80
63 (67) Guatemala City Guatemala 80
63 (63) Pittsburgh US 80
63 (63) Warsaw Poland 80
68 (67) Dakar Senegal 79
68 (71) Dalian China 79
68 (57) Mexico City Mexico 79
71 (69) Lexington US 78
72 (70) Amman Jordan 77
73 (100) Jakarta Indonesia 76
73 (91) Lusaka Zambia 76
75 (75) Shenzhen China 75
76 (71) Guangzhou China 74
77 (74) Cleveland US 73
77 (75) Honolulu US 73
79 (80) Casablanca Morocco 72
79 (71) Dubai UAE 72
79 (82) Kiev Ukraine 72
79 (87) Rio de Janeiro Brazil 72
79 (87) Sao Paulo Brazil 72
84 (81) Atlanta US 71
85 (82) Abu Dhabi UAE 70
85 (n/a) Suzhou China 70
87 (84) Bogota Columbia 69
88 (87) Doha Qatar 68
88 (95) Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 68
88 (93) Nairobi Kenya 68
88 (84) Santiago Chile 68
92 (107) Bangkok Thailand 67
92 (107) Belgrade Serbia & Montenegro 67
92 (77) Budapest Hungary 67
92 (91) Ho Chi Minh Vietnam 67
96 (84) Bahrain Manama Bahrain 66
96 (95) Bucharest Romania 66
98 (87) Riyadh Saudi Arabia 65
98 (95) Tianjin China 65
100 (77) Johannesburg South Africa 64
100 (77) Pretoria South Africa 64
100 (n/a) Qingdao China 64
103 (106) Bandar Seri Begawan Brunei 63
103 (95) Kuwait City Kuwait 63
103 (93) Muscat Oman 63
106 (104) Hanoi Vietnam 62
106 (100) Montevideo Uruguay 62
106 (100) Quito Ecuador 62
109 (100) Jeddah Saudi Arabia 61
109 (95) Panama City Panama 61
111 (104) Al Khobar Saudi Arabia 60
111 (117) Almaty Kazakhstan 60
111 (107) Lima Peru 60
111 (110) Sofia Bulgaria 60
115 (111) Phnom Penh Cambodia 59
116 (113) Cairo Egypt 58
116 (113) Colombo Sri Lanka 58
118 (112) Caracas Venezuela 57
118 (115) Damascus Syria 57
120 (117) Buenos Aires Argentina 54
120 (117) Tashkent Uzbekistan 54
122 (120) San Jose Costa Rica 53
123 (115) Algiers Algeria 52
124 (124) Asuncion Paraguay 51
125 (121) Dhaka Bangladesh 46
126 (n/a) Kathmandu Nepal 45
126 (122) New Delhi India 45
126 (122) Tripoli Libya 45
129 (126) Karachi Pakistan 44
129 (124) Mumbai India 44
131 (127) Manila Philippines 43
132 (128) Tehran Iran 34

Thursday, March 08, 2007

We can vote.

Good news and bad news. #1. It can be done. #2. I'm too late for the election this year.

My advice: don't be like Mike... if you have a DNI... get registered to vote this year so you can vote the next time.

Don't be too amazed. Buenos Aires has had a long tradition of allowing non-citizens to vote. I've read old travelogues going back to the 1820's or so that mention it.

The law that let's you vote here in the city is Código Electoral Nacional (Art. 25) and Ley Nº 334 (Art. 10) de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires Province has a similar provision but some provinces do not. Apparently, there were 10,000 foreign voters in the city and 265,000 foreign voters in the province as of 2005!

You won't be able to vote for President or other national offices.

Here in Capital Federal, just head on down to the Tribunal Superior de Justicia near the corner of 9 de Julio and Córdoba (Cerrito 760), show 'em your DNI, get fingerprinted electronically, and you're done.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Melting

Update: This was picked-up by my favorite US politics blog. Get well Steve, we love you.

The back burner is both a wonderful and treacherous place as any cook will tell you.

The US President returns Thursday to South America to lift the lid on his south-of-the-border concoction that has given him fits in recent years.

Long gone are the waiter-in-chief's euphoric descriptions from his first Summit of the Americas in Quebec back in April of 2001,

"Amigo y amigos, it's an honor to be here. We have a great vision before us,
a fully democratic hemisphere bound together by goodwill and free trade. That's a tall order. It is a chance of a lifetime. It is a responsibility we all share."

In September of that year, another "chance of a lifetime" apparently pushed that item off the menu.

Exactly 12 months after the Summit, his administration was wiping egg off it's face for cheering the short-lived ouster of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

He kicked off 2003 with a State of the Union speech that failed to even mention Latin America. His best buddy, Fox, took a beating in the Mexican mid-terms. Soy, corn, beef, sugar and other commodities figured prominently as China became Argentina's biggest export market in June and July and, during the first eight months of 2003, Brazil's exports to China jumped 136 per cent to reach nearly $3 billion. The Neo-liberal souffle began to collapse as one-by-one the left began to take the presidencies of South America.

Bush closed 2004 by going to Chile to try to change prevailing tastes toward US arrogance and neglect of the region. He ended up trying to whip some Chilean security guards in the presidential palace.

Bolivia's Democracy Center released a statement in 2005, "With the arrival of soldiers so close to Bolivia's border, people here are understandably worried that the US is cooking up something even more drastic" as the US deployed troops to Paraguay. Almost simultaneously Bush garnished the Summit of the Americas in Argentina as human piñata.

Less than 90 days later, the Bush franchise lost a couple of stars when elections brought to the table Chilean Socialist President Bachelet and the self-described "US's worst nightmare", President Morales of Bolivia.

Maybe Bush can save this big pot of Latin America by simply stirring things up!

The centerpiece of this week's tour of South America will be another attempt to peel-away yet another Mercosur common market nation.

This time, tiny Uruguay which has been feeling the heat from Argentina over the European construction of a pulp mill too dirty to be allowed in Europe. The mill's location on a shared river across from Buenos Aires has been causing indigestion for more than a year.

Bush's fat will be held to the fire, however, by Argentina's guest chef, Hugo Chavez, who has been invited to hold a public demonstration on the Uruguayan border.

That big pot of Latin America has been heating up the kitchen for a long time now. The world watches to see if this is too much heat for Bush.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Feliz Día del Escultor

¡And that means escultora, tambien! And since Thursday is the International Day of the Woman... that means Lola Mora, the acclaimed Argentine sculptor that produced the above piece that you have no doubt seen in Costanera Sur.

Very pretty! And so was Lola... in a lacy sort of 19th century way, or ANY kind of way for that matter.

And scandalous. She had great connections, tho. Wiki says that she was the protegé of Julio A. Roca whom we know from our favorite billete. That probably got her the choice (original) site for the above pictured "
Fuente de las Nereidas" in front of the old Palace Hotel at the corner of Cangallo (now Perón) and Pasco de Julio (now Leandro N. Alem), now the home of the University of Buenos Aires language lab for foreigners! Maybe you know it. If you don't... and you're interested in great lessons in Castellano, as an alum, I recommend it highly.

Too scandalous to keep it there, however. Not only did the blue-haired ladies of the time object to her frolicking nudes...she worked on the piece... get this... WHILE WEARING PANTS!

Anyway, it's a great day to go to the Costanera Sur, chomp a choripán, and hoist a cold beer in honor of la escultora and the sculpture itself.

If you don't make it today... or tomorrow... Thursday's holiday is a perfect occasion as well.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Great place! Somebody should hold a beer festival there!

No! Seriously! What a great location! This year's Baires Beer Festival was held (for the second year in a row, I think,) in an open air space between some old warehouses across from the Jumbo and down a few blocks from the Polo Grounds. The old warehouses were open to the central space and contained more spaces...a big one for the entertainment headliners: Los Cafres and their opening act, Ibrahim Ferrer, Jr. direct from La Habana!

Tonight was the last night of the festival... a festival that I have somehow failed to attend for more than 3 years. I tried to find at least ONE blogger en castellano o ingles that had a post on any of the preceding 3 nights... but to no avail. No importa. Your Yanq is an adventurer at heart and off he went with his beloved for a night of good beer, song and dancing.

The weather was threatening but never made good on the menacing rain. It was all looking good. The goings got on at 18:00 but we arrived at 19:00 just in time for the strains of son to drift over the old, high brickwork of the festival grounds. This had the makings of a good time! $60 pesos poorer we were in the door with the strains of música cubana wafting over a tremendous selection of some of the best "pan líquido" that the original bread-basket of the world has to offer!

¡Compañeros extranjeros!
Do you know that YOU can VOTE in municipal elections here in Buenos Aires?

Something HAS to be done about the law concerning lugares bailables in our fair city.
Let's help vote the bastards out!


Tonight, my first visit to the festival, was absolutely pathetic.

I don't know what the first hour of the "Beer Festival" had to offer... but I imagine that it was the same as the second hour: No Beer.

That's right, no beer allowed to be sold...por ley.

That's was OK, I said to myself and everyone else...the music's good, I can wait a while.

But Noooooo. I wised up a half an hour later to the realization that there would be NO beer until 22:30..."maybe 23:00", me dijo un patovico. Three hours? Maybe 3 and 1/2 hours?

That was it. Mi porteña y yo were back to the boletería politely requesting our pesos back. We got 'em and then it was off for a pleasant "parting gift" in nearby Las Cañitas to outdoor- table- hop the pleasant evening with our unneeded raincoats... with the live music wonderfully audible the half-block away.

This situation is horrible! Tonight's encounter with the post-cromagnon law is only the latest. We spent part of an afternoon this year with the owner of the cutest little corner joint in Monserrat who still has a delicious little baby grand in his tiny place.

He can't play his piano...by law. AND his place is too small to permit a space for smoking. Pardon my lunfardo but he's fucked... and he knows it. It won't be long before he's gone and this incredible city will be a little poorer ...but not in the way that yanquis consider poorer.

(I wait with baited breath a reply from the alluring MsTangoinherEyes on the milonga scene and if she knows how those lovely places avoid the no drinks (not even gaseosas!) during live performances.)

I have a friend of about 25 that is involved in the rockandroll scene here. Tonight's debacle brought back everything he has told me about how he and his friends are slowly atrophying from a lack of venues in which to play and be heard.

This has to stop.

What do you think?

Wanna register to vote? Come with me. We can all go together...let's bring a reporter from the Clarín along!

Saturday, March 03, 2007

"An astronomical spectacle of deep beauty"

Europe, Africa, and the Middle East will be in the best position to enjoy this first total eclipse of the moon in 3 years... but with our propensity for clear skies, we just might get the best look.

The thing is: by the time the moon comes over our horizon it will already be in the early stages of totality. That means don't wait for it to get dark before you check it out.

El Planetario de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires dice:
"The central part of this astronomical show will begin at 7:44pm, when the moon already is completely eclipsed. This stage will reach its maximum at 8:21pm and will extend until 8:58pm. During that 74 minutes, it will be bathed in a smooth reddish-orange light. An astronomical spectacle of deep beauty. Immediately after the totality, the moon will illuminate itself again along one of its edges. And little by little, it will recover its usual aspect, as it escapes the shade cone that projects from the Earth towards space. The eclipse will finish at 10:12pm."
The planetarium will have telescopes and big screen TVs available outdoors and it's free and open to the public. Av. Sarmiento & Av. Figueroa Alcorta (bosques de Palermo).

Friday, March 02, 2007

150 years of Almirante Brown

UPDATE: http://www.westernpeople.ie/news/story.asp?j=35792
UPDATE:http://www.mayoadvertiser.com/index.php?aid=1155

Let us turn our thoughts tomorrow to Downtown Willie Brown... whose fine likeness stands upon a tall base of pink granite at Leandro N. Alem y Cangallo (It's always fun to tell a tachero calle Cangallo instead of calle Perón!) The river actually came up to the monument back in the day.

The Admiral is my favorite Argentine hero and one of my very favorite heroes of all time from anywhere.

Irish, veteran officer of the Royal British Navy, rarely sober, smuggler/ pirate/ buccanner/ privateer/ freebooter/ filibustero (depending on who you ask), and the undisputed Father of the Argentine Navy who never lost a battle and died still in the service of his nation 150 years ago.

He was a Mayoman (from County Mayo) who arrived in capital of the US (then Philadelphia) with his family at the age of 9. Their "sponsor" in Philly died of yellow fever soon thereafter...and only a few days later Willie's father dropped dead from the same disease. His provenance is even in dispute as he may have been the son of his uncle, an Irish priest; in fact, he took his mother surname rather than Gannon (his father's name.)

Destitute and fatherless, they say that "One morning while wandering along the banks of the Delaware River, he met the captain of a ship then moored in port. The captain enquired if he wanted employment and Brown answered yes. The captain then and there engaged him as a cabin boy, thereby setting him on the naval promotion ladder, where he worked his way to the captaincy of a merchant vessel."

He spent 10 years as a merchant seaman until he was "shanghai'd" into the British Navy. This was a common fate for US sailors at the time and a casus bellus for the "War of 1812." He fought Napoleon on the high seas until he was captured by the French. He escaped and ended up in England, via Germany, and quit military service... some say he deserted but it's a matter of opinion because tradition held that a man could not be forced into the Navy twice.

Back in England he married and split for South America the same year. He set himself up as a business man in Montevideo.

As I would have expected, the siren's song soon returned to Brown and he ended up part owner in a ship and he began to "trade" between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Given the year, about 1810, this sort of "trade" would either have been considered contraband or was some of the first legal trade allowed by the newly minted Viceroy of the River Plate. In any case, his good ship Eliza ran aground and sank. Brown got his goods off, sold them, then crossed the Andes to buy a ship of his own: a schooner named "Industría" which he sailed back around the horn and started the first "regular sailing-packet service" in South America...again between BsAs and Uruguay.

Good times... apparently a profitable venture for the ol' seadog. That is until the Spanish got the idea that they'd inadvertently left some money on the table in this deal. The Viceroyalty blew Brownie's new schooner out of the water.

Pissed-off to no end, Brown presented himself to the President of the fledgling nation of Argentina, Posadas, and offered his services. He was appointed Commander in Chief of the Argentine Fleet.

Except that there was no fleet.

I've heard a lot of stories about the "fleet" that Brown was presented with. All the stories say that it was small and in bad condition. I love the story that says that one of the ships even sank before Brown could take delivery. Most say that the boats were conversions to warcraft and/or warships that were beyond their better days.

No matter, literally within hours the almirante flamante was out there pickin' a fight with the Españoles.

The Spanish shot his flagship out from under him but he still got hold of "The Gibraltar of the Rio de la Plata": the island of Martín Garcia. The Spanish fleet lit-out for Montevideo. Brown, having picked up 3 new ships after his first victory, chased them hard and close.

He ended up crushing the Spanish Fleet in Montevideo harbor but not before getting his leg broken by an enemy cannonball. He shouted out battle orders from a stretcher on deck, during which he captured 3 Spanish ships. That was it for Spain down in this neck of the pond.

He got promoted to commander of the entire navy... and, as a token of gratitude, he got to keep his shot-up old flagship as his very own... truth be told, baby-Argentina really didn't have much to give away as prizes.

From then, he never really stopped.

He stomped Brazil with a navy 1/3 their size.

He smashed Uruguay but showed his nobility toward his foe by ordering his men to allow his opposing commander, Giuseppe Garibaldi (later, the founder of the modern Italian state) to escape. He told his men, "Let him go, boys. That gringo is a brave man."

The Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the British all fell before him.

He was lord of the Mar Argentino. So much so that legend has it that when the Argentine dictator Rosas, his boss...everybody's boss, came aboard Brown's flagship for a big din-din, Brown seated himself at the head of the table. When the protocol types reminded him that El Supremo was the top dog, Brown said in his still bad Spanish that “whatever Don Juan Manuel de Rosas might be on land, he, William Brown, was master of his vessels and would sit at the master’s place.”

After things settled down in these waters, he found time to head back to the ol' sod for a visit with his daughter. During the height of the potato famine he gave money for relief and the establishment of the eventual Irish State.

The idea of standing armies and navies, on this side of the pond, were looked upon dimly back then. The US founders hated the whole idea (Hence our 2nd amendment...right to bear arms OR standing armies, not both.) Thus, most soldiers and sailors got furloughed after a war.

But not our Brown. He remained commander until his death and felt pretty good about his legacy.

In the Boca neighborhood here, you can see the Casa Amarilla...but it's only a replica. His original villa was in the neighborhood of Barracas.

As an old man, he received a visitor to his villa: the Admiral Grenfell, his opponent in the Brazilian war. Grenfell started to bitch about how the República Argentina didn't seem to give a damn about the old fighters that midwifed her. Brown told him, "Mr Grenfell, it does not burden me to have been useful to the mother country of my children; I consider the honours and the wealth superfluous when six feet of earth are enough to rest so many difficulties and pains."

If you find yourself strolling through Recoleta cemetary, you can see his simple sea-green column that marks the grave.

On March 3, 1857 he died and was buried with full military honors. The Argentine government issued a communiqué stating that "with a life of permanent service to the national wars that our motherland has fought since its independence, William Brown symbolized the naval glory of the Argentine Republic".

During his burial, the former General, President Bartolomé Mitre famously said:
“If some day, new dangers threaten the shores of our Argentine fatherland and we should find ourselves obliged to confide to our floating timbers the banners of May, the conquering breath of the old admiral will swell our sails, his ghost will grab our helm in the midst of the tempest and his warlike figure will be seen to stand on the top deck of our ships guiding us through the thick of the cannon smoke and the din of the grappling shouts.

Brown in his lifetime, standing on the quarterdeck of his ship, was worth a fleet to us".
Many many great thanks to:
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/William_Brown_%28admiral%29
http://www.irlandeses.org/geraghty040406.htm
http://local.mobhaile.ie/admiralbrownp/AdmiralBrownsLife/tabid/9879/Default.aspx
http://www.browniano.com.ar/altebrown/index.htm
http://www.irlandeses.org/blackfrigate.htm
http://www.deburcararebooks.com/admiral.htm

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Feliz Día del Transporte

Tough day to celebrate the national day of motor transport.

You might want to check out the city's various webcams before you go out.

(Art Frahm/#17 mashup in honor of
Jeff Barry's new series: On the Bus in Buenos Aires!)