Back from ropin' ridin' brandin' castratin', vaccinatin', makin' juryrigged car repairs and gittin' a real ticket from the bonarense...

Smoke Girl says...

I think that the anti-smoking enforcement is easing up just in time for the chilly weather.

I've noticed a few new areas de fumadores in bars/cafes that don't impose the "gas chamber" effect that I see in the law.

Here's one for you in microcentral! Buller's/Microcentral at Paraguay 428. The entire loft-like upstairs is open to smokers.

NerdProgre: La Nacion desmiente a Stiglitz, defiende los años 90

"Pero vamos a los bifes... este indice es una herramienta aceptada academicamente y universalmente por toda la teoría económica, ...........¿no? Bien, la respuesta es ¡NO!"

Did I ever tell you the story about...

...me joining the French Foreign Legion? Well, it's true. Mais qui, Corporal Chef. The best thing about the story is my best friend, from the Sout' Side of Chicago, who was there that day we both enlisted at Fort d'Nogent near Fontenay sous Bois, outside of Paris. Well... I just talked to him and he's in a country music video... Take a look! That's my pal!I absolutely LOVE the way he pounds the desk like he used to down on Iron Street... back when he wasn't A STAR!

Diva has a great series going about how Argentines and extranjeros sometimes inadvertently offend each other

I am become farmer*...

A tremendous business deal negotiated by my wife to turn a substantial portion of the old homestead into cropland is about to be signed...

...but it's another sad chapter in the Argentine beef industry story.

Modern farming is nothing like traditional ranching; it's a poisonous affair not even counting the transgenic seed that will go into the ground (actually, the transgenic thing allows the plant to withstand even more poison than a "normal" plant... hence, less weeds and pests, more soya, corn, whatever.)

80% of our land is not even prime cropland but such is the worldwide demand for grain and oilseed that even we are in the crosshairs of Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill... and, baby, do they ever gots the hairs.

I was recounting the whole sad story to Sexy Spanish Club's husband, Tom Frost, at our party. This pressure is, obviously, irresistible to ranchers in a GOOD financial situation... what that means is it's a no-brainer, manna-from-heaven thang to your average Argentine rancher who, believe me, is not in a good position to resist any kind of cash flow.

We could have, would have resisted the temptation (I'm making excuses here... but they are heartfelt.) but we are faced with a ever-losing proposition raising one of your favorite things about Argentina.

Agriculture and the economy as a whole is under a heavy hand from government policies... most of which I agree with. However, all other sectors of agri-business at least get a "parting-gift" from the government in the way of some kind of subsidy for the added burden.

The beef sector gets more and more restricted without the sops that get thrown to everyone else. Even if there were no Argentine restrictions, world beef producers are subject to "the Hilton quota" which effectively keeps/kept Argentina from taking over the world in terms of prime, fresh cuts of restaurant-quality beef. So that means that even before this, ranchers here were under restrictions that nobody else was under.

I tend to think... and maybe you do too... that there is no other segment of agriculture with which Argentina is so identified as beef. That is not true. Actually we here produce practically all the wheat that is grown in South America (big numbers!) and always have. Practically all the bread that is eaten in Brazil, for example, is from Argentine grain: wheat won't grow well in hot climates.

But wheat is not famous... great steak is.

I fear that the beef that made Argentina famous will go the way of North America... and be produced mostly in feedlots. Feedlot beef producers are benefiting from the restrictions on and subsidies given to grain producers here.

When good grass-fed beef goes... and it's going... it will be very, very difficult to re-instate.

Our ranch is as organic as it gets. After we soak a goodly portion in 2-4-D/glyfosato it will be years before we could stop and reverse the situation. Even then, I probably would never in my lifetime be able to hold my head up as high as I do today when the mention arises of truly natural, organic, grass-fed beef.

In our area, we are among the first to make this decision... but there is an outer ring of ranches many kilometers from us that have been doing this for a while.

Come Spring, I'll be surprised if everyone in our neck of the pampas hasn't made the same decision... and grassland on which dinosaurs actually trod will be soy.

* apologies to the Bhagavad Gita

What a recipe for disaster

(click on the thumbnails to enlarge)

Take one rainy night in Buenos Aires... add a strangely named joint that no one has heard of... or been to... in a part of town where few of us live... sit back and watch NOBODY show up.

But that's not what happened!

A blog studded turnout by any standard is what happened, graced by none other than the mysterious 99 of lalilita.blogspot.com, Malaya and Maya and her husband Tom of Sexy Spanish Club, Holly y su novio Beto y Tobias of Tango in her Eyes, Alan Patrick of buenostours.com, Ken of Un año sin Primavera, Malcolm and Pericles of Greek in Argentina, Kiki from Buenos Aires Daily, Empresario Leonardo Blumencweig, Artist Marina Riscino, Traveller Brendan... and... I can't remember who else (we'll update as memory serves.)

A great crowd even considering those poor souls whom the weather understandably kept away.

Service was excellent at BIG MAMMA'S which has the best area de fumadores in all of Buenos Aires.

I hope to see you all at next year's bash... and sooner.

Thanks to all again,
Mike

We've got a nice line up of "yes's" to the party... people you'll like. I wish you could ALL be there! If you can't and would like to buy a round... please scroll to the bottom of the FREE BEER post below and consider chuckin' in a donation that's guaranteed to go toward the bar bill.
Thanks,
Mike

Free Beer - Saturday, April 21, 5:00 - 7:00pm

Big Mamma's
Juramento 2156
Belgrano - 4781-0093

Come lift a couple- two- tree glasses of ice cold beer on the Yanq and maybe meet some like minded people!

Just my way of saying thanks to all of you that have made the past year a pleasure for me to write.

Stop by... put a face to a blog or two... relax.

The unfortunately named Big Mamma's is actually a very pretty, glass/ steel/ Mies looking joint. Here's a map. It's 3 blocks from the Juramento subte and 5 blocks from the Belgrano C station on the Mitre line.

For those of you all over the world that can't make it, you can show your love by ponying up to the bar to extend the evening (courtesy of Paypal!) We will toast you with kisses below the equator, post some pictures, and maybe post a roll of honor listing those that kept the good times rolling by sending a donation!

p.s. If you wanna R.S.V.P...feel free to do so in the comments. Otherwise just drop by for a cold one.

Google opens regional HQ in Buenos Aires. Fernando Cassia reports for the UK's Inquirer

1yr. of Yanqui Mike

.
One year and
10,000 visits.

Gracias,
Mike



...special thanks to new reader Dana!

Kurt Vonnegut dead at 84

Neuquén & the Country, for Carlos Fuentealba... I'm embarrassed by leaving comments like "excellent", "splendid." Read it yourself.

The Lexington Incident Part 3

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

The Argentina into which the seized US ship Harriet sailed in July of 1831 was still in disarray from its revolution 15 years earlier.

An attempt at a constitutional government with a President had failed and the former Provinicias Unidas del la Plata was now known as the Argentine Confederation with the Governor of Buenos Aires appointed to conduct foreign affairs.

The US had recognized its independence in 1820 and had gotten off to a terrific start with the diplomatic personnel sent here. Caesar Augustus Rodney, former US Congressman, US Senator, US Attorney General, US Army Capitan during the "War of 1812" and possibly the foremost US expert on South America was appointed his country's first Minister Plenipotentiary to the fledgling Argentina.

He presented himself to the Argentine government in 1823, endeared himself to Argentines everywhere, and promptly died, June 10, 1824, and was buried in Barrio Retiro on calle Juncal between Esmeralda and Suipacha.

Leading Rodney's funeral cortege was the man who would soon replace him: the US chargé d'affaires, John Murray Forbes.

The scion of one of the great "yankee trader" families and former Harvard classmate of John Quincy Adams, Forbes practiced law for a short time in Boston and moved to Europe in the late 1790s. From 1801 to 1819, he served as consul for the US, first in Copenhagen and then in Hamburg, paying particular attention to commercial issues. When he returned to the US, he was asked by Adams, then Secretary of State, to represent the U.S. in Argentina in regards to shipping and other business matters.

Forbes career was marked by both a great admiration for Argentina and a great concern over the United Kingdom's efforts to turn it into a de facto colony. He spent years constantly communicating his alarm to his own government and to the officials in Buenos Aires but to no avail.

While the US was the only competition for the UK during Forbes' years in Buenos Aires, it was very small competition. The US was either unwilling or unable to take the necessary steps to compete with Britain's bigger ships, bigger banks, and bigger business connections, and bigger diplomatic corps in Argentina.

In the end, the yanqui shipments of Chinese silk and affordable cotton goods were looked upon by Great Britain as an annoyance easily crushed. Increased trade with Argentina could also have annoyed Spain, a major US trading partner at the time.

While Forbes howled in the wilderness, political instability in the young US led his old pal Adams to be defeated after one term. With the presidency of Andrew Jackson came a new US consul to Buenos Aires, George Washington Slacum.

Slacum, by all accounts was a most disagreeable man who was a thorn in the old man's side until Forbes too was buried in Retiro near his predecessor, June 14, 1831.

Slacum then seized Forbes' old post and, with the help of a one-armed war-hero US sea capitan, changed the course of Islas Malvinas / Falklands Islands history.

The Lexington Incident Part 2

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

Yanqui involvement in the Malvinas, curiously, began way back in 1820 with its first Argentine governor, Daniel Jewett. The 48 year old Jewett; born in New London, Connecticut; had acted as a privateer for the US during its "War of 1812" against the British.

Jewett later offered his services to the newly-independent United Provinces of the River Plate (later Argentina), which accepted his proposal and authorized his corsair activities against the Spanish; he was appointed Colonel in the Argentine Navy.

He was given command of the frigate Heroina in 1820 and set out on a voyage marked by misfortune, a mutiny, and scurvy. Some 80 of his crew of 200 were either sick or dead by the time he arrived in October at Puerto Soledad (formerly Port Louis), the one-time Spanish capital of the Malvinas/Falkland Islands. There he found some fifty British and U.S. sealing ships, whose presence had not been authorized by either the Spanish or the authorities at Buenos Aires.

On 6 November 1820 he raised the blue-and-white flag of what would become Argentina.

Seals and sealing ships were important everywhere in the Atlantic at that time along with whaling and other fishing.

Jewett soon left the islands but seal hunting remained an important source of revenue for the Malvinas. So much so that 9 years later, the new Argentine governor, Luis Vernet, was granted a monopoly on seal hunting in the Malvinas as part of his salary.

Vernet was a successful Buenos Aires businessman with extensive dealings in and around the islands. The new government in Argentina hoped that his appointment could keep poaching under control in Argentine waters.

Luis Vernet was apparently a good choice for the job. He immediately found at least one ship, the yanqui merchant Harriet, poaching seals. He seized her, and sent her to Buenos Aires along with her captain to stand trial.

That might have seemed like standard operating procedure to the new governor but it started a chain of events with another fledgling nation north of the equator that reverberates to this day.

The Lexington Incident Part 1

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

Of all the periods in American history, the years 1825 to 1840 are least studied by diplomatic historians. The reason for this lack of attention is usually ascribed to an absence of important diplomatic events. As Thomas A. Bailey wrote, "The chronicle of American foreign affairs from 1825 to 1840 is not thickly studded with striking developments. During no other period of similar length prior to 1872 does the student of diplomacy find so little significance to record." This position, however, is in need of revision. There was, in fact, at least one significant development during this period which merits the attention of diplomatic historians.

Between 1831 and 1833, the United States became involved with Argentina in a dispute over events which occured at the Falkland Islands. The ensuing crisis was considered so important at the time that it was the subject of two state of the union addresses by President Andrew Jackson. Moreover, the incident brought the United States to the brink of war with Argentina and resulted in a prolonged cessation of diplomatic relations between the two nations

And so begins our little tale of how the whole Malvinas imbroglio comes to today, 176 years later... and 25 years after the war between the last Argentine dictatorship and Margaret Thatcher's 1980's Britain.

In the interest of full-disclosure, I firmly believe that the Malvinas belong to Argentina and before them Spain. Not only that, this writer can point to more than 3 treaties signed by the United Kingdom acknowleging that the islands belong to Argentina.

What fascinates me, however, is the relatively untold involvement of the United States in this fiasco; something that is not taught to school children in the US, Argentina, nor the UK.

It was not a small matter.

In fact, had it not been for the actions of a one-armed, war-hero, US Navy Captain; an incompetent US Consul in Buenos Aires; and a meddling UK, still smarting from the loss of its New World holdings...the tiny, desolate, wind-swept, gloomy islands might still be under the Argentine flag and there would be no commemorations of an undeclared war described by Jorge Luis Borges "as two bald men fighting over a comb."

The Lexington Incident in the Falklands

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

The Malvinas war and the UK's dispute over its sovereignty bores me.

As I tried to show in my little post last month, the United Kingdom signed at least 3 treaties recognizing that the islands belong to Spain then Argentina before taking them by force in 1833, deporting all the Argentines, and transplanting Brits there to replace them. End of Story.

In my fact checking, however, I ran across the bizarre story of the USS Lexington and the United States destruction of the Argentine colony. I had never heard a word of this before.

Not only is the story absolutely fascinating but the illegal yanqui smashing of the Malvinas appears to be the cause of the whole sad chain of events leading to the British theft and West-Bank style repopulation, to the 1982 war, to the events of today.

It's got a cast of characters that could be pulled right out of the current West Wing, international terrorists (um...pirates!) and is filled with last-gasp colonial meddling by a dying empire. A tale of our times, if you'll only suspend a little disbelief.

It's all been written before (like I said, I only learned about it while wiki/googling only 3 weeks ago) but I gotta write it again.

I hope you enjoy it... 'cause it's gonna take up a lot of this blog's time.

Buenos Aires Nat'l Wildlife Refuge Panders to Angloparlantes!

I don't know about you... but I think the US Fish and Wildlife Service has OVERSTEPPED IT'S BOUNDS! What is the US Government doing laying claim to Buenos Aires wildlife???

No more CNN or BBC?

Where did channel 5 and 72 go? Does anybody know?
Cablevisión makes no mention of it on their website.