Why Argentina?

I need some help here, dear readers. If you could, explain to me the attention that La República is getting in the angloparlante press (I admit that I don't follow the presse, Press, stampa, or even the prensa outside of América.)

We're a relatively small country with little impact on the world stage. The government at Buenos Aires comes in 3rd or 4th in influence even here in South America.

So why the sudden scrutiny?

The admittedly "tin" parts of my hat started to buzz a little with the widely reported "bloodbath" in the Argentine bond markets over the Kirchner creativity with inflation figures.

There's no way the Yanq would last a day as a bond trader... but even a dope like me would have dropped RA bonds like a hot potato months ago when the K's started in to tweakin'. That the crash and/or it's reporting would come during election week here was having trouble passing my smell test... but I let it slide.

Now comes "THE RETURN OF PRICE CONTROLS" by Newsweek columnist Daniel Gross in today's Slate.com. My crap-detector always goes off when any headline or article contains any variations on the phrase "cry for me"... but I let that slide too and started reading the article.

Lo and behold, (after a blurb mentioning "moonbats led by Hugo Chavez") three countries are profiled in the piece: #1 Argentina, #2 Russia, #3 China.

I'm not sure Argentina even deserves to be included in a discussion of price controls (have YOU felt any controls on the prices you pay?) but #1 ARGENTINA?!? Very interesting. What gives?

Mr. Gross starts off by mentioning this country's economy expanding faster than almost any other for the last five years in a row... and the resulting inflation that came with it. He goes on to say,

"President Néstor Kirchner, eager to pave the way for his wife, Cristina, to succeed him and wary of taking the tough fiscal steps necessary to contain inflation, has taken cues from northern neighbors Venezuela and the United States."

...but he never mentions what cues he is talking about. If anybody can help me understand what he's referring to, please do.

He does, however, point to "price controls on energy" and cites an Economist story from back in June. But the Economist doesn't mention price controls:

"During Argentina's 2001-02 economic crisis, the government forcibly converted all energy tariffs from dollars to pesos, representing a cut of nearly two-thirds in their real value. Since then, only a handful of modest increases have been permitted, resulting in energy prices that are some 40% lower than those in neighbouring countries."

Maybe the Econ is too intelligent to apply the term price controls to the measures taken here during that cataclysmic period. 40% lower energy prices also sounds like something of an achievement to me... how 'bout you? What would the country look like today if you took that 40% away?

But he points to one more price control (before, again closing with the universally-known creativity with inflation figures and the zinger: "now Cristina Kirchner is going to have to clean up her husband's mess." (Forgive my obvious ignorance at thinking that every Argentine president for the past 24 years would love to have had "her husband's mess" to clean up.)

Last year, as the New York Times reported, Kirchner "sought to persuade producers and stores to agree to voluntary freezes on prices of hundreds of products, including sugar, flour, noodles, bread, shampoo and pencils."

He also says that those attempts at voluntary persuasion "didn't work". Come on! Somebody hep me, hep me please! Where's the price controls and why do we deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Russia and China?

Is the article simply a poorly written one or is it pointing to some importance that Daniel Gross can't bring himself to mention?

(full disclosure: The Kirchners have seriously damaged my family's ability to make a living during the past 4 years... I have no personal reason to defend them.)

Man down in Recoleta...

A Texan in Argentina has the story...

Reuters: Prices up 9% Over Last Year

By Cesar Illiano and Lucas Bergman

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Rising commodities prices are stoking inflation in Latin America, a trend that will force monetary officials to further raise interest rates to stop their booming economies from overheating.

Analysts say rising global demand for raw materials such as oil, grains and biofuels, coupled with high public spending by Latin American governments is creating a potentially dangerous inflation cocktail in the region, though for now the situation remains under control.

"Governments will be obliged to tighten monetary policies because the phenomenon of inflation will continue to grow due to domestic consumption, " said Enrique Alvarez, Latin America debt strategist with IDEAglobal.

Interest rate rises, increasing reserve requirements for banks, or reduced public spending are among restrictive policies that could be coming as Latin American governments seek to tame price rises.

Earlier this year inflation concerns were concentrated in Venezuela, which has double-digit inflation, and Argentina, where consumer prices are up almost 9.0 percent over the last 12 months.

Happy Mothers' Day Argentina!

(foto by Mrs. Y. Mike)

We're back from the campo in time to spend Mothers' Day at my cuñado's quinta. If it surprises you that we Buenos Aires types celebrate the day in October ...well, it's spring down here. It might also surprise yanqui types that Moms' Day in the US originated as a call to unite women against war.

The splendid foto above by my missus shows the delightful addition to our menagerie that appeared on her mother's birthday just 10 days ago: "Milagros", our new yeguita.

The little foal is of the "gateado" coloring and is strangely rangely. I think that you can see that her legs are already almost as long as her mother's. She almost looks like a giraffe!

Tobiana, her mom, is a first timer ...but she's got all the earmarks of a pro. I've never seen any mother, anywhere, of any species so attentive and nurturing. She keeps her new daughter a bit apart from the rest and is constantly nudging and caressing her and communicating with her the strange new world and its ways. Friday night's sudden rain and thunder and lightening was impressive even by ol' timer standards ...and the little filly's first. She stood snuggled next to her mama who kept the brunt of the downpour from her.

Wishing all mommies, new and old, a lovely day,
Mike

If the Malvinas/Falklands War never made any sense to you...

...don't feel bad. It was never reported very well in the press, especially the Yanqui and British press. So if it all looked to you like it did to Borges, let's take a look at a quiet little development in the 175 year old, ongoing conflict... without the anglo-centric cheerleading regarding that "splendid little war."

BBC: The UK is looking to claim sovereignty over a large area of the remote seabed off Antarctica.

If you are a nationality other than Argentinean, Chilean, British, Australian, French, Norwegian, New Zealandian, or Nazi German ...claims to pieces of the Antarctic may strike you as strange. No other countries recognize antarctic territorial claims, they just sort of ignore them.

And the claims are easy to ignore. There has never been a permanent population on Antarctica and the only military operations allowed are of the peaceful research type.

Some claims make a little more sense than others. The proximity of Argentina, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand tends to lend a bit of weight. Other claims simply smack of a colonialism that is supposed to be dead by various treaties.

Back to the Malvinas/Falkands.

If the British reaction to the Argentine military 25 years ago surprised you (before the TV screen filled up with Jacks and Spangles), the BBC story will help explain why the Royal Navy and Marines sailed to the other side of the globe, during an economic recession, to rescue a lot of sheep and some people that the Crown was in the middle of negotiating away.

Had Argentina been successful in repelling the Brits by force (everybody knows who won that game... but few remember that it went into "double-overtime"), British claims to Antarctica would have been in big trouble. The Malvinas and a scattering of other islands in the South Atlantic are all tied into territorial claims to the continent and the seabed surrounding it.

Currently, international treaties prohibit all nations from mining and oil/gas extraction.

"British Antarctica is one of a number (of claims) being prepared by the Foreign Office, a spokeswoman said.

Even if granted, those rights would not allow Britain to contravene the treaty that prohibits oil and gas tapping under the seabed.

The spokeswoman labelled the move "a safeguard for the future."

Sí, Juan. Less than 10 years ago, oil sold for a little more than $10/barrel. Today, it is reaching for $90. The British may simply be hoping that the treaty dissolves diplomatically so that BP can get to drillin' ...or the treaty might just slip in the shower like the multiple treaties the Brits signed regarding Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas (Que chicagueños son los britanicos, eh?)

But with those kinds of prices, you can afford to throw a little muscle around (Hey! You might even consider invading and occupying several sovereign middle-eastern countries that never lifted a finger against you!)

But seriously, I ask you, if there's oil down there in that god-forsaken pie wedge... who do you think it belongs to? Don't forget to also tell me why your heart and mind tells you that.

Danos Hoy nuestro Pan Cotidiano

Tuesday the 16th is World Bread Day!

Flour, water, yeast, salt... and maybe a little prayer is not such a bad idea this year as we break some of the crunchy stuff here in one of the true breadbaskets of the world.

Argentina, mainly Buenos Aires Province, produces a staggering amount of wheat: 70% of all the wheat in South America and is at least 5th in the world in exports. That has kept bread cheap and on the table all over the globe for about a century.

But today wheat is losing it's 12,000 year old starring role among grains. It cannot be genetically modified as easily as corn, soy and rice and increasing amounts of wheatland are being converted to corn and soybeans in the race to feed automobiles instead of people.

The UN estimates that worldwide stores of wheat are at their lowest point in 26 years. The US and Australia, both enormous producers, haven't seen their reserves drop this low since 1948.

The price of wheat this year alone has risen from about U$4.00/bu. to over U$9/bu. Those higher prices have caused countries that still have large stores of wheat to sell and reduce stockpiles even more.

The price has dropped a bit recently on anticipation that more farmers will switch to growing wheat to take advantage of these record prices. However, there is every indication that they will not. The lure of corn and soybeans, with their GM yields and government sponsored fuel programs, is just too strong.

You don't eat bread? Well, don't forget her twin, barley. Essential to beer, prices for this grain are also at record levels and what stockpiles exist may not remain for long. Barley is actually more difficult to grow than wheat in that it is more sensitive to climate changes. Prices for "liquid bread" are already climbing with no end yet in sight but are mitigated somewhat by megabrewers' long-term contracts with barley growers. Microbrewers cannot protect themselves from barley prices quite as well.

The price of bread has already risen... in some parts of the world it has already skyrocked... but bakers and their suppliers have generally swallowed some of the costs so as not to completely shock consumers. Next year's World Bread Day could see a different story when fewer acres of the world are planted in wheat and world stockpiles are even smaller.

Be it crusty pan de campo or buttery brioche, do yourself a favor today... get to that little gem of a neighborhood panadería and take a moment to truly savor one of the great human pleasures.

A new addition

Mi suegra celebrated her 85th birthday Thursday and among all her lovely gifts was a true surprise: a brand new baby Criollo horse born to our Tobiana.

Argentine Criollo horses are famous throughout the world's horsey people. By not much more than benign neglect (the Criollo was never sufficiently cheto for the richest country in South America), the Argentine examples of this breed are considered the closest to the original horses brought by the conquistadores.

They share the same story as their shipmates the cows. After the first attempt at settling the argentine failed, the cows and horses of the original settlers escaped into the endless pampas where they found a heaven on earth... all to themselves and nary a predator anywhere. About 40 years later when the Europeans came back the place was covered with cows... and horses.

The Criollo is kind of small and powerful; their 15th century forebears were considered the best that Spain had to offer. The natural selection that took place over the centuries also produced in them tremendous disease resistance and a stamina that befits an area half again as large as their mother country. The breed finally got its propers when in 1928 an Argentine professor with no riding experience rode two of them from Buenos Aires to Washington DC and became a household name all over the New World.

Our little colt's mother is named Tobiana. The name comes from her coloring, a dark and light pattern that a cowboy might call "paint". The term "tobiano" is used by breeders all over the world and comes from Argentina.

The Brazilian General Rafael Tobías de Aguiar apparently had a preference for this coloring in his war horses. Argentine troops probably had contact with him during the War of the Triple Alliance... and came back home with a new name for the coloring: "tobiano", after General Tobías.

Oh, yeah! I mentioned that the blessed event was a surprise to Mamá and all of us. That's because we didn't know that Tobiana was pregnant! When we bought her early this year we realized she was pregnant. That was sort of bad news in that we needed her for work and wouldn't really be able to push her since she was in the family way.

The horse-trader (a man named Castellano with the most amazingly "horse-like" face I've ever seen on a human!) agreed to take her back. But she was so pretty that we decided to bust the budget and instead go back and buy her best friend, Mora (another "color" name.)

We vacillated for months but after a while, we decided that Tobiana wasn't pregnant at all! We all came to the conclusion that Tobiana was just a little fat and a little more disposed to play rather than work (it's not really easy sometimes to tell if a horse is pregnant just by looking.)

So we put her to work but not all that much because we now had her buddy to share the load. Just last month, in fact, one of our more obstreperous cows ran up and head-butted Tobiana in the ribs sending her and rider flying! Now she doesn't wanna work at all.

So when she gave birth on Mommy's birthday it was surprising and hilarious and kind of shocking that she didn't lose her colt in the "Liverpool Kiss" from the vaca whom I have now named Zidana.

Al Gore Wins

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/world/13nobel.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The 2nd Quaffers Cerveza Meeting

Wednesday, October 17th in Boedo
"Be there or be sober."
R.S.V.P required...

Things Argentines can't believe about the US #352

One evening I mentioned to the owner of the Buenos Aires Expatriates Group that I feel that a poor Argentine has a much better chance of getting medical care than a poor Yanqui. He literally sputtered in red, white & blue indignation and said that I had become an "America hater."

El Che. 40 years gone.

Photo of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda, March 1960

Cuban photographer Alberto "Korda" Gutierrez' (1928-2001) photograph of Che Guevara, at the memorial service for the victims of the 5 March 1960 explosion of the Belgian arms transport "La Coubre" which exploded in Havana harbour, killing 136 people.

At the time, Korda was a staff photographer for the Cuban newspaper "Revolution," and used a Leica camera to photograph two frames of the subject, who appeared briefly on stage during a lengthy speech by Fidel Castro, then departed.

The original photograph is a 6x10 inch (15.2 x 25.4 cm) silver-gelatin print, and entitled Guerrillero heroico (Heroic Warrior).

What did YOU do last night?

We know what Pau did. How 'bout you?

Beans. They're Good for your Heart!

There's actually a lot of clinical evidence that your burnt bean beverage is very good for you!
coffee in buenos aires
But what's REALLY good for you is the above collection of the apparati that your friendly neighborhood bloggers use to prepare said beverage. Give it a click if you like.

As I was briefing the Mysterious Missus, halfway thru, on this little project she reminded me that it had been done before by Ms. Tango regarding handbags. I immediately remembered the post from a while back but I couldn't find a link. (Birthday Girl... please clue us in on that fine blast from the past.)

Anyway, the assemblage of these very personal items began to look almost pornographic as the raw fotos began to come over (you know...everybody's got one and they all look different and all that!) But now that they are arranged in neat little rows, they appear much, much more tame.

Special thanks to Tex who was one of three (19%!) who do not even try to prepare coffee en casa when there is a deelicious boliche just steps away...por supuesto que sí! His great foto of a downed doble became our icon for those like minded.

Now. Let's get to the bifes, as Fernando Cassia would say! All a youse out there that are like me in that sometimes... most of the times... can't face the vareda without a jolt already under your belt, where do you get the grind that satisfies? Mine's the Establecimiento General de Café on Pueyrredón... where's yours? And why?

(Oh...btw... some of my staff haven't gone to lunch yet because the importance of your promised foto is "#1" here at The Official Journal of Yanqui Mike... apurate, eh.)

paso a paso

Ever since the redesign, we've slowly activated the links at the header of this blog. They are clickable and, we hope, contain info that you'll enjoy and use.
.....The last to be activated will be the DemosAbroad link which, we hope, will amaze you in its coverage of next year's US House and Senate races. If you are a yanqui, we hope you'll consider joining the Democratic Party Abroad.

Your Set of Works

The subject of coffee in Buenos Aires has again reared her lovely cabeza morocha. My muse of the morning craves attention almost as much as I crave her so I'm happy to see the discussions.

Rightly so, the talk is of cafés mostly. Not to frequent cafés with friends or linger alone with a newspaper in this fine coffee town would be a sin and a shame. It follows that some controversy should surround the impending arrival of the Nipple-less Navel-less Nereida of the North. It goes to show that we take our coffee seriously.

The subject of en grano para la casa, however, takes too much of a back seat for my taste. This is especially so considering the astonishing undrinkability of ANY of the supermarket brands. You'd think a yanqui could muddle through any sort of lousy coffee but no. All of them are way too... too... BAD! Something Maciej Ceglowski said best in this post of his, possibly the greatest quick-take (he wasn't here very long!) on Argentine food ever written:

"Other dangers lurk in the Argentine pantry. Worst and most puzzling in a country settled by Italians is the horrible ground coffee. Most cafés and restaurants serve good espresso, but you are in the wilderness as soon as you try to find something you can brew at home. The idea of purchasing beans to grind seems to be a great novelty - it took several days of hunting to find both a grinder and something to put in it. Grocery store coffee is inevitably sold pre-ground and roasted with sugar, giving it a dark color and the taste and aroma of burnt socks. It's possible that coffee, like Argentine yogurt, is just meant as a delivery mechanism for sugar."

Good beans can be had and taken home... you just have to look a little.

But what do you do with them once you get them back to la cocina?

No, I'm serious. What do YOU do with ground coffee at home?

Every junkie needs his set of works. What's yours? Tell us. Send a foto!

For me, it's the "italiana" pictured above. Not exactly as pictured above because in the morning I, à la Borges, recoil from any shiny surfaces in which I might see my reflection. Mine is double-dipped in black teflon.

If you're a foreign film fan sort of yanqui, you've seen these in every european kitchen.

I absolutely adore mine. It can't compare to a good espresso machine... but it's so much better than a bad espresso machine. And it takes up less precious kitchen space than anything of comparable importance to your mental health.

It's not a percolator. A percolator boils the water and the resultant coffee over and over again, passing it each time through the grounds until it's concentrated to your taste. That over-and-over action destroys a lot of the volatile oils that makes fresh roasted coffee so pleasing.

Nope. The cafetera italiana blows the boiling water and steam through the coffee only once, similar to a real espresso machine. Although, the italiana will never reach the number of atmopheres of pressure that allows the real machines and some of the better home models to achieve "crema" (sometimes known as "nirvana").

The "little fella" (more on that later) can do this because of his ingenious design best left to wikipedia to describe. If you really pack your grounds into it... you get a brew comparable to espresso. Delicious and convenient in your nakedness as you coax yourself into the shower.

The machine was invented in 1930's Italy by Alfonso Bialetti and the original is known for it's "little man" logo. Europe has been riddled with knock-offs ever since. The Argentine version is identical and the Volturno site makes no reference to the design's provenance.

The story of its creation is wrapped up in the fascism of the day and is chronicled in this terrific history:

During the 1920's Bialetti noticed the laundry methods used by local women. The wash was boiled in tubs with a central pipe in the middle. This pipe would draw the soapy water up and redistribute it over the laundry. Bialetti's creative mind brought him to the conclusion that a simple coffee machine could be fashioned on this model and could produce real "espresso type" coffee in the private home.

Entonces, drop us a line, leave a comment, tell us what you use to fix at home!

What a month it was.

The lovely missus and I made 3 forays deep into province during September. Each visit was startlingly different and demonstrated the many powerful moods of pachamama as she dreams in Winter and her Spring morning ablutions.

We were there working with the hacienda (herd) on the 1st of the month. The condition of the land was enough to test nerves of steel. We'd had almost no measurable rainfall for close to 3 months... the first such dry Winter in many many years. On top of that, the areas we have leased to "the planters" had been doused liberally with herbacide in anticipation of corn and soybeans, giving the horizons an even more exaggerated brown.

The soils in our neck of the pampas have a rather high component of clay. This is generally a good thing for pasture land in that, even though rain is not readily absorbed into the surface, it stays longer once it soaks in. Another aspect of clay is that it can get hard as a brick during prolonged drought. Through good business practices and lots of delicious dumb-luck, we had reduced the size of our herd this winter to the point that we actually had excess pasture for our lovely beasts. Other ranchers in the area did not and could be found close to tears regarding the condition of their cows and were forced to send many excellent but skinny animals to market where they of course brought much less money... or they watched them die in the fields. Our animals looked so beautiful and we had so much pasto... we were embarrassed during a tour we gave to a ranchers group on the first.

Then came the rains. Then came the rains. Then came the rains. Our head-gaucho, Miguel, reported that the whole operation looked more like a river than an estancia. The amount of standing water in the whole area was impressive ...in some spots more than I've ever seen in my few years here.

Our place is about 200mi/300km from where I sit. Most of the journey is by good highways and roads. The last 25km, however, is good old-fashioned dirt roads. I will add that they are best damned dirt roads I've ever seen! Compacted by traffic and maintained by the condado (county), they are so serviceable that even the most pampered yanqui could not defend the expediture it would take to pave them (unless, of course, he had cousin in the roadpaving business... one of the reasons that the rural US has so many paved rural roads!)

After normal to heavy rains, the dirt roads are impassable. 4x4's are the last to leave and the first to venture back onto the mud dancefloor... but there is a period during which only an idiot would make a run with any wheeled vehicle.

Entonces, it was the 21st, the first day of Spring before we could make it back. The difference was eye-blinkingly astonishing. Storybook springtime. Cinematic springtime. Central casting springtime. Edith Head Springtime! Where everything was lying about half-dead in brown sackcloth now was draped in green velvet. Every flower and tree was in full bloom... I never even saw the buds! The huge bay laurel tree/bush is heavy with its weird deliriously scented blossoms and the air is indescribably soft and sweet and mild. Narcotic. Any extranjero that has spent a spring in capital or the province... and knows of a deeper, sweeter, longer Spring anywhere on the planet... please write to me!

We just got back from our 3rd visit yesterday. The sun and the wind and the soil had each taken their share of the standing water and our ranch was back to beautiful normal. The picture at the top is from Saturday. There is an expression in castellano very similar to English, "Like a pig in flowers! (¡Como un chancho entre flores!) The foto is of one of our young bulls standing in sweet green spring grass that is being snowed-upon by flowering pear trees. I hope you can see the petals on his big black shoulders.

We got a call from Miguel this morning, though. It is raining again (¡Baldazos! Me dijo.) That's fine. So fine. The previous rains and the later break have softened up the soils and they'll be able to take much much more ...and hold it in the soil.

Spring is a good time for beginning in general and could be a good an especially good time to begin a series on what it takes (...at least, "has taken") for a city born and bred yanqui to become a gentleman rancher in Argentina. If I can get this series off the ground, thanks go to Pieter, my cattleman friend in South Africa, who is investigating a move to our fair país. His questions forced me to put to paper some of the figures that a real rancher should be able to rattle off the top of his head but I could not. If you're reading, Piet, I just realized that I owe you an email! Gads! Sorry I forgot.

Along with the good grounding in the numbers that I now have I expect to put some of the tasty cultural differences between capital and campo.

You can also follow how much work we do, how much fun we have, how much food we eat... and if we make some money or lose our ass between now and next spring.

Somewhere along the way, there'll be a temendous asado for any and all readers brave enough to cross the Río Salado. Don't worry. It's a lot safer since some guy named Rosas swept through a while back.