Week 12/26

Observations and remarks about Buenos Aires & Argentina:

• I'd like to thank Hanan Al-Hajri for her excellent articles about the country and its capital, published in Al-Qabas (Read: 1 - 2) there's also a third article, but I couldn't find it.

• The city looks like a mix of Paris, Italy, Spain, Cairo, Beirut, and -of course- Latin America.

• Although surrounded by greenery & bordered on the river side by an ecological reserve, the air quality in the city is bad during rush hours, mainly because of trucks and buses. During my last week there was a huge fire in the river delta, its smoke made Buenos Aires unbearable - sometimes.

• The population of Buenos Aires is slightly more than 3 million, but the population of Greater Buenos Aires is 13 million, more than one third of the country's population, from the filthy rich to poor ghettos and slums inhabitants. This may explain the socio-economic difference that reflect politically, every now and then, between those 13 million and other Argentines.

• Most of the population ancestries are from Spain (especially Galicia), in addition to Italy, Germany, Arab countries (Lebanon & Syria) and the native/indigenous population.

• Since a sizable minority of the population have italian passports, and less with spanish ones, you can see ads of candidates to the italian senate or Zapatero on buses or buildings.

• The Argentines call their compatriots from the south "penguins", even if they live somewhere else. If you see some books, comics or graffiti of two penguins, they're the current & former president Cristina & her husband Nestor Kirchner.

• Cinemas regularly show several american movies with english subtitles, not like Spain where they dub them in spanish.

• American means from the Americas (the two continents) and Americans, form the US, are called Norte Americanos (north americans) to distinguish them from other Americanos.

• The most seen ad/logo in Argentina is Quilmes, their national beer. Quilemes ads in Buenos Aires are like CCTV cameras in London.

• "En esta local hay WiFi" Wifi is every where there, mostly free and open, but not satisfactorily fast.

• Prices are very cheap compared to europe, but they're rising eventually. Cigarettes are cheaper than Kuwait (3-5 pesos = 250-400 fils) and a taxi ride to the airport costs around 30-35 pesos (2.5-3 KD).

• Demonstrations and rallies are regular activities in the capital.

• Mate is their national drink, you could see anyone sipping mate... anywhere. (I had some today).

• Although Latin American Spanish is slightly different from Spanish in Spain, Argentines have their own differences in words, accent and pronunciation.

• Argentines call their president by her first name "Cristina" to distinguish her from her husband & predecessor former president Nestor Kirchner, known as "Kirchner". Cristina is the first democratically elected female president of Argentina.

• I bought a new lens there (85mm f/1.8D) and I got a good price for it, although imported products are expensive, but I think no one was interested in this lens.

Next post: 40 hours in Santiago

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حقوق الاجانب
أعتقد أن ثلثي سكان الكويت شبه غائبون عن البرامج الانتخابية لمرشحي انتخابات مجلس الأمة
أعلم أن هذين الثلثين ليسا من مواطني دولة الكويت، ولكن لا يستطيع أحد أن ينكر مساهمتهم الكبيرة في اقتصاد البلد ونهضته منذ ثلاثينيات القرن الماضي إلى اليوم وغدا

هل سبب ذلك العنصرية والفوقية واللامبالاة أم كونهم ليسوا بمواطنين وحسب؟
أعلم أن هناك مواضيع أهم بنظر البعض، ولكن تفكروا فقد تكتشفون أن حماية أجنبي من التسفير بسبب تجاوز الإشارة أهم من إسقاط القروض.. على الأقل هذه وجهة نظري