LOST In Buenos Aires

I don´t know about you, but Pelado (formerly known as Mr.T) and I are addicted to the TV show LOST. Well one day a couple months back on our way to Isa´s pediatrician, I spotted a carbon copy of the actor and fellow blogger Jorge Garcia who plays Hugo Reyes, waiting for a collectivo. The Pelado took this photo, which somehow ended up as an uncredited photo on InfoBAE.com

Crazy Ideas

Life has been extremely busy these past five months, and is going to require a completely different post.

Tango In Her Eyes, may be the title of this blog. Tango brought me to Argentina, but it is love that kept me here. Love for the country, love for a man and the love of my family.

Argentina holds a special place in my heart, and so does my homeland Canada, but more than specific countries the love for our planet, Earth the only home we have seems to dominate my thoughts these days. I guess a huge part of this is now that Isabella is in my life, she has rebirthed more profound thoughts within me and how I relate in the world.

I like to think that I am quite aware and do my part, in trying to recycle and be as gentle to the planet as I possibly can. Yet deep down, I simply am not doing enough. The information is out there but what can one do? Where does one simply begin? How can one step out of our Circle of Destruction and remain a part of society? Crazy ideas, eh?

My crazy 7th grade teacher told us in the early 80´s that stuff we used were designed and manufactured to be of poor quality and to be replaced so we buy more stuff. And get this...this is a really FUCKING CRAZY IDEA at the time Mr. R told us! We would be buying bottled water to drink in about 20 years! What! Are you nuts! What the hell are you talking about?! Sadly, everything stinky, crazy Mr. R said was true.

I want to get my hands on Naomi Klein´s* new book The Shock Doctrine, THE RISE OF DISATER CAPITALISM.

What kind of Crazy Talk is this?! Sadly, it isn´t. And I want to know more!

In a recent talk at the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives, Naomi gives a talk about the Disaster Capitalism. In the third part of the six videos it was interesting as what she says about Latin America is becoming Shock Resistant "because they understand where the current attacks fit into a 500 year history of taking advantage of crisis of violent imposition of capitalism..."

I am now very curious to know, which if any policies the K´s have pushed through congress without a ripple while all the attention has been focused on the non-inflation inflation, or during the Farmers Strike and Farmers smoking out the city with the field burnings.

What do you think?

*hehehe originally I had credited the book to Naomi Campbell, well please beg my pardon, I was temporarilly insane with passion, and well you know Naomi Campbell is totally interested in World politics, after all she "paid" a visit to Chavez in Venezula recently, to talk about what´s up in Chavaland.

Health Warning! This Could Save Your Life and Your Loved Ones!

Greenspace

Another cultural mystery of Argentina that I have had on my mind for sometime now has been related to food. Or rather the growing of it, that is in one´s own space.

Mr. T´s mother lives on the 10th floor of a high rise building. From her bird´s eye view one can look down upon all the backyards of the surrounding neighbourhood, which is mostly single family homes that have good sized backyards. What I have noticed and perplexes me somewhat, is it appears that given the size of the yards, nobody seems to grow anything edible. There are just some shrubs and trees. One can spot lemon trees, mulberry, oranges and even the occasional avocado tree but this is not the norm. As most Porteños have an Italian immigrant heritage, where did the green thumb disappear to?

In Vancouver, which had a small but thriving community of Italian immigrants, one would pass their homes, and see grow vast amounts of food growing zucchini, tomatoes, herbs, grapes, exotic figs, even in the tiniest plot of dirt. Was it due to the unavailability of these common Italian staples? Or were the Canadian Italian immigrants just more thrifty than their Argentine Italian counterparts?

What it boils down to though, is I am just envious. I just want a small patch of dirt to plant a thriving herb garden. My attempt in our laundry balcony was unsuccessful, the jade plant did very well. Alas jade isn´t edible.

Shades Of Language

The traditional subject of the tug of war over language and perception is color. Because languages divide the spectrum differently, researchers have asked whether language affected how people see color. English, for example, distinguishes blue from green. Most other languages do not make that distinction. Is it possible that only English speakers really see those colors as different?

In the top ten things Mr. T and I argue about, it is definetley colour and all it´s nuances. He says pink, I say coral. He calls it blue, I call it lilac. What he thinks is yellow, I know it is called cream! Now you might understand why we get into such heated arguments while playing Punch Bug on the collectivo (bus)!

I thought it was a man thing, not distinguishing between shades of colour, but now as the above link suggests, perhaps it is because of language.

Another sssshhhhh....

I am in confession mode today. Maybe it was seeing the Pope on the television in the Ecografía Reception Room Saturday. Only in Argentina would you have the Pope on the T.V. screen, and Death Metal music being played by the hospital staff all at the same time. Anyways back to me.

I have a confession to make, I get bored watching Youtube videos of Tango. I try to watch for technique, but either I become critical of the dancers, or my eyes glaze after 20 seconds and I go searching for something else such as this. Personally I prefer to Tango or to watch live Tango.

Am I alone? I hope I am not upgraded to the ninth ring in Tango Hell for this.

Ssssshhh....

I have been secretly lusting after these Greta Flora Tango Shoes for months. I visit the site almost everyday just to look at them. But that did not stop me from joining

Comme Il Faut Tango Shoe Addicts Non-Anonymous Group.

And they can´t kick me off either, because I am the President!

The smoke is clouding my thoughts

So it has been kind of smokey in our fair city. Fires apparently set by the "greedy" farmers. Personally I am not sure if I entirely believe that particular statement, maybe they were set by K-Thugs or maybe by farmers. Who knows really? But why are there not water bombers putting this thing out? Apparently they have them here, and the fire just happens to be conveniently located at the mouth of the river delta.


Personally, all employees of the Province of Buenos Aires except hospital and emergency staff should have done a massive strike until the fires were put out. But what do I know about politics. I am only a dreamer.

Yesterday morning we had to go for Isabella´s ecografía at the Hospital Italiano. It is a non-smoking building, ironically there was more smoke inside the hospital than outside! I was wheezing , Isa coughing, Toto, bleeding noses and Mr. T had a sore throat. There just does not seem to be an escape from it, except maybe the "Shopping" (malls which I despise) or a movie theatre. I woke up after a short siesta, and saw Tina´s photo of the smoke. I was a little inspired and took the one above, which doesn´t exactly show how smokey it is, but you can see how far the light beams from the street lamps.