Domesticated

Even though I've now been living in the southern hemisphere's version of the City that Never Sleeps for more than a week now, my life has become a lot more boring. For one thing, I'm not living in crazy hostels anymore, I have my own room, bathroom, and a permenant place to keep my things without locking them up. But the biggest reason why things are a bit more normal are the starting of my Spanish classes at Linguatec, which begin at 9am and last 4 hours. The classes are great, with fun but solid teachers and some organized activities. Getting up for class everyday, though, makes me kind of feel like I have a 9 to 5 again.

As a result, I've gone out at night a little less, and my mind has had some time to wander. This week I ended what had been a self-imposed news blackout and read about the Iraqi election results and North Koreas bold assertion that they have "nukes." But the news that affected me most directly was a work stoppage by Buenos Aires' subway workers for the first four days of the workweek. As a result, the downtown area has been gridlocked with traffic, and for me, I had the choice of a 1 hour walk to class, or getting a taxi for every trip.

This week I also learned quite a bit about Argentine society, which is influenced far more by Europe than by the rest of South America. Despite having a magnificent, first-world, capital city, Argentina is devastated by poverty. This country also has a very high literacy rate and free public universities, yet the unemployment rate is nearly 20% and more than half of the country lives below the poverty line. The saddest and worst thing about the poverty here are all of the people begging on th streets, far too many of them small children. However, I guess that out hardship comes great character, because I have been surprised by th generosity of Argentines on the street giving change to beggars, more than happens in the U.S.

It is hard to understand how such a well-educated country with great cities and infrastructure can be so impoverished. A good deal of blame lies at the feet of the government here, which created the conditions for the recent economic collapse. Whith the currency devalued, the government prevented citizens from withdrawing any of thier savings, causing millions to have their assets cut in half, or to a third. It is no wonder that many Argentineans are careful to diversify their savings in foreign currencies, bank, and bonds, with only a little bit kept in-country. With so little investment here, it's no wonder that there are so few jobs. I've even heard of university professors working for free because they can't find another job and would just rather teach. I wonder what it will take to end this cycle.