One Final Photo

That previous post took me a while to get around to typing due to traveling and being bit by a penguin. Attached is a photo of me being chased after being bit by a penguin. If they weren’t so cute…..

Me running away from the penguin

What’s Your Fix?

Wrapping up this year here in Buenos Aires is making me feel rather nostalgic. As I look back on previous blog posts, photos, and thoughts I can’t help but reflect over the realizations (including an epiphany or two) that I have come to this year. I have focused, particularly, on the social norms and culture of this country and have confirmed that those aspects are intricately tied into the every day life of every single human being. There are too many events, people, places, and personal shocks to list, but I know that being a part of this culture has changed my view on life and even some of my values. I am definitely not the same as I was when I left home and I wonder how my new insights and appreciation for various things will affect my life in Canada.

Although I have decided to stay longer than the usual year, my Canadian friends have their plane tickets bought and are leaving within a matter of days. When they first started to talk about leaving, their thoughts and especially their fears, I can’t help but also start to wonder the same things. In what ways have I so drastically changed? What do I value now? What culture do I fit in? Do I fit in anywhere or am I a mix of both? Ultimately it comes down to the fundamental philosophical questions of life, of which I don’t think anyone has been able to figure out and put into words.

The main question that has frequently popped into my head is: “what’s your fix?” The slang word “fix” can mean many different things depending on the person. For me it includes the following:

• What makes you tick
• What do you enjoy the most
• What do you wake up some days and crave or long for
• What is most important to you
• What is it you try to put first before everything else
• What is it you strive to achieve or accomplish

Ultimately these questions all sum up to: What makes you feel happy or satisfied when a piece of your own personal puzzle is complete?

I think these are all questions that each individual person is asking themselves and that these questions and their responses are greatly effected by the society, environment, and culture. And in turn those three things also effect what a person will consider most important to them. An example for each one might be:

Society: Sitting in a park having a drink of tea or alcohol and greeting your friends with a kiss on the cheek is normal to you. Or maybe not normal?

Culture: Is God or whatever your religion the most important thing to you? Does your culture, with possibly a deep rooted belief in Catholicism, make you more likely to be a catholic?

Environment: Is what you are surrounded with determine your potential? Are you more likely to stay poor if you were born poor, do you value family more if you are living in a one-bedroom house with them?

This isn’t to say that a person is completely trapped or dictated for life by their society, environment, and culture. Those three things, right from birth, shape the way that you think and whether you choose to follow and believe what you are shown and taught. Or you choose to not follow and not believe. There are always exceptions to the majority.

Amongst travelers the topic of culture and social norms is always a popular topic. Trying to sum up a particular society in a few words is actually really difficult to do. For Canada, I’ve heard that we are very respectful yet distant and cold. We have a lot of trust with our neighbours (not locking doors and letting cars run in the winter to heat up), but also that we do not reveal instantly personal details about our lives, history, jobs, or family. I’m always interested in our country’s stereotype and I must say it is refreshing to hear that people know we don’t live in igloos and not everyone plays hockey. I’m a little shy to make a general assumption about Argentines… so I think I will let you decide.

For this blog/research project, there are still so many things I would like to discuss and think about. The obsession with cell phones, the public university system, why people have 3 hour lunches, how everyone stays out until at least 3am on weekends, why everyone takes to the streets to protest for any reason at all, the after-affects of the Dirty War and the economic crash of 2001, the role that Italy, Portugal, and Spain have played in shaping the culture, and many more ideas. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to touch on all of those topics, but now that I have mentioned them maybe you will be inspired to research them for yourself.

Ultimately, it has been quite the wild ride and there are still days where I’m frustrated by something or other that is completely normal for people who have been born and raised here. What I’m curious to find out is if, one day, I will stop noticing the differences and accept them as the norm like a local would. It’s been a blast. Wish me luck!

Cuidate. Take Care.

Random Thought #5

So the other evening, around 9:30pm, I was walking through my neighbourhood after class.  As the warm weather has rolled in, everyone has “rolled out” onto the streets.  Just a few months ago a side-street would be empty, a side-walk sitting area non-existent, and people bundled up in coats and scarves while leaving the theatre.  Not now.  Now things are opposite, different than the winter months.  During the winter (June-September), everyone is out during the day and inside restaurants or their homes by 10pm. When I walk around even at 11:30-midnight, everyone is out enjoying the evening breeze and taking a stroll down the most popular streets to soak in the atmosphere.

It’s always been normal here to eat dinner extremely late by North American standards, no matter what the season.  If you show up at a restaurant by 9pm the waiters are surprised that you want to order dinner.  Most people eat between 10-midnight on any given night, then either go to a show, go out for a drink with a friend, spend time with family, or go home and relax before the next work day.

The youth, teenagers, and 20 somethings are loving it though.  The warmer the weather means the less clothing, no paying for coat check, and the later they can go out. It’s very common to see a family eating out at a restaurant at 11pm, ages 3-100. So much for my parents making me eat at 5pm and sending me to bed by 9pm when I was a kid!

As I’ve traveled across South America I have noticed a common theme of the evening being a time to get together with everyone and eat or drink, relax or play.  The late afternoon is to laze in the setting sun after your workday and the night is for dinner, socializing, possibly going out, and sleep. Here in Argentina, especially Buenos Aires, the nightlife lasts a very, very, long time. In Canada, the evening is, for the most part or generally, to yourself to relax and unwind from the day, not party and socialize.  It isn’t very common to have a large dinner party on a Wednesday in Canada.  Although, I’m considering starting that concept, even if it means having everyone over in their suits right after work at 6pm.  In BA, they have what they call that the “After-Work Bar” where everyone goes in their work attire to have a drink and socialize before going home or out to dinner.  There is even a very popular club called ‘Museum’, where Wednesday nights it’s specifically an after-work club. From 8pm-2am you can show up in your suit and party as if it was a Saturday at 5am, then get home at a relatively decent hour to ensure you get to work for the next morning.

Now, that aside, does the weather have something to do with it? I’ve found that if the climate is hot or even just warm, people are more likely to have shorter days and longer nights.  Even the incorporation of a longer lunch time for a nap or to escape the heat is very popular. In every South American country I’ve been to, the nights are very long and eventful, even for locals that have university or a job.  In Buenos Aires, the nightlife is legendary and it’s all night and into the morning, no matter what age you might be.  I’ve seen 70 year old women getting together for a 2am coffee or glass of wine, while their husbands are playing pool and enjoying a whiskey together.  Mind you, that is mostly between Thursday-Saturday, not a Monday.

Also probably contributing to this is the collectivist nature of the culture, as well as the massive size of the city.  Maybe one day Toronto will be up late on side-walk restaurants and cafes, partying until 7 in the morning, bringing their children out to join them, and generally enjoying the company of others rather than the company of electronics.

Just a random thought.

Sunny Saturday

Bust out your lawnchair, it’s saturday and on the brink of summer.

I realized the other day when I went out skateboarding and to get some studying done, that other people had the same “I need to relax in the sun or under a tree and chill out” mentality that I had.  I went to a really nice area of the city, Puerto Madero, which is the newest neighbourhood.  It has an extensive strip of parks and sits right on a nature reserve.  Well manicured lawns, water fountains, trees, and a plethora of benches are available to sit on.  I frequently go to this area during the week because it’s close to my school and it’s the only safe place in the city (that I know of) to take a nap outside on a park lawn.

Normally during the week it’s pretty quiet and only starts to get busy after work hours with people bringing their kids to play, walking the dog, or people out jogging.  So when I arrived last saturday I was rather surprised to see my usual bench already taken, the good lawn space gone to women in thong bikinis suntanning, and cars lined up along the road with people sitting in lawnchairs drinking mate and socializing.  Looks like I’m not the only one who sees the great benefits of this area!

Old and young, families and friends, playing sports or relaxing, listening to music or chatting, tanning or staying in the shade, everyone was there hanging out together and sharing a common space.  People were learning how to rollerblade where i decided to skate for a while.  Even though they were more than happy to share their space (I got there first), I had to be careful because I was scared this one 60 year old woman learning how to rollerblade was going to break her hip.  I was rather impressed she was even trying! Everyone was out enjoying the sun and the 25 degree weather together.

Family and friends are very important here and most weekends are dedicated to time with them.  I know very few people who work on weekends, but if they do, it’s always shortened hours.  I definitely think it’s a great way to unwind from the week and enjoy time out socializing and having fun with those you care about.  I looked a little out of place hanging out with myself! But that’s okay, next time (tomorrow) I know now to bring a friend.

Until next time!

Random Thought #4

“15,000 Gather in German town to assemble world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle”

“1,141,800 puzzle pieces were put together in just five hours.” Now that’s a community event!

Random Thought #3

So today is the first day of spring here! yay! Everyone back home has fall equinox, so what did you do to celebrate? Did you celebrate? I know most Canadians aren’t that pumped on the idea of winter coming again. However, here, everyone is pretty excited with the thought of summer soon approaching.  It’s a tradition for Dia de la Primavera to head out to the neighbourhood Palermo and sit in one of the many parks or plazas with friends and hang out and enjoy the day. Drinking, playing sports, relaxing in the sun, playing cards, and just overall enjoying the sunday with friends.  I definitely put a flower in my hair.

You Want To Kick Them Blues; Cocaine – Links

1) Capital encabeza el consumo de alcohol, marihuana y cocaína

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/07/31/sociedad/s-01726775.htm

2) Argentine President calls for decriminalization of drug use

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/08/01/argentina.drugs/index.html

3) Cheap Cocaine Floods Argentina, Devouring Lives

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/world/americas/23argentina.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/M/Morales,%20Evo&oref=slogin

4) Naciones Unidas: World Drug Report 2008: Argentina

http://www.unodc.org/pdf/brazil/Relatorio%20Drogas%202008/Argentina2008.pdf

5) Argentine Drug Law Plan Sparks Debate in Slums

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSN1839570120080818

6) Argentine mothers fighting Paco, Scourge of the Streets

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/22/america/argentina.php

7) Capital Encabeza el consume de alcohol, marihuana y cocaína

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/07/31/sociedad/s-01726775.htm

8 ) Se Cuadriplicó el secuestro de Cocaína y “paco” en la Provincia

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/07/12/policiales/g-01713506.htm

9) Case for Decriminalizing Drugs Dies in Zurich

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5D6163CF930A25750C0A964958260

10) The War We Are Losing

http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/war_we_are_losing.htm

11) Las Madres Contra el Paco

http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-104378-2008-05-18.html

If You’ve Got Bad News, and You Want to Kick Them Blues; Cocaine.

One evening around 10pm I was sitting with some friends downtown, just hanging out. We were approached by a girl about 10 years old and her younger brother.  I thought they’d ask for some change, but instead the girl asked us for some cigarettes and when we didn’t give them she listed off more swear words than even I knew. While she was talking her little brother was hyperventilating into a brown paper bag, then she chased him down for the bag and started breathing into it as well. It’s common to see kids on the street at night, who’s parents are out cleaning up cardboard and other recyclables, passing their time by inhaling the fumes from liquid glue.  My friends explained to me that this wasn’t even that big of a deal, there were worse drugs out there. “What drug can poor kids afford that is worse than glue?” I asked, “Paco” they all replied at the same time.

Thanks to the film industry with movies such as Blow, Scarface, and Requiem For a Dream, when South America or Colombia is mentioned, most people first think of one thing: Cocaine.  However, what they don’t know is that Argentina is the second largest cocaine market in South America.  “In relative terms, the results of the 2006 household survey suggest that Argentina has the highest annual prevalence rate of cocaine use in South America and the second highest in the Americas after the USA. Over the 1999-2006 period, the annual prevalence rate rose from 1.9% to 2.6%. In addition, 0.5% of the population age 12-65 admitted to having used ‘pasta base’ (cocaine paste) in 2006.” (see Links: Naciones Unidas). Alongside cocaine, there has been a rise in Argentina is the use of amphetamines, ecstasy, marijuana, and opiates.

In many of Argentina’s slums, especially in the capital of Buenos Aires, there has been a surge of a new drug on the market. It’s cheap, easy to obtain, and highly addictive. Sounds almost too perfect to be true.  “Paco”

Paco sold in small bags

is a highly addictive, smokeable cocaine residue that has destroyed thousands of lives in Argentina and caused a cycle of drug-induced street violence, police corruption, and deaths never seen before.  It costs about 2 or 3 pesos a hit, which is around $1 Canadian for a 15-minute high. This increase in drug use has been fueled by porous borders, economic hardship, and the continuous growth of the coca leaf which is the base of cocaine.  The devastating financial crisis of late 2001 turned places like Ciudad Oculta into now what are known as ‘villas miserias’ or towns of misery, and are easily exploitable markets of impoverished people looking for an easy, quick escape.  Cocaine has become a drug now available to everyone, not just the rich, even children as young as 10 smoke paco in slums around the city.  “They swap food for drugs and then eat from the bins…It rots their brains. Punishment doesn’t work because the addict is sick, he can’t help it.”

Paco is highly addictive because the intense effects last just a few minutes so most users smoke 20 to 50 paco cigarettes a day to try and keep the feeling continuous.  It’s more toxic than crack cocaine because it’s made mostly of solvents and chemicals like kerosene, with just a tiny bit of cocaine.  The chemicals required to transform cocaine paste into the powdered cocaine became difficult to transport and government officials had cracked down on them. As a result, the quality of the cocaine has also fallen and the European market has rejected it, turning the flow of less than 30% pure cocaine into countries like Argentina and Brazil.

Despite it’s harmful affects on the body and the constant need to have more, other social and economic effects keep addicts addicted. The problem runs much deeper than porous borders and a lack of constraint on traffickers. “The lack of money isn’t the nightmare [said of the economic crisis]… it’s the pressure that it causes in a person, the desperation and the depression… [he said he] was looking for a way to not feel anything, to not feel sadness, to find a way not to cry.”

45-year old paco user, Ciudad Oculta

smoking paco

Click on the photo on the right to see a slideshow of photos from Ciudad Oculta.

Within the past 5 years, the growth of the presence of Paco on the street has become immense.  There have been talks of higher security, more seizures, rehabilitation centers, community groups such as Mothers Against Paco and most recently talks of decriminalization.

In the first six months of this year, the seizure of cocaine and paco in the province of Buenos Aires has quadrupled in relation to the same period in 2007.  In this time, the police seized 1,153 kilograms of cocaine, while last year had been 262 kilograms.  And the dose of Paco confiscated were 35,035, against 7,822 of the first previous semester.   “I do not believe that the increase is because have more drug in the province, but because there were more interventions in search to control those crimes”, said Trumpet the superintendent of Illicit Drugs of the of Buenos Aires.

Argentine government officials have increased money in recent years for drug prevention, education, and rehabilitation, but other than recently the talks of decriminalization, they have yet to announce any other plans to tackle this problem.  What’s left is overwhelmed law enforcement officials who are left to simply tracking and finding the operations and not dealing with the crime caused by users and their traffickers.  What has sprung up in place of the government is a community group, led by the mothers of paco users. They say that before there were codes and the dealers would never sell to young kids and the users would never use in public.  Now there are no codes and the mothers are trying to enforce some.

Calling their organization ‘Las Madres en Lucha’  (the mothers in fight),  they meet in small groups and

Las Madres en Lucha

occasionally large groups in different poor districts of the province of Buenos Aires and within the city.  Gathering to seek solutions and try and get the government to help their children from what they call “a drug of extermination that attacks the most poor”.  Tackling their own shame and fear, they organize with marches and removing the ‘newsstands’ (where paco and other drugs are sold), but they struggle to remove the delivery of the drugs into their neighbourhoods.  Their main point is that what is most important is that there needs to be a political decision to put an end to the problem and that the State has to work alongside the mothers.  Together, these mothers have had meetings with officials, former officials and provincial legislators with proposals on prevention, attention, and contention of the youths “so that they study, they work, and they have a future without drugs.”

So far, the response of the government has been talks of decriminalization of drugs. In the week of August 1st of this year, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner called to decriminalize personal drug use and crack down on traffickers and dealers.  “I don’t like it when people easily condemn someone who has an addiction as if he were a criminal, as if her were a person who should be persecuted” she told a meeting of the National Investigan into the Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco, Psychopharmaceuticals and Illegal Drugs.  “Those who should be persecuted are those who sell the substances, those who give it away, those who traffic in it.”

One thing that we are all sure of is that we recognize that drugs are currently doing a great deal of harm. What divides us is our judgment about the best means to minimize the harm done by drugs.  When discussing drugs, most people end up at the philosophical disagreement with two sides:

1) It is right for some of us to tell others what they must do because it is good for them; and

2) The role of government is simply to prevent people from doing harm to others and that it is not right for government to try to force people to do anything simply for their own good.

With these debates in mind, to me it appears that the Mothers are trying to seek help from the government, and the government is trying to not take any responsibility.  Also in recent news the proposal for decriminalization has not been viewed upon favourably.  People are saying the state has completely abandoned addicted kids and adults and that “decriminalization is just another way for them to wash their hands of the problem.”  However, should people who are caught with small amounts of a substance be treated as criminals, or as victims? If drugs were decriminalized up to a certain amount, would the police have more time to dedicate to arresting dealers and breaking up trafficking rings?

Milton Friedman also makes an interesting point in saying, “The obvious implication is that if currently illicit drugs were decriminalized and handled exactly the way alcohol is now handled, there is no reason to suppose that there would be a vast increase in the number of addicts. That is by no means a certainty, but every statement that I have seen asserting the contrary is based on pure conjecture and hypothesis. I have seen no hard evidence. The closest to it that I have come across is reference to the opium craze in China. Given the evidence we have-not only from alcohol prohibition but also from Holland, Alaska, and others-the burden of proof, it seems to me, is on those who maintain that there would be a completely unacceptable increase in the number of addicts.”

Overall, I believe it’s a social, family, and cultural problem that has been deeply rooted into society.  It’s a difficult subject and I feel deeply saddened every time I see a young kid using drugs, or even a grown man smoking Paco on the street. Each time I wonder what can be done to help or if it is beyond the means of one person, even one generation, to turn things around.

Until next time.

Random Thought #2

Has there been any sort of studies on breast implants and their effects in the future? I mean… plastic surgery is still all relatively new, but has anyone found out whether they have long term effects? For any implants, I suppose.  I mean, I wouldn’t want to get butt implants and then find out 20 years down the road I will have to sit on a pillow the rest of my life because the implants ate away at the actual muscle and nerves.

Don’t Starve For Me, Argentina – Links

1) French Lawmakers adopt law making it illegal to promote extreme thinness

http://healthandfitness.sympatico.msn.ca/French+lawmakers+adopt+law+making+it+illegal+to+promote+extreme+thinness/News/ContentPosting.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=26041019&feedname=CP-HEALTH&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True

2) Don’t Starve for me, Argentina
http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata351.htm

3) Argentina’s Dictatorship of the Perfect Body

http://www.albionmonitor.com/12-21-95/argentinebeauty.html

4) Mummy’s Little Lolita: The 11-year old girl whose beauty treatments cost 300 pounds a month to make her look like Barbie

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1032029/Mummys-little-Lolita-The-11-year-old-girl-beauty-treatments-cost-300-month-make-look-like-Barbie.html

5) Miss Bimbo website sparks controversy in the United Kingdom

http://www.eitb24.com/noticia/en/B24_91869

6) Which came first, thin women or tiny sizes?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0224/p12s02-lihc.html

7) Canada’s Fattest and Fittest

http://healthandfitness.sympatico.msn.ca/DietFitness/Canadas+fattest+and+fittest