What's Going On

Well, a couple more weeks have gone by and my life here has not slowed down a bit. a lot is going on right now in the country. Last week there was an extremely historic court ruling. to give you a little bit of background, the argentine president through most of the 90's, Carlos Menem, an extremely corrupt and self-serving man, had a law passed granting amnesty to all those involved in the military dictatorship, ie the disappearance and torture of 30,000 people, among other atrocities. The law came after several people had already been implicated, including several of the main head honchos, such as the dictator Jorge Videla, but all had recieved minimal sentences (5, 10, 15 years) under house arrest--never prison--and because they had robbed the country blind they had estates in the country with acres of land. cool. 2ish years ago, the current president, Kirschner, repealed the law, a very popular move, for the most part. anyways, last week was the first time an arbitrator of the Dirty War was sentenced with the possibility of hard prison time. In general, there were many sketchy connections between the dictatorship and the Catholic church at the time in argentina, ie the church was on the whole frighteningly complicit in what was going on and moreover benefitted tremendously from its cooperation, both economically and politically. the guy on trial, whose name is von Wernich, was a priest during the Dirty War and was found guilty on all charges, which included 7 third-degree homicides, 3 kidnappings, and 31 instances of clandestine detention and torture. he recieved a life sentence mainly in solitary confinement. what was so historic about this case was not only the fact that this is pretty much the first time someone is being held 100% accountable for their actions during the dictatorship, although that in itself was a huge triumph for organizations like the one at which i work and indeed for the entire country in achieving justice. It was not only the fact that von Wernich was the first Catholic clergyman to recieve a life sentence for "crimes against humanity." It was the fact that his actions were indeed referred to on public record not only as crimes against humanity but also as part of a genocide that occurred from 1976-1983. the use of that terminology in the court was certainly one of the biggest victories in the whole affair. needless to say, it was amazing to be a part of familiares at this time--several members went down to where the trial was held in La Plata to see the sentencing.
in other news from down here, there is a vegetable crisis! ahhh!!! ok well not as much of a crisis as a problem. but still ahhhh! As it stands now, a kilo of tomatoes costs more than a kilo of beef. and the price of beef has not gone down. there is a tomato boycott not because the price is so out of control. in fact, food in general has begun to cost more, and to combat inflation, the government is considering a 5% decrease on all supermarket products in the whole country. i had no idea they could do such a thing, and neither did my friend brooks, who is an international business and finance major at georgetown, but apparently her host mom said they used to do it all the time when she was growing up. in the words of my friend sophia, pretty much all of latin america's economic history can be summed up by saying "you just dont think this stuff through." oh well. at least the price of strawberries has stayed the same...
also my mom is coming on saturday and i am so excitedddddddd! i cant wait to show off my mad skills in this town, ie fancy things like hoe to use the subway and where the best empanadas are...you know, important things. among the list of things she is bringing are knitting needles, because the only ones they sell and use here are literally more than two feet long (apparently women like to knit with the needles under their armpits...im not kidding, the guy at the yarn place told me that) and olive oil, because i have come to understand the difference between regular and extra virgin olive oil which i had never though about until i came here where they have nothing but the olive oil of the plebes ie nasty non-virgin olive oil, or slutty olive oil, as i have come to refer to it. they dont believe in salad dressing here, unless you consider corn oil and vinegar or mayonnaise and ketchup a salad dressing. really, once i ordered a caesar salad and they brought out oil and vinegar. i hate to be a snob, but really guys? its olive oil.
also there are elections next week. we asked my teacher yesterday about the platform of Cristina Kirschner, the wife of current president Kirschner, the current candidate poised to sweep the elections. he responded by saying that he couldnt really say for sure because nobody really reads or pays attention to the campaign platforms because everyone knows that what they say before the election says absolutely nothing about the reality of their administration post-election. i mean, cristina definitely has the prettiest face of all the candidates, and considering the fact that its everywhere you look now, its no wonder she will win. ah, latin america....at least people here know that politicians are all corrupt and self-serving, whereas in the us people maintain the pretense of altruistic leaders. different strokes for different folks i guess.