Friday 9. Some hours before Bush's arrival. I live and work in Montevideo's downtown, here known as "El Centro", and there was some nervousness at the office. It was not directly related to the president of the U.S. arriving to Uruguay in a couple of hours, but it had more to do with the two demonstrations that were going to take place and pass by la plaza cagancha, against Bush, imperialism, the states, etc, etc.
The first demonstration, called by the unions association PIT CNT, didn't worry us since we knew it was of a peaceful mood. The second one, on the other hand, called by the anti imperialist coordinator (la coordinadora antiimperialista), made some of us bit uneasy, since it involved some of the more radicals members of the uruguayan left, along with some special guests from argentina.
The company didn't took any preemtpive measure, demonstrations in Uruguay are 99% of the time without violence.
I took off at six, I had to make it somewhere in El Parque Rodo. I took the 117 bus, the route wasn't the usual but still I arrived on time. After an hour I had to return to El Centro, I took the same bus on the way back, and this time it had to take Pablo de Maria, which is a detour of around five blocks in narrow streets with jammed traffic, horns, waits, and an old lady in the seat by my side telling me what a lack of respect was all that turmoil for receiving a president we had invited. The type of conversation you find yourself nodding no matter what the old lady says. The bus took twice the time, maybe the same if I had walked.
Later that night I've found out that for the most part the demonstrations went on without violence but there had been some incidents. Some shops had it windows smashed, like MacDonalds in 18 y Gaboto, and a Brazilian Pentecostal telepreachers church place (pare de sufrir, ex trocadero cinema) and even some violence against journalists. With an outcome of around 20 arrests.
Some friends told me also about a couple of puppets being carried in one of the marchs, portraying the relationship between U.S. and the states, where Bush was the groom, and Tabare Vazquez the bride, pregnant with an FTA.
Saturday 10. Beautiful day. Bush was all over the media, tv, news, and radio shows. Both presidents appeared always smiling as usual.
I catched part of the presidential press conference from La Estancia Anchorena, the uruguayan version of camp david. I would sum it up as a lot of good will talk but I have to agree with chuck there was little of substance in both speeches. Among the topics touched there was trade for the most part but without references to an FTA. Inmigration was also present. The one remarkable thing is that Bush said something like: "if you have any problem, you grab the phone, and give me a call". Now, what does that mean?.
Sunday 11. I wake up and the guy was already gone. Still newspapers, and tv shows only talk about his visit, the misfits that played havoc in El Centro on friday, and the way the police had failed to repress, intentionally or not, the incidents.
Today, It came out, that last saturday they took Bush to dinner to ciudad vieja, undercover, and he discovered the taste of Uruguayan Milanesa.
On and all, I think it was a rather regular weekend for the most part of uruguayans....
Monday, March 12, 2007
Uncle Sam has left Uruguay
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Uncle Sam is coming to Uruguay
Everybody is talking about two things this week in Uruguay. The first one is Argentina's 2007 edition of Big Brother, the reality show, and the way Nadia was kicked out :) The second one, is the fact that Bush is arriving this friday to Uruguay along with Condolezza Rice, and all the turmoil this is generating.
I'd have to agree with southron, when he says it looks like an american invasion, since the number of americans walking by 18 de Julio this week has tripled, word of mouth is Uruguay has earned around 1 millon dollars with this visit, more than what's raised in eastern week with tourism.
People are talking about a couple of helicopters that were brought, and assembled here in Uruguay, and all the security devices and policies that will be enforced during mr danger's visit.
Tabare Vazquez and Bush will meet in the presidential countryside residency "La Estancia Anchorena", and an FTA is expected to be among the topics discussed. Opinions about the convenience of this are strongly divided in Uruguay's government. My opinion is Uruguay should open, and establish as many trade routes, and agreements as possible, not only with the states, but with China, and Chile, and the rest of the world. Recent years have proved that we can't expect much from our direct neighbors. Like Artigas said, nothing we can expect, but from ourselves.
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Monday, February 26, 2007
Lula says it's ok for Uruguay to negotiate outside Mercosur
Lula, Brazil's current president came to Uruguay, and held a private meeting with our president Tabare Vázquez, in the countryside presidential residence "La Estancia Anchorena" in Colonia.
They seem to have agreed that it's ok for Uruguay to negotiate outside the Mercosur economic block.
Brazil is Uruguay, and Argentina's big brother in the Mercosur, if Lula supports this sort of economic agreement outside the block I guess Argentina will have to put up with it. It's a bit pathetic that we have to go by asking permission to do things, when is something that doesn't happen the other way around, but that's the way it is (let's face it... we are a midget in the middle of two basketball players).
I'm not sure whether Lula's word is enough, I'll be more comfortable when they reach a legal agreement, maybe modifying the Mercosur constitution, to back up what Lula said. Since I think this is against Mercosur's legislation (not that anyone is paying much attention to it latetly).
"Withing the block is better", said brazilian economy minister who came along, and I agree, but now is more of a guideline, not a rule.
Uruguay has recently established a trade agreement named TIFA (TRADE AND INVESTMENT FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT) with USA, as a second option after almost agreeing on an FTA.
Our economy minister, Danilo Astori, who is maybe the greatest sponsor of an FTA with the US, has publicly declared something like an FTA is not discarded ("no hay nada descartado acerca del TLC") after establishing the TIFA.
In the meantime, US president, Bush, comes to visit Uruguay in two weeks, and Chavez who is coming to Argentina, will demonstrate in Buenos Aires, right in front of Uruguay's embassy, against the presence of Bush (or as he prefers...mr danger) in the region.
I feel when Bush arrives Astori along with our president will replay the FTA card.
Is this the beginning of the end of the Mercosur?...
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Parque del Plata, Canelones
I've spent the last few days in Parque del Plata, Canelones, Uruguay, along with my familiy for the carnival holidays.
Parque del Plata is one of a series of beachside villas/towns (balnearios) by the coast of Canelones. All of them very peaceful, green, with nice beaches, reasonably good renting prices, and most important around 50km from Montevideo. They make for good weekend escape spots.
These are not trendy places, like Punta del Diablo, Cabo Polonio, or Punta del Este, but still they are nice and have good beaches. Some of them are Marindia, Atlantida, Las Toscas, Parque del Plata, La Floresta.
All this places are kinda dead during most of the year and come alive in the summer season. Atlantida is the biggest of them all, and the one with best nightlife, restaurants, pubs and discos. It is also the place where El Aguila is located.
In particular Parque del Plata, and Atlantida host an increasing amount of retired couples that are choosing to live all the year in these places, escaping from the city.
Parque del Plata has some of the best dunes in the coast of Uruguay, that is why is not uncommon to see people practicing sandboard in the beach.
By the way I'm a brand new uncle (hooray!). In the following slideshow you get to see my mother proudly walking her three weeks old granddaughter, Maria Lucia.
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Food, Torta Frita
Continuing with the typical food series, another heavy weight in Uruguay food tradition is what we call Torta Frita.
Torta Frita is a round shaped, fried biscuit, with a hole in the middle. Is a very simple biscuit to prepare. Torta Frita ingredients are: flour, self-rising and salt creating a mass which is fried in grease. Thus the name, torta frita, something like fried cake.
Torta Frita is the dish of rainy afternoons in Uruguay, by excellence, and is another typical partner of Mate.
It can be bought in stands for around five uruguayan pesos (one quarter usd), but is usually homemade.
Torta Fritas are usuarlly eaten with sugar or dulce de leche.
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Monday, February 05, 2007
Pizza & Faina in Uruguay
In Uruguay pizza is not round, and slices are not triangular, well now is getting more common, but when I was a kid, round pizzas could only be seen in movies.
I guess the reason lies in the traditional usage of a spade (pala, is spade the right word? is more like a paddle) in the cooking process. Pizza here is prepared a la pala, using a sort of spade to put the pizza into, and take it out from the oven, typically a firewood oven. The pizza is given a rectangular, long and thin shape, to be better handled with the spade. In some places pizza is sold by the meter.
Also in Uruguay, if you order a pizza, you'll get one without any mozzarella. If you want the portion with mozzarella, you have to order a mozzarella :D Informally called "muzza".
It is also usually ordered along with a traditional dish in Uruguay named Fainá (farinata in italian), which is a sort of thin bread mixed with cheese (depending on the receipe), and served with pepper. It's typical to order it from the border (faina de la orilla), which is kind of stupid, taking into account I've never met anyone that likes it from the middle (everybody orders it "de la orilla").
If you ask me among the best places to have Pizza in Uruguay is a bar called Costa Azul by the Rambla de Pocitos. One portion of pizza costs around 20 pesos, almost 1 usd, and one portion of muzza costs two times that amount.
Pizza is usually delivered wrapped in paper and nylon to separate the layers of pizza, muzza, faina, etc. The paper is typically used to get your hands cleaned.
The size of the portion also changes from bar to bar, and it depends heavily on the cookers mood when cutting the portion. One interesting experiment I like to make is to order one portion, and after a while order two portions. Usually two portions aren't two times one, but more like 1.5, and if you order three you'll get whatever, since it's eyed measured. When you are uruguayan, young, penniless, and starving this is the type of useless things that you pay attention to.
It is typical to have a slice of muzza, with a slice of faina on top, and this is called pizza a caballo (pizza on horseback?).
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Monday, January 29, 2007
Punta del Diablo, Rocha, Uruguay
Punta del Diablo, is a little fishermen's town, five kilometers away from Santa Teresa, and close to the border with Brazil, in the state/region/department (departamento, i'm never sure how to translate this) of Rocha, Uruguay.
I don't know how to put it, but the place is weird, like good weird, is like is not Uruguay. I remember the first time I went there, after a lengthy walk from Santa Teresa around seven years ago, it struck me the scene I've found there, like nothing I had seen before in my country. I saw shored fishing boats by the beach, one little pub playing reggae, plus like about a block of hippie stands in a row, selling handcrafted earrings, collars, and such, close to a peninsula shaped by big rocks.
Nobody knew the place ten years ago, while now in summer a rent there is about 60 bucks a day, for a crumbling small ranch, close to the beach. This year I even spotted some foreign tourists, which was unheard of some years ago.
Even though it's getting trendy, and more sophisticated, it still retains the jamaica no problem vibe, with the hippie little shops, surfers, seafood restaurants, lack of paved roads, and everybody in summerwear style.
If you go there you must try "Buñuelos de alga" (something like seaweed fritters, or fried doughs), since it´s the specialty of the town.
Check what Chuck Stull in his blog writes about it.
The few pictures I have were taken in the afternoon, and in cloudy days, so they are no the best, but I hope you'll find them illustrative.
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Cabo Polonio, Rocha
There's a place in Rocha, Uruguay, called Cabo Polonio. I've never been there myself, but I've always heard all sort of things about it, some people love it, they says it's a unique place in the world, while others can't stand the lack of civilization and services there.
The fact is that there this place called Cabo Polonio, that can't be reached by car, it's about 7 km from the closest highway, people get there walking that distance, or in all terrain vehicles. Another way to get there is by the beach, in a 3 hour walk from Valizas.
There you can find: sea lions, a lighthouse, the beach, and sand dunes. The place has no electricity, no running water, few and rustic constructions. The funny thing is that from january to march it gets crowded with tourists, and the rents are sky high, even though almost no basic services are provided.
Topless is a common practice there, and even some nudity, or so they say. My girlfriend says she saw there (I hope from far away) some guys playing beach soccer in the nude. Well that's the type of things you don't see everyday.
I came across this articles about Cabo Polonio in Uruguay, in gaston in suecia's blog, which has some nice pictures, and I think captures what seems to be the escence of Cabo Polonio....
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Santa Teresa, Rocha, Uruguay
In the region of Rocha, Uruguay, more specifically at the km 302 of the 9 route, there's a national park called Santa Teresa. The place is a beautiful forest with some of the best beaches this country has to offer.
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The park is named after a hilltop fortress built in the 1762 by the Portuguese, early captured and finished by the Spaniards. The place has witnessed battles between Spanish and Portuguese, Spanish and British, and civil wars. The fort has been restored and is one of the attractions to visit in the park.
Santa Teresa has wide area available for tent camping, and has some bungalows to rent. It's very popular among camping fans. It's ridiculously cheap to camp there, one parcel that can be used by up to 7 guys, costs 150 pesos, about 6 american bucks. Being so affordable it gets crammed with youth in summer, well, not really crammed, the place is 1054 hectares wide (2064 acres), so it's big enough to host an army of camping fans. The beaches are great, oceanic, big waves (in uruguayan terms) I'd say waves up to 2 meters tall, surfing is a popular sport there.
The place is run by the army, and management is not very good. The supermarkets (there are 2 of them) run out of supplies rather quick, and if you ask "where can I find a free spot to camp?" you won't get very clear directions. On the other hand the place is safe like no other, and the park is very well taken care of.
Santa Teresa is a very popular destination for the uruguayan middle class, surfers, and teenagers, providing a good blend of natural resources, peace, safety, adventure and low costs. It's a humble type of tourism, the spirit among the campers is of camaradery, usually older campers (families) lend the tools to the groups of unequipped teenagers that try the camping experience. It also attracts a great deal of tourists from the south of Brazil, and from Argentina, in particular people from Cordoba.
The park is only 5 km away from Punta del Diablo, another seaside tourism hotspot in Rocha, and about 30 km to the border with Brazil, El Chuy, a border town with half a dozen of duty-free shops. Actually the trip to Punta del Diablo can be done by the beach which is one of the popular things to do there, in a walk of a couple of hours.
It's a place I'm very fond of, which I visited all my life, first as a kid with my parents, and later on, in my teenage years, we would go there with a bunch of friends every summer. When I think of Santa Teresa, lot of memories come to my mind, memories of campfires, beach soccer, walking in the beach for hours, fetching wood, making up excuses to visit the girl's neighbor camp, the night as one mantle of stars above the trees, hideous toilets, hitchhiking back to Montevideo for hours, and so on.
Here is a photo album that I hope will help you understand what's Santa Teresa like,
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Sunday, December 24, 2006
La Rambla
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La Rambla goes from Ciudad Vieja to Carrasco in Montevideo, the most popular part of it is the Pocitos's neigborhood one, La Rambla de Pocitos.
It's the favorite place for montevideans to chill out, have a beer, or mate with bizcochos along with friends, or family, specially in spring and summer time. It's also a great place for doing some sports, like: jogging, biking, fishing, beach volley, beach football, or just walk.
Some say is what Buenos Aires lacks, and porteños envy the most of montevideans, but I'm not sure about that. I'll just leave you with a photo album, that I hope explains better what the Rambla is all about...
By the way, merry xmas! ...
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
ENCE relocates pulp mill
Remember my previous article about ENCE suspending the construction of their pulp mill, and leaving Uruguay? well, today Argentinean minister, Fernandez, along with and the new president of ENCE, Arregui, announced the relocation of the pulp mill to be built in Uruguay by the spanish corporation. The construction will be carried out in a location closer to the Rio de la Plata river, in Colonia
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It seems the argentinean gov is taking this as a very good sign, and as an advance in the pulp mill conflict between the two countries. They recognized that ENCE´s pulp mill won´t pollute.
One journalist asked if Botnia´s pulp mill would pollute, and even though the official answer was that they don´t know, ENCE´s president recognized that in his opinion Botnia´s pulp mill won´t pollute either, due to the technology they are using which is basically the same.
Fernandez publicly thanked ENCE´s attitude of understanding in the conflict, and express his regret for the lack of a similar attitude in Botnia. Also both mentioned the mediation of the king of spain as very important, and positive, which was something that had been agreed to in the iberoamerica summit.
It is interesting to see how Argentina's government speech has been shifting in time. They used to talk about contamination, and now they speak in terms of visual contamination (whatever that may be), and the doubt of contamination.
Meanwhile people in Gualeguaychu keep blocking the bridge from time to time, but there are in my opinion clear signs that the solution to this conflict is closer, like that fact that the ex president of the gualeguaychu assembly no longer takes part in the demonstrations. After he travelled to Finland and saw pulp mills with similar technology, returning convinced that these don't pollute....
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Blackout
It was a stormy night yesterday, heavy rain, thunders and lightning out the window. I was doing some homework when all of a sudden lights went out, lamps, tv, phone, everything but my laptop running on batteries.
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Dim, pale, whiteish light iluminating my living room, plus the flashing of the occasional lightning. Walking with my laptop as a torch I reached candles and lighted them with a BIC lighter I found in the kitchen.
The first thing I wanted to check out was if was the only unhappy left in the darkness, so I looked out of my sixth floor window to check on the rest of the appartments. To my surprise not only the building lights were out, but also the whole neighborhood, even street, and traffic lights. Some one had pulled the plug on the whole city.
I couldn't help to think that it was the perfect time for thugs to break havoc, and that my girlfriend was about to come back. With the help of cell phones communication was established and worries dismissed.
The blackout lasted around half an hour, no major incidents where reported. Later local news informed on tv about a huge blackout that affected the whole south side of the country. Apparently the source was one or more lightnings that fell on the lines.
This is not usual in Uruguay. Not at all. ...
Saturday, November 04, 2006
The iberoamerica summit
This weekend is taking place in Uruguay the XVI edition of the iberoamerica summit. Presidents and delegations from Latin American countries, plus Spain, Portugal and Andorra gather every year to discuss matters of common interest. This year was Uruguay's turn to host, the last one was in Spain and the next one will be in Chile. This years subject was emigration. Kofi Annan was also present.
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To give you an idea of the impact this has had here, know that the government passed a law to create an extraordinary holiday, with the purpose of securing the downtown area where the presidents would be hosted, aka the exclusion zone, the neigborhood of ciudad vieja. In a first version announced the holiday would be for everyone in Montevideo, and then, when confirmed, it was limited only to those working in the "zone".
It was an important security procedure, for Uruguayan measures, land, sea, and air, where secured, and everyone living or working in the exclusion zone was registered by government personnel, more than 5000 persons. We had to have a radar borrowed from spain, because ours was broken (pathetic). They say the cost of the whole thing was about two million dollars.
Uruguay government tried to use this summit to achieve some advance in the negotiations on the pulp mill issue with Argentina, while Mexico was looking for backup against the wall under construction. Lula didn’t come, which, taking into account that he’s the president of the biggest country in South America, takes part of the fun out of the party.
In my opinion the summit meant for Uruguayans among other things a long weekend, some long waited restoration work done on some public buildings, and having a part of the city banned, which is totally unusual for us. You could tell something funny was going on for the number of tourists walking 18 de Julio the last couple of days, in particular Brazilians, plus some demonstrations going on on 18 against the "capitalist" summit, plus the fact that my usual empanadas delivery (san telmo) seems to be in the exclusion zone, and I’m blogging on an empty stomach....
Friday, October 13, 2006
Alive! a Uruguayan story
The plane crashed in the Andes mountains, and an odyssey of seventy two days started. The survivors of the plane crash had to endure extremely cold temperatures, starvation, and more deads. In their desperation they resorted to eating human flesh of the dead in order to survive.
The true story inspired several books, and a movie, called Alive, starred by Ethan Hawke. I remember getting angry with the movie cause I felt it lacked references to Uruguay, and was not very accurate on some stuff, like calling mate "tea" in the first scenes where the pilots are drinking mate.
The different portrayals of the story, in particular the books, are filled with details, of the everyday life in those conditions, how they fed on chocolate and whatever food resources they had at first, the avalanche they went through in the middle of the night that killed some of them, and how they were able to receive radio transmissions and listened when the rescue parties gave up the search for them.
Finally when they realized that they could count on no one other than God and themselves they organized a trip that would go looking for help. The three person party that would search for help was formed by the fittest of them. Recently National Geographic released an article where a team recreated the trip Roberto Canessa, Nando Parrado, and Antonio Vizintín did in their quest for help, and they say it's a tough trip to do, even for trained people with the proper equipment.
When they were rescued the story was huge with the press, and they went through tough times explaining the flesh eating. My mother told me once that the argentinean press was really hard on them, and labeled them cannibals.
Living in Uruguay meant listening about this story along the years, and sometimes even crossing the survivors in the streets of Montevideo. When I was a teenager there were a couple of black humor jokes going around about Parrado in relation to the flesh eating issue.
Today Parrado is a national TV personality that can be watched every Sunday in a eternal program called Vertigo (about cars & rally racing), and goes around the world giving motivational conferences based on his experience. He's written the last book released on the subject, called: "Miracle in the Andes, which word is it's good, since it's first hand.
I guess is one of those examples when reality beats fiction, It's an incredible story about human survival against all odds, and adaptation to extreme conditions. One that makes one proud of being Uruguayan.
(picture taken from the official site of the andes tragedy) ...
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Happy Birthday From Uruguay
One year ago I decided I should start a blog about my country, Uruguay, in an intent to combat the Uru..what? responses uruguayans get all over the world when they share their origin.
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I had recently arrived after months of living abroad and travelling in "first world" countries, and I had the strange feeling that for the first time I was watching my country with the eyes of a tourist. Everything long known seemed new. Characters, customs, and things that for me were global I realized that they are not, and viceversa aspects I had thought to be typical are global in nature. I guess the idea, was to share this re discovering of my own country.
After some months tali joined the team, as another traveller returning to the country, with a similar desire to tell the world a bit about things around here.
The blog had an unexpected response from people all over the world, we've been contacted from places as far as India, Finland, Switzerland, USA, and Japan, because of this blog, and even met some of them personally.
Thank you for all of your comments and emails, they fueled our motivation to carry on with this idea, and excuse us if we are not as frequent as you'd like us to be :)
By the way, if you have any request, about a subject you'd like to read more about Uruguay, please add a comment with your request....
Thursday, September 21, 2006
ENCE with one foot out of Uruguay
Spanish corporation ENCE has announced that the construction of their pulp mill won't continue, and fired 40 employees from the Montevideo's office, which is about 60% of their staff there, and around forty episodes of The Apprentice, right?
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Yesterday while I was watching the news I tried not to take it personally but it's not easy, the news was actually that the company was leaving the country. I can't help to think in all those who relocated their families, leaving former jobs to go to Fray Bentos to work. Word is that this is the first step in ENCE's withdrawal plan.
ENCE authorities declared that the pressure the Argentinan goverment was applying on international banking organisms not to approve loans for the construction of pulp mills in Uruguay played an importan role in the decision, as well as the conflict between Uruguay and Argentina on the whole subject.
Today the news were a bit brighter, ENCE declared that is NOT leaving Uruguay, just relocating the pulp mill, but who knows, some weeks ago they said they were not going to fire anyone.
It kinda feels like Argentina's bullying is prevailing. It's unfair, and depressing....
Friday, August 25, 2006
La Noche de la Nostalgia
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Every 25th of August Uruguay celebrates the Declaration of Independance. It's one the five non workable holidays in the year, meaning the night before it's a good time for partying, just like a friday, or saturday.
Something like twenty years ago, sponsored by a local am radio, someone invented "La Noche de la Nostalgia" (the nostalgia night), to name a party where only "old hits" would be played. This party's idea spread along the years, like a virus, and now the night of the 24th it's a national phenomenon, that's even been passed as a law (LEY N° 17.825 ????).
This particular night moves as many people as the night of the 25th, or 31st of december. Some even say that it beats those nights, becoming THE night of the year when most people go out partying in Uruguay. It appeals to all ages, I know some old couples that only go out dancing that night in the year. There is a great variety of things to do, parties of all types and sizes, public, and private. Some people organize thematic custom parties. It's just different.
The whole thing is based in "the good all days" concept. The night of the 24th kinda celebrates the idea that former days of our lives will always be better than present ones, which sounds pretty much like a tango, if you think about it (todo tiempo pasado fue mejor). Here in Uruguay, nostalgia is culture.
It's speaks a lot about Uruguay's idiosyncracy. It's the yearly instance to remind us that we were once the champions of the world, we were called the switzerland of south america, and so on and so forth.
When it started old hits were music of the sixties and seventies, and now oldies mean eighties and ninties hits. If you go out you may listen to stuff like: Barry White, Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Billy Joel, Aha, Sui Generis, Los Shakers, Billy Idol, Queen, Beatles, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, The Police, The Ramones, etc.
There are also anti nostalgia movements, which organize rave parties to celebrate all the contrary, for those that cannot bear to live in a country that tends to look backwards, or that just want something different from that night.
The stay in the mood, I leave you now with an oldie...
Monday, August 14, 2006
To free trade with USA, or not to free trade, that's the question
For some time now the rumours about Uruguay consolidating a free trade agreement (aka FTA, or TLC in spanish) with the United States of America have been going on (and on, and on).
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The former government started negotiations to establish this agreement with the number one world power, and the foreign affairs office of the current government continued to work in the same direction.
After years of negotiations it now seems that the the situation, and the mood in the states are favorable to this kind of agreement, but now that everything is given to lock the deal, looks like our government is not like really really sure it'd be the best, or at least not everyone.
There have been a number of contradictory declarations coming from members of the government. Contradictory to the point of being funny. You would hear about a ministry saying that a FTA is not within the president's agenda, right after attending a meeting with the president and the rest of the ministries, and more or less at the same time read the president talking about the need to strenghten our relationship with the states. Just so that you know, the president Tabare Vazquez, is in favor, as is the ministry of economy, Daniel Astori, but others like Gargano, the ministry of foreign affairs, and the ministry of social development are not.
The president referred to this opportunity in terms of: "sometimes the train only passes once".
To understand the core of the contradiction, you should know that our current administration (which I voted), is formed by a leftist coalition, that ranges in the political spectrum from center to the extreme left, including ex guerrilla members (some say trained in cuba). Not so long ago, when they were opposition, they wouldn't tolerate, and critisized, any hint of negotiation with the states, but now the tide has changed, they are government and opinions are divided. How do this guys match old enemies, and ideals, with current economic needs?
Some related, interesting facts:
Makes me wonder to what extent do old ideals prevent the current administration from making smart moves?...
Thursday, July 27, 2006
The Uruguayan Invasion
In the mid sixties, while the Beatles leaded the "British Invasion" in north america, something similar was taking place around here, which someone baptized the "Uruguayan Invasion".
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A wave of local bands inspired by british groups started singing some of their hit songs, and even composing some of their own, also in english, which is kinda funny if you realize we are a spanish speaking country, not to mention that only the thought of Uruguay invading anyone/anything, is just hilarious.
The story goes that some of this groups became very popular in Argentina, seems they were the coolest thing around, every argentinean tv show would invite them, at least so says my father :) The leaders of this movements where "Los Shakers", with their "Break it all" hit, which has become a must play song in every uruguayan wedding every since then ;) They took after The Beatles, while another group, called Los Mockers, took after The Rolling Stones.
The phenomenon died in the early seventies, when the dictatorship arrived and singing in english would be seen as officialist, and unpopular.
Some weeks ago I came across this article, talking about this, and I couldn't believe it, to be reading someone from so far about something I've grown up hearing about. My father is a great fan of music groups from those days, like: El sexteto electrónico, Totem, Los Shakers,Los Mockers. If you speak to young uruguayans today, no one knows this groups, except maybe for Los Shakers.
Here is the Break it all video, with some bonus appearences of a very young El negro Rada, one of the most popular uruguayan jet set figures, and even players of Peñarol.
I still can't believe this stuff is on the web. Viva Internet!
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Thursday, July 13, 2006
Uruguay vs Argentina, first round, 14-1
The International Court of Justice in The Hague gave it's first order in favor of Uruguay, to the argentinean request of provisional measures. I quote:
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"The Court finds that the circumstances, as they now present themselves to it, are not such as to require the exercise of its power to indicate provisional measures"
Argentina had requested the suspension of the pulp mills constructions as a provisional measure, but in order for it to be granted they had to probe irreversible damage, which seems they couldn't.
This is actually very good news for Uruguay, which really didn't make much noise among people yet, maybe because it was somehow expected. It's worth noting that it's unusual (or so they say) such unanimity in the veredict, 14-1. The only vote against was from an argentinean in the court.
Uruguay will continue with the constructions on it's own risk, knowing that if Argentina wins the case some years from now, they'll be useless (will they? but that's another story).
As a consequence argentina's president, kirchner, is now giving speeches about how their strategy now will be to exercise pressure on the european authorities to cut funding for the corporations behind the pulp mills. What, the heck, does this mean? Should we win the case, will Argentina's stop it? We are on court on their initiative, the least to be expected it for them to bow the veredict, but to he honest I'm not sure they will.
Meanwhile in Gualeguaychú they decided to blockade route 14 in Argentina, with a march of about 3.500 vehicles, demonstrating against the veredict and the pulp mills. The Gualeguaychú movement seen in perspective seems like a snowboll rolling down a hill, ending in an avalanche, to think it all started with their "governor", Busti's declarations.
Myself like almost anyone else around (even in buenos aires) is pretty fed up with the whole subject, I guess there's not much to do but hope it all turns out right.
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