January has 31 days

Hola a todos y todas as our beloved Cristina loves to start her speeches.

Well, it would be hard for me to top the recent events taking place in Egypt, shocking events but if one thinks of the whys, it really isn't! Increasing population, poverty levels rising, high unemployement, massive corruption,  most of the youth with no hope in sight for a better future or a future at all!. Sound that unfamiliar? Even in the so called "first world" countries, although not to such an extreme extent, similar scenes have already been experienced. And here in Argentina in my humble opinion, we are not so far away.

But today's article is not about comparative political and socio-economical disasters happening or on the brink of breaking out. Today, I want to just recap a few of the "acontecimientos" or happenings in this, the first month of the year.

Many will remember the article about Rodolfo Stefanon, the government official in charge of transporting cash from the treasury where it is held and to be delivered to the "competent" authorities at the airport prior to the president's departure on official foreign visits. You'll remmeber how he instead of going directly to the airport , he made a detour to his home getting out of the governemt-provided vehicule provided to him, a block away from his residence carrying almost the equivilent of $100,000USD and was supposedly attacked and robbed...for the second time within 1 month. And remember the reason why he often opted to keep the money at his home in a "safe"place? Because he said he didn't trust the official to whom he was to entrust the cash!!! Well, what's happening as far as we know is nothing... NADA! But maybe we'll forget about it as Argentines have a tendency to do until it joggles our brain the next time it occurs

In another article I wrote of the series of bank robberies in this and previous months of January. Well,
on the past Friday, a bank on my street near my home was robbed at 11am with no clues as to the whereabouts or identity of the assailants. 15 minutes prior, another bank was robbed and in yet another instance, a woman having withdrawn $6000 at another bank was kidnapped as she left the bank, put into a secuestered taxi and then freed in a far-distant part of the city. All of this before noon. At least the thieves had lunch money!

The latest wave of women being set on fire is also in the news. The fifth one this month died, fortunately for her, yesterday.It's senseless to talk about the other many murders this week alone including a low rank union leader who was taken out of a  members-only club, put into a car and shot in the head being found later that day.I could fill pages! But that's why we have the newspaper Cronica here.

The lack of coins still is omni-present. And although well into nearly its 2nd year of  its promise in February, 2009, only 2000 of the city's 17,000 buses (12%) are equipped with a magnetic card reading devise; the latest promise is May, but was the year 2011 mentioned??

And since many of the portenos are now on vacation on the Atlantic coast, the surprises reach there also. Recent tales of  little kids driving 4-wheeled vehicles, I believe called dune buggies in English, are hitting the press, the most recent of a 6 year old who ran over a 4 year old in his way. There was also the story of the pre-pubescent boy whose uncle allowed him a to drive his car on a highway as he filmed it. QUE GRANDE, TIO!
Many people are still not able to pay the taxes levied on their properties in the outskirts of BA since they have reached an even higher increase, in some cases, of 950% higher than in 2010.But thank God, groceries increases are only in the double digits this month. A case in point, lettuce went up from $2.99 pesos per kilo to $9.99 as of yesterday. And perhaps the worst for me is that tonic water is often not an any shelves of the supermarkets, no matter at what price! So now when I see it even if not on sale or with a" 2 for the price of 1" although here it is "6 for the price of 4", I buy the 1.5 liter bottles; smaller ones  there aren't and forget about cans! The employee at the French-owned super market chain, Carrefour, told me yesterday it just isn't being sent. So maybe I should think about Gin martinis and buy some vermouth while I can still find it.

And do you remember the taxi driver who barely ecsaped his own death due to the suicide attempt of a thirty-something woman who leapt 23 floors out of a downtown 5-star hotel and survived the fall. after landing on his car? I bet she wishes now that she had taken the elevator! Well, the taxi driver's insurance didn't cover his totally- damaged  car ( and livelihood from it) due to the fall. But the good news of the week is that the taxi association and fellow drivers pooled the necessary money to have it repaired. So the drivers in the meantime gets a forced vacation and doesn't eat lettuce at 10 "mangos", slang for pesos, a kilo.

But we still have 36 hours of surprises left until February begins. I must now go and flatten out of the bulges in my king-size mattress which gets thinner every day.
 But if none of the above have personally affected you, consider yourself lucky and be patient...
 your turn will come!

SES