Dear Readers,
Perhaps to some of you , it seems as though I only complain about certain things when I write about the daily occurences which affect me and us living here in this thrilling, exciting, beautiful and ever- surprising Buenos Aires. While this in part may be true, I also try to interject humor which one so deperately needs in order to not go totally "loco".
A famous and well repspected Argentine journalist and tv reporter, whose opinions I mostly share, said that where in many parts of the world most people have progressively evident improvements in their lives economically, socially and health-wise,where as here in Argentina , most believe that their standard of living has gotten gradually worse every year and long for the decades of yesteryear. And let me remind you that those days gone by were not necessarily easy and pleasant ones yet many people still yearn for them.
This statement the journalist made was pronounced in late 2008 just as the world was entering into the "crisis" and has certainly altered many opinions in other countries but I believe that for many, it still holds "somewhat" true.
The word crisis is one which was not on the tip of everyone's tongue elsewhere (unless you come from Haiti, Bangladesh or sub-Saharan Africa where it's the only existance which these poor souls know and crisis means daily life); however, here in Argentina, in my generation, one is born with "la crisis", lives with "la crisis" and will most likely die with "la crisis". In this instance,on the positive side, people here are much better able to handle and adapt to the turbulant political, social and economic hardships which challenge them daily; this is something which most people from the so called deveolped countries would have major obstacles copingwith day in and day out.
But today's Argentina has taken major leaps and bounds in the world of telephone communication.
I try to only write about subjects which I personally have experienced as we all know how stories passed from mouth to mouth can become inflated, exagerated and end far from the original one first related.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a private telephone line in one's home was a luxury; there were only so many lines and that was it! Impossible to get a new line installed. As I wrote in another article, in the early 80s, I purchased my first apartment here for a massive amount in pesos and a much smaller number in USD (the currency in which 99.99% of ALL, I MEAN ALL properties have been bought and sold in Argentina for decades, even though it is not the currency of the nation.)
Approximately 50% of the selling price of the apartment was due to the fact that it came equipped with a telephone line. If I remember well, less than half of the building's owners had a telephone line and it was a bit like in the early days of televisions when the first family on the block to have a tv suddenly became the best friends of the neighborhood.
Every one at one time or another knocked on Esteban's ...that's me...door.
But just because you have a televison, let's say, does not mean it will work if you have no electric outlet in which to plug it. The same was true for the phone at that time here.
A rain storm.... not a hurricane or tornado... could easily knock out your line. And when one was lucky to have the line in tact, the next challenge was will the line be free? Do you remember the 1959 film "Pillow Talk" about a shared party telephone line with Doris Day of "que sera, sera" fame along with Rock Hudson and Tony Randall? Well, that was how it was here although we didn't have shared party lines, at least I didn't; they just happened and surprised us as one would pick up the receiver and hear a lively conversation between 2 other people taking place in your very own ears. I often had to kindly ask the other parties to hang up so that I could attempt, while praying, to reach the party I wanted. Many times, they continued to talk as there was nothing I could do except to listen in and interject my thoughts and comments until they tired of this so much that the line would eventually, albeit it for a little while, become free.
Then , there was the challenge of making the call to the right party. No, I wasn't drunk and could dial..... dial I said, no touch tones here! The number dialed would often be one which wasn't related to the desired 6 or 7 digits and the whole process had to be done over again and sometimes again and again and again.
It was often easier to leave the house and go to a public phone...with yet another challenge.
As inflation was rampant into the thousands of percent, coins ,when minted, lost their value before they even made it into circulation so in order to make a call from a public telephone using them, thus a token called "cospel" or "ficha" was needed but they were higly coveted and sought after valuable items as one bought them at 5000 pesos on Monday and they were being sold the next week at over 10,000. This was a way to ward off inflation and make 100% on your investment of last week so they were hoarded and often very hard to find. The black market on coins or tokens isn't such a recent phenomenon as it has existed here for decades. In those days, there were no "locutorios" or calling centers which one finds on every block today. There was one telephone company, ENTEL, and they controlled the spoken word , knew it and charged accordingly.
And I remember well that to make an international call, I couldn't do it easily from home and if I did the price and time spoken that ENTEL registered and charged me had no relation with what I really should have paid. It was much higher by great amounts and any challenge contesting the bill involved the possibility of losing your precious phone line. So, I would make the 2 mile walk to ENTEL on Saturday and book the international call for the next Sunday reassuring myself of the price as I would pay directly there on the spot partially before and partially after the made call. Can't trust those callers!
I often complain of the lack of what I call "telephone etiquette" here. In the other part of the world where I also live, also with a very dodgy telephone past, in today's Czech Republic as well as in its neighboring countries such as Germany, Austria or Hungary, one knows immediately who answered the phone because they not only, in the case of a commercial call, mention the name of the firm but also their family name. Many even answer their home phones by saying "Schmidt, Novak or Fekete" leaving no wonder who is on the other end. And let me stress the fact that the former Iron Curtain countries also had a huge lack of private phones and constant eavesdropping by the nation's secret police. Yet their telephone etiquette is of a high and desirable standard.
How many times when I answer the telephone here do I hear ,after saying "Hola", the first words on the other side are "quien habla?" or "who's speaking"? I come back with a "who's speaking with me?" They have invaded into my domain and privacy, not I into theirs. Another major lack of telephone culture is when I answer and the other side either : 1) asks who it is and then I give them my response or if they should ask for a Pablo or Adriana and I say there is no one with that name here, click.. they hang up without saying sorry for dialing the wrong number or 2) simply don't hear the voice they are expecting and rudely cut the call without a word.
And in the "professional" world, another topic for a long article, counted are the times when the employee asks if he or she can take a message and have the desired person with whom I wish to talk call me back; the vast majority of the time one gets a " she or he's not in now..call back later". I am the customer paying for the service, I pay your salary, not you mine! And when I insist upon them calling me back, it just doesn't happen!!!
I wind up having to go through the whole scene once more.
But now, there are no more monopolies like ENTEL, just more conniving and money hungry companies which still try to suck every peso they can out of their users while providing terrible client service and products. Their tactics are quite the same as those from the past whether its a land line or a cell phone, the only difference is that you get to pick the thief.
And by the way, after you've paid the outrageous cell phone bill to the one group of theives, there are many more thieves waiting for you once you leave home and venture out into the street who are only too willing to relieve of your next month's telephone trials and tribulations by snatching your Nokia or Erikson.
So keep your voice down, think if that next call is really necessary and long for the days when people actually spoke face to face and it was more plesant, free of charge and void of year-long contracts.
SES
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