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Username: taos
URL: http://twitter.com/taos

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For all those overseas readers who miss being in Buenos Aires, here’s to you!

Plus, this video includes a bonus track!

*Shot and edited on the iPhone 4

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I’ve always been fascinated by the lengths that people will go to in order to preserve an old, wrinkled bill.

But when a taxi driver recently handed this piece of work to me, it took the cake.

It may be ugly, but at least it’s real. According to TV reports (which I haven’t confirmed) up to 5% of the bills in circulation in Argentina are counterfeit.

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You may have heard of “Bueno, entonces,” the Spanish language learning tool available for iPhones, iPods or your desktop or TV.

Now is your chance to try it out for free.

Act fast because the App is now free on iTunes. But it won’t be free forever.

To give it a shot, click here.

For more information, click here.

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Torcuarto Di Tella University’s latest crime “victimization rate” survey indicates that both overall criminal activity and violent crime fell last month.

Di Tella’s study, which surveys households in 40 urban centers around the country, shows that about 30% of these homes said at least one household member was a victim of a crime within the past 12 months.

That figure is down sharply from 32% the previous month and from 33.6% in March. It’s also down about two points from a year ago.

Around 16.5% of households reporting suffering from a violent crime in May. That’s down from almost 19% the previous month but most unchanged on the year.

Link: Di Tella Victimization Survey (from April)

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Wooohooo! Argentine President Cristina Fernández on Monday signed a decree declaring Monday May 24 a national holiday.

The decree, which aims to help Argentines celebrate the country’s 200th bicentennial anniversary, thereby creates a four-day weekend from May 22-25. Tuesday May 25 is already a national holiday.

“People need to have their lives planned,” Fernández said Monday, noting that she had asked Congress to pass a bill approving the holiday.

But by Monday it didn’t appear that Congress would get around to voting on the holiday, so Fernández took action, making a congressional vote unnecessary.

“People need to be able to participate in all of the celebrations that will take place all around the country,” she said. “This is a once in a lifetime event. It really was necessary to declare this a holiday. What the heck, if people in Congress don’t understand that this should be a holiday, then we’ve got some problems. It’s just silly.”

On May 25 of each year Argentina celebrates the creation of its first government.

For more info about Argentina’s public holidays (in Spanish) click here.

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OK, I’m completely biased and have no pretense of journalistic impartiality for this post.

But isn’t my new little pug one of the cutest dogs you’ve ever seen?

His name is Yoda Buki. He’s about three months old, fits easily in one hand and has the sweetest possible disposition. This second photo makes him look much bigger than he actually is.

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The number of violent crimes reported in Argentina fell in January for the fist time in five months, according to a new study.

Torcuarto Di Tella University’s latest crime “victimization rate” survey indicates that both overall criminal activity and violent crime fell last month.

Di Tella’s study, which surveys households in 40 urban centers around the country, shows that 32% of these homes said at least one household member was a victim of a crime within the past 12 months.

That figure is down sharply from 37% the previous month but up from 30% a year ago. That puts crime up almost 7% on the year and down 17% on the month.

As happened in previous months, crime victims were more likely to be well educated. Indeed, almost 41% had a college degree or at least some post-high school education. Around 34% had just a high school degree while 25% had only an elementary education.

Crime was worst in the cities of Cordoba, Mendoza, Rosario and Tucuman, where 39% of households reported having a victim. The victimization rate in the City of Buenos Aires last month was 34% while it was 26% in Greater Bueno Aires.

When asked about combatting crime, a plurality of people (33%) said more police need to be on the streets. Around 29% said tougher penalties are needed while 25% said more “social inclusion” would push crime lower. Just 1.6% said the death penalty would lower crime.

Link: Di Tella Victimization Survey (from December)

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Butch Cassidy (bottom right) & The Sundance Kid (bottom left)

By John D Farr

Any Westerner knows about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Their daring raids were executed with military precision and skillfully planned. They roamed the west in such a wide ranging region that it was hard to know where they were hanging out.

The “Wild Bunch” was an always changing group of men. If any one thing marked them, it was their fine horses because that was their mode of transportation. In their day, people remembered fine horses.

The railroads and banks got pretty serious about this group of bandits and eventually the outlaws fled to Argentina. Here along the Andes in Chubut province in a little mountain town of Cholila, they settled down. It took a few years for the authorities to find them. Stories of robberies in Argentina tipped off the Pinkerton people that maybe they were down there. (more…)

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Dear friends,

The Argentine Post is a blog about culture, economics, entertainment, food and politics, among other things. It rarely has been a personal blog about me or any other contributor. However, recent events have affected me personally in a way that affects this blog and my contribution to it.

My great friend, beloved and otherwise-healthy mother was recently diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, a dreadful disease which does everything it can to suck the life out of you. I am with family and taking care of my mother at a hospital in the U.S., where we are hoping, praying and fighting for remission.

During this time, I will not be able to respond to many emails or post about matters profound or mundane. To the extent possible, friends, fellow journalists and other contributors will do this for me. If you have emailed me and not gotten a response, my sincere apologies. At some point, I will try to catch up with the hundreds of emails that have gone unread.

Life is short, very short. As my mother has always reminded me through her actions: Forgive genuinely, give generously and love unconditionally.

Kind wishes and a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Taos

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By Brian Byrnes.

There have been many, many stories told about Argentina’s horrific 1976-1983 “Dirty War,” when the military ruled the country with an iron fist, squashing any dissident voices. At least 10,000, and perhaps as many as 30,000 people, “disappeared” during this dark era. I have done several reports over the years on a variety of topics related to the “Dirty War,” from amnesty laws being overturned in 2003, to the public opening of a former detention center in 2004, to the (still) missing witness from a trial in 2006. As more and more former military leaders appear in court on human rights abuses, and more and more victims are identified, the issue continues to be a very important one for many Argentines. When I learned about the work of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF, in Spanish) and their tremendous success in identifying and reuniting family members with the remains of their loved ones through the use of science, I immediately wanted to do a story about them. (more…)

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The following post first appeared in the As Belgrano Byrnes blog and is re-printed here courtesy of my friend and colleague Brian Byrnes.

By Brian Byrnes

I was in a car on the Panamericana Highway in Buenos Aires last week with two men I had just met, both of whom I was interviewing for a story I was working on for Newsweek. One of them, Nicolas, asked me where I grew up, and when I told him Baltimore, he veered the conversation (as many often do) to “The Wire.” We both agreed that it was one of the best television series ever made. The other guy, Sebastian, had never seen the show, so I started breathlessly telling him how the writing, acting and photography were unmatched, and how it portrayed the modern urban American experience so vividly, and how it gave viewers laser-sharp insight into the inner workings of inner-city drug cartels.

About 45 seconds into my fawning discourse, I recognized the sheer absurdity of the situation: the man I was glorifying the American drug culture to was the son of the world’s most famous drug dealer, Pablo Escobar.

Yes, I was talking drugs with Juan Pablo Escobar, who now goes by the name, Sebastian Marroquin. Thankfully, I stopped myself just short of offering to lend him my DVD copies of Season 1-5. Now, that would have been weird. I don’t think Marroquin would find “The Wire” particularly entertaining. At least I hopenot, especially since the reason I was in the car with him, and director Nicolas Entel, was the new documentary film they just released called “Sins of My Father,” essentially a 90-minute apology from Marroquin to the Colombian people for the many gross, violent and bloody acts committed by his father when he was the richest, most powerful and ruthless drug kingpin on the planet.
(more…)

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