Salem-News.com Argentina articles

President of Argentina Under Fire For Breaking Up Fox-Like Media Group: Clarin

Clarin claims that the government has set out to gag the media, to shut them up on account of unwanted criticism. However, Sen. Nicolas Fernandez, a supporter of the bill (and no relation to the president) pointed out that nothing in the new bill regulates content.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - If you think Barack Obama has trouble with Fox News, President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina has more trouble with Clarin, the biggest media group in Argentina.

Like Fox in the US, Clarin has taken its role as watchdog very seriously.

Adios a Oregon

Views of a rainy NW state from a South American Paradise.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - Patagonia is a long way from the USA not just in terms of the miles that a person has to travel to get here, but culturally and politically as well.

When I recently returned to our little outpost here in the southern cone, several of the neighbors dropped by to say welcome and chat for a bit. It was good to be back on our dusty lane in Patagonia where people value tranquility just ahead of raspberry jam.

Mañana

Inside perspective on life in Argentina from a former resident of Oregon.

(EL BOLSON, Argentina) - Manana is a word that gets no respect from English speakers. Northerners say it with a whiney nasal quality that suggests it’s something less than it is, tomorrow. It’s a derisive codeword for “maybe never.” Argentines resent this because to them, manana has a very clear and precise meaning, sometime next week.

En dos o tres dias is Argentine Spanish for “maybe never”. At least that’s been our experience here in Patagonia.

We arrived in El Bolson just three days prior to the contractual deadline for the completion of our house.

Islas Malvinas Day in Argentina

Holy week would be a crowded and noisy salute to the last of summer’s heat, but we were able to endure until Easter, the return of rain and peace at last.

(FALKLAND ISLANDS, Argentina) - Islas Malvinas Day came and went. A thief in the night, it hid itself at the beginning of la semana santa (holy week) and managed to stay unnoticed in the shadows of the grander holidays that would follow.

There were no conspicuous displays of Argentine flags, parades, fireworks or other conventional displays of patriotic fervor.

In el Bolson, the only inkling we had that there was a holiday afoot was that the banks were closed; but in a town with only two banks that stay open only three hours per day, most closures go by unnoticed. The 24-hour teller machines did a nonetheless brisk business.