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Posted on 10/25/2011 5:44:35 AM PDT by Travis McGee
In spite of having a healthy sized ego I’ve always known my limitations. Even though I’ve been writing about survival and preparedness for many years on daily basis I’ve never considered myself a writer, not even a mediocre one. I know what a writer is and I know I’m not one. I’ve read the work of excellent ones, and I know I just lack that art. I am though a somewhat acceptable story teller, and that’s how I managed to write a book that people can relate to, can learn the lessons I want to transmit and read it without deciding to use it for tinder after ten pages. The most recurrent topic in my blog has been preparedness stories and anecdotes, specifically oriented towards real world survival events and how the people of my country managed to get up, shake off the dust and continue in spite of what this country throws at us.
Some of the events I’ve written about have been hard to digest. Even though I’m firmly against the doom and gloom fascination so common in the survival and preparedness world, there’s times when you just have to tell it as it is. You can’t disguise the death of a person you know, or relate incidents of crime and violence looking through pink-shaded glasses because one extreme is just as bad as the other. The nature of the topics discussed here are serious, sometimes matters of life and death, so that’s why to a certain nouvel readership it might seem dark to read. Even with a pragmatic eye and objective point of view none of this reads like a walk in the park.
As I write this, I can’t avoid feeling two very clear sensations. The first one I can only explain by saying that it’s like stepping out of a boat just as it finishes its slow, decadent sinking and finally goes under the surface. The second one is genuine sadness. Of all the posts I’ve written, this is without a doubt the saddest one I’ve written. I’m not talking about the loss of culture, standards of living or the death of a friend. Its not about the starvation of children of violence towards people close to me. It’s about all that and more. It’s about the death of a country itself.
As the press all over the world talks about the political success of the current administration, and mentions the “flourishing”, prosperous Argentina, a clear minority which I’m part of sees things differently. It makes you wonder and ask yourself a few other things as well. Who writes all these praises? What kind of data do they use to make such positive statements? How can a country be booming economically, yet keeps having shantytowns grow at an accelerating rate, poverty, misery and decadence never backing down one inch, and the 3rd greatest inflation in the planet as the icing on the cake? After reading some of the emails people sent me on the “success” of Argentina, I wonder if its just innocent stupidity, lack of professionalism or if there’s more to it than meets the eye and there are other intentions behind it.
Argentina was fatally wounded almost ten years ago and Argentina as I knew it died yesterday, October 23, 2011, when Ms. Kirchner was re-elected with over 50% of the votes, gaining complete control of the country. She now controls the executive of course, but also the congress, unions and even the media through the Kirchner Media Law. The headlines of the world consider this something of a surprise, a small number of Argentines such as myself consider this the culmination of a decade long process that started with the destruction of opposing parties by any means, legal or not, the indoctrination of the generations to come through several channels including the mandatory “Citizen Formation Studies” in schools and even an officially approved version of history. It seems insane, but the “History” I was taught twenty years ago is different from the one my son is taught, much worse, its different from the recent history I SAW with my own eyes.
One can only wonder how can such an authoritarian leader earn so much public support? Wasn’t it bad enough when they controlled the media through an unconstitutional law, or what about our retirement funds begin stolen (nationalized) right in our faces?
How Did This happen?
The process was long and patient at some times, brutal at others. People from other parties or simply with different views suddenly found themselves facing various charges or harassment. People that didn’t play along simply didn’t end up well, and by that it includes every possible end you can think of. Soon enough politicians that used to be the opposition ended up siding with the ruling K party. Journalists and political analysts that didn’t play ball would be threatened to remind them of their position, or eventually found themselves unemployed and no one willing to hire them. The young adult sector was dealt with by the son of the Kirchner’s, Maximo. He formed “the young Ks”, with their leaders grouped in an organization called “La Campora”.La Campora was formed by friends of the son’s president, at times such a useless and lazy gang, not even Nestor Kirchner himself could place them in the positions they wanted on occasions. During a meeting with the Young K leaders he’s quoted to have said” guys, guys, you come here asking for positions of power and management, but you don’t even have a high school diploma for me”. Almost like a Homer Simpson parody, even the slightest degree of competence would place you in charge of an area of the government or in charge of a recently “nationalized” company, like when they took back “Aerolineas Argentinas” airlines from the Spaniards.
As for the rest of the population, nothing has ever worked as well for the peronist party as keeping those families poor and numerous, and the Ks repeat that same recipe. The handouts for one reason or another make sure those votes keep coming. Handouts per child, for political support, its all there if you show up to the rallies or protest against the companies that aren’t “team players” with the government. If you are a company owner, in the legal or illegal pharmaceutical business, a good amount of donations will go a long way in ensuring the health of your business. Where does the money come from? Stealing the retirement funds helped, so does sucking the blood out of what’s left of the middle class through taxes, but the key is Argentina’s Green Gold: Soy. In a world in crisis commodities such as soy are expensive. What did the K’s do? Take so much from the farmers through taxes with no regard to the future, so that today the land almost grows soy exclusively. In agricultural terms this is madness but they are doing it anyway. Get rid of everything, cattle, other agro, just plant soy. Soy kills the land and ten years from now we’re looking at a food crisis, but who cares? The amount of pesticides used already has consequences with child mortality and significant amount of malformations. No one seems to care.
But the most brilliant part of this evil plan was the children, the generations to come. Political brainwashing thanks to the mandatory citizen formation classes, combined with the iron grip on the media that ensured the famous in the showbiz which the uneducated masses follow play along supporting the Ks, all this “work” had its results eventually. This was complimented with an extreme liberal agenda, from gay marriage and adoption to the official nod to drug abuse. Keep in mind that this has been going on for a decade now. It was first four years of Nestor K, then four more of Cristina K during which Nestor died. Now its four more of Cristina K, and the first generation of indoctrinated kids finally had a chance to vote in these elections.
Don’t repeat Our Mistakes
Ms. K won with over half the country voting for her. This may appear to be a triumph of Democracy. You have to wonder though, if it really is a democracy after everything that has happened, including the sharing of power between husband and wife to extend their period in power. Hugo Chavez was voted at some time into office. So was Hitler.
Many people consider what happened to Argentina after its economic collapse to be a window into the possible future of USA. In many ways and in spite of the differences I do think it is. I do see so many of the similarities that I feel encouraged to make certain warnings which followers of my blog read time and again. One of them is being watchful of the calamity of crime and the suffering it causes. Argentina is already becoming like Venezuela in that area as well.
The one I want to make sure people listen to in this case is to please be careful of authoritarian governments. They sprout and grow within the political system and government structure during hard times like we’ve seen it happen so many times in the past, in different countries at different times. Never forget Hitler got voted into office thanks to the desperation of the Germans just wanting to believe the promises after so much economic struggling. Argentines would hand over a freaking crown to this woman if she asked for one, but they already gave her so much more than that. Please learn from our experience in this as well. Never give more power to a president than the one he should have. Remember that he’s always an employee of the people, and not the other way around. Punish authoritarianism by taking action, talking with your representatives and remembering it when its time to vote once again.
USA has real hope in its Tea Party movement and politicians like Ron Paul. Support them. Support movements like the Appleseed Project, those are great folks that teach a key part of the TRUE history of the United States and not a sanitized politically correct version.
Take care everyone,
FerFAL
“Anyone who supports usurpation of the Rule of Law will become fair game when lawlessness officially becomes precedent defended by an equally lawless and presumptuous self-styled monopoly of force.”
Immediate word associations from this:
Moscow, Old Bolsheviks, Show Trials, Night of the Long Knives, Sturm Abteilung . . . and so on.
I agree, and I think the best one can realistically hope for is to be living in a region that is not as badly shattered as many will be, particularly the urban welfare zones.
Suicide of a Superpower is on my next-to-read list. I’ve enjoyed reading and listening to PJB over the years.
I suspect that only one in four or so even here - with a very well informed base - really understand what you are talking about: Sea Peoples; Vandals; Chichimecas; the An Lushan Rebellion; the Thirty Years War. Catastrophic technological and population decline.
I quite agree.
Own it, read it. He has a lot of wisdom.
I suspect that only one in four or so even here - with a very well informed base - really understand what you are talking about: Sea Peoples; Vandals; Chichimecas; the An Lushan Rebellion; the Thirty Years War. Catastrophic technological and population decline.
I quite agree.
Yes, and my God help us.
And when the SHTF in Argieland, invade the Falklands.
Have you seen this? I just saw it today, reading the third page of the thread. Selco from Bosnia telling of his expereinces during a year long seige of some city in Bosnia near the Croat border.
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=189395
"....and the money kept rolling in...."
My friends in AR tell me that they siezed everyone’s private retirement accounts to do some sort of national retiremanet plans. Ms. Kirchner has amassed a huge fortune over recent years, mainly through the national treasury. Restristions on writing checks (for business transactions) make it difficult to do day to day business. It’s gotten pretty dismal down there. Sad.
Where’s Pinochet when you need him?
Yep, there IS that. :>)
Thanks for the ping. Very good read.
UP...!!!
Good read. Argentina is a beautiful country with so much potential. It could be like a Italian/Spanish version of the US in South America, but ever since the Perons, it hasn’t been able to get it right as it moves from one regime to another. I was last there a few years ago and in the nicer areas of Buenos Aires and Mendoza, life felt the same, but you could see the poverty outside the cities. And the inflation in prices was ridiculous compared to my previous visit after the collapse there in 2001/2002. I could see then that the average Argentine couldn’t afford much anymore. And Argentina USED to have a huge middle class. But political greed has ruined that.
Oh yeah, it looks like a great blog/forum. I read lots of pages in this thread. Good stuff for urban survival during crazy civil war.
Argentina’s economic collapse plus something like the Bosnian civil war is one vision I see of America’s future.
Good point. Many Americans don’t realize it, but except in the far flung provinces like Salta, Argentina has no diversity. It’s population looks like a Southern European country that just picked up and moved halfway around the world. It looks nothing like Mexico, Brazil, etc. That cultural cohesiveness has helped it survive in the past. Additionally, the reliability of the welfare state just doesn’t exist like in the US so people have to turn to each other and to themselves to survive when things get tough.
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