Last Wednesday, the national paper Página 12, published the results of the first national survey on religious beliefs carried out by the organization CONICET along with five universities. They surveyed 2403 adults across the country. Some of the results are surprising. Apparently 9 out of 10 Argentines believe in God. Approximately 76% identify as Catholics, 11% as atheist, agnostic or of no religion, 9% as Evangelists, 1% Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1% Mormons and the remaining 1% are divided among other religions. At the same time, ¾ “rarely or never” attend church or other places of worship and many differ in opinion with the Vatican on important issues:
6 out of 10 support the decriminalization of abortion in special circumstances (in cases of rape, danger to the health or life of the mother, etc)
9 out of 10 want the government to promote the use of prophylactics to prevent the spread of HIV
9 out of 10 support sex education in schools and 8 out of 10 believe that “all” methods of contraception should be discussed
8 out of 10 also believe that a person can use contraception and still be a “faithful believer” and more than half consider premarital sexual relations “a positive experience”.
Logically, the highest proportion of “non-believers” is concentrated in the capital city with approximately 20% declaring their “indifference” to religion.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
The Latest
Due to problems with my internet connection, I haven't been able to update for the last several weeks. However, I'm back now so here's a brief summary of some of the most interesting things that have been going on:
And after the vote...?
Despite the fact that they essentially “won” the vote in Congress last month, leaders of the various agricultural organizations are giving the government a kind of ultimatum (along the lines of “time is running out”) for their demands to be met. They’re threatening to begin a new lockout among other types of protest –similar to what we saw last March when dairy products, meat and some vegetables were suddenly absent from local stores. The tone of their demands and their relations with the current government are beginning to look like the emergence of an organized and coherent opposition (party?). They appear, for instance, to be much more interested in political opposition to the government, in making their demands public and in relations with the media then in actual negotiations. On the one hand, a coherent opposition is a sign of a healthy democracy and, in forcing the government to be clearer about its agenda and attentive to all sectors of society, could also have beneficial effects on the current government. However, it must also be noted that many of the key figures emerging politically in the agricultural sector, have not been historically “democratic” players (directly or indirectly associated with past military dictatorships and/or their objectives). Furthermore, they have some very powerful financial interests on their side as well as most national media.
Cobos for President?
Meanwhile, following the vote last month of vice president Cobos (now popularly referred to as “Cleto” his unusual middle name), against his own government’s bill in Congress, it looks increasingly like he’s positioning himself to campaign for president in 2011. It’s a long way off, but the Legislature will have elections next year and candidates are already being debated. Following the vote, there has been a divide within the government between the Cobos-loyal Radicals (Cobos was originally from the UCR –the Radical Civic Union; his party threw him out when he ran on the ballot with Cristina last December) and the “K” Radicals, those loyal to the current government. Last month many of the Cobos loyal Radicals resigned from their positions within the government and Cobos is increasingly seen with figures associated with the agricultural sector, appearing at rural expos and events from which the government has otherwise been deliberately absent. The UCR recently hinted that it will consider welcoming back those thrown out of the party for their relationship with the FPV (Cristina’s party). It also appears that the government is considering its own candidates for the upcoming 2009 elections in places where Cobos would have loyal candidates. In other words, the current government is something like a beast with two heads. For the moment, one is largely neutralized.
Taking Flight
Since the vote on export tariffs, the government has been dealing with another important bill in Congress: the re-nationalization of Argentine Airlines (Aerolíneas Argentinas) from a Spanish company that is essentially bankrupt. The company originally belonged to the State and was privatized in the “neoliberal” 90s (by then president Carlos Menem). In order to make sure that this time their project gained approval (they couldn’t afford another loss in Congress), the government made multiple concessions to other political parties and the opposition. The bill passed with two thirds of the votes. The debate was notably less fierce, the issues (and interests) at stake much less contentious.
Those Poor Farmers
Lastly, the government recently changed their Secretary of Agriculture. Carlos Cheppi this weekend gave his first public interview to the press (newspaper Página 12) in which he comments on, among others, the issue of defining so-called “small” and “medium” producers. Cheppi says: “We’re talking about producers who are dealing with one million or 500,000 dollars and who are also owners of the land, of significant capital. [...] They are people who are dealing with a lot of money, who earn a lot of money, [and are by no means] poor. And I’m not saying this as if it were something negative. On the contrary, they are a sector that dynamizes the economy, that reinvests, that have sent their sons to study and whose sons have today put the sector at the leading edge of competitivity in agriculture on an international scale. The problem is that perhaps they can no longer be considered small producers”. (The entire interview, in Spanish, is here.)
And after the vote...?
Despite the fact that they essentially “won” the vote in Congress last month, leaders of the various agricultural organizations are giving the government a kind of ultimatum (along the lines of “time is running out”) for their demands to be met. They’re threatening to begin a new lockout among other types of protest –similar to what we saw last March when dairy products, meat and some vegetables were suddenly absent from local stores. The tone of their demands and their relations with the current government are beginning to look like the emergence of an organized and coherent opposition (party?). They appear, for instance, to be much more interested in political opposition to the government, in making their demands public and in relations with the media then in actual negotiations. On the one hand, a coherent opposition is a sign of a healthy democracy and, in forcing the government to be clearer about its agenda and attentive to all sectors of society, could also have beneficial effects on the current government. However, it must also be noted that many of the key figures emerging politically in the agricultural sector, have not been historically “democratic” players (directly or indirectly associated with past military dictatorships and/or their objectives). Furthermore, they have some very powerful financial interests on their side as well as most national media.
Cobos for President?
Meanwhile, following the vote last month of vice president Cobos (now popularly referred to as “Cleto” his unusual middle name), against his own government’s bill in Congress, it looks increasingly like he’s positioning himself to campaign for president in 2011. It’s a long way off, but the Legislature will have elections next year and candidates are already being debated. Following the vote, there has been a divide within the government between the Cobos-loyal Radicals (Cobos was originally from the UCR –the Radical Civic Union; his party threw him out when he ran on the ballot with Cristina last December) and the “K” Radicals, those loyal to the current government. Last month many of the Cobos loyal Radicals resigned from their positions within the government and Cobos is increasingly seen with figures associated with the agricultural sector, appearing at rural expos and events from which the government has otherwise been deliberately absent. The UCR recently hinted that it will consider welcoming back those thrown out of the party for their relationship with the FPV (Cristina’s party). It also appears that the government is considering its own candidates for the upcoming 2009 elections in places where Cobos would have loyal candidates. In other words, the current government is something like a beast with two heads. For the moment, one is largely neutralized.
Taking Flight
Since the vote on export tariffs, the government has been dealing with another important bill in Congress: the re-nationalization of Argentine Airlines (Aerolíneas Argentinas) from a Spanish company that is essentially bankrupt. The company originally belonged to the State and was privatized in the “neoliberal” 90s (by then president Carlos Menem). In order to make sure that this time their project gained approval (they couldn’t afford another loss in Congress), the government made multiple concessions to other political parties and the opposition. The bill passed with two thirds of the votes. The debate was notably less fierce, the issues (and interests) at stake much less contentious.
Those Poor Farmers
Lastly, the government recently changed their Secretary of Agriculture. Carlos Cheppi this weekend gave his first public interview to the press (newspaper Página 12) in which he comments on, among others, the issue of defining so-called “small” and “medium” producers. Cheppi says: “We’re talking about producers who are dealing with one million or 500,000 dollars and who are also owners of the land, of significant capital. [...] They are people who are dealing with a lot of money, who earn a lot of money, [and are by no means] poor. And I’m not saying this as if it were something negative. On the contrary, they are a sector that dynamizes the economy, that reinvests, that have sent their sons to study and whose sons have today put the sector at the leading edge of competitivity in agriculture on an international scale. The problem is that perhaps they can no longer be considered small producers”. (The entire interview, in Spanish, is here.)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
History: The Conquest of the Desert (Chapter 2, Part I)
“Today, January 18, 1826, in order to save on bullets, we slit the throats of 27 Ranqueles.” –Federico RauchAround 30 thousand years ago, tribes from Asia and Oceania began to spread through the American continent from the Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego. It’s estimated that they numbered close to two million by the time the Spaniards arrived: Tehuelches, Pampas, Wichis, Araucanos, Incas. Diverse groups with diverse languages, cultures and ways of life. They were mostly hunters, fishers and gatherers. The Incas constructed an empire with great cities, a territory which extended throughout the Andes.
Across the ocean, Spain was structured into a rigid feudal society; one, in which, if you had the misfortune to be born at the bottom, you likely stayed at the bottom. There was little room for changing one’s status. America, however, offered this opportunity; the possibility for peasants, workers, down-and-out nobles to change their luck, obtain land, riches, titles and fame.
From the beginning, the Spaniards treated the native peoples with hostility, taking land as they wished, and using religion and force to dominate them. When the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata was formed, its limits delineated the borders between “civilization” and “barbarity”. Beyond its territory lay the “desert”, unconquered –though not as the term would suggest, uninhabited-- territory. The “Indians”, it was thought, needed to either be “domesticated” or “exterminated”.
In October of 1810, several months after the Revolución de Mayo, an expedition was sent out under the control of Colonel Pedro García, to venture into the interior of the country. García reported that the Indian “despite his barbarity” could be dominated and assimilated into civilization. He recommended reinforcing borders.
Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, the salting industry which produced dried meat preserved in salt, was growing quickly and making the “salters” wealthy and powerful men. The only catch was that both the major sources of salt and the wild cattle were located in territory controlled by various native tribes. The solution? An expansion into and takeover of this territory from the natives. The priority quickly shifted from assimilating the “Indian” to exterminating him.
When Bernardino Rivadavia assumed the presidency in 1826, all of the provinces’ public land holdings were put up as the guarantee for a loan taken with the Baring Brothers Bank of London. Rivadavia applied a system of “emphyteusis” to these holdings by which agricultural producers could farm public land, though as tenants rather than owners. Rather than dividing up the land into lots and leasing it out to small and medium sized producers, Rivadavia handed out thousands and thousands of hectares to those who were already major landowners. Since the law didn’t establish limits or require grazing or occupation of the land, it permitted subleasing and the transference of rights which opened up possibilities for all kind of speculation with public lands.
8 million, 6 hundred thousand (8,600,000) hectares (more than 212 million acres) fell into the hands of only 538 private landowners.
In order to control the borders and guarantee protection for these landowners (from the natives), Rivadavia contracted the Prussian mercenary Federico Rauch who received the ranking of Colonel in the national Army. His strategy consisted of surprise attacks and indiscriminate assassinations of men, women and children. March 28, 1829, in the battle of Las Vizcacheras, Rauch was defeated and his throat slit by Arbolito, a Ranquel.
By the time Rauch died, the 30,000 km2 of pampas that formed part of Buenos Aires had been transformed –by the advanced of the army—into more than 100,000.
A city in Buenos Aires province remains named in his honour.
Translated and adapted from the series Historia de un país Argentina siglo XX.
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