Asia Times: Argentina: Images of a shipwrecked nation


	March 29, 2002	atimes.com

Global Economy

Argentina: Images of a shipwrecked nation
By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES - The sinking of Argentina is leading impoverished women and men to take desperate measures, selling their hair or blood, jumping on an overturned cattle truck to butcher the animals on the spot, or taking money to hold a place in a queue outside a bank all night long.

These cases, which occurred within the past week, have traits in common. They involve desperate, spontaneous, improvised and massive reactions that are caused by the basic need to obtain food. In December, the same necessity led crowds to plunder supermarkets.

An owner of a wig factory in Rosario, in the northeastern province of Santa Fe, commented in a radio interview that the devaluation of the Argentine peso had made imports too expensive and his company could no longer purchase the materials needed to create artificial hairpieces. His solution was to announce the purchase of human hair. The public's reaction went far beyond what Beauty Center's proprietors ever imagined.

"Entire families arrived, some had traveled 30 kilometers on bicycle with their children. They brought their hair already cut, or asked us to cut it off for them," said Ana Duran, co-owner of the company. Each person left with P10-15 (US$3-$5).

Some 400 people showed up in two days. One man said he was selling his hair "in order to make the payment" on the car he bought recently.

Payment was P300 (about $100) per kilo of hair. But nobody could offer much more than 30 grams. Though it was not the intention, the company purchased in two days enough material to manufacture wigs throughout the next year. Most of the wigs are sold to people who lose hair as a result of chemotherapy.

"We paid for hair that was of poor quality, that we knew we would throw out, but we did it because the people were desperate. The said they didn't have money to buy food, and they offered us the hair of each of their children. They were even willing to let us cut it just like that, but we hired a stylist," Duran said.

Argentina's economic recession began nearly four years ago and continues to deepen. Poverty has increased dramatically, and now affects 44 percent of the population of 37 million, according to official figures. Unemployment stands at 24 percent of the workforce, according to private studies.

The currency devaluation that began in January led to a price rise for the basic monthly family food basket, while salaries dropped for those who still have jobs. Purchasing power has been reduced for everyone, but the hardest hit are those who receive the meager government subsidy for unemployed heads of household.

Many of the unemployed are offering to hold a place in the long lines for customers who are waiting to purchase dollars, sold at regulated rates and in limited amounts by banks and exchange houses. The price for this service ranges from P15-100, depending on the place in the queue and the fluctuations in the currency market. Thirteen percent of the people standing in the long lines - some extending 600 meters - admitted to the IBOPE polling firm that they were holding a place for someone else.

One man who was among the first in the queue outside the state-owned Banco Nacion said he had been there all night and had already received partial payment from the client for whom he was saving a place in line. He was a former employee of Aerolineas Argentinas who worked for the airline for 22 years, until he was laid off two years ago. The man, 40, with three children, said he has only found work doing odd jobs. "Once I get paid, I am going to donate blood. They offered P15," he said. The woman paying him to hold a place in the line for her until the bank opened had told him she had to accompany a hospitalized family member.

The communications media highlight such episodes as a new manifestation of the social crisis that three months ago meant supermarket looting and violent street demonstrations, with a death toll of 30. That wave of social unrest precipitated the resignation of president Fernando de la Rua on December 20.

A Buenos Aires radio station on Tuesday telephoned economist Marcelo Lascano, adviser to multilateral financial organizations, to ask him about the lack of confidence in the peso. Lascano responded with another question: "And what do you think about people brutally killing animals to eat them?"

The economist was still amazed after having seen televised images of hundreds of people who butchered and cut apart cattle in a truck that overturned near Rosario, Argentina's second most populous city. There were 22 animals in the truck. The driver was taken to hospital, while residents of the area wasted no time in surrounding the accident site.

While the ambulance personnel and the police worked to clear the accident, the people gathered asked permission to put the animals out of their misery and to butcher them for their meat. The cattle, which had been on their way to a meat-packing plant, were handed over after some arguments and shoving. Some 400 men and women went to work, with three to five people cutting up each animal.

"There are 30 in my family and none of the men work," said a desperate-sounding woman, whose clothes were bloodied by the butchery.

One young man aimed his criticism at Argentina's political leaders, who he said have failed to provide the solutions demanded by the crisis. "They live well and eat well, they don't have any problems. Meanwhile, we are dying of hunger, but we help each other and are going to share all of this," he said, pointing to the butchered cattle.

Residents of Dean Funes, a town in the central province of Cordoba, gathered on Wednesday outside a supermarket and retail center to ask for food, while several guards stood outside the building. The shops closed their doors and handed out bags of food to appease the crowd.

Marta Martinez, a middle-class retiree, 75, said she has never experienced a crisis like the one afflicting Argentina today. She said she was not talking about her personal situation, but about the distressing cases she sees around her and the numerous families who do not have the basic necessities to survive.

Martinez gets together regularly in Buenos Aires with a group of retired women to sew clothing to be donated to people in the provinces. But she says she knows it is not enough, a comment that is repeated by social-assistance organizations, which have seen donations plummet while requests for food and clothing have jumped.

"When I was a child I experienced the crisis of 1930, and the people talked a great deal about that and the lack of work. But never - never - did it compare to what we are seeing now, a situation as desperate and distressing as this," she said, her voice breaking.

(Inter Press Service)