Argentina Country

Country of South America where I was born, next to Chile, it shares with Chile el estrecho de Magallanes.

Argentina is famous for its breathtaking landscapes, Tango, soccer, Evita, its world-greatest beef, the Pampas, the Patagonia, its big ego countrymen and... its corrupted politicians! -- MarianoAlvarez

About soccer: Argentina is second only to Brazil in the number of world cups won.

vivan las madres de las plaza...

Don't cry for me Argentina...

Some say Argentina is a country so rich in natural resources that it would be a developed country if it were not because of Argentinians. -- A Chilean ;-)

Also if you go to Chile and then to Argentina you will realize you were in the wrong side of the mountains: Argentinian women are so beautiful and also they have a very strong personality. Something that I especially like, although it doesn't do me any good. -- Same Chilean as above.

If you want to learn Spanish in a foreign country, you'd better go to Argentina. Their way to talk is way more contagious than ours, I've heard Americans who have been a month in Argentina and they sound exactly like Argentinians. It takes years to learn the Chilean accent and then no one else can understand you. -- Another same Chilean

I'm moving to Chile. I hope the comment about the mountains is not right. -- An Argentinean

Argentinian Economy

It was mentioned in a newspaper that Argentina was once ranked among the world's top ten economies twenty or thirty years ago. Yet in a recent SixtyMinutes? TV program a profile was made of the country and a statement made of the girls "All dressed up with nowhere to go". How could a change in fortunes happen so quickly for a country?

Argentina was meant to be the USA of the Southern Hemisphere back in the day...

Twenty years ago, eh? That would be around the time they were liquidating the country to keep the economy afloat. Kind of like slash and burn agriculture. And then people wonder what went wrong. Sheesh.

Argentina was one of the top economies in the world not 20 years ago... but more like 60 years ago, right before Peron came into play. While the big economies in the northern hemisphere were taking care of business and hurting each other during the two world wars, Argentina grew stronger by being Geographically away of the conflicts and exporting goods and food to those countries that needed it for these wars. -- MarianoAlvarez

Are you sure it was not prosperous after the 2nd world war as well?
So what caused the rapid decline? Did the American economists masquerading as ChicagoBoys? did it to Argentina?

Tying the currency to the US dollar. Selling off the nation in order to make it float, to allow the rich to buy foreign goods cheaply. Discouraging local industry and employment. Once there was no more country left to sell off, the economy collapsed. And they did it all to themselves, though as usual the USA took full advantage instead of helping them out.

I wonder, is Argentinians' arrogance the result of liquidating the entire country resulting in a few years of first-world affluence, or was such a stupid decision just a clear sign of unmitigated arrogance?

So is ArgentinaCountry now "steady at the bottom", "visibly on the way up", or going the way of small African countries? Anyone know how is healthcare? Do people have much reduced life expectancy due to unavailability of medicine? Why can they not cultivate and export drugs like some central American countries do?

Is it a net energy exporter?

I wonder whether this is a candidate country for cash-strapped programmers without jobs to retire to, if they can speak a little bit of Spanish.

I'm an Argentinian programmer in the USA. Not quite there being cash-strapped (far from it, actually), but Argentina will be my choice when I retire. Life is much more relaxed and the geography is jaw-dropping.

There's plenty of background at (http://www.zmag.org/LAM/zargentina.html), but why pick Argentina over peaceful Venezuela or eco-friendly Brazil?

Brazil speaks Portuguese, whereas Spanish is used widely around the world. Also sometimes people compare Argentina to Australia (a country I know). I suppose there has to be enough cultural / economic / infrastrural similarities for people to start to make such comparisons.

Brazil also has an Inconvenient History of importing ten times as many slaves as the Americans (the northern kind) and is plagued by class problems.

Wonder whether in Argentina, if you take away the super rich and the poorest 10 percent, are the rest pretty much equal in wealth and status? If so, it's a measure of stability of the society

You have got to be bloody kidding. What is "pretty much equal" supposed to mean?? If you take away the super rich and the poorest 10% in the USA, does that mean the USA is a stable society??

I use that as a measuring tool for spread of wealth amongst the "middle class". If the middle class is equally rich, or equally poor, the society is more stable.

Define "equally". And please at least handwave at some empirical evidence showing that countries meeting your criterion tend to be more stable than those that do not.

Another factor for people thinking about retiring there, providing the country accepts you, is whether the country has peace with neighbors and peace at the borders.

Which would kind of depend on your neighbours, wouldn't it? Having had peace with Pinochet's Chile doesn't immediately strike me as a thing to be proud of.

Pinochet is gone. Are you saying his culture remains in that country?

Are you saying it doesn't? I heard the country is a shambles and that the truth commission is a joke. (But in fact, I was speaking generally, in an abstract manner.)

And if you plan to live long enough, you have to think about the possible consequences of climatic shift, soon countries will go to war over water rights, though I do not expect that to happen to Argentina.

Which countries in the American hemisphere will do that? I don't expect any of them to.

Argentina is a net energy exporter, and the health care is actually quite good. The public health care system is quite strong and the higher education system is free (i.e. you don't have to pay to get a university degree). In the last years we had a terrible crisis but we are far away from south saharian figures in life expectancy, nutrition, income and education. I think it's a good place to retire. In fact, a lot of Italians retire in Argentina.

Why do the Italians want to retire in Argentina, instead of a countryside in Italy where cost of living lower, and they can live amongst others of similar cultural heritage?

''Gee that education system is better than most Western countries. How about inter-racial situation? Some SouthAmerican? countries are being seriously affected by guerrilla, peasant insurrections, etc.

There is no guerrilla in Argentina, and almost no inter-racial problems (maybe, because the big majority has the same race). Free college education is one of the things that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are trying to destroy. Maybe, that's why a lot of Argentinians hate them. AFAIK only Uruguay and Argentina have free (as in beer) unrestricted higher education.

Are there much restrictions, e.g. outright censorship or economic barriers, in obtaining international press reports about unfavorable events in Argentina?

No, AFAIK. Right now I live in Chile (but I'm Argentinian) and I don't see any problems obtaining international press reports. There is no covered information. You can tune CNN on cable TV if you want. But, of course, Argentinian news are seen from a different perspective in Argentina.

Things non-Argentinians know about Argentina

I'm curious, being from Argentina, to know what you guys know about or things that you relate to when you hear the word Argentina. Add items to the list.

Borges and a history of cosmopolitanism (not sure what Argentina's like now, after the fiscal policy wildness) and cuisine that includes cow parts that I don't care to eat again.
The standard of life is the best one in South America, but it's way behind in economic development/standard of living due to currency/banking/inflation problems.
There are a lot of Italian immigrants in Argentina, and the Argentine Spanish has a noticeable Italian resemblance when spoken. Italians and Spaniards were the big wave of immigrants. There are many Germans, Polish, Jewish and Russians as well.
The "slang" (Lunfardo) in Argentina is enormous, there are dictionaries with nothing but "Lunfardo" words.
Argentina has exported a few dances worldwide; tango is one of them. But the "real" tango is different from the tango we all know. Tango for export is changed a little to appeal to the masses.
The musical instrument called the bandoneon has originated in Argentina, I believe. -- ra
- No - it originated in Germany. But it's heavily used in tango music (BuenosAires's folk music).
It is in Argentina - if my memory serves me well - that a group of women come every Thursday downtown with the pictures of loved ones who have disappeared. This is so sad! -- ra
- Yes. The group of women is called "Madres de Plaza de Mayo" (Mothers of the May Place).
There was a huge inflation - and there still is - a few years ago. The country went bankrupt. Ironical since Argent in French means money.. It also means silver... -- ra

[Lots of inaccuracies and things not about Argentina removed; some questions and answers merged.]

Argentinians are considered to be egotistical and self-centered people. Being from Argentina, I admit that the arrogance seen there is above the average than in any other country. At the same time, it's a bit funny how the only countries that know about this arrogance are those countries in Latin America. Roughly 90% of Argentinians have European ancestors (due to the extensive wave of immigrants and also due to the massacre of native indians back in the 1800s), hence the light colored skin and European heritage. For this reason Argentina doesn't fit in the typical Latin pattern while at the same time it tries to be a European country on the other side of the Atlantic, failing on its attempt.

Stop stereotyping! There are good and bad people, regardless of their backgrounds. Why don't you talk about the hypocrisy of Mexican society and its pathetic novelas? Mexico claims to be proud of their mestizo background, yet if you turn on the TV, all you see are white faces. Oh, by the way, there a many of Argentine actors in Mexican TV (Sebastian Ruli, Christian Bach, Juan Soler, and Rene Strickler to name a few. And Mexico tries desperately hard to "claim them as there own" and make them talk with Mexican accents, as if to pass as natives. Why, because their white? Hmm...ironic??? -- Diana Castro

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