I'm sitting here about to type my first entry on our new family blog and watching Carter. As you can see in this picture, he is holding a dish towel in his hands and sucking on it. To the average person this may not seem worth mentioning, but this is the first time my baby has USED his hands that way. He is affecting something in his world on purpose! A big day for my 11 week old guy. Momma T is so proud. :)
I called this blog entry 'Observations on the bad side' because I'm noticing things here in BA that I DON'T like and wanted a place to organize them, rearrange and label them. As close to cleaning as I can get while I'm here in BA. And my addiction to cleaning and organizing must be fueled! (My next blog will talk about some of the things I DO like here.)
Garbage isn't a concern in Argentina. Argentina is developing into a first world nation but they've got a ways to go. I'd like to sit down with the powers that be and explain that putting out garbage directly on the sidewalks in piles of small bags, open boxes, etc. is really not how a first world nation would behave. Ok, so they don't have back alleys. They could use large plastic bins for all of the businesses and residents to throw their stuff into. Then the garbage trucks could pick up and empty those bins each night. The animals wouldn't get into it, the bags wouldn't get torn open and garbage wouldn't be stewn along the street and sidewalk to stink up the place. Just like in the suburbs - we don't have back alleys but we manage not to have to walk through rotting garbage on a daily basis. Seriously!
Graffiti is not a crime in Argentina. They should also think about managing the graffiti that pops up on every available surface. There are beautiful old and new buildings on each street, gated entries, lovely trees and flowers, but then BAM right in the middle of it is ugly and useless graffiti. At least find some artists to paint something interesting or meaningful. This stuff isn't artistic even in the lowest gang form, it's just ugly. Get rid of it, it's so ghetto.
Fixing things is not a priority in Argentina. Maybe there isn't the money, sure. It's just unfortunate that the sidewalks are all broken and so full of potholes it's hard to walk our jogger stroller with the big wheels over them.
So I guess the overall assumption I'm making is that aesthetics aren't that important to the administration here - in BA at least. Not sure if the people mind, or if there just aren't tax dollars to change things. Makes me feel like a snob for noticing and mentioning it. I wonder if an Argentinian moved to Sherwood Park if they would like the cleanliness and new feeling or if it would even matter. Does it make us happier or more fulfilled as people because we have paving crews out all times of the year and garbage bins to roll out to the curb?
Welcome to 3rd world :)
ReplyDeleteI believe Argentina has pretty much the same problems of street cleaning and garbage handling as Brazil. Sure there is a money problem too, but I believe it is also an education problem: most people just don't care about it. They themselves throw garbage on the streets, like the streets were somebody else's place and they don't have to worry about it. They don't see the public places as their places too, they see it as a place that has no owner.
I believe that even if the government had money to handle the garbage better and put plastic bins on the streets, people would still throw garbage out of these plastic bins... what we need here is more basic education: at school and at home.
Hope you enjoy the good side of it :)
Love,
Carina.
PS.: Carter is sooooo cute!!! I would touch his chubby cheeks also !
Interesting. Thanks for the perspective from a native Brazilian, Carina. So you think of SA as the third world? I thought it was 'developing' or the 'second world'. I mean it's much nicer than Mexico, Belize or what I've seen of Guatemala in Central America. So where are you living now? Still working in Vancouver?
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