Costa Rica ..... ¨pura vida¨ country

Pura Vida.. is how the Costa Ricans respond cheerfully when you ask them , Como esta ( how are you ). Pura vida literally means pure life. But what the Costa Ricans mean is ¨full of life¨, ¨great¨. This makes them distinct among the Latin Americans who respond generally as Bien ( fine) or Muy Bien ( very well ). I had the opportunity to discover some more unique characteristics of this Pura Vida country during my visit there last week from 6 to 9 May.

The Ticos ( nick name of costa rican men ) or Ticas ( costa rican women) distingusih themselves from the other Central Americans and Latin Americans not just by the word Pura Vida. They have genuinely made themsleves distinct and succeeded in marketing their country as a business and tourist destination with a difference. Here are some facts substantiating their claim.
Costa Rica had abolished the armed forces in December 1948 and has been peacefully and democratically governed in the last fifty years. Unbelievabe... but true. This is their greatest distinction from the rest of Latin America which had suffered military dictatorships and the consequent miseries in this period. Mind you .. the Ticos are not living in a far away island. They live right in the middle of Central America which has gone through devastating civil wars, proxy wars, contra wars and even soccer wars. It is against this background that Costa Rica´s achivement looks even more admirable. From an intellectual, cultural and historic point view abolishment of army by Costa Rica is indeed a civilisational advance! As the first country to abolish armed forces, Costa Rica has set an example not only for Latin america but for the whole world. The neighbouring Panama has followed the example of the Ticos by abolishing their army in 1990.

The Ticos are not just content with passive peace within the frontiers of their chiquitico country of four million. They have established a University for Peace (UPEACE) in 1980 “to contribute to the great universal task of educating for peace by engaging in teaching, research, post-graduate training and dissemination of knowledge fundamental to the full development of the human person and societies through the interdisciplinary study of all matters related to peace”. At present, the UPEACE Costa Rica Campus has 170 students from 52 different countries, including India, making it one of the most diverse universities in the world for its size.

Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica successfully mediated to stop the central american wars and get the presidents of the region to sign a peace agreementin 1987. Peace has endured since then. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1987. He used the monetary award from the Nobel Peace prize to establish the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech he said ¨ We are a people without arms and we are fighting to continue to be a people without hunger. Our children walk with books under their arms rather than guns on their shoulders. We are a symbol of peace for America.¨ Not a rhetoric. Preaching based on practice.

In 1869, the country became one of the first in the world to make education both free and obligatory, funded by the state’s share of the great coffee wealth. The literacy rate of Costa Rica is one of the highest in Latin America.

With its high literacy rate, Costa Rica has positioned itself as the silicon valley of Latin America. Intel has a chip making plant employing 5000 Ticos. Hewlett Packard employs 7000 Ticos in its call centres and BPOs.

Costa Rica is not only a kind of silicon valley; it has made silicon mountains out of the breasts of Latino women. Read my blog story on this
http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2008/09/indian-men-want-to-conquer-silicon.html#links

Costa Rica was the pioneer in introducing Canopy Tours. There are 190 of them in various parts of the rain forests of the country. It is an adrenaline rush soaring above the canopies of the forest and sliding down the steel ropes ( like monkeys ! ) through the branches and leaves of the trees. It gives an intimate feel of the forest. My own monkey trick on the rope was not a big deal. I used to climb palm trees in my village. I was scared for another reason. Behind me in the rope was a MacDonald-fed 400 pound Gringa. I was afraid that the rope would break and she would fall on me and crush me to a pulp. But the ropes were stronger and I survived. Here is a picture of the Canopy tour:

Costa Rica was the first country to start coffee plantations in Central America, in 1779. Again the Ticos have distinguished themselves from the other central americans. While in the other countries cafe oligarchy has caused political and social problems, in Costa Rica the coffee economy is more inclusive with the participation of a large number of small and medium coffee farmers. Whereas in other countries the Indios and tenant farmers were displaced from their communal lands, most Costa Ricans have benefited from Coffee. Of course, there are coffee barons in Costa Rica including the current president Oscar Arias. But they are the benevolent types.

Costa Rica has the best golf clubs in Central America with some fantastic world-class resort courses. I played in the Cariari country club, the one nearest to the city. It is one of the toughest courses I have ever played. It is narrow with hazards and out of bound scaring the hell out of the players. I survived without losing a ball or going out of bounds but with a poor score of 92! David, one of the foursome in which I played is a retiree from US, settled there for the last seven years. He comes to the club in his own golf cart from his house located inside the golf course. The snack and drinks cart moving around the golf course had many alcoholic drinks including black label whisky. Lou Aguillera, one of our foursome started playing better after a couple of glasses of rum...

Here is the signature hole ( par three hole number four )

Tourism is the largest source of foreign exchange for the country. About 2 million tourists visit the country every year. Ecotourism has been well developed. Many Ticos in the services sector such as Tourism and Hotels speak fluent English. The climate, political stability and friendly services has attracted a number of Americans who have settled down there permamnently.

I went in a tour group to see local folk dances at Pueblo Antigo. Two Ticas namely, Chavela and Consuelo gave a guided tour of the place and cultural event for two hours. They entertained us with jokes, stories, songs, dances and anecdotes explaining the history and culture of Costa Rica. They were like a two-person theatre. They were the best and the most impressive tourist guides I have ever met in my travels around the world. Chavela is on the right and Consuelo is on the left in the picture below:

Costa Rica has a distinction from the Indian point of view too. It is the Americas Headquarters of the Indian company Havells Sylvania, which has a global turnover of one billion dollars. Kapil Gulati, the bright young Indian is based in San Jose as the Director of Americas managing the 160 million dollar operations in the whole region of Americas including USA. This company has perhaps the largest volume of business in Latin America among the Indian companies operating in the region. It has business in ten countries and has production units in Costa Rica, Brazil and Colombia. The Indian company Havells ( sounds German..no.. it was founded by a Havelli Ram ) bought the lighting and fixtures business of the American company Sylavania worldwide including Latin America. Here is their website www.havells-sylvania.com

Gulati is in the process of consolidating and streamlining the business in the whole region, operating out of the chiquitico Costa Rica.

There are a few Indians there, the most notable being Dr Nandwani, who has been there for over thirty years and has earned the respect of the Ticos as a leading scientist and Head of the Solar Energy centre in the university. Tico Nandwani has become a Tio Indiano ( Indian Uncle) for the small Indian community there.

Two disclaimers...

-This is not marketing for Costa Rica... my genuine experience and feeling.

- Costa Ricans did not pay for my trip to write this story.. I was on a private tour paid by myself.

Why did I choose to go there?

Answer in the next blog story on Nicaragua to be published this week.

Book Time in Buenos Aires.......

It is Book Time in Buenos Aires...

Books, authors and literary activities have captured the headlines of newspapers as well as the heads of the Porteños- the inhabitants of Buenos Aires city, these days. The annual International Book Fair going on since 23 April till 11 May is more than just a trade fair. It is a Festival...a Fiesta... a Celebration ...of books and authors, poetry and thought. It is part of the city´s culture. The Porteños, who are perceived as flamboyant in the rest of the country and Latin America, go to this Fair not only for the show... they are ...hmmm...serious. They read, think, analyse and argue. The theme of this year´s Fair is Pensar con Libros which means Thinking with Books.

The Buenos Aires event is the largest book fair in Latin America and one of the top five in the world. It is also the largest spanish-language book fair in the world.

It is not only the long duration of the Fair (19 days) which is impressive; the number of activities during the Fair is even more interesting. There are book readings, poetry recitations, lectures, panel discussions, presentations, signings, workshops and children’s activities. There are also meetings and special events for publishers, editors, librarians and educators. The programme booklet containing the activities of the Book Fair runs into 70 pages. For example, on saturday 2 May,there are 35 activities packed within 1400 hours to 2130 hours. This annual Fair is an event avidly anticipated by the public who visit in large numbers. The number of visitors is 1.2 million . There are about 1500 exihibitors with stalls in the 50,000 sq m venue La Rural.

An International Poetry Festival is held from 29 April to 2 May as part of the Book Fair. Thirty six poets from Argentina and around the world participated in this. Poetry at the Festival is not just for those in ivory towers or within airconditioned Salons. It literally goes to the street. Yes,the poets are going to recite in streets and subways. They go even beyond... to hospitals and jails. Incredible... During this year´s poetry festival, the poets are going to recite at the Hospital General de Agudos "Ignacio Pirovano" and the Cárcel de Ezeiza jail on 30 April. Could this be ....Poetrytherapy ...! An Argentine invention !!

Ah.. there is one more Argentine innovation. The city government of Buenos Aires organises every year a Noche de las Librerias- Bookstores Night. The last one was on 10 December. This is a kind of street fair of books in the famous Corrientes Avenue, the Broadway of Buenos Aires. This large and busy avenue is closed for traffic from 8.30 pm till midnight and the street is taken over by bookstalls and readers. People sit on the sofas and chairs placed in the Avenue browsing and reading in the middle of the avenue. There are also poetry recitations, workshops and cultural activities.

Here is a picture of the Noche de las Librerias:

Buenos Aires is the publishing capital of Latin America. There are about 1000 publishing firms in the City and there are over 2000 in Argentina. They publish about 22.000 new titles every year and 85 million books in total. Two books for each of the 40 million population of Argentina ! Of course, part of the production is for export to the rest of Latin America and Spain.

The number of poetry books published in Argentina is around 1000 every year. In the Book Fair, there is an area called as Zona de Poesia- poetry zone.

Writers from Latin America, Europe and USA participate in the Book Fair which is a launchpad for regionwide publicity. Many Latin American writers have stayed in this vibrant city and written and published their books here. Gabriel Garcia marquez´s One hundred years of solitude was first published in Buenos Aires. Other Latin American writers such as Pablo Neruda of Chile, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, Miguel Angel Asturias of Guatemala and Ruben Dario of Nicaragua had lived in this city and published their works. There is a book, called as ¨Buenos Aires- a cultural and literary history¨by Jason Wilson, which describes the literary links of the streets, cafes and bars of the city and the romance of the poets and writers with the city.

The Book Fair is not just a one-night stand for the Porteños. It is Amor Eterno. Books are part of the day to day life of Buneos Aires. There are bookshops in every nook and corner of the city. Many bookshops have cafe, bar and restaurants. They are the refuges and meeting points for the bohemians and the bourgeois. The most famous Argentine writers including Borges and Cortázar have frequented them to write and meet. The Porteños sit in these book cafes for hours together browsing books and discussing local and global issues till the end of the world.

Last time when I was invited to a poetry reading, I went a bit late assuming that the event might not start in time and in any case there might not be much of an audience for poetry. I was in a for a surprise. When I reached the venue, I found that it was not only full but was overflowing at the entrance and at the corridors. I could not get anywhere near the reading and had to come back.

Many of the book shops in Buenos Aires are more than just buildings. They are elegant and eclectic in architecture and interior decoration with attractive ambience. When you walk by, these bookshops provoke, invite and tease you with their style and appeal. There are some famous and traditional book shops and chains such as Ateneo and Cuspide. One of the landmark bookstores is called “Gandhi”, founded in 1984 with the same concept of book and coffee shop.

My favourite is the El Ateneo Bookshop in Avenida Santa Fe. It is the most beautiful bookshop I have ever seen. According to a survey by the London newspaper “ The Guardian” , El Ateneo ranked second in the list of ten most beautiful bookstores in the world, after the number one in Maastricht. El Ateneo was originally a theatre called as“Grand Splendid”, now converted into a bookshop. It is magnificent with high painted ceiling, curvaceous balconies and ornate carvings. The original stage with the crimson curtains has been made into a café bar. No wonder I felt there like a performer... after a few drinks ! El Ateneo receives 3000 visitors per day.

Here are the pictures of El Ateneo:

After I left the venue of the poetry festival yesterday night, I found that a poem of Daniel Chirom would not leave me and got stuck in my heart....

Solo poseo el habla

solo poesia

mi lengua incierta

para buscarte

porque cantando

quede mudo

y solo puedo

revelarme

por señales

Here is the translation

I only possess speech
Only poetry
My tongue uncertain
To seek you.
Because singing
I went speechless
And I can only reveal myself
Through signs

Argentine Singhs

Dante Singh , Monica Singh, Jasbel Singh...
Adrian Singh, Alfredo Singh, Yeeta Singh.....
There are about three hundred such Argentine Singhs… mostly in Salta and other northern provinces of Argentina.

I met about seventy of them in the Gurudwara at Rosario de la Frontera, a small town of 35000 people in Salta province. I joined their Baishaki Day celebrations on 20 April. There were prayers and ceremonies conducted by a Granthi, who has been brought from India. There was a community lunch prepared by the ladies and was served by the men. The Gurudawara is clean, beautiful and inspires divine feelings. They have get togethers on Sundays and there are large gatherings on special religious occasions. Mr Charan Singh who came thirty years back from India is the president of the Gurudwara committee.This is the only Gurudwara in South America.

These Singhs had come in the thirties from India. Some of them came to work in the sugar mills owned by the British. Others got into the ships from Calcutta on hearing that they were going to America. They did not know that the destination was South America. Most of them originated from near Ludhiana. Dante Singh´s father was one of the earliest to come. He was also a political organiser. He collected money from other sikhs and sent it for the independence movement in India. The last batch of the immigrants came about ten years back. But no more are coming due to visa difficulties. Some of the Argentine Singhs have migrated to USA and Canada.

There are a few new Singhs who have come to other parts of Argentina. Lamba, with his flashy red turban, is a traffic stopper in Buenos Aires. He is settled here for over twenty years in handicrafts business. Simmarpal Singh is in Rio Cuarto near Cordoba city managing 15000 hectares of peanut farm for the Non-resident Indian company Olam.

President Zail Singh had visited Salta and met the community during his state visit to Argentina in 1984. Dante Singh was proud showing me fotos of this visit and also the fotos of his father meeting Zail Singh in Rashtrapathi Bhavan in Delhi.

Some of the first generation wear turbans. But when they travel outside the province, they put on caps to avoid curious looks and questions.

All the Singhs have become Argentine citizens and are well integrated into the local society. Among the first generation, some men married Indian women and brought them, while the others have married Argentines. The Singhs are in business or work as professionals. Many of them own supermarkets, corner stores and transport companies. Dante Singh and Adrian Singh are engineers. Jasbel Singh is studying international affairs and wants to become a diplomat. She recalls with pride her six months-stay in Noida studying television and broadcast journalism. One Mr Ruben Singh is there already in the Argentine Foreign Service. I hope an Argentine Singh will become Ambassador to India. Monika Singh is a software engineer working with Oracle in Buenos Aires. Yeetu Singh gives Indian dance classes and has done some Indo-Argentine fusion in dance. The second and third generation, which goes to school and college is keen to know more about India and talk about it proudly with their classmates.

Here is Dante Singh at the entrance of the Gurudwara:





Here I am, giving a speech holding the a microphone in hand, with my head covered. But a microscope is needed to recognise me....

In my speech, I spoke about how proud India is to see the Singhs speaking in Punjabi and worshipping in a Gurudwara in this part of the world. While recognising the suffering and sacrifice made by their parents and grand parents, I mentioned that in the India of today and tomorrow, there is no need for Indians to go out for a better life. Foreigners come to India for working in Bangalore.

Here is Kanwaljeet Singh with his son Gurdeep, who has asked for an Indian flag for his school and books in spanish on India.

community lunch

All the Singhs in Salta region speak fluent Spanish. Besides the first generation, even some young people from the second generation speak Punjabi enthusiastically. Virtually no one speaks English. I had to give my speech in Spanish. Hmm....A Tamil from India communicating with the Punjabis in the Gurudwara in Argentina in Spanish !

El Pato and El Gato

El Pato- the duck - is Angel Cabrera, the 2009 US Masters Champion and the 2007 US Open Champion

El Gato- the cat - is Eduardo Romero, the US Seniors Open champion 2008.

I was invited to play a ProAm with El Pato in the Cordoba Golf Club, Villa Allende, on 15 April as part of the Central Zone Championship of Argentina. But at the last minute, P was changed to G and I played with Gato instead of Pato.

Both El Pato and El Gato had started off as caddies in Villa Allende Cordoba Golf Club. Both are very modest and unpretentious, despite the incredible heights of their success. They display comradeship with their friends who continue as caddies in the club. El Pato, in fact was for sometime the caddy of El Gato, who became his mentor. Both live a few blocks from the Cordoba Golf Club.

Credit should be given to the Cordoba Golf club members who encouraged and supported the two caddies to become the Champions. The Club and the whole town cheered and celebrated the victory of El Pato, who had just returned on 14 April after receiving the Green Jacket. Villa Allende in Cordoba has now become the place of pilgrimage for golf tourists.

El Pato and El Gato are the pride of Argentina and Latin America. No golfer from the other Latin American countries have won any majors so far.

Of course, Roberto de Vicenzo of Argentina had won the British Open in 1967. He had a chance to win the US Masters in 1968. But a silly mistake in the score card and a sillier Golf rule deprived him of the honour. On the par 4 seventeenth hole, Roberto De Vicenzo made a birdie, but playing partner Tommy Aaron inadvertently entered a 4 instead of 3 on the scorecard. Roberto had signed the card without checking the score, and according to the Rules of Golf the higher score had to stand and be counted. If not for this mistake, Roberto would have tied for first place with Bob Goalby and the two would have met in an 18-hole playoff the next day. Golf rules could be worse than Government Rules !

El Pato Cabrera was born as the son of a handyman and a maid who split up when he was three or four, leaving him in the care of his paternal grandmother. He stayed with her until he was 16, when he moved in with his girlfriend, Silvia, 10 years his senior. When Cabrera was 10 he became a caddy at the Córdoba Country Club, which became his home. In sixth grade he quit school to take up the job full time. He learned golf playing against other caddies for money.

Cabrera used to smoke in the golf course and did so at the US Open in 2007. When he was asked about this by American journalists after he won the tournament, he responded ¨you guys go to the shrink but I take recourse to the cigarette.¨ He has now given up moking and has started chewing gum.

El Pato is here in this picture accepting my Taj Mahal gift and felicitations.

El Gato got his nickname from his grandmother when he was five because he was always climbing trees and sitting on roof tops. His father was the pro at the Cordoba Golf club. El Gato turned professional at a late age of 28 but has 77 career victories so far, from around the world.

El Gato is a lively person with a sense of humour. He has played in Calcutta and Delhi. He remembered the peacocks of Delhi Golf Club. He knows Jeev Milkha Singh, who was the playing partner of Tiger Woods on the first two days of Masters Open. El Gato practises yoga and is keen to visit India with his family.



I wanted to impress El Gato with my game. But I played like El Burro ( the donkey ). I had one of the worst rounds. Someone asked my score. I quoted to him from the book ¨the food of love¨ in which the Italian hero tells the American girl after seducing her with lot of wine ¨In Italy, we dont count three things: number of years of one´s age, number of glasses of wine imbibed and the number of lovers.¨

From Faith to Fashion - the story of Monica Socolovsky

Last week I was invited to the Fashion Show of the famous Argentine designer Monica Socolovsky at Hotel Sheraton. I was impressed by her new styles and creations. Her designs are not just about novelty and innovation. She connects the dress to the body with an enchanting aesthetic taste based on a profound cultural and spiritual perspective. She combines the machine-made fabrics with the exquisite hand-made designs and embroideries of India. Her designs have won recognition and market in London, Paris and Milan among other fashion capitals of the world. She holds her Fashion Shows twice a year regularly in Buenos Aires and also holds shows in Europe.

I was fascinated by Monica´s blend of Indian culture with Argentine glamour. I was curious.
I asked her about her India connection and inquired how many times has she visited India. I was taken aback when she said ¨more than 80 times¨. She has been making, on an average, three trips every year for the last thirty years. She is going to India next week again.

I became more inquisitive. How was her experience with India? What took her to India in the first place? She said it was Faith. It was the call from Sai Baba.

Here is the story, as she described to me:

She started her career as a manager with Bloomingdales, NewYork. She used to get dreams of a Guru from India. The dreams recurred for as long as twelve years. But she could not figure it out since she had never been exposed to India or any Gurus. One day, when she was browsing in a bookshop in London, a book fell on her from the shelf accidentally. She took it up and there was the picture of Sai Baba. She realised instantly that it was the same image which she was seeing in her dreams.

So, she took the next step of setting out on a journey to India in 1979. At the Delhi airport, she was waitlisted for the Indian Airlines flight to Bangalore as 231st. But she was desperate to catch that flight for her meeting with Baba. She did not know what to do. She prayed to Baba. Miracle! Her number moved from 231 to number one and she got the flight !

Sai Baba blessed her and told her that she would do business with India. So, she started Sathya Fashion, the design company and started buying materials for her designs from India.

The birth of Sathya, the company, was followed by the birth of Sathya the new baby. This was another miracle.During one of her trips, Baba told her that she would get a baby. She could not believe. Her doctor had told her that she could never give birth to another baby because of some complications caused after she gave birth to her first child. When she reported Baba´s prediction to her doctor, he said let us see if Faith can overcome Science. Sure it did. She was blessed with a baby girl, whom she named as Sathya. Since the baby was born in Kodaikanal, India, she wanted an Indian passport. But she encountered the Indian bureaucracy which challenged her faith with all kinds of procedural problems. She prayed again to Baba. Another miracle! The owner of the hotel, where she was staying, happened to be a member of Indian parliament and on his recommendation Sathya got an Indian passport immediately. Of course, the Indian immigration officials, look puzzled every time Sathya visits India. They look at the blue Indian passport and the blonde Argentine face and shake their heads in disbelief , unable to comprehend the miracle behind Sathya. A boy child followed Sathya and he has also been given an Indian name, Prem.

Monica´s faith in Baba and her business with India has made her passionate about India. Her eyes sparkle whenever she talks about India. She is keen to promote collaboration and exchanges between the Indian and Argentine fashion institutes and designers.

Here is Monica, exuding Indian spirit and Argentine glamour:


Here are some photos of her Fashion Show:

More on Monica...

http://www.sathyanet.com.ar/summer09/index.html

ice blue fiesta in Argentina Lake

I was treated to a fiesta of ice blue ( blue is the clour of my inspiration) by the icebergs and glaciers in the Patagonia region of Argentina during my visit there last month.

It was a full-blue experience. Glacial Blue of the huge glaciers, Prussian blue of the Argentine Lake, Crystal Blue of the icebergs. And all these covered by the sky in grey blue.

The blue colour emanating from the cleavages of icebergs and the crevices of the glaciers was breath taking. The density and shades of blue changes with the size of the icebergs; soft blue balls of baby icebergs floating and playing on the lake; the massive solid blue mountain-size icebergs sitting as though they are meditating; the medium size icebergs drifting around like the middle aged men; and the artistic ones like architectural beauties with sculpted shapes.

The large Argentine Lake itself is in a mystic and milky glacial blue colour, changing its hue with the sun. The lake is sixty kilometres long and has depth upto five hundred metres. The lake and the icebergs are set in the backdrop of the majestic mountains and the arid and barren Patagonian landscape.

I was fascinated agin by the bluish hue of the Perito Moreno Glacier during this visit, as I was during my visit last time in 2008. Here is what I wrote last time
http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2008/01/perito-moreno-glacier-in-el-calafate-in.html#links

Here is a picture of the Glacial blue:

Afterwards, I took the All Glacier tour in which they show three glaciers including Upsala, the largest one. More than the glaciers, what was even more interesting was the icebergs floating on the Argentina lake. It was an amazing experience to see so many icebergs in different shapes, sizes and blue colours in the backdrop of the mountains and glaciers. Here are some pictures of the icebergs:

getting up to see the mountain?
doing stretching exercise above the water?

who did the sculpting?

oops .. still can´t the touch the clouds?

like a light blue island

massive like mountains

Argumentative Argentine icebergs?

The tour boat trying to listen in to the iceberg arguments?

kissing queens and sipping wines in the Mendoza Festival

Yes.... this was one official duty I performed dutifully with the beautiful queens of Mendoza... with my heart, soul, mind and body and in the fullest spirit.

I was one of the Ambassadors invited last weekend by the Mendoza provincial government for their annual Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia (The Grape Harvest Festival or Wine festival ) which is held in March. On friday evening, at a cocktail, we were introduced to all the 18 beauty queens from the various districts of the province of Mendoza. I had to kiss them one by one ...and by the time I reached the end of the lineup ... hmm I was drunk even before touching the wine. And I reached heaven after sipping the wines ..

And the the tall beauties made me remember what Economist wrote about former President Menem. It said¨Menem was fond of blondes twice his size and half his age¨. He married a taller Chilean blonde, Cecilia Bolocco , the 1987 Miss Universe. She was 36 while Menem was 71 at the time of their marriage in 2001. The marriage lasted till 2007.

No wonder some of the Ambassadors in Buenos Aires never miss the Miss Vendimia event and take the diplomatic job of promotion of cultural relations more seriously.

Las Reinas( the queens - in English) were there literally all over Mendoza; on the parade floats, on the TV, in the cocktail parties, at the theatres, in newspapers, in the banners and fliers and in the streets. The Mendocinos have the perfected the art of marketing of their wines with the beauty queens. Selection of the Vendimia Queen is the main event of the festival and all other activities are built around it.

Each of the 18 districts of the province elect their beauty queens and bring them to the provincial capital for the Vendimia. On saturday morning each queen gets on the float of her district and parade through the streets.

It is like a Carnival with music,dance and fireworks. But a Carnival with difference. It is sheer elegance, style and taste. No nudity, no freak out. But a delectable blend of queens and wines. While Carnival is an explosive blow out, Vendimia is an aethetic appreciation of beauties in the same way as one savours the aroma and taste of the wine suavely, smoothly and subtley.

The Mendozinos claim that Vendimia parade is the largest open-air festival in the world with 200,000 to 500,000 participants. The numbers and claim get exaggerated after each glass of wine !

The selection of the Vendimia queen is the central part of the show at the amphitheatre on saturday night in front of an audience of 40,000. This year it was Candela, the one from San Martin district who got selected. Famous bands and singers participate in the show before and after the queen selection.

Here are some pictures of the parades:

The Reinas throw grapes and other fruits including big melons at the audience on both sides of the street.

Cowboys and folk music and dance groups parade on saturday morning, along with the beauty queens. The tourists are joined by the governors of the neighbouring wine-growing provinces, national celbrities and the vote-seeking political leaders.

The wineries invite foreign importers to the festival and tour of their production units and vineyards.

The Argentine wine has been steadily gaining attention and space in world markets in recent years. Earlier, the argentines were content drinking all their production ( per capita consumption had reached as much as 90 litres per year, but has come down now) and did not bother to market abroad. Now they are investing in marketing and production of high quality wines. Their wine exports were 850 million dollars in 2008. Argentina is the fifth largest producer of wine in the world and has still untapped potential. Malbec is the signature wine of Argentina.

I visited some wineries and enjoyed the wine tastings. I was impressed by the Salenteine winery at Uco Valley, which is an architectural beauty. It is a masterpiece in the middle of the vineyards against the backdrop of the Andes mountain range. It has a restaurant for fine dining with some great wines including a Pinot Noir to go with the lamb and trout, the regional specialities of Mendoza. The Catena Zapata winery also stands out majestically with its Mayan architecture.

Behind the queens and wines, there is the Medozino character of hard work, determination, pragmatism and vision. They have converted the desert land into vineyards and fruit orchards with irrigation. They even irrigate the trees which cover every avenue and street of the city. Mendoza should have the maximum number of tress per every inhabitant of any city in the world. During the wine festival, the wine institute made a presentation of their strategic vision upto 2020.

Cheers !!!... to the Mendozinos, for their workculture which is a blend of hard work and vision !!!

Cheers !!!... to Mendoza for the delicious and aesthetic blend of queens and wines !!!

return to sender - novel by Julia Alvarez

I have just finished reading the latest book of this favourite writer of mine from Dominican Republic. This time she has chosen a new theme- about Mexican immigrants in US. She has given the title ¨Return to sender¨since the undocumented Mexicans in US are sent back to Mexico like the post office does.

The story is about the Mexican girl Maria whose family migrates illegally to US in search of work and the American boy Taylor, whose family employs Maria´s father to work in their farm in Vermont. Tyler´s family is unable to work the farm by themselves, especially after his father meets with an accident. They hire Cruz, the father of Maria, an undocumented alien and puts him up with his family in a trailer in their backyard. Maria and her two sisters go to the same school as that of Tyler. But the Mexican girls are teased and mocked as illegals by the American kids. They also provoke Tyler accusing his family of violating American law by employing illegal immigrants. Both Tyler and Maria are angry, confused and unable to comprehend the complexities of the immigration realities and government rules. Maria´s grief is compounded by the disappearance of her mother while crossing the border with Coyotes. This makes her as the little mother to her two younger sisters. This is in addition to her role as an interpreter for her father who does not speak English. She finds solace in the friendship of Tyler. But Tyler´s friendship is tested by his realisation and guilt that his family is violating the law by employing Maria´s father. The story comes to an end with the Immigration autorities catching the Cruz family and deporting them to Mexico.

The confusion and torment of Tyler and Maria brings out the new reality of US which needs and uses Meican immigrants but is in a state of untenable denial. The book highlights the American stereotyping and prejudice about Mexicans. At the same time it shows the way how the gap is bridged by understanding, empathy and appreciation between the families of Tyler and Maria. The parents and relatives of Tyler educate him about the need to understand and respect other cultures. The book should be made as a text book in American schools to educate the kids about the need for understanding and appreciating other cultures. Whether they like it or not, the white Americans have to live with the 50 million hispanics who are growing in numbers.

This book is meant for young readers. Oops... I enjoyed it.

The Mexican immigration should be seen in the historical perspective. Many parts of the southern and western USA were originally Mexican territories which were annexed by USA in 1848 through war and other means. If it was not for this annexation, California, Texas,Utah and Nevada states as well as parts of other states would have been part of Mexico and the Bush family would have been Mexicans.

This reminds me of the story of a Mexican stopped while crossing the border by the US Guard. The Mexican responds¨señor, I did not cross the border. It was the border which crossed me¨.

I love the way Julia Alvarez inserts spanish words into conversations and while describing situations. Maria, for example always says por favor after please and amigo after friend. The spanish words add more emotion and feeling than the sometimes wooden English words. The Latin American spanish is especially more expressive. Abrazo and beso are more than hug and kiss. These are said and done with a Latino touch. Or may be I am partial because of my passion for Latin America.

Julia Alvarez compares the Mexican immigrants into US as golondrinas... swallows, the migratory birds which travel across countries without visa. She recalls the song La Golondrina by the Mexican composer Narciso Serradel Sevilla. It is a popular song of farewell and a favorite of expatriate Mexicans. It is often requested at the funerals of Mexican-Americans

A donde irá veloz y fatigada
La golondrina que de aquí se va
O si en el viento se hallará extraviada
Buscando abrigo y no lo encontrará.

Where are you going , swift and weary
Swallow, why are you leaving here?
Oh, what if you lose your way in the wind
Looking for a home you will never find

here is the Youtube link to La Golondrina sung by Karina, the Spanish singer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSiQGNKFODc&feature=related

Uruguay Carnival.. for the vegetarians

Vegetarian Carnival... This is how I would describe the carnival parade I saw in Montevideo last Thursday night. No legs, no breasts, no meat. It is sober, subdued and serious. Dressed and disciplined people. The show is limited from 9 pm to 1 am.

It is in total contrast to the all-night, all-displayed, all-out and unlimited, uninhibited and undressed exuberance and excesses of the Rio carnival.

No surprise if you know Uruguay. The Uruguayans are serious and sober people. The country was in fact created as a buffer between the beach-loving Brazil and adventurist Argentina in the early ninteenth century. Uruguay is moderation and modesty between the the two large neighbours who are given to extremes.

Look at the parade of these kids...

Yes .. The picture explains it. The carnival is for the family. Simple and sober. Nothing to shock the innocent.

But there is one similiarity with the Brazilian carnival, as is obvious from the picture below .

There are a few people of African origin who lend their grace and skills at the Uryuguayan carnival. Foreigners tend to have the impression that Uruguay,like Argentina and Chile, does not have people of African origin.

There was no African presence in the Gualeguachu Carnival ( my blog on that http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2009/01/gualeguaychu-carnival.html#links) It was a blonde and bland show without the people of colour.

But in uruguay there are a few thousand Africans who stayed behind, while transiting through the Montevideo port during the days of slave trade. One does not see them in business or government circles, since they are a tiny minority. But they are in the forefront of the carnival. It is their show. It is they who add colour to the festival. It is their spirit, rhythm and drums which make the carnival vibrant. Most of the parade groups have African names such as Yambo, Sarabanda, Candongafricana, Candombe Aduana, Candombo Zambo, , Kindu, Curumbe, La Mazumba...

Of course, no one would go to the carnival just to see the drums and dress alone. Chicas are the central attraction in uruguay too. Do you see what i mean...

The Brazilian carnival is intense exihibition and enjoyment for one week. But in uruguay it is an extended leisurely get together and celebration spread over a whole month in february. Not continuously but twice a week. The parades are called as Llamadas- meaning calls. This name comes from the old tradition of the families calling each other to join the celebrations with singing and drum playing.

The main parades are held in one of the streets where makeshift sitting arrangements are made on both sides. Since it is a regular residential street, lot of people watch from their balconies and windows. Ticket prices for the benches are nominal costing between 5 and 10 dollars. Besides the parades there are Murgha events in which humour and satire sessions are held in theatres and streets.

La mujer de mi hermano- Latin American film

I watched La mujer de mi hermano- my brother´s wife, last weekend.

It is about Zoe, an attractive woman who has been married for ten years to Ignacio, who is more wedded to his work than the mujer. When Zoe shows up without dress, he thinks only of the need for her to dress. Naturally he is unable to give his wife even the joy of becoming a mother. Facing sexual frustration and loss of passion in conjugal life, Zoe is attracted to Gonzalo, the painter and brother of Ignacio. The two brothers cannot get along.The artistic, Bohemian and adventurous Gonzalo, the opposite of Ignacio in character and value system, adds spice to the dull marital life of Zoe. She later finds out that her husband´s loss of interest in her is due to his attraction to men. And there is another complication. Gonzlao´s anger with his brother originates from Ignacio´s sexual abuse of him when he was a kid. Zoe leaves Ignacio. Later she finds out that she has become pregnant. When she tells Gonzalo he not only denies that he is the father but also tells her to get lost since family and children are not his cup of tea. Feeling guilty and genuine affection for his wife Ignacio comes to Zoe´s rescue, knowing the affair of his wife with his brother. He offers to be the father even if in reality he is not.

There is plenty of sex and sensuality in the film. The movie is like the typical Latino soap operas. But the characters and relationships have been portrayed more subtly and sensitively than in the telenovelas.The flirtings, feelings, expressions,guilt and confessions make it authentically Latino. Zoe is not in love with Gonzalo but she likes the sex , the affair, the games and the stolen kisses. She tells him to stay with her in her bed, when her husband is away. But on one condition... no nothing. Does she mean it? What a question? Not at all. Her ambivalence in loyalty and her capacity to manage more than one man at a time brings out the Latina character. This reminds me of the Brazilian joke. How do two men competing for a girl resolve it in different countries. In Italy, they kill each other making her as a widow. France, being a peaceful and pragmatic country, they do a trois en menage. In Britain the two men embrace each other and send the girl off to cooking. In Brazil? How do the two Brazilian men manage? Hmm. they dont. She does. She marries one and makes the other one as the lover.

Although this is a Mexican film I call it as a Latin American film since it has the stamp of five Latin American countries. Barbara Mori , the heroine , was born in uruguay to a Mexican mother and Uruguyan- Japanese father. After the divorce of her parents, she moved to Mexico, where she lives. She has been acting in Mexican movies and soap operas. Christian Meir from Peru has acted as Ignacio and Manolo Cardona from Colombia has the role of Gonzalo. The other side actors are from Mexico, Venezuela and Chile. The Director Ricardo de Montreuil is from Peru. The movie is based on a novel by the Peruvian author Jaime Bayly. The film was shot in Santiago, Chile.The dialogues are colorful with the the choicest Mexican abusive vocabulary.

The film, released in 2005, was a box office hit in Latin America and US.

Angélica Aragón, the Mexican actress in the role of Cristina ( mother of the two brothers) has an Indian connection. She lived in India and studied classical dance including in the Kerala Kalamandapam Dance School.

Barbara Mori´s acting as Zoe is delightful. In fact I saw the movie specially because of her. She is the lead actress in an upcoming Indian film ¨Kites¨to be released in mid 2009. She is pairing with Hrithik Roshan, who acts as a salsa teacher. The story is about an Indian boy’s romantic affair with a Latino girl. He speaks only Hindi and she speaks only Spanish. Love becomes their language and they sing and dance, like it happens in the typical Indian films. I undertstand that some scenes are quite steamy too...

Sure, this gorgeous Latino beauty is a delicious dish for the hungry Indians. Her eyes, smile, expressions and her back are similiar to those of Indian actresses. So here is an appetiser for the Indian audience before their main dish in mid-2009

Bad girl – novel by Mario Vargas Llosa

I have just finished this latest offering by my favourite Latin American writer Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru- In Spanish the title is ¨Travesuras de la niña mala¨.

Ricardo Slim Somocurcio, the adolescent Peruvian hero falls in love with a a 14-year-old girl Lily, who comes to join his neighbourhood school in Miraflores, Lima. She has the look, talk and dance steps but is mysterious about her family. She masquerades as a wealthy, liberated Chilean girl to disguise her slum origins. She is soon exposed by a jealous schoolmate and disappears, but Ricardo is smitten.
Ricardo realizes his dream of living in Paris by getting a translator job in UNESCO. There he meets Lily, who is on transit to Cuba for revolutionary training. Ricardo reiterates his love and they have sex for the first time. After some years, she reappears in Paris as the wife of a French diplomat whom she married in Cuba. Ricardo falls again and becomes her lover. Then she disappears and turns up in London as the mistress of a horse race owner. Ricardo follows her there and resumes the affair.
Her next adventure takes her to Tokyo where she becomes the slave mistress of a Japanese mafia boss. She willingly undergoes the sexual and other tortures of her boss including smuggling to Nigeria. But she is under the total spell of the Japanese, the only man who could command her and make her do things even when she did not like them. She escapes from there and comes to the Good Boy Ricardo, who marries her partly to regularize her stay in France. She gets bored by the life of a housewife and runs off with the husband of her therapist. Ricardo had enough. He leaves his beloved Paris for Mardrid where he finds tentative love in a Bohemian woman. The Bad Girl reappears and challenges Ricardo again teasing him that she is still the owner of his heart. The Bohemian woman goes away with another guy and Ricardo, the ever-faithful gets back to the Bad Girl only to find that she is in the last stage of her cancer. She dies in his arms.

The Bad Girl lies, pretends, deceives and is always aiming for the next conquest. The Bad Girl whose original name is Otilia starts her first pretention as a Chilean Girl and then goes on to assume different names, identities and titles as Comrade Arlette, Madam Robert Arnoux, Mrs Richardson and Kuriko and finally Madam Ricardo Somocurcio. She teases Ricardo that she cannot settle down to his way of petit bourgeoise life. But he cannot get over her and is always ready to receive her back with enduring love and adoration. He always calls her as the Bad Girl and she greets him as the Good Boy. He does not trust her ever but in her presence he melts down completely and physically in her sex and in eternal romance. The Bad Girl never says she loves him. She calls his romantic declaration of love as ¨cheap sentimental things¨. But after coming back from her adventures she asks him to repeat those cheap sentimental words. But she also has her human side. She takes to the the mute adopted Vietnamese child of the neighbour with affection and makes him open up and speak again, causing a miracle.

Ricardo has chosen for himself an anonymous, modest, non-descript and unambitious quiet life. He is content with his job of a translator, dealing with what others say. At times, he virtually revels in his anonymity, as if his profession absolves him of responsibility for committing or acting when so many of his friends and acquaintances are involved in political action. But he likes the indomitable and unpredictable aspects of her personality, in contrast to his dull and setlled life.He calls her as his liar and torturer but his love of life. He is not a saint but rather a bit of an addict, an emotional masochist who simultaneously desires and resents his abasement by the bad girl.
Whenever he proposed marriage , she rejects it saying ¨I will never be your wife. I always want to be your lover. This way, I will always keep you crazy about me¨.

Mario Vargas llosa has wonderfully contrasted the self- effacing and simple Good Boy with the adventurous and adulterous Bad Girl , making it as a great romantic story. The Good Boy´s infatuation at the age of fifteen, developing into a lifelong obsession and his story of how the Bad Girl dominates all aspects of his romantic life for more than forty years is the story of unconditional love.
This reminds me of Florentino Ariza's fifty-year obsession for Fermina Daza in Gabriel García Márquez's Love at the time of Cholera. The main difference is that in Llosa´s book the woman is crazy and adulterous while in Marquez´s book it is the opposite. The common thing is in both cases ( one normal , the other one crazy), the men are prepared to wait for 40-50 years with enduring love ... the women dont wait....

The Bad Girl is one of the remarkable and memorable characters created by Llosa. Of course, his other characters such as Aunt Julia and Don Rigoberto were also memorable but the Bad Girl is the most enduring one, like Anna Karenin of Tolstoy. In my view, this is perhaps the best work of this great author. It is a pity that Llosa has not yet been considered for Nobel prize.

Gualeguaychu carnival

Carnival in Argentina ? When I heard about it, I thought it might be an Argentine joke to make fun of the Brazilians. When I was told that the carnival is being held in Gualeguaychu, my suspicion deepened. May be it is a joke on native Indians as well.

But I was in for a surprise yesterday night at the Gualeguaychu Carnival . I found it authentic, colourful, joyful and impressive.

It started at 11 pm and went on till 3 pm with three groups parading in the Corsodrome ( like the Sambadrome in Rio) The audience joined the Carnival dancers in singing and dancing from their seats. Champagne, wine and beer kept the spirits high and wild. The floats were big and the feathers were clourful and the fantasy costumes were imaginative. The number of people in each parading group was about 200, and each group paraded for about an hour.

Gualeguaychu is a small town of 100,000 people and is 300 km from Buenos Aires. The city is well organised to hold the carnival and provide accomodation for the tourists who come from all over Argentina besides Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. As in Rio here also one cannot get hotel one-night stay. It comes with a package of minimum 3 nights. Many camp outside the city and there are thermal water resorts. The Carnival is held every saturday from january first week to March first week. They have made it into a tourist industry and money maker. The Corsodrome accomodates 40,000 people and the entry tickets cost from 5 dollars to 100 dollars. They give awards to the best group every year, like in Rio.

One group chose an Asian theme. It included chinese, indonesian and japanese floats and an Indian one too. There was Lord Krishna, in his bluish splendour, mischievously happy in the company of the pretty Argentine blondes dancing around the float. Ganesh and Hanuman were also there, as seen in the fotos below. There was another Indian god too. Not in form but in spirit. It was Brahma. Yes, the famous Brahma beer !

And now comes the inevitable question. How does it compare with the Rio Carnival, which I have seen twice. The difference is a few millimetres. Oops.. yes the dress the Argentine dancers wear is a few millimetres bigger than those worn in Rio !!. Of course, the dress in Rio shold be measured in nano millimetres and in many cases there is nothing to measure. So the Argentine carnival can be described as decent, in contrast to what the puritans call the one in Rio as ...you guessed it. While the Argentine men and women wiggled their bums vigorously, they could not match the incredible movements of the mulattas. The last difference is in music and dance. In Brazil it is Samba. But in Argentina it is a mixture of pop and folk songs imitating the Samba rhythm and beat.

But what is interesting from a cultural perspective is that the Carnival brings out in Argentines joy, gaiety and ecstasy in contrast to the sad mood evoked by Tango which is about broken heart, anguish and melancholy.


Hanumanji here

the millimetre difference...

Lord Ganesh

My invented country - a memoir of Isabel Allende

This is an autobiography of the Chilean author Isabel Allende. She has given a fascinating account of the people, her family and incidents which influenced her with themes and materials for her novels. Her imagination was incited and enriched by the eccentricities and idiosynchrosies of members of her extended family, based on which she had created many characters in her novels. It starts off with her father when she was four years old. He left the house one day saying he was going to buy cigarettes and never came back. But he had gone for good deserting his family forever. This he did during his posting at the Chilean embassy in Lima, leaving the family stranded in a foreign country. He went off on a wild spree disguised as a native Indian woman wearing bright petticoats and a wig with long braids. hmmm... Thereafter Isabel was brought up in the house of her patriarchal grandfather, where she grew up as a rebellious feminist in a conservative family.

Isabel has focussed more on Chile than on her personal life. She calls it as an invented country because she had lived most of her life outside Chile. As a child she had lived abroad with her diplomat stepfather and in 1975 she went into exile following the repression of Pinochet´s military dictatorship. She went first to venezuela where she lived for ten years and then emigrated to USA where she married a Gringo and is living as a happy immigrant in the melting pot of California.

Chile has been living in her imagination more than she had lived physically there. Melancholy and nostalgia flow throughout the book. She looks back at her country more emotionally and intensely to compensate for her forced separation. It became even more acute since Isabel started writing novels only after her exile. This had happened to a number of Latin American writers who were exiled from their countries in the recent history of the region especially from the forties to the seventies. Latino literature has been impacted by this culture of exile and crisis of identity.

Isabel explains the somewhat insular character of Chileans, protected by the Andean mountain range in the east, Atacama desert in the north, Pacific Ocean in the west and Antartica in the south. Of course, today Chileans are more outgoing than the other Latin Americans in engaging the world and opening new markets for their exports.

She has used humour, wit and sarcasm to sharpen and spice up her commentaries on the Chilean society. This part of her writing is a discovery for me. I did not realise her sense of humour until I read this book and saw a video of one of her recent speeches. I have read her novels in which she has always written seriously. But in this book she is hilarious in making fun of the Chileans who are stereotyped as conservative and orderly, dull and boring people, much different from the colorful Latinos in the rest of the region. She says she found it difficult to understand and vibe with the exuberant and tropical Venezuelans, where she lived for ten years. The loud Venezuelans always beat her in ordering café ahead of her in the queue. Even in USA, she says she fails to understand the humour of her American husband who also does not understand the funny side of Chilean character.


She is more explicit in her comments on the sexual side of the Chilean society, which should be shocking to Chileans, who are said to be prudish and puritanical. She says Chilean women are like guerillas when it comes to love and they fall in love with considerable frequency. She quotes a statistic according to which 58 percent of married women are unfaithful. She tells a historic incident of the catholic church sending a priest to Chile, during the time of Inquisition, to confirm the rumour of Chilean women indulging in the sin of oral sex with men. So how did the Chilean women tackle this. They cornered the priest in an alley and castrated him. oops...We don’t know if this was a fact, fiction or magical realism. These are somewhat indistinguishable in Latin America.
She has commented on the Chilean bureaucracy, obsession with notary public, legalization of documents and stamping of papers over and over again. Her comments are somewhat outdated since Chileans have progressed now as the least bureaucratic among the Latin Americans. When I was in Venezuela our embassy went to the Customs department for clearance of the goods which had come for an exihibition. They wanted a copy of the gazette notification of the establishment of the embassy in 1950. I thought they were joking. They refused to clear unless we produced it and we had to get one from the archives of the National Library. The Latin American bureaucrats will not believe that you are alive even if you stand in front of them. You need to produce a certificate that you are alive and it should be legalised and attested by a notary public !!!

Isabel has not commented much on the Chilean politics except for a brief account of Salvador Allende, related to her. She praises his ideals and efforts to uplift the downtrodden. But she admits that he had made mistakes which gave the opening and excuse for the oligarchs to put the military in power. Allende was overthrown in a violent coup. The Chilean airforce bombed the presidential palace on 11 september 1973, which became the 9/11 in the history of Chile.

This is a useful read for anyone who wants to understand the Chileans who stand out different from the rest of the samba-salsa Latin Americans. I liked this memoire as much as the novels of Isabel Allende.

Argentinisation of the Advanced Markets

After the 2001 debt default, Argentina has been criticised, condemned and since 2002 has been kind of ex-communicated from the financial markets by the The Whizkids of Wall Street who thought of themselves as the ¨Masters of the Universe¨.

Today´s Clarin has a story entitled ¨Argentinisation of USA¨ It has compared the situation of Argentina in 2001 to that of USA and Bush with de la Rua. It has gone into the interesting similiarities between their crisis and their actors with what is happening in a much bigger scale in USA. It is the time of Dulce Revanche ( sweet revenge).

In the ninties many Latin American countries adopted, willingly or unwillingly, Washington Consensus policies of privatisation, liberlisation and minimisation of government role in the market. But unfortunately these policies did not lead to the predicted results causing a backlash of anti-neoliberalism in the region. Today the policy makers and free marketeers are horrified by the colossal intervention of the governments in the Developed Markets to repair the damage inflicted by the unrestrained Capitalism. The traditional and the new left of the region says.. I told you so...

Argentina had declared the world´s largest debt default of 80 billion dollars in December 2001. The Argentines say this is nothing in comparison to the hundreds of billion of dollars of default in USA and Europe. Today´s Clarin says the money used in EU for rescue of banks is equal to ten times the GDP of Argentina and in USA it is three times more. They further say that the number of victims of their debt default was a few hundred thousand bond holders and a few crooked banks who mislead them. On the other hand, the criminal greed of the wall street sharks has affected millions of common people in USA, Europe and in fact the whole world.

After the Argentine crisis, the opinion makers of the world had accused the Argentines of reckless borrowing beyond their means, corruption and much more. The Argentines are justified now to reciprocate the gesture. President Cristina , when she was in New York last month, told the Americans of her feelings implicitly and explicitly. Since the Americans had branded the crises in Latin America as tequila crisis, caipirinha crisis and tango crisis, she called the American crisis as Jazz Crisis, although no one paid attention to it except the Argentine media.

I wrote an article in Financial Express of India in December 2005 on the reasons for Argentina´s debt problem.
http://www.financialexpress.com/old/fe_archive_full_story.php?content_id=113086
My conclusion was that it was the same whizkids of wall street who pushed the petro dollars on the willing Argentines to make their six figure commissions with made up stories of Argentine capacity for repayment. Now they have become victims of their own poisonous greed.

The good news is that despite the extraordinary shock from USA and Europe, the Argentine economy and financial market is not shaken. They have withstood the shock on the back of some strong macroeconomic fundamentals, resilience of the economy, adequate foreign exchange reserves and preparedness. Having gone through so many crises in the past, the Argentines are better prepared than the Americans or Europeans. Surely they are not immune and have to go through some pain, with the expected decline in commodity prices and other such factors.

This is true of most of Latin America too, as acknowledged by IMF and the pundits. The chief economist of World Bank in his october report to the IMF and World Bank meetings on the crisis says that Latin America is less vulnerable to macro‐financial shocks than before and this is due to fundamental improvements. He calls Latin America as a better‐built boat facing a nastier storm. He adds that the region has been caught in the global selloff of stocks but the fall is less pronounced than in Asia and Eastern Europe.

And here is the most revealing and amusing irony.
Moodys report´of 13 october says Latin American debt is safer than that of USA. They say Latin American corporate debt is now the most stable in the world.

The Argentines feel some consolation. They are not alone, as they felt in 2001-2. It makes the Argentines feel better that the even the most efficient and sophisticated markets like USA and Europe could end up in a mess bigger than theirs. They feel a bit jealous though that the wall street crooks have beaten their compatriots in claiming the championship.

Silicon Valley for Indian men and Silicon Mountain for Latino women

Young Indian men are excited by the ¨Intel inside¨ sign on the computers which have opened a new window of opportunity for them to connect to, compete with and conquer the world.
The Latin American young women want to excite men with ¨Implant Inside¨to connect to, compete with and conquer the silly guys.

Costa Rica caters both to the ambitions of the up and coming young Indian men and the up and booming bosoms of the Latino women.

Intel Corporation has two plants in Costa Rica and is responsible for a shift in the country's top exports, from coffee and bananas to electric and electronic products. Electronics is now Costa Rica's largest sector with Intel as the largest player. The industry employs 12,000 and exports US$1.65 billion in products a year. The local support industry for Intel alone reflects a base of 460 suppliers and US$50-150 million in local purchases of goods and services per year. The relatively small size of Costa Rica to receive an investment of the dimension of Intel's (US$300 million or equivalent to 2.1 percent of Costa Rican GDP), over two years in 1997 with a total committed investment of about US$600 million, made Bob Perlman, one of Intel's vice presidents, declare that bringing his company to Costa Rica was like "putting a whale in a swimming pool".


After the success of Intel Inside, the next slogan coming out of Costa Rica is Implant Inside. In the first six months of this year, the country exported 134 million dollars worth of silicon implants, seventy percent of which are used to enlarge women´s breasts. Allergan, the silicon implant maker in Costa Rica is the second largest exporter of the country.

According to a report in today´s Argentine newspaper Clarin, the average age of women in the country seeking breast implant is 25. The increase in imports of breast implants last year was forty percent. In a night club called as Sunset in the Olivos suburb of Buenos Aires, they have raffles to choose the winner who gets a free breast implant. Such raffles are becoming popular in other cities too. The name of the Raffle is ¨Quiero mas lolas¨which means ¨want more lolas¨. The original organizers of the event has got this title even patented. Lola was the name of a popular Argentine soap opera in which the heroine is endowed amply.

¨Sin tetas no hay paraiso¨( without tits there is no paradise ) is the title of a Colombian soap opera currently being released in Argentina. The heroine Catalina finds it necessary to increase the size of her breasts to engage the attention of the men.

There is a debate on this subject in Argentina among plastic surgeons, psychologists and social scientists. There are those who are against this practice of cheap raffles encouraging young women to go under the knife to get men under their influence. But someone took the view that this is social justice, which provide opportunities for the have-nots to ¨have more¨. Otherwise it was the haves who had the means to have more. The entry fees, the women pay in these night clubs is between 4 and 10 dollars while the cost of breast implant is between 2300 and 4000 dollars.

The craze for silicon implants is the same story across the region, although Argentina is in the vanguard of social justice for the have-nots to have-more through cheap raffles. Latin America leads the world in breast implants and cosmetic surgery. Even American and European women come to Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina for front enlargements.

So here is something common between India and Latin America... silicon.

Indian men seek faster chips to conquer the silicon valley while the Latino women ask for bigger silicones to conquer the silly men.

Silicon has helped India succeed in the back-end work outsourcing, while it has made Latin America leader in the front end operations.

Ciudad del Este

Ciudad del Este.. ?????......hmm ...

Most Indians have never heard of this city nor would they know where it is located.

But there are about 80 Indian families which have made this city in Paraguay as their home. Some of them are there for more than fifteen years and other have arrived in recent years.

What took them there?
Trade
Who are they?
obviously Sindhis ... Wherever there are free trade zones .. they are part of them. Panama, , Iqique, Punta Arenas, Aruba, Curacao, St Martin, Manaus...

There are some Gujratis and a few Telugu- speaking too. I attended a reception on 18 september which was organised by Prakash, who is a hard working and self effacing natural and popular leader of the community.

Indians are a tiny part of this melting pot in South America. There are people of Lebanese, Syrian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Brazilian origin. The heart of the city which is just four by four blocks buzzes with so many languages, colours and one cannot miss the aroma of the food from different parts of the world. Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Samsung, Nokia ... these branded names scream out from shops,boxes and billboards. Ciudad del Este is home not only to people from around the world but is also temporary home to the electronic goods ,before they are sent across to Brazil.

In the narrow dividing point between the incoming and outgoing traffic of the city, there are so many people waving you to stop. Not for parking... but with Gurani, Real, Peso, Dollar and Euro currency notes for changing.

Informal Trade is the name of the game in Ciudad del Este. The informal trade is said to be more than the official imports and exports of the country. Everything is informal in the city; trade, economy, book- keeping and transactions. The authorities have started making them more formal and proper.

There is a free flow of goods, tourists and shoppers in the city which borders Brazil and Argentina and most importantly the magnificent Iguassu Falls. Imports are mostly from China and Hongkong while the main destination of exports is Brazil. People, cars and trucks carry loads and loads of electronic and other goods from the city crossing the Friendship Bridge to Foz de Iguassu , the city on the Brazilian side.

In recent times, Brazilians are getting into Soya farming in this fertile region. Paraguay is the fourth largest exporter of soya in the world

I fell in love with the pretty, curvaceous, inviting and challenging.... golf course.. what else?
The Parana Country club surprised me with all these features. It is located on the right bank of Parana river, overlooking the city. A three wood shot will carry the ball to Brazil over the river !!

The fairways are guarded by lines of trees and the ball rolls over when it is thirsty... lot of water. Here are some pictures

There are about 800 beautiful houses ( a smaller version of Punta del Este, in Uruguay ) in the country club around the fairways of the golf course. Most of the golfers are Chinese and Koreans. I was happy to see two Indians, Vinod and Vikrant living ( and playing too!) in the golf club.

Within the golf club there is a boutique hotel Casa Blanca, straddling the right bank of the Parana river, with a view of the Brazil on the other side.