Hi Carmen, This is Sunday and I am drinking from my first pot of tea of the day.
I am still thinking about what might be said to be helpful to Argentina. Meanwhile, this morning, I have been listening on shortwave radio from a BBC reporter speaking from Buenos Aires and he was saying that people in Argentina are calling for a strong leader. Well, apart from your first great reforming President, Bernadino Rivadavia in the 19th century, Argentina has not been lucky since then. It seems to me that strong leaders have been your greatest problem in the course of this century! You've had a whole stream of strong leaders -- army generals, navy admirals, and dictactors who've been greedy for power or money or both. Your last two "strong leaders", Peron and Menem, have merely driven your country into massive debt. Your last President, Fernando de la Rua, was an exception to the usual run and, from what I understand, his shy and retiring nature was the reason why he was elected as a relief from the corruption and embarrassing antics of President Carlos Menem who did nothing for your country but left you even more crippled with debt. Now that Menem has been released from arrest I suppose that it is a possibility that he might manipulate the poor of the country (as Peron did) and get into power again. Well, if he does so, he won't be the solution to your problems. Or you might get another "strong leader" who is just as bad. No doubt the IMF and finance ministers from other countries will find an immediate solution to your debt problems -- or at least, delay payments for a while. It's the medium and longer term solutions that are important. There's one thing I am certain about. This is that the solution to your problems, and the necessary new institutions that you will have to develop, can only really grow from within Argentina. They can't be implanted from outside. Within your country you will have many people of integrity and intelligence who will probably arrive at sensible solutions. We'll have to hope that their voices will be allowed to influence those who have political power. I'd like to write some more words about what I think about Argentina's problems, but I need a few more morning pots of tea before I might do so. Meanwhile, let's be positive! So I've changed the subject heading of this FW thread. Argentina need not always be down and out. It can be up and running again successfully, given enough thought -- and a lucky throw of the dice in the choice of your next President. Keith Hudson At 08:47 22/12/01 -0300, you wrote: >Hello, I am Carmen from Argentina. This tuesday and wednesday have been a >nightmare. I am a just graduated economist and I think that the problem of >my country is not only economic but institutional. Politicians have no >credibility at all. My country is a very "special" one. We have had 40 years >of inflation until convertibility arrived. Convertibility succeded in >restraining inflation but the cost was seen in the market for labor were >unemployment raised. I am very interested in hearing your opinions. >Sincerely, >Carmen __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
