Tango Falling?

It felt good to be back in Buenos Aires after 15 years. I always had a soft spot for this city, I liked the atmospheres, the streets, the bodegas and foremost the people. They are friendly and usually genuinely interested in foreigners, with probably an exception for the Brits! Falklands/Malvinas ...remember.My hotel was in Porte Madero which I believe was fully in construction when I was there. Great boutique hotel where we held our conference and the Madero area is modern, many office buildings with construction cranes positioned as art decoration and the old warehouses are now part of offices, restaurants, universities or bars.

A visit in Buenos Aires is not complete without a good glass of Malbec and a nice steak. We complemented these with an evening of Tango. Its such a dramatic, beautiful and sensual music style and completely identified with Argentina, although the Uruguayans also claim a Tango culture!  I believe the chief Bandeonist, dressed in all white, must have been at least 84 years but with allure and precision of a high end Swiss watch he coached his orchestra and the Tango dancers to perfection. Of course his repertoire included work from Carlos Cardel and Astor Piazolla.

Thus a good revisit of the classics, what struck me however was the following: the streets seems to me much dirtier, protest groups on many important places, I was actually stuck in a taxi for over one hour because the truck drivers blocked the road from Aeroparque Jorge Newbury to the hotel, normally a 20 min ride, in the center of town currency traders on every corner and many more of these. The latter is linked to whitewashing dollars!

The morale is low among workers and students and the respect for th current government is really low. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is looking at countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia as her inspiring examples. This can be noticed in a heavy centralized government and the nationalization of large companies. An example of that is Aerolinas Argentinas, probably the worst experience I had over the last 10 years. The current administration has another two and a half year to go, there is a little hope of improvement thus people trying to either find ways to leave the country or create ways to strengthen their own position.

For the outside world Argentina looks like the place to be with stars as the new Pope Francis, Maxima, a range of excellent soccer players, some strong tennis stars and of course Leo Messi, unfortunately the reality is very different.