The country known for its steaks, tango and the economic crisis - how is it actually?
First of all, Argentina is beautiful! It extends over different climate zones and has both glaciers, rain forest and dry desert.
Starting in the north west is the national park Talampaya, a dry area with tremedous rocks mountains and deserted landscapes.
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| Talampaya |
To the east, just in the intersection between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina is Las cataratas de iguazu. A beautiful waterfall in the middle of the rain forest.
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| Cataratas de Iguazú |
Going down south is the pampa where the vast majority of the agriculture and grasing takes place. This area is flat, flat, flat.
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| La Pampa |
Further down south is Patagonia with thr glacier Perito Moreno and continuing down south the Land of Fire, Tierra del fuego being the most southern tip in the world, not including Antarctica (which is a continent I've been told but don't say that to the argentinians... ).
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| Perito Moreno |
With regards to the history of Argentina it was almost uninhabitet in the start of the last century. While Europe experienced low growth and internal quarrels, Argentina was the land of opportunity together with north America. This meant that many millions of Europeans, mainly Italians, Spaniards and Germans, left their home countries to be part of creating a new country (The economist).
Argentina had been founded by the Spanish back in the 16th century and got it's indepence in 1816. The river, now close to Buenos Aires, was thought to be filled with silver, and was hence called Rio De la plata (river of silver). Argentina is named after the Latin word for silver - Argentum. But no silver was found. However the wast pampa - flat land - was easy to farm and Argentina was one of the biggest producers of primary products - selling wheat, meat and other grains to Europe in the start of the last century. The flow of immigrants made Buenos Aires a melting pot of different cultures resulting in the Tango and a culinary mixture of Spanish, Italian and German food. wiki
Argentina was doing well!
Then it started not going so well. Many reasons exist. First the world wars effected the exports of Argentina. Secondly the military coups in 1930, 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966 and 1976 lead to a decrease in economic growth (Alsina). And thirdly the rise of the highly celebrated right-winged socialism branch of Peronism, can be blamed.
Peronism was started by Juan Domingo Perón who came to power in 1946. He created the branch of Peronism, which is often described as a populist movement, ensuring education and medical care for all. He was helped along by his beautiful wife Eva Perón, known as Evita. Peronism helped the masses but it is also a very isolationist ideology and Perón tried to keep Argentina from being influenced by other countries by minimising imports. Perón also showed contempt towards any opposition, causing him to be called a dictator by the famous writer Borges (wiki: Peronism).
To this day Peronism is still taking place in Argentina. Now it is being lead by the first female president, Christina Kirchner, the wife of the former and now deceased president Nestor Kirchner.
And there are many things to battle with in current Argentina. The unemployment is officially 7.5%, however it is thought to be as high as 9.5% in reality. The inflation of the Argentinan peso was a souring 41% in 2014 making black market exchange common. If you go to a bank today you get 8 pesos for 1 USD - while if you go to the black market (one on every other corner) you get 12.5 pesos pr. USD.
In order to help the argentinians the government imposed a 15% export tax on fresh meat in 2005 - trying to ensure a lower price for natives, while actually ensuring that exports have gone down from 742.000 tons to 250.000 tons letting Argentina slip from being the world's 3rd biggest exporter of meat in 2005 (behind Brazil and australia) to the 11th in 2012. The higher export price has not only limited exports but also made many farmers change from meat production to the more feasible soy bean production. They do this by limiting herds or moving the cattle to indoor facilities, changing the quality of the Argentinan meat. Lately the government stopped all export of meat after the prices had increased 66% over the course of a year - them selves proving that their initial idea of export tax had not done the deal (meat, beefmagazine). The same kind of rule has been imposed on wheat exports - with the same result. And this is taking place in a country that lives of its primary products!
And more rules like this exist. More rules made to ensure the immidate liking of the crowds but not really doing anything good for the country. This is making Argentina feel a bit like a developing country. In order to fix this there are some solutions:
Argentina had been founded by the Spanish back in the 16th century and got it's indepence in 1816. The river, now close to Buenos Aires, was thought to be filled with silver, and was hence called Rio De la plata (river of silver). Argentina is named after the Latin word for silver - Argentum. But no silver was found. However the wast pampa - flat land - was easy to farm and Argentina was one of the biggest producers of primary products - selling wheat, meat and other grains to Europe in the start of the last century. The flow of immigrants made Buenos Aires a melting pot of different cultures resulting in the Tango and a culinary mixture of Spanish, Italian and German food. wiki
Argentina was doing well!
Then it started not going so well. Many reasons exist. First the world wars effected the exports of Argentina. Secondly the military coups in 1930, 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966 and 1976 lead to a decrease in economic growth (Alsina). And thirdly the rise of the highly celebrated right-winged socialism branch of Peronism, can be blamed.
Peronism was started by Juan Domingo Perón who came to power in 1946. He created the branch of Peronism, which is often described as a populist movement, ensuring education and medical care for all. He was helped along by his beautiful wife Eva Perón, known as Evita. Peronism helped the masses but it is also a very isolationist ideology and Perón tried to keep Argentina from being influenced by other countries by minimising imports. Perón also showed contempt towards any opposition, causing him to be called a dictator by the famous writer Borges (wiki: Peronism).
To this day Peronism is still taking place in Argentina. Now it is being lead by the first female president, Christina Kirchner, the wife of the former and now deceased president Nestor Kirchner.
And there are many things to battle with in current Argentina. The unemployment is officially 7.5%, however it is thought to be as high as 9.5% in reality. The inflation of the Argentinan peso was a souring 41% in 2014 making black market exchange common. If you go to a bank today you get 8 pesos for 1 USD - while if you go to the black market (one on every other corner) you get 12.5 pesos pr. USD.
In order to help the argentinians the government imposed a 15% export tax on fresh meat in 2005 - trying to ensure a lower price for natives, while actually ensuring that exports have gone down from 742.000 tons to 250.000 tons letting Argentina slip from being the world's 3rd biggest exporter of meat in 2005 (behind Brazil and australia) to the 11th in 2012. The higher export price has not only limited exports but also made many farmers change from meat production to the more feasible soy bean production. They do this by limiting herds or moving the cattle to indoor facilities, changing the quality of the Argentinan meat. Lately the government stopped all export of meat after the prices had increased 66% over the course of a year - them selves proving that their initial idea of export tax had not done the deal (meat, beefmagazine). The same kind of rule has been imposed on wheat exports - with the same result. And this is taking place in a country that lives of its primary products!
And more rules like this exist. More rules made to ensure the immidate liking of the crowds but not really doing anything good for the country. This is making Argentina feel a bit like a developing country. In order to fix this there are some solutions:
Open up towards trade. This will not only make it possible for Argentina to sell more products but also to buy equipment and tools used to improve and optimise the currently out dated production methods used.
Make strong government rules that make sense. At the moment a very large amount of argentinians are not working. Some is due to the fact that there are no jobs but also due to the fact that low income groups get paid by the government, get huge discounts of energy bills and get paid to have children (which then ensures that the politicians will be reelected). This also takes place in many other countries but here it seems to be a sleeping pillow. The crisis of 2001, where the economy of Argentina collapsed completely, was a result of many things but among one was the rule of 1 dollar = 1 peso.
Furthermore by investing in good education, from primary school and up, making transparent rules and regulations and limiting korruption (the current vice minister has been to court twice the last year on curroption charges - and he did not get charged - surprise!) Argentina will get a people who believe in the government and would like to contribute. And it is a truly amazing country with amazing people so they definitely deserve it!
Furthermore by investing in good education, from primary school and up, making transparent rules and regulations and limiting korruption (the current vice minister has been to court twice the last year on curroption charges - and he did not get charged - surprise!) Argentina will get a people who believe in the government and would like to contribute. And it is a truly amazing country with amazing people so they definitely deserve it!
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