Sunday musings

Well, I am doing this blog aloft, somewhere between Santiago, Chile and Toronto, Canada -strange feeling indeed.

The month in Argentina has flown by and now all that remains are the memories and they are all good ones. We walked a million kilometers and my feet and aching feet can attest to that!

We saw many sites and attractions, met many outstanding ,friendly and very helpful in our poor attempts to speak Spanish. They must have had a few chuckles at our expense.

The zoo, Eva Peron grave and museum, the Recoleta cemetery, the \United Nations stainless steel flower, the botanical gardens, sidewalk bazaars, sidewalk cafes and strolling troubadours – the list goes on and on. All equally fine and all well worth seeing.

This week while on our morning walk, we saw a half dozen ambulances go tearing by us and I said to my wife “There must be a big accident somewhere”. Little was I to know that indeed there was an accident and it involved the subway system and over 50 people died as a result. Blame is being focused on the fact that the cars themselves were over 50 years old and the union blames cutbacks on servicing and new equipment purchase for the crash.

As well a cruise ship had to return to port as one attendant died of norovirus and 10 more were rushed to hospital for treatment. We also saw a purse snatching one night and we were actually reassured by the event. Nearly every apartment building has a locked entrance that needs either a passkey or you have to buzz via intercom someone to open the doors to admit you. As well most have an on site door man to add extra security to the building. The purse snatcher made off with the purse for about 10 feet before at least 6 men gang tackled him and held him for the police, who showed up within 5 minutes. Rather impressive we thought.

Perhaps the most endearing memory I will have of this great city is that of the attitude of the women there. They seem truly comfortable with themselves and their posture and gait reflect that fact. There was an inner strength to all of them and I admired that.

As for news on the rest of the world, well I have to tell you that CCN,BBC,Al Jazeera international, they all are shitty. For a whole month all I got was Syria, Republican nomination race, a smattering of Greece and that was about it.

What a colossal waste of time these networks are. I really cannot add anything new or useful based on the precious little that I was able to discern.

So – that is it for this week. Next week I will have had a full week of real news to review and to talk about with you.

So until then,

take care out there,

Flatlander52