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Argentina’s Tragic Malaise
InsightSur.com ^ | February 27, 2012 | InsightSur.com Editor

Posted on 02/27/2012 7:42:24 AM PST by InsightSur

Last week a train accident in Buenos Aires claimed the lives of 50 individuals.

While the event is obviously intensely mournful, much of the emotion within Argentina also includes a high level of frustration over the system and society which allowed this to happen.

Argentinian culture is known for being proud. Nationalism has been the tool of many leaders, and drove the nation to war over the Falkland Islands in the 80s.

Yet there is a general sense of malaise and indignation in a country that was one of the wealthiest in the world a century ago. Indignation is brewing over increasing lack of responsibility, malaise is brewing over economic stagnation which has left the country in a slumber for the past few decades, and frustration is growing in a nation which collectively believes in its own potential yet faces a reality of crushing mediocrity.

The cause for this sentiment may best be represented by the ambiguous and deflective statements of the Transportation Secretary, Juan Pablo Schiavi when he spoke regarding the wreck. In the same statement, he said that the Government of Cristina Fernández would assume all responsibility for the tragedy, and yet he also dissolved it of any responsibility until an investigation determined what had happened.

While the train was only moving at 12 mph, the result was horrific; jumbled metal, dozens injured, passengers trapped for hours, and at least one train car was driven nearly 20 feet into the car ahead of it.

Possibly more tragic than the crash itself, is the fact that this accident, while extremely fatal, was not even the only such accident even in the past six months...

(Excerpt) Read more at insightsur.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Travel
KEYWORDS: buenosaires; cristinafernndez; stagnation; trainwreck
Increasing government programs matched by government inefficiency has corrupted the society, and driven it to stagnation.
1 posted on 02/27/2012 7:42:31 AM PST by InsightSur
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To: InsightSur

Ripped from the pages of Atlas Shrugged.


2 posted on 02/27/2012 7:54:15 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: InsightSur
Argentinian culture is known for being proud. Nationalism has been the tool of many leaders, and drove the nation to war over the Falkland Islands in the 80s.

Also drove them to harbor a bunch of Nazi war criminals.

3 posted on 02/27/2012 7:55:27 AM PST by dfwgator (Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
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To: InsightSur
Argentina was an example of extreme class warfare and the desire to have Euro-style cradle-to-the-grave social programs in toxic blend of Fascism and Socialism. The innate wealth of the country was simply sucked out of it.

Chile got it right for a while, and is now much better off economically. But the Socialists will wreck that country, too.

4 posted on 02/27/2012 7:55:54 AM PST by Kenny Bunk ((So, you're telling me Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts can't figure out this eligibility stuff?))
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To: InsightSur

Thanks for posting this. I’ve bookmarked your blog and will be reading it from now on.


5 posted on 02/27/2012 7:57:16 AM PST by Parmenio
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To: cuban leaf

“Ripped from the pages of Atlas Shrugged.”

This was my first thought when hearing first hand reactions from Argentina.


6 posted on 02/27/2012 8:00:58 AM PST by InsightSur (Covering relevant geopolitical events concerning Latin America)
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To: Kenny Bunk

“Chile got it right for a while, and is now much better off economically. But the Socialists will wreck that country, too.”

I pray that you’re wrong, but fear that you’re right.


7 posted on 02/27/2012 8:02:54 AM PST by InsightSur (Covering relevant geopolitical events concerning Latin America)
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To: InsightSur
This sounds like a sketch right our of Atlas Shrugged.
8 posted on 02/27/2012 8:05:30 AM PST by MSF BU
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To: InsightSur

Socialism and Statism destroys people’s connections to society, destroys a people’s morals and their traditions, diminishes the rule of law, and rapidly increases corruption and cynicism. A little socialism is a little evil, and a lot of socialism is a lot of evil.

I have lived in China, been to Russia, the former East Germany, and South America, and have seen this is an indisputable fact.


9 posted on 02/27/2012 8:06:36 AM PST by PGR88
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To: dfwgator

The Swiss are proud too, but they have a reason to be.


10 posted on 02/27/2012 8:07:26 AM PST by MSF BU
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To: InsightSur

Stifling innovation, stifling creative thought (real creativity, not the Hollyweird trashy crap) and stifling of the road to prosperity is what creates that malaise....

... goes hand in hand with repressive socialist policies.

It’s starting to be noticeable here in the US too.


11 posted on 02/27/2012 8:09:40 AM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: PGR88

——I have lived in China, been to Russia, the former East Germany, and South America, and have seen this is an indisputable fact.——

It will be different this time around because we have brilliant people like Obama, Reid and Pelosi in charge.(shudder)


12 posted on 02/27/2012 8:16:38 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas (Viva Christo Rey!)
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To: InsightSur

I used to ride that same train 22 years ago into Once Station in Buenos Aires. When I say the same train, I mean the SAME train. The cars I rode were the exact same cars that crashed last week. And they were old in 1990. Nothing has been updated or modernized.

And the Argentines were complaining 20 years ago about their unrealized potential. They have been veering stupidly toward socialism the last two decades and...surprise! It hasn’t improved their lives one bit.


13 posted on 02/27/2012 8:19:10 AM PST by Choose Ye This Day (The thing that counts is not what we could do, but what we actually do. -- Leo Spears)
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To: InsightSur

Coming soon to America

Argentina’s Economic Collapse - Part 1 of 12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6_i8zuffs


14 posted on 02/27/2012 8:22:51 AM PST by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: InsightSur

Me too.

I was waiting for someone to ask “Who is John Galt ? “


15 posted on 02/27/2012 8:28:31 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: InsightSur

Me too.

I was waiting for someone to ask “Who is John Galt ? “


16 posted on 02/27/2012 8:28:35 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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