Thursday, 3/20/08 – Argentians must not be litigeous

Both hosts are professors and offer a quiet environment a bit south of the center of town, nothing a one hour walk won´t take care of. It was nice to be greeted by him with “how is the US going to hold up its economic end of the world´s expectations as a world power?” My  pat reply is another question for these types of questions, “why is the word not coming up with ideas rather than sit and wait for the US to decide?” She greeted me by suggesting a visit to a special book store in B.A. She also ask if I enough books to read. Only my children would be so good to me, I thought.

I will visit the bookstore, but today I just wanted to get a feel for the city and walk as much of it as was reasonable. I walked the principal avenue to the center, Avenida de Santa Fe, which is quite commercial but not in an obnoxious way. The sidewalks are wide enough to give you elbow room. Most buildings are refurbished old ones, with a few exceptions. Periodically a groccer´s shop seperates two fashinable clothing stores. For me, tha´s more tolerable. Store keepers tried their English with me whereas inSantiago few spoke English.

Although statues of heroes dot the ciy, it didn´t feel as overwhelming as in Santiago, where you thought every street had een saved by some general.

From the center of B.A., I followed The Lonely Planet´s suggested walk. Mostly it took you through pedestrian  mlls and some government bildings. The that B.A. has not demolished all the old buildings helps give it character. The Lonely Planet tauts it as a European effect, perhaps that´s a stretch. It´s  apleasant enough city. Many sidewalks are tiled, sort of . Some time ago, this city thought well enough of itself to use what apear  to be ceramic tiles. These break, but they haven´t been replaced. Also the ground under the tiles and cobbled streets have moved so that the sidewalks are very uneven. One needs to step softly all over. There must be a law that sides wth the side of the store keepers or the city that states: Walker Beware! You´ll break your neck at your own risk. In our litigeous country, these sidewalks would cost someone a lot of money. Since I don´t like to sue anyone, I walked softly.

My walking tour included a synagogue. I rang the bell of the Judeo Museu next toit. After a while, an armed guard camt to greet me. He asked for my assport, where I was from exactly, and if I attended synagogue somewhere. Everybody knows I don´t, so I told him the truth. The docent filled us with a lot of interesting information. In 1860, an English Jew, of some means, wanted a quiet place to pray and meditate. He knew of no other Jews. He went to a park and did so for several weeks. o and behold, a French Jew of some means, had a similar desire and used the same park. They met weekly in the park and as more Jews moved to B.A., some joined them, andd by 1862 they formed a congregation. The first bld. right across the street from the park was built in 1897. Baron de Hirsh helped with current building in 1922. He and several others influenced a French stule architecture.

Bu 1970, there were a hlf million Jews in Argentina. Now there are 300,000.

Of the 30,000 people who disappeared during the eight tragic years in Argentina, two thousand were Jews, a despropertonate number to the size of the population. All the responsible people have stil not been prosecuted.

Monday is the anniversary of those tragic years. I hope to join a human rights march to protest human abuse by authorities.