READERS WRITE

FED UP!!!

We are all sick and tired by now. Utterly fed up. Not only with the unbearable, extreme heat and lack of rain, but mainly with this incompetent, lousy Kirchnerite administration. Fed up with inflation, with rising prices, with power cuts, with insecurity, with narco crime. Fed up with daily pickets that don’t let us get to work, to school, to the doctor. Fed up with our huge, useless state. Fed up with candidates’ (from both sides) constant bickering. They are all so divorced from reality, so oblivious to the needs of us, the people. I wonder: have we touched bottom yet, or can we still go further down? Is there a light at the end of this dark tunnel? Can we hope for a better future in Argentina? I’m afraid that, even if Kirchnerism loses the next general elections, they will do their best to hinder, harm and sabotage the brand-new administration’s efforts to pull us out of this fathomless pit. Their capacity to cause damage is immeasurable. That seems to be their one and only skill.

Irene Bianchi, Ringuelet, La Plata

THE PRESIDENT’S MOBILE PHONE

Iago is the most evil character created by William Shakespeare. He is very good at making remarks which are meant to plant the seed of disquiet in Othello’s mind. In one of the scenes of the tragedy, Iago finds himself with Othello. Suddenly, at a certain distance, Desdemona appears, talking with Cassio. “Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?” asks Othello. “Cassio, my Lord ? No, sure, I cannot think that he would steal away so guilty-like, seeing you coming.” the villain replies.

Iago, who pretends to be well-meaning with his malicious hints about Cassio but who only manages to cause distrust in Othello , reminds me of our former president and current vice-president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. She also uses sly innuendos against her enemies. They are generally incomplete thoughts rendering the person alluded to suspicious. When she talks about President Alberto Fernandez, she remarks that she “wouldn’t mind showing her own mobile phone.” Her statement is brief but highly suggestive. She insinuates (without actually voicing her wicked intention) that she could make the content of her mobile phone public as there is nothing immoral in her text or voice messages but that the president’ s mobile conceals something hideous.

To a lot of Argentines, Cristina is a corrupt leader who wades in ill-gotten money and who is bitterly resentful as well as vindictive even towards members of her own Frente de Todos coalition. Adrian Insaubralde, Santa Fe

SACS SHAME

SACS, or Send a Child to School, has announced that after 22 years it is closing down.

During that time it delivered approximately 40,000 school bags to underprivileged children in over 400 schools, mostly in the Greater Buenos Aires area, but also inland and even in Uruguay. This year SACS delivered 1,680 school bags, They delivered over 3,000 bags a year in other years.

The SACS board, headed for 14 years by Stephanie Bruchow, an American from Chicago, worked throughout the year with a team that rarely had more than eight members to organise fundraising events, buy school bags, notebooks, pencils, rulers, erasers, select schools, get the names, age and class of each child to individualise the content of each school bag.

Then, just before the school year started, all the material was sent to the social hall of the United Community Church in Acassuso where 80 or more volunteers gathered to pack the school bags. They put the labels with the name and class of each recipient on each school bag before packing them for delivery.

SACS volunteers would take them to the schools, and distribute the bags to the children. For many of them it was the first time in their lives they received something new with their name on the bag. The joy they showed left the volunteers with unforgettable memories. Personally, I remember tears in my eyes as we handed out bags.

With some of the SACS team set to be transferred out of the country, and others with work and private life conflicts, nobody stepped up to keep SACS working. A shame, because it has been such a success.

Henry Whitney via email

REMOVAL

The economy will continue its downward spiral until this government is removed.

Steve Bromby, via social media