Vaccine-gate: the new Argentinian scandal
Neuquen, Argentina- Once again Argentina is under the public eye in another case undeniably related to corruption. It seems unlikely that in any other country people who have faced corruption and embezzlement charges can be part of a legitimate government, still this seems the case in Argentina, the country where thieves are kings, swindlers are illustrious citizens and fools, opinionated scientists. But even if justice always seems a little too blind in this country, last week a strange scandal put things upside down, we are talking about “Vaccine-gate”, which forced the health minister, Gonzalez Gines, into resignation. Days ago, a wellknown Argentinian journalist, who is connected to the current administration, decided to unveil information that changed the public perception of the actual administration. Members of the government, people with close bonds to “el kirchnerismo”, actors, actresses, relatives of current referents of the executive power and assessors had been vaccinated against Covid 19 before everyone else. Basically, what happened is simple, if you belonged to the K (Kircher) bureaucracy, you and your relatives would be vaccinated first, even if the policy right now is to provide doses to essential caregivers (doctors, nurses and teachers) and people over 75. What happened looks very much like the last scene of the book “Animal farm” by George Orwell, when all the animals realize they are not getting the apples they harvest, while the pigs (who rule the farm) are having a feast.
The most astonishing thing of all is the contradiction the “vaccine-gate” implies for all of us, during the early days of the pandemic Argentina had the longest quarantine in the world, and the populist government justified its actions by saying “If you go out, you kill the rest, take care of the others.” The idea of “the others” as a cluster, a kind of “everything,” such unity is something that comes with populism, an invisible concept in which we are all involved, even if we don’t feel like belonging. Still that concept was violated with “vaccine-gate,” showing that words are words, and populism cannot trick bureaucracy and the idea that some are better than others, and those are the ones that should survive, only the ones that pledge allegiance to the Kircher government.
Society exploded, people went to the streets claiming for justices, the federal judges finally gave a leap of faith and decided to sentence to prison Lazaro Baez and his family, an associated of Cristina Kircher in the nine charges of corruption that she is still accused of. At the beginning of January it seemed justice was paralyzed and Cristina was finding mysterious ways to gain amnesty, and remain unharmed; but vaccine-gate opened eyes and more people started confessing, staining the vice-president even more and forcing the judicial system into action.
We don’t know how long the “Argentinian spring” will last, but what I can confirm is that people are sick and tired of being told what to do. Inflation has reached outer space, jobs are impossible to be found with the amount of regulations that forces employers to spend money they do not have, consumption is paralyzed, taxes keep on ascending to almost 50%, our currency worth the same as monopoly money and they are telling us that going abroad is only for the rich and famous. We basically have lost the right to achieve our Argentinian dream, being forced to living and reproducing in an impoverished society, where a central government controls the agenda of our lives and condemns us to an uncertain and probably totalitarian future.
Some years ago I wrote an article claiming I did not want my country to turn into Venezuela, today we are already on that road because people are still seduced by “populism and inclusiveness,” but be careful my fellow countrymen, Robin Hood is only a legend, and while you are dying of Covid, the ones that should be redistributing are getting vaccinated. (La Semana)