READERS WRITE

HOPEFUL BEGINNING

The new president of Bolivia is a Uktrained economist who has said that “we will govern for everybody and we will not repeat our past mistakes.” Maybe he can give some advice to our present government. By the way, Bolivian bonds are exempt from income and bienes personales tax in Argentina.

Best regards,

Luis Spallarossa Via email

AN UNTIMELY REMARK

Former ambassador Alicia Castro said that “Cristina doesn’t govern but she vaccinates,” a statement which has different interpretations. What she may be hinting at is the fact that it is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and not President Alberto Fernández, who has the upper hand in crucial decisions. On a different note, the former flight attendant may not be down-to-earth enough to realise that “vacunar” has a slang usage in Argentina similar to the “f” word, so another possible meaning of the statement in question is that Cristina is a downright disgrace. If this is true, Castro was not careful enough when she chose a word, whose vulgar nuance most people are familiar with. Last but not least, the remark may be a barefaced lie and, if so, it is in keeping with Politics and the English Language, an essay written by George Orwell in 1946 where he warns us against political discourse, which is designed to make lies sound truthful. Nowhere has Cristina shown any grief about the coronavirus victims and even if , according to Castro, she is being instrumental in making the Russian vaccine widely available, the government is not in a position to ignore the onslaught of criticism from different sources on the grounds that the Sputnik V Vaccine is not reliable enough. Castro, a staunch supporter of Hugo Chávez, should have known better than to make such an untimely remark. A lot of us cannot forget the indifference shown by Cristina to the terrible predicament that Covid-19 has put us into. Adrian Insaubralde

Via email

“ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL”

It’s a worldwide relief that Trump hasn’t been re-elected as US president. I know, he’s still in denial. He can’t admit his loss. Such a show-off, always boasting and blowing his own trumpet, how can he possibly come to terms with this defeat? A hard blow for such a guy.

Honestly, I don’t fancy him attending Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day. (Somehow, this sounds familiar, and reminds me of CFK’S attitude towards her successor, Mauricio Macri, way back in 2015.) And, to make matters worse, now Donald is about to lose his wife too, who apparently can’t wait to get divorced. No wonder. It must have been hard to live with him all these years. She never looked cheerful in the pictures, much less in love.

Happy ending for Melania and Democrats. As good old William put it: “All’s well that ends well.”

Irene Bianchi, Ringuelet, La Plata

HAWKS ARE NOT SQUARE

When one looks again at old videos of Alberto Fernández and of Sergio Massa, one repeatedly comes away astounded at how they have swung 180 degrees from their previous positions in how they nowadays speak of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Such stone faced behaviour should make them totally untrustworthy for those who are politically on the other side of the fence. But this is basically where the waters separate the doves from the hawks.

The doves insist in believing that negotiating issues with Kirchner officialdom is a must for keeping the peace, and are willing to concede in the hope of obtaining some concession from the other side. And sometimes they seem to be successful, only afterwards to be caught by surprise by an onslaught from the back. The hawks, on the other hand, take into account the history of absolute ethical unreliability shown by the Kirchnerista governments and its congressional leaders and, unwilling to be naive, take a strong stand. They do so in the knowledge that this is the realistic, necessary attitude for those who show no respect for the constitution. This, however, does not mean that they are square; on the contrary, they understand perfectly well that at some point in the near future the national crisis will demand that different political forces sit down at a table to hammer out points in common that will enable Argentina to emerge from the deep hole it presently finds itself in.

Yet the hawks also know that politicians who are not willing to faithfully follow the lines of the constitution, who do not believe in freedom and a healthy democracy, must be barred from that table, because “it’s the Republic, darn it”!

Harry Ingham, City

BATTLE OF THE BULGE: PART 119

Dear Sirs,

The IMF is back in town and entertains the illusion that we aim to pay our considerable debts on time. Magical realism? Most probably, the team will arrive at the conclusion that they will have to make us an additional outlay to enable us to begin making a timid repayment, in what promises to be a very grim election year, in AD 2021. The present minister of economy seems to be an expert at postponing issues, so we may live to fight another year, subsequently. Veremos!

Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to wreak havoc with a very weakened economy, so grab on tight, fellows, were in for a very tough three years, or so. Only positive aspect: price of soya beans seems to be on the up.

Bust wishes,

David Parsons, Via email