‘APRÈS MOI, LE DÉLUGE’

I take a look at this and other newspapers’ headlines: “Protesters set up camp on Avenida 9 de Julio as picketers demand social aid”; “Strike paralyses tyre production, forces closure of car plants”; “Strike hits airports in Buenos Aires as labour tensions rise”; “Mapuches usurped the private property of Villa Mascardi where the fire of the Boarder Guard post took place”; “Student protests continue in Buenos Aires”; “Unemployment dropped to 6.9% in second quarter of 2022, says INDEC” – to put it short, utter chaos, anarchy, disorganisation, a generalised state of disorder. That’s how we live. Or rather, that’s how we survive in Argentina.

And December 2023 is so far away! I wonder if we’ll still be alive by then. Why can’t the government react? Or maybe they choose not to react. Maybe it’s a deliberate passive attitude to fuel this pandemonium. “Après moi, le déluge” (“After me, the flood”), said King Louis XV of France. Maybe that’s what Alberto and Cristina have in mind. Who knows…

Irene Bianchi, Ringuelet, La Plata