Recently in Argentina · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Diego Sarraseca, an Argentine living in Los Angeles, wrote a trilingual post yesterday entitled, “Today We Celebrate Christmas in Argentina,” referring to the birthday of soccer star Diego Maradona and the prophet-like status he holds in the country. For more context, Altered Argentina has a creative and hilarious post comparing Maradona with his country. Jeff Barry, at first, “couldn't understand why this fat, drug addict with bad hair was a national hero.” But then says, “as I started to see him interviewed on TV (before he had his own show) I came to see a side of him — a certain child-like quality — that is appealing.”
Smart Mobs picks up a story by Fernando Marino-Aguirre on OhmyNews about Argentina's Education Minister, Daniel Filmus’ commitment to purchase between 500,000 and one million low cost laptops from the MIT Media Lab, making Argentina the first Spanish-speaking country to commit to the program. Paula Alvarado, from Buenos Aires, has a post on Treehugger about recent sustainability breakthroughs in Argentina.
The main buzz around the Argentine blogosphere, however, is undoubtedly focused on George W. Bush's upcoming visit to the country for the fourth Summit of the Americas, which will take place in Mar del Plata. Or more specifically, bloggers are focusing on upcoming planned protests against the American president. GoodAirs has covered the series of small bombs which have exploded at U.S. symbols throughout Buenos Aires. Fernando Marino-Aguirre writes on OhmyNews that some Mar del Plata residents “have decided to leave next week for fear of attacks or incidents that might take place during the meeting of the Fourth Summit of the Americas on Nov. 4-5.” Marino-Aguirre also describes a week-long effort of opposition, organized by the Continental Social Alliance, which will coincide with the Summit. Marcos Solis, writing from Chile, offers a brief summary of the Summit of the America's purpose and history and closes with the obligatory anti-Bush photograph. An interesting forum thread has started at Physics Forums, of all places, describing the general state of Argentine anger directed at the Bush. Los Blogueros points readers [ES] to marchacontrabush.com [ES] (“March Against Bush”), which is an impressive collection of news items related to Bush's visit and the protest against it. The march itself, dubbed, “March and Act for Latin American Dignity,” will take place on November 4th at 11 a.m. in Mar del Plata. Responding to news that public employees will not be working on Friday in order to protest Bush's visit, neither Ana Toniolli nor Mirko [ES] understand what good the shutting down of an entire country's public service will do to protest the visit of another country's president.
Finally, a potpourri: And, Yes, I Do Take it Personally explains what a “paseaperro” is. Jorge Gobbi writes about Monte, a small town 110 KM north of Buenos Aires. The Social Science Information Gateway has a useful collection of links relating to the recent parliamentary elections. And finally, Clarin's Weblog About Weblogs informs that Leandro Zanoni and Darío Gallo have started a census [ES] of traditional journalists who have weblogs. More information can be found at Zanoni's eBlog [ES].