Anyway.

I used Pages during the flight to keep track of all those insomniac, bilingual tweets, while the plane was a going through the Atlantic and Canada towards San Francisco. Some are about the flight itself, others about the Argentine film “El Secreto de sus Ojos”, and finally some about the Football World Cup. Project yourself in the situation, and enjoy the rants. I certainly did :)

During and about the flight

• The iPad is the perfect onboard entertainment system. Pages as an offline Twitter client, Kindle and iBooks as ebook readers, some movies, and lots of music. 57% battery after 12 hours.
• As the stewards would say: “brace, brace”; lots of tweets coming.
• Outlook is a city in Saskatchewan, not far from Saskatoon and Moose Jaw. After this revelation to remember the next time you play Trivial Pursuit, you can resume your normal activities.
• Saskatoon officially gets the 2010 akosma award for the best city name ever.
• As you could imagine, the only interesting thing in this inflight entertainment thingy is the 3D map indicating our current position. #fascinating #boring
• I forgot to mention that my seat’s sound system is broken. I could watch any movie I want but my lip reading skills are not *that* good.
• The names of the cities in northern Canada are just amazing. Can’t remember any of them tho. Are they Innuit names?
• Our vision of the world is as distorted as a map of Novaja Zemlya in Mercator projection after the explosion of the Tsar bomba.
• Why do they still print the “smoke” section in boarding passes? Is there any airline out there still offering smoking seats?
• Given that most airplane tickets are electronic, why aren’t boarding passes? #iphoneappidea
• Let’s calculate the CO2 emissions caused by airlines still printing the word “smoke” in boarding passes. No, let’s better not.
• The keyboard of the iPad has this character: ₩ (tap and hold the dollar sign). What currency is it? Korea’s won? If Korea won, then the pun is intended.
• On the plane with @mediaatelier and @dcondrau, probably even more Swiss devs, but without wifi and Twitter, difficult to know.
• There were fewer devs using Xcode on this Swiss flight than in last year’s Lufthansa flight. I will leave the elaboration of any conclusion thereof to my dear followers.
• Why do flight attendants akways decide to serve beverages at precisely the same moment when planes go through turbulences? #complot #midwest #twister
• Now I understand why Swiss is Lufthansa’s cash cow: pricier tickets and crappier service. Only selling point: the nonstop ZRH -> SFO flight. #swissairwherearethou
• I remember when they added phones to Swissair airplanes, back in 1996; calls used to cost 10 dollars per minute. Now, in 2010, in Swiss… they cost the same. #WTF
• In the airport of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) there was free, fast, open wifi in 2006. Most airports in the northern hemisphere, in 2010, charge a lot for a crappy connection. #WTF
• And still, no wifi in planes. #WTF
• No, I haven’t been involved in Nazi activities during from 1933 to 1945. Thanks for asking. #visawaiver
• Swiss people not traveling often outside of Switzerland are easy to spot. I let you imagine the rest of this tweet.
• The Swiss version of Homer Simpson is sitting beside me, and is kinda fascinated with my iPad. Yeah, I’m talking about you, moron.
• Oh no my dear Homer, the armrest between us is mine for the rest of the flight. See? I don’t push *my* elbow on *your* side. Wasn’t *that* hard, now was it?
• The “Skytrain” in ZRH airport, is a subway, actually. You can hear yodel and cows and other Swiss sounds inside while you go from terminal to terminal. #typisch
• Whoever said that the iPad is a consumption-only device should have stop consuming some substances before writing nonsense.

Sobre la pelicula “El Secreto de sus Ojos”

• El otro día fui a ver “El Secreto de sus Ojos” con Clau, y me quedaron, obviamente, muchas cosas picando, pensaturrias.
• Me imagino la Argentina de mis padres como un lugar con una dosis mayor de inocencia de la actual. Debe haber haber sido un lindo lugar.
• Vivir en la Argentina de los 80 no estuvo mal. Aparte de las hiperinflaciones y crisis crónicas, yo tengo lindos recuerdos de aquella época.

Sobre el mundial

• Si Drogba se fracturo y quedo afuera del mundial, entonces se queda con las Ghana. Y el resto del tweet es superfluo. #mundial
• Si te fracbturas, necesitas una drogba para conbtener el dbolor. #mundial
• Primero Beckham, después Rooney, ahora Drogba… que otros jugadores se quedaron afuera? #mundial
• Atacante norcoreano inscripto como arquero… te imaginas? El técnico lo tendría que probar al arco, por ahí después se lo recordaría como el Higuita coreano. #escorpión #taekwondo #mundial
• El conocido árbitro paraguayo Carlos Amarilla no participará en el mundial. Tampoco asistirán el reconocido juez de línea francés Marcel Orsay ni el legendario hincha de Camerún. #burumbumbúm #mundial
• Burumbumberia, burumbumberia, yo soy el hincha, de Nigeria. #mundial
• Burumbumbana, burumbumbana, yo soy el hincha, de Ghana. #mundial
• Burumbumbafrica, burumbumbumbafrica, yo soy el hincha, de Sudafrica. #mundial
• Burumbumbar, burumbumbar, yo soy el hincha, de Madagascar (las hinchadas de Zanzibar y Escobar cantan similares canciones) #mundial
• Burumbumbique, burumbumbique, yo soy el hincha, de Mozambique. #mundial
• Burumbumipto, burumbumipto, yo soy el hincha, de ………………. (enviar respuesta correcta en un reply) #mundial
• Burumbumbina, burumbumbina, yo soy el hincha, de Argentina (el que diga “efedrina” es boleta). #mundial
• Burumbumbal, burumbumbal, yo soy el hincha, de Codesal (cantito alemán) #mundial
• Burumbumbola, burumbumbola, yo soy el hincha, de Angola. #mundial
• Burumbumbasta, burumbasta, yo creo… que ya basta.
• El otro día dieron en la TV Suiza (en italiano) la película de Kusturica sobre Maradona. Muy buena.

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Siento quenas que en el viento huyen
trayendo amores y silencios de las peñas
que encierran el sol en su corazón.
Entre airampos de luna
samponias que en el viento huyen
en viaje buscando el cielo un cóndor va
como mi ser resucitará buscando la luz.

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Agua, cayendo del cielo
agua, con furia y sin freno,
lava todos mis recuerdos,
dame en tus hojas la bendición.
Guerras, amores y juegos
fuegos, relámpagos, truenos
barcos, montañas y sueños
todo descansa en tu corazón.

Era clara, era vida,
de mis manos se escurría.
Me besaba, me envolvía,
pero siempre agua seguía.
Amanecer, desnuda en tu ritual,
y así te encuentro, serena siempre.
Era clara, era vida,
de mis manos se escurría.

Agua, ya sabemos cómo esto es.
Agua, hay uno y si hay dos, no hay dos sin tres.

Agua, puede estar más fría y dura que vos,
Agua, puede deshacerse en ardiente vapor.
Agua, dame, dame, dame, dame un poco de tu paz
Agua, que mi confusión es grande y así ya no puedo más.

Ui ui uh, ui ui uh,
Agua, la tierra es tierra de color azul.

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te fuiste durante la mañana del 15 de marzo del 2010.

seguramente la noche anterior cenaste, miraste la television, tomaste tus medicamentos, despues te acostaste mirando la foto de tu hermano charles, y te quedaste dormida.

te quedaste dormida, mama, sin dolor.

creo que fue la mejor muerte que a uno le puede tocar. y cuando miro para atras, y veo el kilometraje que tenias, creo que fue la mejor. mucho dolor hubo, mucho.

tu cara tenia paz, no se como describirlo. cuando te vimos estabas tranquila, tenias incluso ese guiño en el ojo izquierdo que tenias cuando dormias. te fuiste soñando, probablemente con tu hermano charles, con tu perra brigitte, tal vez la abuela herta estaba ahi. quizas tu viejo, buscando un perdon que solo alla arriba se puede obtener. por ahi estara d’agosto, rini, walter, el tata kazimierz tambien. incluso la negra sosa, que canto en tu honor durante la ceremonia.

claudia te maquillo, y yo puse entre tus manos un crucifijo. tu fe te ayudo a dejar este mundo en paz. tambien puse entre tus manos cartitas y dibujos que te hice cuando era nene. todo eso se fue con vos. tenias tu pulover preferido, el negro y rojo, te quedaba bien.

aca quedo el dolor. como siempre, los que la pasamos peor en estas situaciones son los que nos quedamos. el viejo estaba destrozado. el te queria mucho, a pesar de los años y de la distancia.

rezamos mucho, y no solo aqui en suiza. hubo rezos para vos en argentina, bolivia, inglaterra, uruguay, incluso en suecia. la gente se movilizo. vos ya lo sabes, quizas; el mundo es un poco mas triste desde que te fuiste. pero si la oracion sirve, entonces quiere decir que no te fuiste sola, sino acompañada.

yo, al menos, veo un mundo con otro color, con otro dolor. no se como explicarlo, pero las cosas tienen otro sabor, otra textura. no es mas gris, no es mas colorido, es simplemente diferente. paradojicamente, yo tambien estoy mas en paz.

no fui un hijo perfecto, vieja, pero siempre quise que seas feliz.

es lo que te susurre al oido la ultima vez que te vimos, antes de la ceremonia, te dije que seas feliz. donde quiera que estes, quiero que dejes esa mochila de dolor y la reemplaces por una de color.

hiciste mucho para que yo sea quien soy hoy. ser hijo unico tiene un peso y una importancia particular, que determina muchas cosas en una personalidad. en el 96 yo quise ser yo mismo, y me escape de tu vida, lo cual, yo se, te dejo desamparada. despues, nunca mas fui el adri de la infancia, porque creci de golpe y a los cachetazos.

hice lo posible para no defraudarte, para ser alguien de bien.

encontre en la biblia la notita que me escribiste, supongo yo, alla por los ’80, y la lei en publico durante la ceremonia del jueves pasado. me dejaste un mensaje hermoso, que ire entendiendo poco a poco.

porque tuve que hacerme adulto para entenderte, algo que no se podia hacer mientras yo era nene. lo intente, pero eso me costo mi infancia. ahora estoy tratando de recuperar esa infancia perdida, con clau. ella tambien tuvo que crecer de golpe.

vos tambien, tuviste que crecer incluso mas rapidamente que nosotros. te robaron tu infancia y eso marco tu sensibilidad, te robo sueños y te dejo desamparada. tengo mucho odio por todo eso, no te lo merecias. eras buena persona.

a pesar de todo, sabiendo tu historia, no puedo sino admirar lo tuyo. porque despues de tu hospitalizacion del 2008, “te cayo una ficha,” y lograste encontrar el perdon y nos dimos cuenta todos de eso. estabas en paz con vos misma, estabas mas tranquila. el histerico era yo, y te pido perdon por este caracter volcanico mio.

pero vos lograste estar en paz. viniste a casa a pasar navidad, y fue una noche hermosa y fantastica. hicimos un ultimo viaje a schaffhousen, las viste a milena, renata, daniela y hella. fuiste cerrando capitulos, poco a poco, como un escritor que va terminando su libro.

vamos a llevar tus cenizas a argentina. siempre tuviste nostalgia de buenos aires. yo tambien. “deshauciado esta el que tiene que marchar / a vivir una cultura diferente.”

me viste en casa, con mi mujer, con trabajo, salud, e incluso con un titulo universitario. creo que viste que ya habia logrado cierto equilibrio, cosa rara en mi. eso te preocupaba mucho. creo que te tranquilizo ver que estoy mejor que nunca.

y te fuiste en paz, espero, dejando ese dolor, cambiandolo por color. yo tambien bese tu frente, por ultima vez, esperando que tu amanecer sea radiante, repleto de colores, como un arco iris.

te quiero mucho, vieja.

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The Argentine rock movement was truly one of the first non-English forms of rock to be commercially successful outside its own nation.

Argentine rock, which was the first kind of rock in Spanish ever to emerge in either Spain or Latin America, has a “founding trilogy” in 1967 with three mythical bands:

1. Los Gatos (“The Cats”), similar to the Beatles, they disbanded in the 60′s;
2. Manal, more of a blues / hard rock thing, first aligned with the Stones and later aligned with the heavy metal movement until the 80′s;
3. Almendra (“Almond”) which was the real start of argentine progressive rock, also disappeared in the 60′s.

The founder of Almendra is the ENORMOUS, GIANT, KING OF PROGRESSIVE, Luis Alberto Spinetta, one of the best musicians of the 20th century, without any doubt, with over 45 years of a non-stop career. He’s still playing occassionally, and in 1973 he recorded with a later band (“Pescado Rabioso”, “Rabid Fish” in Spanish) the album “Artaud” which is regarded as one of the highest moments of argentine progressive rock, and one of the best albums of its time.

Listen to track #7 “Bajan” (“They are going down”) and #9 “Las Habladurias del Mundo” (“The Gossip of the World”). Those two tracks are the best IMHO, but in the good progressive fashion, the album is a highly conceptual one with a central story centered around Antonin Artaud‘s poems, that can be listened from start to end like a an opera.

Spinetta played not long ago in the Colón Theatre, one of the most important and biggest opera houses of the world, which is said to have “one of the five best acoustics in the world”…! I’ve been there twice. It’s unbelievably beautiful.

Sumo: this band was formed in 1981 by Luca Prodan, an Italian/English guy who went to Argentina to escape his heroin addiction, but died of cyrrhosis and cocaine in 1988, after having changed the argie music forever. He was the only one who dared sing in English in Argentine radios during the Falkland’s war.

His death was so terrible to argentines that graffittis saying “Luca Not Dead” still appear (written in English) in Buenos Aires. His influence is absolute. All the bands now say they were influenced by Sumo. I still remember the newspapers announcing his death. I was in secondary school at the time. All the kids were sad, even crying.

I recommend their album Divididos por la Felicidad (“Divided by Happiness”). Start with the all-time-classic #1, “La Rubia Tarada” (“The Dumb Blonde”), a rant against the trendy first class of Buenos Aires in the 80′s, and then move to #7, “Mejor no Hablar de Ciertas Cosas” (“Better not to talk about some things”). These two songs are simply, classics.

After Prodan died, Sumo split into two bands: Divididos (“Divided”) and Las Pelotas (“The Balls”). The first is more commercial and high profile, the second more progressive and underground. Divididos is called the “La Aplanadora del Rock” (“The Leveller of Rock”) given that they offer mega-concerts (at 100’000 people piece) lasting over 4 hours of pure rock.

Divididos’ album Narigón del Siglo (“Big-nosed-guy of the Century”) was recorded at Abbey Road studios, and is particularly representative of Divididos. This is really, really a rock band, in the purest sense of the term. My preferred tracks are #6 “Elefantes en Europa” (“Elephants in Europe”), which will explain you the “The Leveller of Rock” nickname…! And #11 “Pasiones Zurdas Derechas” (“Right-wing Lefty Passions”). Amazing rock. Really puts you in good mood.

From Las Pelotas’, I recommend Mascaras de Sal (“Masks of Salt”). Much more studied, thoughtful, very interesting and progressive. I love it. I recommend “Senderos” (“Paths”), track #1. But the whole album is simple IN-CRE-DI-BLE.

Soda Stereo: (“Stereo Sparkling Water”) is one the best selling argentine acts of the last 30 years. They are the incarnation of argentine pop, simple, and pure. They started in 1981 and finished in 1997 with a mega concert of 3 days in the largest football stadium in Buenos Aires. Listen to their 20 Greatest Hits album, for your listening pleasure: they are REALLY good, timeless kind of good. Start with tracks #3 “Nada Personal” (“Nothing Personal”) which is really representative of their 80′s, and then go to tracks #15 “Lo Que Sangra – La Cúpula” (“What Bleeds – The Cupola”) and #14 “Un Millón de Años Luz” (“One Million Light-Years”), the latest a much more mature and elaborated song, considered the most beautiful track of the band. Really my all time favorites.

Finally, Bersuit Vergarabat (or simply Bersuit, a name that doesn’t mean anything, really :) simply put, the most important band of the past 20 years. And still alive and kicking. They are very good. Capables of everything and anything: ska, rock, tango, pop, samba, murga, etc. Bersuit is one of those bands that 40 years from now will have streets named after them. They are really the biggest milestone in Argentine music since Sumo.

Their most interesting studio album is Hijos del Culo (“Sons of the A**” :) Listen to #12 “Negra Murguera” (“Black Woman from the Murga”) and #2 “La del Toro” (“The Song of the Bull”). The whole album goes from one style to the other, their lyrics are hilarious and at the same time terrible, they really sing the Argentine of today.

To close the loop, here’s the main singer of Soda Stereo (Gustavo Cerati, on the left) with Spinetta himself (at the right) singing “Bajan” from Pescado Rabioso (which I mentioned above) live:

And the argentine rock fan watches in awe, reverence, wonderment, admiration, as two epochs meet, greet and sing.

This video is a cornerstone moment in the history of argentine rock. I’m almost in tears.

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This paper will provide an introduction to the herb commonly referred to as “Yerba Mate”, and will later delve into the advantages and disadvantages of such practice, in the context of the creation of software products.

Introduction

Yerba Mate is defined by Wikipedia as follows:

Yerba mate or yerba-mate (Br.) (Spanish: yerba mate, Portuguese: erva-mate), Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly (family Aquifoliaceae) native to subtropical South America in northeastern Argentina, eastern Paraguay and southern Brazil. It was first scientifically classified by Swiss botanist Moses Bertoni, who settled in Paraguay in 1895.

The Yerba Mate (usually and wrongly spelled as “Yerba Maté” in English-speaking texts) is used in the preparation of a caffeinated beverage described by Wikipedia as follows:

Mate (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmate]), also known as chimarrão (Portuguese: [ʃimaˈxɐ̃ũ]) or cimarrón, is a traditional South American infused drink. It is prepared from steeping dried leaves of yerba mate (llex paraguariensis, known in Portuguese as erva mate) in hot water. It is the national drink in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and drinking it is a common social practice in parts of Brazil, Chile, eastern Bolivia, Lebanon and Syria. In Brazil, it is considered to be a tradition typical of the “Gaúchos”, name given to those born in Rio Grande do Sul. The drink contains caffeine.
(…)
The multicultural Yerba Mate Association of the Americas states that it is always improper to accent the second syllable, since doing so confuses the word with the unrelated Spanish word meaning “I killed.”

One of the phrases in the quoted paragraphs from Wikipedia brings to mind the importance of such a drink in the creation of software products (no, not the phrase about killing, the previous one). Caffeine is known for its capabilities in waking up inert areas of the brain, particularly during brain-damaging activities.

We consider unfortunate to qualify software development as a brain-damaging activity (although some research arrives to this particular conclusion), however, it is certainly a brain-intensive one, and as such, Yerba Mate has proven, in our tests, to be a particularly interesting option to coffee.

Preparation

To prepare “Mate” (the beverage), three basic elements are required:

1. A recipient, usually also referred to as “mate” (to add to the confusion), but also called “guampa”, “cuia”, “calabaza”, and other names without any translation to English whatsoever. Among these names appears also “porongo”, as it is known in Uruguay; this word is usually avoided in Argentina, for the exact same reason the name “Mitsubishi Pajero” has been a commercial failure there. This element can be made of wood, metal or even be the hollow shell of a dried calabash.
2. A metallic straw, usually also referred to as “bombilla” or less commonly, “bomba”. This element can be made out of metal or wood, and is used to drink the infusion, avoiding to swallow the leaves of Yerba Mate at the same time. The best ones have their top part covered in gold, which protects the lips from the intense heat generated by the water in the metal, and also provides a sense of luxury into an otherwise rather humble activity.
3. Hot water, never boiled, at around 70 to 80 degrees Celsius (160 – 180 degrees Fahrenheit). It is very, very, VERY important to serve the water at the exact temperature, without boiling the water inadvertently. Usually, the best way to keep the water hot is with a thermos or vacuum flask, of which the latest industry benchmarks highlight the Uruguayan brand “Lumilagro” as the most reliable, competitive and durable in the market. European customers are best served by the standard thermos provided by Ikea.

Once all the elements are ready, the preparation process is fairly simple:

1. Add the Yerba Mate leaves in the mate (the recipient);
2. Put the right hand on top of the mate (recipient) covering the entrance, and using your left hand, turn the recipient upside down and shake it a little; then return the recipient to its normal position and dust the mate powder from your hand (it is strongly recommended not sniffing it);
3. Insert the straw in the recipient, creating a small hole in the Yerba at the same time;
4. Pour in hot water, very slowly, in the hole caved in the previous step; on the first serve it is best to avoid filling the mate completely, to leave time to the yerba to get moist and release the flavor slowly;
5. Drink the mate, by sipping at the straw, taking care not to burn your mouth or throat;
6. Pass the mate around, which helps create and spread a sense of teamwork, to bring an ambience of relaxation and self-contemplation, and also to spread many known viruses.

Advantages

In the context of software engineering, such a practice has the following advantages:

• Health benefits: The ingestion of mate (the beverage) contributes positively to the recommended daily intake of water (at least around 2 or 3 liters a day), and thus to the maintenance of a convenient hydration level in the brain, which is recognized by several studies as a major contribution to its productivity. Some recent papers even indicate that the habit of Mate drinking can reduce the risks of cancer, but in any case, Yerba Mate is also a major source of many important elements for a healthy daily diet:
  

  It contains vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, Niacin (B3), B5, B… and complex minerals like Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Selenium, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Zinc. It also contains Carotene, Fatty Acids, Chlorophyll, Flavonols, Polyphenols, Inositol, Trace Minerals, Antioxidants, Tannins, Pantothenic Acid, and 15 Amino Acids.

• Prolonged working hours: Instead of having to leave the desk to get yet another cup of coffee, the knowledge worker can sit in front of his computer for hours, particularly when using thermos with a capacity of at least 1 or 1.5 liters (around half a gallon). Mate (the beverage) is also known for reducing appetite, which helps reduce costs in the case of companies providing food to their employees.
• Teamwork benefits: Given the inherent social origins of the habit of drinking mate, in the case of teams, or in the case of agile practices such as pair programming, sharing the mate (the recipient) helps team managers to create a sense of unity and common goal.
• Increased sensitivity: As with all caffeinated drinks, the intake of mate can lead to an improvement in the overall awareness of the mate drinker.

Disadvantages

The following disadvantages of Mate (the herb, the beverage and the recipient) are worth considering:

• Cold water effects: Although common practice in Paraguay (where the infusion of Yerba Mate with cold water is known as Tereré), this variant is known for causing violent reactions in the digestive system of the person drinking it, and it is strongly recommended to never drink it more than 20 meters away from the nearest toilet.
• Bitterness: The strong taste of Yerba Mate is also a factor of considerable debate. Most mate drinkers usually start drinking it with sugar (some even with saccharine or other sweeteners), while most experienced drinkers will dismiss this practice and downplay those doing it as amateurish or otherwise ignorant. It is strongly recommended to have everyone agree on a mate variant beforehand to avoid shallow discussions on the relative merits of different approaches to mate drinking.
• Mate lavado: When the same Yerba has been poured several times (usually above 10 or 12 servings, depending on the quality of the Yerba), it loses part of its taste and must be replaced with new Yerba. Depending on how many people share the same mate (the recipient), this can be a significant problem, leading to reduced productivity and major anxiety and dismay.
• “Matetiquette”: Mate (the beverage) is linked with a complete language, tied up to the history of the southern part of South America. As such, please be aware of the fact that serving a “mate lavado” (see previous item for an explanation of the concept) is considered rude practice, and is strongly discouraged. Serving mate with cold water, as explained above, can also be seen negatively, particularly if the person preparing the mate is not from Paraguay. Finally, talking in front of your recently-filled mate instead of drinking it, is also frowned upon, as you might be greeted with a “it’s not a microphone” protest if you do it.

Conclusion

The importance of the Yerba Mate in the process of creation of software has been greatly dismissed by major research efforts, and we think that more research and mate drinking is needed. In our tests, Yerba Mate has been proven to foster creativity, teamwork, overall happiness, and trips to the toilets.

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This post is about life, about the tiny little things that make our current world a great, truly enjoyable experience. Grab a cup of tea, sit and relax on your chair, and read. This is clearly a blog post suitable for a Friday afternoon.

I remember the day ENTEL (Argentina’s former national telecom company, back in the 80′s) installed a telephone line at home. I remember that day very well, because I was 16 years old. That’s right, I lived without a phone for most of my childhood(*). No phone rings, no answering machines, no dialing pads, no twisted black rubber cables, nothing. Cellphones were just science fiction. Really. Just like video conferences and handheld communicators.

We at Argentina we were so used to not having a phone, that I remember all the little tricks we had to use with friends to meet up, or with my mother to keep her updated on my whereabouts. For example, it was common for people to just drop by, ring and see if you were there for a mate on a Sunday afternoon. There was no way they could tell you they wanted to meet you (other than by regular mail or telegram, which is kinda weird anyway), so dropping by was the only option left.

And nobody complained about it. It was cool, it was pure surprise.

OK, OK, not having a phone was not always cool, particularly when my grandmother fell ill in 1985 and calling for an ambulance became an almost impossible feat; my mother had to run to the nearest bar to call for it, since there weren’t public payphones nearby – at least not working ones.

But we managed to live a happy life. It might sound ridiculous, but I never thought of the fact of not having a phone like a major issue. An annoyance at most, but not a major problem.

And the day we received our phone, it looked like this:

(source)

I think the picture speaks for itself. That was at the end of 1989, a couple of weeks before the Berlin wall collapsed, and right in the middle of one of the worst hyperinflations known to modern economists.

I also remember the day the phone started to be useful, too. That was like 3 months after they installed the line, but that’s another story. Suffice to say that, one day, the phone rang. Neither my mother nor me knew what to say when picking it up.

—

(really) Fast forward 20 years later, I’m living in Switzerland, I’m married to the lovely love of my life, I live in an appartment with a big window over Lake Geneva, and I write software applications for a small, incredible phone.

A lot has happened in the middle. A lot.

—

I remember my mother struggling to bring food home back in the 80′s. As simple as that. She worked as an employee in a state-run company, which was privatized a couple of years after we left the country. Living in Argentina in the 80′s was a difficult task, with incredible inflation and low salaries, and it mostly consisted in buying dollars (in the black market) the day you got your payslip, and selling them (in the black market too) whenever you needed cash.

My mother also used to play with credit cards, which at the time were not tied to inflation rates; that meant that you could buy today in the supermarket for 200 pesos of food, which was around (say) 10 dollars, and pay the following month, when the same 200 pesos (+ interests) would be changed for 2 dollars.

These tricks were not always enough. And some times, in spite of all the efforts of my mother, the fridge would be particularly empty, to the greater sorrow of this brave woman. Now that I’m an adult, I begin to understand the level of desperation she had to suffer, and the enormous effort she made every evening to have a smile on her face.

—

One day, back in February 1991, my mother and I left Argentina for Switzerland. She had been in this country twice, in 1954 and 1963. I had never been here; heck, I had never even left the country before. Not even to Uruguay.

I remember hearing people speak in French and English for the first time in my life. I remember not getting a word of what people said on TV or the radio. I remember not getting all the jokes my schoolmates said during breaks, and I remember getting myself into trouble for mistranslating words or phrases.

I have a Polish family name, and two passports; my father lives in Buenos Aires and my mother lives in Geneva. My wife comes from Bolivia. I am grandson of migrants who travelled accross the Atlantic back in the 20′s and the 30′s. I am son of a migrant who did the journey back 60 years later.

I am a migrant. My wife is a migrant. My family is a family of migrants.

—

Even if I can freely move through the customs offices of most major airports, I feel as a migrant, and I understand the pain that comes with having to leave part of your life behind, of being different, of dealing with incomprehension and being an outsider.

I can’t support “northern” macro immigration policies, just because I lived the process at micro level. I can’t justify censorship, because I know the cost of communication. I can’t support dictatorship, because I’ve lived in one, and I remember it very well.

—

I remember when my mother went to the PTT (before Swisscom existed) to ask for a phone line for our first appartment in Geneva. The woman at the counter asked her when did she prefer the technician to come by our place.

My mother clearly did not expect that question.

The guy came in the following day, and when he left, my mother picked up the phone, and incredibly enough, a tone sounded. The look in her eyes said it all.

However, even if we had a phone, and even if my mother called some cousins to tell them she was back in Switzerland, just one of them called back. Even worse, the cost of international communications at the beginning of the 90′s was prohibitive, and we slowly lost contact with many friends in Argentina.

We had a phone, but not many people to talk to. That was the major tradeoff.

—

Somehow, many pieces of my life (people, meetings, encounters, places) have come accross in a delicious yet uncanny way, assembling a whole that amazes me, in this very day.

And that’s why I say I’m blessed. As we all are. We have food in our plates, we have phones ringing with friends on the other side of the line, heck, we have e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, GPS, iPhone, Google, Skype – which effectively means that yes, we live in a sci-fi world with video conferencing and handheld communicators. Communication is a commodity. Information flows a gazillion times faster than it did 20 years before.

The infinite possibilities you are offered in this world are our greatest asset. Many times we forget this, but here I am, humbly reminding me (and my readers) about this very fact:

We are blessed. Now pick up your phone, open up your Skype or fire up your e-mail client, and call or write a friend with whom you haven’t spoken for a while.

(*) For those wondering, my mother had moved to that appartment in 1970, and asked for a phone at that time. In 1985 she subscribed to the “plan Megatel”, created by former argie president Raúl Alfonsín to create 1 million phone lines before the end of his term in 1989. At about 25 dollars per month, that phone costed her about USD 1500 until 1990. Check this article (in Spanish) for more information.

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For all of you asking me “how are things in Argentina today?” here’s the answer:

• On February 28th, 2009, people were using a public space in the city of Tigre (60 km north of Buenos Aires) for an improvised puppet theater for the kids; this was happening on a sunny morning, with families and artisans selling their handcrafted items;
• The local police came to say that they are not allowed to stay, without identifying themselves properly (no visible IDs, some of them dressing like civilians), and without clearly stating the reasons for their presence;
• The gathered people decided to go to the municipality of Tigre to reclaim their right of peaceful use of a public space in daylight with their kids – a constitutional right;
• The police forces blocked them from reaching the municipality and proceeded to repress them, arresting many all while doing injuries to babies, kids, parents and people gathered around the improvised theater.
• Finally, these events were not covered nor relayed by mass media afterwards.

In countries like Switzerland, “unauthorized” gatherings in public spaces of more than 50 people or so are (as far as I know) forbidden (I have yet to understand why, and then try to agree with such a ridiculous law). This is not like that in Argentina. The Argentine Constitution guarantees freedom of gathering, expression and trade, and the crowd in this case was just using this liberty. The public space is exactly that: a common area for everyone to use in lawful and peaceful activities. I can’t conceive a more lawful and peaceful activity than a puppet theater.

The argentine police still uses the same methods and training while during the last dictatorship in the 70′s. They have no law, they obey no orders other than theirs. Their chief has stated publicly that they are the democracy, that they are the law.

That’s how Argentina is going these days. You can now continue reading about the beautiful hotels in the glacier Perito Moreno or the Iguazu falls, if you insist in burying your head deep in the mud.

Otherwise, watch this.

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Según Potash, autor de Las armas y las políticas en Argentina, cerca de 200 ingenieros alemanes arribaron al país tras el fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, muchos de los cuales ocuparon puestos políticos durante el gobierno peronista. Uno de ellos fue el físico austríaco Ronald Richter, quien en 1948 llegó a la Argentina con la propuesta de producir energía atómica mediante el proceso de la fusión nuclear en forma controlada. El Proyecto Atómico Huemul se inició en un laboratorio construido en Villa del Lago, Córdoba, para luego instalarse definitivamente en la isla Huemul, en el Lago Nahuel Huapi.

Projekt Huemul, the documentary.

Lo más divertido, si es que se puede usar este adjetivo en este contexto, es que Perón anunció en 1951 que Richter había logrado controlar el proceso de fusión nuclear (algo imposible todavía hoy) y que Argentina vendería pronto botellas de medio y de un litro de energía. Me hizo acordar a esos cubos de energía que usaban los Transformers en el dibujo animado.

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