Policia - always nearby

Many years ago I visited Colombia. In fairness it was a different time and Colombia was a different place, then. In Colombia I came to fear the police. They were young and arrogant and always fingering the triggers on their sub-machine guns. And they liked to hassle young gringos, like me, then. That fact and witnessing a bunch of uniformed police storm into a bar and take a man into the street and beat him senseless, turned me off South American police for a while.

Here in Buenos Aires, the presence of the police is now comforting to me. To have a police officer walking the beat every block or two throughout this large city is refreshing and appreciated. In Buenos Aires there is almost always an officer nearby. There are problems, and indeed I have heard stories of corruption and brutality, but I have also seen the almost-friendly face of the same officer on my street corner for nearly three months. There is a comfort in that consistency. Once in a while we greet each other, and sometimes he smiles. When there is a problem of some sort, usually for a local shopkeeper, he is involved, and as near as I can tell, in a helpful manner. He was not keen to have his photo taken. Nor was the Riot Squad, but that's another story.

Policing in Buenos Aires is in transition, from a Federal force, to that of what we would call a municipal or regional force. The Policia Federal Argentina, or PFA, operates throughout the entire country, but mainly in the Federal Capital. Its ranks include over 25,000 officers. The Policia Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, was created in 2010 after lengthy political discussion and argument between the Federal and  City Governments. It is slowly taking over the policing responsibility for Buenos Aires Ciuadad. Today there are about 1900 in its ranks, and that number will reach about 17,000 when the transition is complete. The model for this new force is Britain's Metropolitan Police, and it is expected to be, if the funding is available, a well trained force using the latest in technology and adopting a zero tolerance policy for abuses within its ranks. The PFA will apparently continue as a national force, albeit a reduced force, possibly along the lines of the American FBI.

While there are many officers, both male and female, walking the beat in Buenos Aires, others sometimes appear on horses, some on bicycles or motorcycles, and of course, in cars. For reasons unfathomable to me, and to my queries unanswered, police cars always have their blue lights flashing. It seems to be standard police procedure in Argentina. They aren't in a hurry and they don't seem to be going anywhere in particular. There certainly aren't any donut shops in this city. It's as if they want to warn people, perhaps even the very people they might actually want to apprehend or catch in some kind of illegal activity, of their approach. Or maybe this is another example of walking the beat; showing a presence, being accountable and available. And if that's the case, it's a good thing. It might even be good policing.

Book Review: The Purchase by Linda Spalding

Why do we have such a fondness for the past when it is so damn horrible? That is one of my thoughts on reading The Purchase by Linda Spalding.

Spalding has crafted a wonderful read with this book. There is great attention to historical detail and the story is truly mesmerizing, yet the past of this story is a dark and unforgiving place indeed.

The story begins in 1798 when Daniel Dickinson and his young family are exiled from their Quaker community in Pennsylvania. Daniel's wife has died and he has married their fifteen year old servant, which doesn't go over too well with the leaders of the community. He moves his young family to Virginia with hopes  for a new life and an attempt to master his pride. Despite his hard work, humanity and compassion, he struggles with what seems to be a never ending set of failures.

The book's title comes from an incident early in the story, when Daniel accidentally, though purposefully, breaks with his Quaker tradition and faith, and buys a young slave boy. As the story unfolds, his eldest daughter Mary claims more of the narrative, her life becoming entwined with a slave woman.

Recalling Cormac McCarthy's The Road, there is much darkness, brutality and tragedy in this story. However, unlike McCarthy's spartan writing style, Spalding's prose is rich and full, biblical and lyrical. While hard to put down, this is not a comfortable book to read; there is a sense of recognition that forces the reader to note, not only the injustice of the past, but with great unease, the injustice of the present.

Rich, raw and powerful in its exploration of faith, family, loss and freedom, The Purchase is a terrific book and not to be missed.

Published in September 2012 by McClelland & Stewart, The Purchase was the 2012 winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards for Fiction.

las Malvinas ~ The Falklands ~ always good for diverting attention

In Argentina every child learns that those islands off the Atlantic coast are called las Malvinas and not The Falklands. They learn that these islands belong to Argentina and that the United Kingdom stole the islands during a war of aggression in the early 1980s.

April 2 is a public holiday in Argentina: Dia de los Caides en la Guerra de las Malivinas, a day to pay tribute to their fallen soldiers in a war that started on the same day in 1982. It began with a simple military occupation and ended 74 days later with over 900 dead (649 Argentines, 255 British and 3 islanders).

The disaster of the war led to massive demonstrations against the military throughout Argentina and ultimately hastened the junta's downfall and a return to democracy in 1983.

Throughout the country there are monuments to the fallen Argentine heroes of the war, and plaques in public buildings and shopping centres alike. Street art often addresses the Malvinas too, usually in highly patriotic fashion.

The issue of the Malvinas often comes up in the politics of Argentina. The nationalism invoked is seen by some as a diversion from more important issues facing the country. Lately President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been trumpeting the Malvinas line, including asking the new Pope for some sort of holy intervention.



While Argentine citizens would probably agree the islands do belong to Argentina, nobody would charge off to another war, or expend energy of any kind to get the islands back. There are more important issues facing this country. Including the rate of inflation.


This morning what is called here the blue dollar, or the black market price for the American dollar, hit 8.75 pesos. When we arrived in early January it was about 6 pesos to the dollar. The official government exchange rate is just over 5 pesos to the US dollar, as it has been since January. As Argentina's inflation rate increases and the savings of its ordinary citizens disappear, the Malvinas rhetoric only seems to increase too, with or without holy intervention.

CFK and Pope Francis photo from AFP/Getty

Our favourite coffee shop ~ Esquina Sinclair

At the corner of our street is a coffee shop. For some reason it doesn't have a sign, nor much of any indication that it is a coffee shop. But this cafe is a favourite for many of our neighbours, and for us too.

Its corner location is also a drop-off for garbage from all the apartments in the area. Garbage in Buenos Aires is another topic altogether, but as you can see, garbage is already collecting.








On our very first morning in Buenos Aires we went to Esquina Sinclair for coffee. It became an almost daily ritual. Fresh facturas, great coffee, friendly smiles. It was our place. Cafe solo for me, cafe macchiato for Sherry, y dos medialunas por favor.

When we first started going to our coffee shop, the weather was hot; ideally we found seating outside and in the shade. By the time we were getting ready to leave BA, autumn had arrived and sadly, on our last day we moved inside for our last cafe in Buenos Aires.




Tamara and Johanna were with us when we stumbled through our first ordering process, now famous by the line I ended up using, "Why don't you just bring us what you want to bring us." We improved over time and our friends at Esquina Sinclair were always gracious.

Great coffee. Great people.

We will miss our coffee shop.

A visit to a mosque ~ King Fahd Islamic Centre

A day after the new pope had been elected, Francisco from Argentina, we went to the mosque. It seemed the thing to do after all. We were joined by a number of other interested people.






The King Fahd Islamic Centre is located on a large plot of land donated by the Federal Government during the presidency of Carlos Menem, who, while being raised Roman Catholic, discovered later in life his Syrian origin actually included Islamic roots too.





Today there are about 700,000 Muslims in Argentina, the largest Islamic population in Latin America. Argentina also boasts the largest Jewish population in Latin America, though those numbers have lessened in recent years. Currently 1.9 per cent of the country's population is Muslim and 1.3 per cent are Jewish.

The Islamic Centre is located across the street from one of the largest gambling meccas in all Latin America, The Hipodromo, open twenty four hours a day, every day of the year.








Fashion is important at the Mosque as Sherry discovered. Apparently her dress did not cover enough of her legs and she was given a longer skirt to wear over top. And cover up those arms too. If you don't mind, though there isn't much choice if you want to enter. Please. 

Yes, quite a fashion statement.


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The buildings that make up the Centre, housing a school, library, various offices and the mosque itself, are impressive, yet hauntingly empty. We were there for the call to prayer and the actual prayers; only men and boys, no women in view. And no photos please.





Free tours of the Islamic Centre are offered each Tuesday and Thursday at noon. Long winded and slightly incomprehensible, unless you speak Spanish, it seemed a bit boring to me.

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2013 by Jim Murray.