Letters to the editor: Harsh penalties, day off, internal educational debt
Letter of the week
Strict and exemplary penalties
How lightly corruption crimes are treated. Corruption isn't just about economic damage, embezzlement, but also about its unpredictable, immeasurable, hidden, and silent consequences, but they are there. Who knows its share of the hunger, misery, and lack of education suffered by some Argentines? Just read the articles in La Nación about poverty and its consequences. Children who go to bed without eating because they have no food. Children who drop out of school because they have to go out to work to eat. Children who live in overcrowded conditions, sleeping several to a bed because they have no other comforts. A disgrace in a rich country like Argentina. They have dedicated themselves to looting it instead of building it for the well-being of all Argentines. For all these reasons, the penalties must be rigorous and exemplary, and the recovered funds must be allocated to those most in need of food, housing, and education.
Julio I. Bottino
DNI 8,462,866
Day off
Labor Day, honored almost everywhere in the world, falls on May 1st. Added to the many holidays and long weekends, which allow for several mini-vacations throughout the year, it should be enough, without having to celebrate so many other holidays requested by unions separately. It's completely absurd that there are holidays for bankers, lawyers, biochemists, doctors, teachers, rural workers, and restaurateurs, and the line continues with all the professions and jobs that exist. I have no idea where these holidays originated, but I can easily imagine. In a country where there are millions of poor people, children without education, malnourished children, inflation, elderly and disabled people earning peanuts, difficulties paying doctors and teachers, refurbishing hospitals, schools, and roads, in addition to having to pay foreign debt for endless loans and successive expenses, it seems to me that all those days could be celebrated, honoring all those who work, without making them non-working days, much less obligatory and paid days, in a private manner. The only holiday for those who work should be May 1st; that's what is appropriate.
Marilyn Cornille
DNI 4,533,138
Internal educational debt
After reading Luciano Román's extremely sad but excellent column, I cannot help but affirm that the worst liability left to us by Kirchnerism, in its greed to remain in power, is the educational liability, not the economic one. The billions of dollars they stole, as was made abundantly clear in the Cuadernos and Vialidad Nacional cases, among many others, pale into insignificance compared to the educational embezzlement perversely promoted by Cristina Kirchner and her henchmen, whom Argentine injustice, quite naively, fails to recognize as part of an illicit association. The years of education stolen from children, at their peak stage of development, will be a tough obstacle to our society's equitable progress. On top of this enormous evil, the scourge of drugs, alcohol, and gambling are currently at the forefront of the concerns of Argentine families, drawing on a young population deprived of education, job training, and social role models. Another generous legacy from Kirchnerism's 16 years in power. Those same people who today celebrate a woman convicted by the courts, in every possible instance, who dances shamelessly on a balcony.
Fernando M. Chain
Wind
The world is torn between a cannibalistic right, a backward left, and ultra-montane thinking. In this context, all that remains is a daily prayer for peace. Our country is no exception to this reality, and it adds a touch of magical realism to it. This explains the decline in voter turnout. The obsession with power is focused on internal party disputes and indefinite reelections, far removed from the agenda of the people's needs. Simplistic rhetoric persists, delegating reflection to algorithms for slogan repeaters. The future is subject to improvisations, without methodological support, that would not withstand the most basic of tests. In this uncertainty, we can only remember, with Seneca: "There is no favorable wind for him who does not know where he is going."
Alfredo Belasio
DNI 8,316,897
The Senate
The Senate's carelessness with certain matters is worrying. Since there was no agreement to appoint two justices to the Supreme Court, the idea of expanding it arose. Everything suggests that this would allow the different sectors to be given someone similar to them. No technical explanation was given. In a recent meeting, they argued that the justices appointed must have gender equality and a federal perspective. I struggle to understand the meaning of this. I think what's really important is that the justices have clear legal capacity, fundamentally Constitutional Law, and impeccable conduct. I don't think it's important whether they are male or female, from the capital or a province. The important thing is that they rule in accordance with the provisions of the national Constitution, regardless of their affiliations.
Gustavo Pittaluga
Third World War?
My grandparents, like the grandparents and great-grandparents of many Argentines, came from Europe fleeing the war. This was a promised land, a refuge, where they put down roots and raised their families. Few recounted details of the hardships they suffered in the Old World, and many decided not to even return for a visit, due to the unpleasant memories they had experienced. For us, their descendants, the First and Second World Wars were merely a topic studied in history books. And suddenly, in the 21st century, the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of those immigrants are witnessing new and ferocious wars that are shaking the planet. One of the most famous quotes by Nobel Prize-winning American writer John Steinbeck is: "All war is a symptom of the failure of man as a thinking animal." Undoubtedly, we have evolved scientifically and technologically, but it seems clear that we are regressing as humanity if we believe that the only way to resolve conflicts is by killing each other. We are destroying our own unique home, sawing away the branch we are sitting on. As Albert Einstein famously said: "I do not know with what weapons the Third World War will be fought, but the Fourth will be with sticks and stones."
Irene Bianchi
DNI 6,688,332
Caparrós and Martín Fierro
Writer and journalist Martín Caparrós, author of the recently published book "The True Life of José Hernández As Told by Martín Fierro," illustrated by Rep, has been nominated by the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) to receive an honorary doctorate next July, according to La Nacion. In his book, Caparrós denigrates the memory of the author of Martín Fierro with a well-known "revisionist and counter-hegemonic" stance, accusing the poet of stealing Martín Fierro's memory. Here are some sample opening sectets:
“Here I begin to tell/ The story I wouldn’t want/ The one about that cunning snake/ That, in order to tell a story/ Stole my memory/ Changed it entirely.
“His name was José Hernández/ Although he was also called/ Pueyrredón, because he boasted/ Of being a man from below,/ And he was rich as hell/ More than the Queen of Sheba.
And that was José, I tell you,/ Rafael Hernández and more;/ Pueyrredón, just like that, From a family so famous/ For keeping things / And fields from others.”
He uses the poet's book, "Instrucción del Estanciero" (Instruction of the Rancher) to accuse him of a dual personality, a "poet of the gauchos" and a "greedy rancher," who, in his manual, establishes the method of exploiting the peasants he claims to defend. Caparrós has read Hernández's book with the vulgar, prejudiced, and fallacious attention he demonstrates. The libel that insults the memory of our greatest gaucho poet has no logical or conceptual basis, much less historical rigor. And the versification doesn't even give the author a start.
The honorary doctorate award that Caparrós would have received would match the one awarded to Hugo Chávez at the University of La Plata.
Alberto Campos Carlés
DNI 4,416,955
An excellent musical
There's no need to go to London or New York. I just returned from Libertad and Córdoba and enjoyed a musical that's on par with the best of the best in the world. Because La Revista del Cervantes is glorious in every sense: choreography, actors, dancers, scenery, music, you name it. And, above all, it comes with a powerful reminder of a genre that was so important in our country in times past: the revue. Honestly, I left the beautiful Teatro Nacional Cervantes feeling happier than ever to live in Buenos Aires.
Harry Ingham
DNI 4,149,607
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