My own Argentine experience‏

Ferfal-

It's been a pleasure reading your blog the past couple of years. I have to comment a bit about the Rawles thing - I heard his first charges of anti-semitism on his review of your blog. I had already found your blog and never noticed this. You should know that anyone who reads your postings can plainly see that any charges of anti-semitism are without merit.

I still look at the Rawles blog - but it is with a jaded eye. Your real world experience is a real asset to your readers. I do not think you (or most of your readers) realize how valuable your insight really is - I do believe many elements of your Argentine experiences are coming to America. They need to read about it so they don't have to learn the hard way.

Now for my Argentine Experience! I just thought of this because I just picked up my recently inherited (God bless my mother's soul) double-barreled shotgun from the gunsmith. This shotgun has two notches in it from an attack on my family home in Acasuso. It instilled upon me (at a very young age) the utility of firearms and even rudimentary training when faced with a dangerous situation. In 1970 my father was with the US Embassy in Argentina on a 3-year assignment. That was a tumultuous time even then. I remember my father giving me a 100,000 peso note to buy an ice cream. I thought I was rich, until I used it up on a couple of ice cream cones......

In any case, this was a crazy time there- there was a core of militants intent on gaining American clothes and documents for some nefarious purpose. There were kidnappings, break-ins and fires. One day, when my mother was home alone with my little sister, two guys tried to jimmy the locks on our front door. My poor mom told them in her best broken Spanish to leave her alone. They laughed at her from behind the door and kept trying to work the lock......but they stopped laughing when a shotgun blast came through the window. My father left my mom with a shotgun ready and some basic instruction on how to shoot it. It worked.

We left soon after that, but I loved my time in Argentina and hope to come back one day soon. What is interesting to me is that some of the things you write about happening today, I also remember from 1970.

Seriously though - don't sweat the assholes criticizing you for whatever reason. Keep the information and ideas coming. You are a good man.

Cheers,

Scott

Thanks for your support. There is a plan behind what he’s been doing since I first published my book, which he clearly sees as a threat to his retreat sales real estate business and (flawed in my opinion) survival theories.
I don’t do theories or assumptions here at “Surviving in Argentina”, I analyze what works and what doesn’t, and what other people have done or are currently doing in the real world.

Acasuso is a very nice neighborhood!
These days one of the finest and safest places to live in if you don’t take into account the gated private neighborhoods.
But the 70’s were hard years indeed, everyone here has a good idea because of what our parents told us and you occasionally talk to people that were “missing”, desaparecidos, and spent some time in some of the holes or police stations, tortured in case they had information. The lucky ones where released. The others…

When I was little I remember using the 10.000 Australes note. That bought you a plastic cup of Coke and sometimes a hot dog too.
There were no Coke cans in Argentina, or any other soda cans for that matter. Those were only available abroad and if you traveled to USA you usually brought a can of Coke and showed it around. It was a novelty.
Anything is a novelty in a country with no imports!

500.000 Australes was a lot of money for a kid back then.
If you had a 500.000 Australes note you could actually buy something you liked in a toy store.
I remember that for me it wasn’t a big deal, you just eliminated four zeros to know how much money you really had. That was much closer to the dollar exchange.
When they went to the new Peso currency I remember thinking, “Finally something that makes sense! They eliminated those worthless zeros!”
Kids are so innocent. :-) Man, I’m feeling old.

Those double barrels sure are simple to operate and the simplicity compensates for the lack of capacity when it comes to untrained people needing to defend themselves.
Better to take a few shooting lessons though.

History usually repeats itself, that’s why you see similarities. Hope things never end up like that in USA.
I hope people don’t have to start crossing out zeros in their heads for money to make sense.

Again, thanks for your support. Means a lot to know that my readers are backing me up.

FerFAL