To all the migrants of the world. It is now a few minutes past midnight and the night has come to a near-standstill. So many things to do in such a short time! However, whenever evening screeches to a near-halt, I have discovered it to be the best time to peer into the future. How many times…
Month: August 2007
The Destroying Angel mushroom
Una planta que ha contaminado las relaciones entre Argentina y Uruguay
Hay varias opiniones a favor y en contra de la pastera que costará 1,2 mil millones y que están construyendo en la orilla del río Uruguay en frente de la ciudad argentina de Gualeguaychú. Ninguna otra planta como ésta, que fue construida por la compañía finlandesa Botnia y será puesta en marcha en estos días,…
Argentinean roots: The Immigrant Hotel of Buenos Aires
If you want to know where one of the places Argentineans are from, visit the Immigrant Hotel Museum. Here’s a picture of some of the baggages and belongings immigrants brought from Europe to Argentinean shores. In the 1914 census, 2.391 million people, or 30.3% of the total population of 7.885 million, were foreigners. In Buenos…
Pre-fall blues or where happiness lives
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. William Blake (1757-1827) Of all the seasons that pass over the Nordic region, possibly fall is the most magical. But what makes it stand out from the rest? Is it the pitch-darkness? Is it the vast universe above and its peppered celestial inhabitants…
A pulp mill that has polluted relations between Argentina and Uruguay
There are many arguments for and against a $1.2 billion pulp mill being built on the shores of the Uruguay River right across the Argentinean city of Gualeguaychú. The plant, which is being build by the Finnish company Botnia and will become operational at the end of August or early September, has done more damage…
On the road with Varig Airlines
After four weeks on the road I’m back to where I started the journey to Argentina. Believe it or not, the flight from Buenos Aires, which includes brief stopovers at São Paulo and Frankurt, took about 48 hours to make it to the doorsteps of my home in Finland! The odyssey started Saturday at 4:30am,…
All good things in Argentina come to an end
Time flies and all good things come to an end in Argentina as well. But the ending this country had after it was ruled by the last military regime (1976-83), the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín (1983-89), which ended with hyperinflation, and another character Carlos Menem (1989-1999) leaves a lot to be desired. Menem privatized almost…