Letter for Hiwa

24th of March, 2010.

Today Argentina commemorated the victims of the dictatorship (1976-1982); the 30.000 deaths and dissapeared and to say once again: NEVER MORE.
Together with today´s edition of CLARIN every reader got a copy of the Argentine Constitution. Just to reflect and think how unevident democracy actually is. What would happen today if me, you, one of your familymembers would resist to government policy today? Would you hide? Help others? Go away? Would you defend your ideals ?
Interesting questions for a sunny wednesday afternoon.

Me, I took a stroll to San Telmo and sat down with the newspaper in one of my oldskool favourite bars, called, La Federal. It´s a typical oldstyle porteño cafe with wooden bar, stained glass lamps and yes, nowadays overpriced food. Anyway, I sat down to write a letter to my friend Hiwa K , about his project named the CHIGAGO BOYS. Its an artistic installation about the influence of (thought and policy) by this worldfamous economist thinktank of the University of Chigago. (http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/06/edgware_road.html)

Back then in the 70´s, they advised Pinochet in Chile, Banzer in Bolivia and even Videla in Argentina, on their economic policies. How to make a succes out of their military dictatorships.
Neoliberalism was born. And this so called Market Fundamentalism was installed in almost every Latin American nation, later on (late ´80s) more known as the ´Washington Consensus´.
The irony is that it wasn´t ´consensed´at all. It was a unilateral policiy of Washington towards its backgarden (Latin America) to say: you will eat this tough cookie of reforms, otherwise there is no money wired from the WorldBank or IMF to keep your country moving...
The mantra was: privatize, liberalize and deregulate. Markets were opened. National companies were sold. Investments on education and healthcare were cut. Tax systems were reformed and the Foreign Debts were doubled. After World War 2, the Americans understood that you have to control the World´s main food suppliers (read Argentina, Brazil, Mexico)! Being hungry is not funny.

Anyway, everybody knows how this ferrytale ended in Argentina´s downfall in 2001. We know that a group of far a way technocrats cannot lead and install unilateral reforms for a whole subcontinent as if its countries can be compared like apples with pears! Mayor economists like Stiglitz and others, openly adverted to the risks of such an endeavour.
But why am I mentioning all this. Chigago Boys and the dictatorship?
Because it´s good to know and to never forget that those reforms, that meant a 180 makeover of a whole society from the downbottom til its end, could never have taken place without the killing and torturing of its main resistors: intellectuals, members of tradeunions, students and working people. They didn´t agree with this 180 makeover. They resisted. They voted against it. They wrote articles. Reparted newspapers. Gathered in political unions. Protested out loud in the streets. Debated about the future of their countries. And yes: they got arrested, tortured, their babies were taken away, and many of them got killed. Were thrown out of a plane. Or were burried like NN (No Name) in hidden mass graves.

So, back again with my coffee in La Federal, I wrote my friend Hiwa how proud I was of him to make this concept part of his installation. How important it is, specially a day like today how grateful we should be to live in democracy. To be free to resist. To talk. To protest. To sing out loud our colors and our dreams. And that we should not forget those people who straightned that path up for us.

Dear Hiwa, I am proud of you, and send you my warmest thoughts from Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Information about ´The Chigago Boys´ project: http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/06/edgware_road.html

Hello from Buenos Aires

Hi! I am Alex! Welcome to my page!
This is a little blog about my life in Buenos Aires!
I am a Dutch documentarymaker and photographer,
I studied International Relations at the University of Amsterdam
and recently decided to make my big move to Latin America!

I see film and documentary as a reflection of the human condition and I follow my personal urge and curiosity when I decide to work on a film. I do believe its good stuff to document history, political and social processes of our times, as a small but worthy contribution to what I call a collective memory.

As a side kick, I am a daily Bikram Yoga practicioner and believe in the simple saying ´less is more´!

If you want to contact me, for whatever, you can do so at: iamalex.com@gmail.com

Besos,
Alex