Kyle Berg

I have to revise my previous comments about the director of our school. After thinking about it some more, this was a poignant example of the Argentine Work Ethic–or the lack thereof. She has some issues, but also had reason to snap at the professors.

We didn´t have electricity on Wednesday at the school. But there were students on all 4 floors waiting for their professors to ascend the “dangerous” spiral staircase to teach their respective classes. It must have been our thirst for knowlege that compelled us to risk life and limb in order reach our classrooms. Sure it was a little dark, but it wasn´t reason enough for the professors to sit on the first floor and complain, thus depriving us of 40 minutes of prepaid classes.

One would think that after the Crisis of 2001, the Argentines would have more motivation to work hard. But such is not the case. Here they will lie about being sick to take extra time off or simply not show up for a Thursday and Friday in order to take a long holiday. As seen on Wednesday, they will also protest at the slightest thing and find a reason to avoid working. Just like in Mexico City, there are protests daily for any reason under the sun.

Because of the American work ethic and expectations on the jobsite, I can´t even begin to comprehend this attitude. Pull a stunt like this in Europe or the U.S. and you can kiss your job goodbye. My point of view also comes from the perspective of hope and optimism. I believe that for the most part, life will be better for my children and that we have unlimited opportunities available to us. Here is attitude is 180 degrees in the other direction. There is pessimism and a belief that life will be more difficult for their progeny.

Even as I write this, my Argentine friend with whom I´m chatting is telling me the rest of the world doesn´t want South America to succeed. Somehow it´s to our advantage that they remain poor or without hope. This is a pernicious form of envy disguised as public debate and intellectual thought. It´s also a platform on which political psychos such as Hugo Chavez base their campaigns.** I´m not going to even try to explain the futility and economic ignorance involved with such thinking. Maybe it´s unfair that we have the Banana Republic stereotype of Latin America. But all stereotypes are based on a lot of truth.

**Chavez is quite popular here and apparantly a hero in much of SA. People at my church told me Chavez is good friends with a church leader and is a professed Christian. They subsequently draw a parallel between George W. Bush´s alleged faith and equate our view of him to theirs of Chavez. My intellect is not capable of grasping this.