Mariano Ferreyra, presente

24 March 2011 marks a 35^th anniversary of the military coup in Argentina. It is now a remembrance day throughout the country and a public holiday. The biggest celebrations, organised by human rights activists, took part in central Buenos Aires on Plaza de Mayo. This is a traditional place for demonstrations and closely linked with the protests against military dictatorship through Madres de Plaza de Mayo. I wrote about them in one of the earlier posts.

I went to the square to take pictures for my article about Madres. It turned out they attended a separate event in another part of the city, but I did not regret missing it at all. What I saw on the square instead was quite a remarkable experience, one I am still trying to comprehend. Plaza de Mayo, which has a capacity similar to Trafalgar Square in London, was full of people – they were waving flags, shouting slogans, banging drums, but also eating hot dogs or sipping mate (traditional tea) on the pavement. It felt the day was important and it was obvious that many came especially for the occasion from outside of Buenos Aires.

Suddenly a group of youths with covered faces started banging thick sticks against a tall fence protecting the presidential palace. They seemed enraged. I got there quickly with my camera expecting trouble. My initial war-correspondent type of excitement luckily went away quite quickly after seeing that the police on the other side of the fence was observing the protesters with calm. This was just a show-off, but directed my attention to the manner in which people expressed themselves that day. In Poland, an event of this type would certainly start with a mass celebrated by the archbishop and attended by important dignitaries. Names of the regime victims would be read aloud. After the service people would march in silence with expressions of grief on their faces – celebrating the martyrdom of the departed. How is it done in Buenos Aires? Take a look by yourselves. 

The second interesting thing was the revolutionary flavour of the event. There were plenty flags with Che Guevara, occasional portrait of Lenin and lots of leftist slogans from loudspeakers – justice for workers, no to capitalist exploitation, no to the imperialist assault on Libya, etc. For many on the square the fight for justice is still on. They even has modern-day martyrs – Labourer’s Party (Partido Obrero) were remembering the figure of Mariano Ferreyra, who was shot dead in October last year during a protest against poor treatment of railway contract workers. You can hear the song about him in the clip above and see his face on the poster, below.

Short supply of rational thinking

I was prompted to write this post following the great panic spreading worldwide after the explosions in the nuclear facility in Fukushima – panic that was absolutely unfounded if you happen to live outside Japan, let alone in Europe. That is what scientist say and what data indicates, but the opposite to what people generally believe in and how they behave.

A few years back I read a book called “Risk – The Science and Politics of Fear” (by Dan Gardner), which explains why people tend to worry about events with low likelihood of harming them directly (terrorism, nuclear leak, plane crash) and ignore far more likely reasons to worry such as strokes, obesity or lung cancer. It also explains why sound data alleviating our concerns does not work as expected, as opposed to even scarce evidence confirming our fears. All explanations in the book are based on quality behavioural research. I am not going to explain any of this in detail, but will give you a few highlights: 

·        In the age of information overflow our reactions, as those of our ancestors hunting in the African savannah, are driven more by our gut (hunch, instincts, emotions) than our brain. It means that our modern-day ability of cool analysis is too often overshadowed by the primal survival instinct. In addition, on the gut level, we do not differentiate very well between the real and perceived danger. This is a very simplified explanation, but basically means that e.g. the level of how safe one feels may decrease after hearing about an assault on a shop keeper in a completely different area of the town. Similarly, our fear of flying will increase after hearing about a plane crash in another country. Same happens now in relation to Fukushima – explosion caused by an earthquake in Japan prompts people in Germany to close their own reactors. There is no direct relation between both, but the gut will always win the battle with the brain.

·        The second problem is the amount of information we receive from different sources these days. In order to find its way to us it has to stand out, surprise, even better - shock. Mundane everyday life stories just do not get through. This is hardly news to you - everyone knows that media exaggerates. Not many realise however how it impacts our daily lives – we simply worry and fear too much because of things that do not really concern us. This is why e.g. people think that the world is full of conflicts, whereas it has never been safer to live on planet earth.

·       The third factor is how the information (data) is presented to us. This is a direct consequence of the point above – news has to be interesting. It is also because journalists are people – their gut usually beats the brain. This is my example of what we can often see in the news. Headline states that “Eating eggs increases the risk of cancer three times”. What it may really mean is:

-       Risk increases from 0.034% to 0.1% or a similar absurdly small number;

-       This happens only if you eat more than 10 eggs per day; and

-       The experiment was conducted on a group of 50-year-old obese men. 

-         What we remember from the above is usually the headline – we do not have time to read the detail. Besides, our gut is already scared of the information in the headline, so it will be likely to ignore the evidence that does not support it. After all, if you live in a savannah and you detect even a slightest threat of a lion coming to kill you, you will not think twice, but run.

Coming back to modern live: read the data, not the headlines; analyse calmly and… relax. 

Buena onda en Buenos Aires

Buena onda means good vibe and is often used by Argentinians to describe an ambience in a bar or club. After having lived in Buenos Aires for more than two months now, I am happy to extend this term to describe the whole city – very liveable, with excellent night life and effortlessly cool.

BA has several quite distinct neighbourhoods (barrios) with something for everyone:

Puerto Madero, located in the old docks, is the most modern part of the city with new high rise condominiums, red brick warehouses converted into offices or restaurants and a nearby natural reserve.

Microcentro is the commercial heart of BA with plenty of offices, government buildings, shops, ubiquitous street vendors and lots of noise – particularly on what Argentinians consider to be the widest avenue in the world (9 de julio).

San Telmo is artistic, unpretentious and affordable.

Recoleta is a synonym of posh and could easily be confused with some barrios of Madrid or Paris.

Boca on the other hand is very working class – home to milongas (tango venues), picturesque Caminito street with colourful houses and Boca Juniors’ football stadium, tastily named La Bombonera (Chocolate Box).

Last, but not least - Palermo. It is a green haven of the city with vast parks, all kinds of shops, plenty of trendy clubs and boutiques, good restaurants and all other good stuff that makes it great to live, rest and have fun.

Palermo, particularly its parts called Soho and Hollywood, is also the best place to go out at night – this is where the city’s buena onda is at its best. Night life in BA is usually divided into three stages: dining, socialising in bars and dancing. This is hardly different to, say, Mediterranean cities, or even places like London, but BA has its own specific pace.

1.     Dining. Porteños, as residents of BA are known as, go to restaurants at 9pm the earliest, but you can usually have dinner even until 1am. Same goes even for coffee – Starbuck’s stays open past midnight, whereas e.g. in London you are politely asked to leave just after 9pm. Typical dinner would comprise a tasty steak (asado) with wine, pizza with bear or empanadas. By the way, both Argentinian steaks and pizzas are probably the best in the world, as well as reasonably priced.

2.   Socialising in bars. After dinner, usually around midnight, porteños hit the nearby bars. Bars here are usually uniquely and creatively decorated, particularly the secret ones. These are bars with no signs outside – you just need to know where to go. One of the ones I have been to is entered via a red telephone box located next to a trendy boutique – you need to dial a special number and only then the door opens

3.   Dancing. There is no point in going to a proper disco (boliche) before 2am, unless for a drink. Going after 4am is however not a good idea either as many of them close the doors for new entrants at that time. DJs usually play international dance music, but some venues focus on more Latin genres such as salsa or reggaeton. The great thing is that there are usually no stupidly rigid dress codes, but people are fashion conscious and usually dress trendy.

I mentioned earlier that Buenos Aires is an effortlessly cool city; I will now briefly explain why. One of the most important attributes of being cool is not trying too hard and the night life in BA is just that – bars are creatively decorated, but not over the top; people do not overdress (like e.g. girls in London) when they go out but still manage to dress well; secret bars are cool, but not elitist or pretentious; people know how to party but usually take it easy and focus on having good time, etc. The mixture of all the above makes Buenos Aires the most effortlessly cool city in the world, period. 

The world that stayed with me

Dining in style with K on top of Dar es Salaam

Evening jazz in Philadelphia with R&N in the rhythm of Malbec

Mariachi, rooster fight and mole with E in Puebla with a full impact of jet lag

Fruit eating session in Singapore with P

Driving across Sicily with F

Rocking in Vilnius with crazy Lithuanian crew

Almost sky-diving with F near Strasbourg, saved by the rain

Lunatic mountain biking with M near Cusco - no breath, just bruises

Trekking in Pyrenees followed by wine and cheese in Toulouse with M&D

Glimpse of Kilimanjaro from the hotel roof in Moshi with A&J&K

Sleepless night and awesome food in windy Hong Kong with T

Nude beach with W near Valencia 

Wandering the streets of Edinburgh with M&G&L after the ghost show

Team meetings in the middle of the street in Amsterdam with E&K&J&J

Chinese food in Warsaw with O, special.

Cruising in M’s Subaru Impreza to the beats of Linkin Park in Nairobi with J&K

Lazy times and huge masseuse in Turkish bath in Istanbul with K

Visiting Skopje castle with I&M

Drinking young Bordeaux on the stairs of Sacre Coeur in Paris with Q

London, Lisbon – where do I start?

Playing board games and sipping mate in Buenos Aires with M&M&P…

These may just be (a small sample of my) memories, but I know one thing - I am who I am because of you.