Today is a special for all of Argentina. A day when food, economics, legend and superstition joyfully blend. Every 29th of the month, noquis (gnocchi) are eaten. It is pretty much the special of the day everywhere. There are a few tales about it, but what one does is have a plate of gnocchi, put some money underneath it, and make 3 wishes. The idea is that the 29th is when one is most poor (right before payday), and that hopefully money will soon increase and wishes fulfilled. There is also a tale about this originating in Italy, and an Argentinian reference to government workers as 'gnocchi' (who did not work but just came to pick up their cheques on the 29th).
The aim for lunch today was therefore to find a place that was open (not entirely that easy on a Sunday), and served gnocci. Apparently the place I went to - La Puerto Rico - even threw in a tango show to boot. I have done precious little that is expected of a tourist in Buenos Aires, but I am now packing it all the essentials in. I met a woman at the restaurant who I have carralled for dinner on Tuesday, to fulfill the Red Meat portion of the trip. This stuff is apparently de rigueur here, but the parrilladas (BBQ) dinners here come only as dinner for two.
Argentinians must eat however more gnocchi than they admit, because inflation is really rampant here. I have never experienced serious inflation, but it is like being taken for ransom. For example, the taxi ride with a particular company to the airport (my current item of travel admin). Books and review-type websites state $88 - a price of the past 2 years. One month ago, on the company's website, it was $133. Today, it is $160. Another example - the Monday night tango show I am going to tomorrow at Centro Cultural Jorge Borges. When I asked the price for that same show one month ago, the ticket was $80. Today it is $100. Essentially, for any price listed on a current website for any tourist-oriented venue or activity, add another 10 pesos at least, to up to double the amount, at the cash register. The only items that are cheap and stable are public transport and food - non-luxury items.
Just as the Falklands/Malvinas War was a way for the military junta to distract the populace from other concerns, so too does this and the YPF expropriation for the current government, distracting everyone from the day-to-day issue of run-away inflation. From a letter to the editor, sent in by Ana Justo of Belgrano, in yesterday's Buenos Aires Herald:
"I would like to share with your readers the following quotation from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
'Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervour, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.' "
However, just as the Malvinas Islands are part of the Argentinian map, I think this map does not show the UK existing at all. So I'm not sure if they would register a comment or a text coming from the English cultural realm.
One last unrelated note: it is totally cold here now and I admit to buying and wearing a winter coat. It was the only thing I liked in the store, and of all possible words, its name is 'Vancouver'. Essentially it went from 27 to 12 degrees C, from too hot to too cold. Mitts, toques, scarves, turtleneck sweaters, furry boots and big coats are out in full blast out there. 'Room temperature' was completely bypassed, as if this was a temperature exclusively for the indoors ...
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