NIMBY, BANANA

I´ve come across a couple of acronyms I didn´t know before. Just in time. Because I didn´t know how to express my feelings in English for the imminent installation of the huge contaminant pulp mill just in front of my city.

My beloved Buenos Aires

The acronyms simply flew to me yesterday. In a lovely afternoon with some American friends and while talking under the sweet and thick breeze that gives the name to the city, I discovered "NIMBY".
Very much of a syntheses... although not enough...
I understand that NIMBY has been used in some radical non rational oppositions in the past

but picture this:

The Río de La Plata bathes my town (some people call it the Paris of South America) and the worldwide known beautiful Uruguayan beaches. We are all simple people living in both sides of a Sweet Sea (very accurate and original name for the river). In addition the Río de La Plata sits on one of the biggest water reservoirs of the world, the Guaraní Aquifer. No piranhas.

So, are there any ingredients for a recipe for a disaster? Yes:

1. Careless politicians.
2. Imported sharks.

The results? Pulp mills and their poisoning byproducts. Companies that don´t even dare installing these kind of kraft processes in their home countries anymore, that had even been condemned and evicted for doing so (ENCE) are here to shark out the region. (Pontevedra, Spain-video1-sp Pontevedra, Spain-video2-sp)

Then this morning I found the acronym "BANANA". Well, that says it all for me.

Build Absolutely Nothing like a pulp mill Anywhere Near Anyone

please take a few minutes to see the following video
(Spanish language with English subtitles)

Both Argentina and Uruguay are big leaders in the soccer (football/fútbol) leagues.

Maybe it´s time we play other game with the same passion.
Less banana-republics and more BANANA leaders

buenos airesargentina

ENCE

Hace varios meses me tomé el trabajo de investigar en Internet la información que deliberadamente se ocultaba a la opinión pública. En mi post del 27/Mayo/07 dibujé el mapa con los datos que encontré. Hoy se pone a la luz oficialmente que el 16/Enero/08 comienzan las obras.

Se puede leer bajo el título "Aval uruguayo para la instalación de ENCE en Colonia" -La Nación, 15/12/07- lo que en verdad se debería ser "Aval del gobierno uruguayo a la empresa ENCE para la construcción de una pastera frente a Buenos Aires".

Porteños, no lo tomemos a la ligera, la vamos a tener
frente a nuestras narices, literalmente.

Ence es una empresa española que ya fue condenada en su propio país, debiendo asumir la condena de 6 de sus directivos por delito ecológico, dos delitos continuados de daños y cuatro faltas contra las personas en relación con la actividad contaminante de sus factorías sólo en Pontevedra.

Y el daño no es reversible, vuelvo a publicar el mapa, saquen sus conclusiones...

Tato & Piazzolla

Tato Bores -&- Astor Piazzolla

The winds

There I was on a shiny morning trying to fix the wiring on top of the old windmill. Kinda difficult job to do without the right tools and one leg hanging out the ladder. I wasn´t doing much of a success and I decided to call the molinero.

- "Yeah 99, you got to bring the man in. That´s a work for a specialist", said Negrita
- "Hi there", I greeted the cow
- "Come down while he brings the parts. There´s still some water in the trough. We can wait together. I don´t have much to do anyway"

She´s always right so I stepped down trying to catch the signal on my cellphone. The molinero, is always ready to solve emergencies.

- "That was a hell of a Northern wind last night", she continued, "no wonder the windmill broke. It must have been spinning like a maniac. Did you check the pump pole and the vanes?"
- "Yeah, they´re ok"
-"Did you hear the neighbors are planting soy? They got rid of some of my friends to use the land for crops"
- "I saw it. What a pity"
- "They evicted some of my fellas like many other ranchers are doing...", she said and I sensed some sadness in her moos.
- "It´s not good soil for crops. It´s grassland, cattle heaven.", I said trying to show her my sympathy for her loss.
- "Actually with all the craziness for biodiesel and the prices of corn skyrocketing who could blame them? I remember tales that my mother told me about the times in which there weren´t even fences in these lands"
- "No fences?"
- "Yeah. Cows were free to look for the clovers anywhere they wanted. It was after the conquistadores brought them from Spain and let them reproduce wildly. Would you believe that my great great grandmother had horns? Not exactly a beauty", and she blinked at me in her Angus pride.
- "I didn´t know"
- "Well, the breeding came afterwards and we adapted to the Pampas environment. What are we facing now? Stock markets define ruminant territories and soy is King. Green deserts with no job for gauchos and no place for diversity. Do you realize that exporting grain is also a hidden way of exporting water?"

She left me speechless. But I felt I had to comfort her so I mumbled, "there´s always going to be grass for you here..."
- "Thanks, I know. Sorry, but when the Northern wind enters so powerful and careless my brain spins like the windmill and I can´t avoid seeing the big picture. I smell it. I can´t close my nostrils...", she said and belched. "Hey, there´s the molinero coming!"
- "I´ll take care Negrita, let´s see what he can do to fix the problem... see you later, chau"
- "Chau 99, namasté"

I met the molinero at the gate and he was smiling. Happy to know that the cows needed his services. There are not many of those calls lately and he´s thinking in moving to another town. Far West, where there is still some cattle.