Iguazu to Santa Cruz

The first of four twenty-hour-plus bus journeys within a fortnight was within Argentina – from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu and the Iguazu Falls there. It rained the Thursday evening we arrived and the skies remained overcast but the additional water only added to the experience: the Devil´s Throat inspired awe. Additionally, we saw a greater variety of wildlife than we have since Australia. Like the Perito Moreno glacier at the other end of this enormous country, photos don´t really do the place justice.

En route to Puerto Iguazu I had realised that its location afforded us the perfect opportunity of a side trip into Brazil before resuming our journey to a mid-June rendezvous with Julie in Peru. So it was that the day after visiting the falls, we embarked on an overnight coach for Rio. Accommodation costs were a nasty shock, so it was a pleasant relief that we were offered a sofa-bed for our (consequently lengthened) stay by Andrea and Eduardo. They also lent us bicycles and we rode to all the Rio sights – though didn´t go up Sugar Loaf as it was being recabled – as well as a few less touristy ones.
Eduardo proved a knowledgeable font of information about the minutiae of our experiences and drove us to a Samba Circle on our first night and a football match on our third. My Brazilian stay was further enhanced by the trying of several cachaças (30 Luas, Seleta, Pitú and Sao Paolo) and a vegetarian version of muqueca (usually made with caçao – young shark – but completed with mandioca instead) by chef Edu. Finally, I added 11 beers (Skol, Brahma, Bohemia and Bohemia Escura, Bavaria and Bavaria non-alcohol, Itaipava, Backer Trigo, Devassa, Antarctica and my favourite Xingu) to the list of those tried.
On Sunday 17th Edu got us to Rodoviaria Novo Rio just in time for the bus back to Foz do Iguaçu (the Brazilian side of the falls), from where we crossed into Cuidad del Este, before getting straight onto another bus for the six hour trip to the capital. The Paraguayan money we swapped our Brazilian Reals for reflected the fact that this is the second poorest country in South America: many notes were held together by sticky tape.
Asuncion is like other urban places we have been to on the continent, wires and flags abound in the streets, and there are a number of attractive colonial buildings. Another similarity was that the country went through a military dictatorship which tortured and murdered many of its own citizens. One pleasant difference was that there was a Plaza for the Disappeared, very close to the Palacio de Gobierno. In Brazil, Edu told us, there is never any mention of the victims of the military dictatorship and history is even being rewritten by some to suggest that the time was not so bad. Paraguay is ahead of its neighbour on that one.
On the third day in Asuncion, we came across a demonstration in front of the parliament. Workers, surrounded by hundreds of policemen, were protesting the planned appropriation of their retirement fund by the government. It afforded a good opportunity to practise our listening skills and take a few photos which were slightly different to the majority I have taken so far. Later, we came across a policeman browsing pirate DVDs, an image I would love to have captured.
We went to Aregua on the same day, just to see something beyond the capital, and that trip helped confirm that we were now in the part of the continent where we would encounter more indigenous peoples. The fact is that in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, the native population is largely invisible and that it is only now that we begin to see the colours and textures of the pre-Columbian population. Our dusty journey from Asuncion to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, at the end of the week has only reinforced this perception.

Hello Newcastle, goodbye Burnley.

In the course of researching an answer to a comment on one of my Sportingo pieces, I was surprised to see just how much Newcastle spend in comparison with other Premiership teams. They have the fifth highest wage-bill and have spent ridiculous amounts in the transfer market over the past 10 years. It is slightly gratifiying then to see that this has not bought them success. They are relegated with Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion from the Premiership and will be visitors at Vicarage Road next season. Thus my prediction that last year´s play-off winners would go straight back down again was proved wrong as Hull lost at home but finished in just-safe 17^th. Wolves and Birmingham won automatic promotion and Burnley won the play-off final against Sheffield United, preventing the latter “righting” that perceived Tevez-related wrong.

Vasco Boy

On Wednesday 13th May our Brazilian friend and host took us to Sao Januario for a Copa Brasil match. His (and my new) team, Vasco Da Gama, named for the Portugese navigator and still, as Edu explained, traditionally the Portugese community´s Rio team (there are four), was playing the first leg of the quarter-final against a team (Vitoria, from Bahia) in the division above. Vasco, who play in black and white, were relegated to the second tier for the first time ever last year and are hoping for an instant return, though this match was irrelevant to that campaign, which has just begun.

The first of Vasco´s goals arose from a careless error in the box by a Vitoria defender, pounced upon and slotted in from eight yards. Second was from a corner and the game was over by half-time. After the break and a non-alcoholic beer, a curling free-kick pretty much ended the tie but it was all wrapped up when a Vitoria defender handled a through ball and saw red for his effort. The resulting free-kick was smashed into the net and Vasco take a 4-0 lead north in a couple of weeks.The Vasco fans were livelier than in any English match, with jigs aplenty, particularly behind the goal. However, the stadium was less than capacity and there were very few opposing fans. I was able to join in with some of the chants and was happy to stand the whole of the second half (we had sat on the terrace for the first, and getting up and down was bothering my knees). The only surprise was the abuse heaped upon one or two of Vasco´s own players when they failed to add to the rout.

Winning end

After our 3-1 victory over Derby in our final game, WFC finished 13th in the table. Tommy Smith predictably retained his Player of the Season award, Grzegorz Rasiak won Goal of the Season while Lloyd Doyley was players` player. I texted Kerry to see if Joss wanted a season ticket for next year and my reply took the form of photo without text. A picture is worth 1000 words, they say, though in this case maybe just the one.

Horacio O. G. Gastelu, presente!

On Thursday 30^th April, Jun and I attended the “march” of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 32 years to the day after a handful first went to the square in front of the presidential palace (Casa Roasada) and were made to “circulate” rather than stand still, which resulted in them walking round the the “Piramide”, a tradition which has continued to this day.

The mothers, of course, are those whose children were “disappeared” (read “tortured and murdered”, often by being dropped still alive into the sea or adjoining river) during the Dirty War (also known as State Terrorism and sometimes “genocide” here) by the military junta between 1976 and 1983, which claimed somewhere betweeen nine thousand and thirty thousand Argentine lives. They still meet weekly in their white headscarves with the names of their disappeared on them and many – not only mothers – carry pictures too.

Not all of them meet, though. Three of the original founders were also disappeared soon after forming the group, which has influenced feminist and human-rights movements around the world. One of those founder`s remains are now buried under the pyramid in agreement with the idea of “nunca mas” (never again). Some mothers have died of natural causes without ever seeing justice ., some have stopped marches of resistance and – obviously – not all of the mothers of the disappeared from all over the country (the 9^th largest in terms of area in the world) can make it to Buenos Aires every week.

I spoke with a Madre, although it would be more accurate to describe the interaction as her talking to me. She told me some of the story of how her son, Horacio, and his girlfried Ada Victoria, were taken away in the middle of the night soon after he had been conscripted. I didn`t follow much more than that, to be honest (my Spanish needs work) but fortunately I was able to find details of the story in English. It turns out that Horacio was part of a group of revolutionay students that were decimated by their resistance.

The anniversary of the founding of the movement was marked with a free showing of a 2007 documentary, simply named Madres, which was shown at the closest cinema to the flat Jun and I are renting. We went early to ensure we`d get in but needn`t have. Political documentaries here are no more popular than anywhere else, even when they are free. Madres talked before the showing of “love, resistance and struggle” and one tellingly contrasted the solidarity of the group thirty years previously with the present day.

In homage to the truths spoken by Monty Python, the Mades have long since split. The “Founding line”, who were the sponsors of the film and whom the Madre I spoke to belonged to, are mostly concerned with finding and identifying remains and bringing perpetrators to justice whil the “Association” has taken on some of the perceived political ideals of their disappeared children and support a variety of political causes. The leader of the latter has courted controversy with her support for FARC and the attacks of September 11^th 2001 and is perhaps why my friend Lora has misgivings about the movement.

The documentary itself – introduced by the director – went beyond the disappeared and (as the name suggests) focussed on the lives of the mothers, one of whom has since passed away. Since there were no subtitles, we were both prone to losing concentration and focussing on images – ranging from Peronism to the Falklands and incorporating football. However, there was plenty to evok emotion and I had to get the tissues out when one of the mothers, interviewed in the Plaza, said “we want to know where our children are. Are they cold? Are they scared? Are they hungry? We are their mothers, we want to help them. Help us, please, help us.”

Ater the film ended, there were a few more words from Madres too, culminating in a chant that I was able to catch on to: “Presente ahora y siempre” This idea, that the disappeared – neither dead nor living – are now and always present, is a central tenet of the movement. I would like to end by saying that Horacio, too, is here now and always will be.

200 years that changed the world

Like this sort of video...

Dirty tricks

Walking between busts and statues in leafy Palermo after lunch, a guy was suddenly very close behind me and his female partner informed us that we had something "dirty" on us. Jun confirmed I had stuff all up the back of my T-shirt after I saw she had some sort of liquid on her backpack. The guy tried to usher me off the road as he produced a tissue but having previously read about this sort of ruse for light-fingered theft, we moved away from them before having to clean ourselves.

It may be one of the older tricks in the book (Lonely Planet), but I guess it still works sometimes otherwise people like these thirty-forty year olds wouldn`t still be trying it. This incident stands with the "pregnant" woman who undid Jun`s backpack in the street on our second day in the city (Jun felt something and told me to check), as the closest we`ve come to hassle. Though I was thorougly pissed off with having to walk around with what Jun rekons is foundation cream on my clothes for the rest of this afternoon, at least I wasn`t fooled this time...

Celtic and Rangers in the Premiership? Goodbye England.

The addition of the Old Firm to the Premiership is a ridiculously backward notion that threatens England`s chances of ever again lifting the World Cup or even winning the European Championship for the first time.

Recently the idea that the two Glasgow clubs, Celtic and Rangers, could join the English Premier League has been raised again. It is an idea whose time has come and gone, but still one that is resurrected evey couple of years when the Premiership is searching for a form of change for change`s sake.

The idea is so outdated as to be embarrassing, largely because it is completely out of tune with today`s political realities. In addition, it could result in the disappearence of the English national football team (as well as those of the other 3 home nations).

Politically, the failure of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (and more recently the Lisbon Treaty) to receive approval from voters in certain European states are undoubtedly mere blips on the road to greater integration. The suggestion that the Old Firm join England goes against this trend.

More significantly, the Scottish Parliament is controlled by the Scottish National Party – committed to independence north of the border – while the Conservatives look highly likely to win the 2010 UK general election and simultaneously seem unlikely to improve on their current number of Scottish MPs (1 out of a possible 59).

The tension caused by an English right-wing party ruling a left-wing Scotland with no support there will only increase the strength of support for Scottish independence. There was a similar problem during Margaret Thatcher`s heyday, but at that time, Scottish constitutents were more significantly over-represented in Westminster (the “West Lothian question”).

Whether or not Scottish independence comes to pass within the next five to ten years, including Rangers and Celtic in the Sky-Setanta-Playstation-Coca Cola-Premiership can only be harmful for prospects of the future existence of an England team. At the moment, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have national teams despite the fact that they are part of one political state: the United Kingdom.

There are already many European FA voices opposing this situation (it is not unrelated that there is no GBR Olympic football team and the 2012 London Olympics will not see Englishmen playing our national sport). If the Old Firm join England`s league(s), it can only strengthen the argument that the home countries should lose their preferential status.

So, in other words, the already long odds on any future international success by “England” would lengthen to infinity with their non-existence. The Old Firm`s integration into English football is a proposal most likely to be supported by the richest “English” clubs (owned by Russians and Americans – hardly nations with great footballing histories), which will harm the national sides.

Moreover, why any Premiership team outside the G4 would want the Scottish teams in their league is also a mystery. As Motherwell chairman John Boyle recently said, “Turkeys don`t vote for Christmas”. Bolton`s chairman, Phil Gartside, sees a 36-team Premiership as the way forward. I disagree.

Gordon Strachan probably got it right a year and a half ago or so when he predicted a European league that included Celtic and Rangers. Football can not buck international trends and since European Union labour law has an important impact on the beautiful game, there is no reason to suggest that its meta-politics do not.

I hope that the G4 and Old Firm will float off into a European “super-league” that will prosper for a decade or so then suffer the ignominy of failure based on a fatal combination of distance and ennui. Hopefully the English Football League will have reorganised strongly enough by then to refuse the G4 back into the top tier and – if they are allowed reentry at all – they should start where United FC and AFC Wimbledon did – in the tenth tier of English football or below, with the most minor of the pantheon.

In the meantime, the Football League could change its laws to make the game fairer and more beneficial to the nation it is supposed to serve. A cap on player wages, protection from foreign ownership, a minimum number of home-grown players and a fairer distribution of TV money would be a good start.