Happy New Year I guess

Like most things, I don't really like the New Year because I see it not as another opportunity, a new beginning, but more as something that marks the end of another wasted year. I think of all the things I didn't do or the good times I had and think, wow, that will never happen again. I'm such a Debbie. Why do I always have to be so damn nostalgic? It's a gift and a curse. Anyway, close it out with this, it's much easier to say things through a room full of scary english guys with questionable dental hygiene:

Craigslist: Guitar Lessons

http://buenosaires.es.craigslist.org/act/2130348324.html
Fecha: 2010-12-27, 12:59AM ARST
trade your guitar talents i teach your english

its a trade

___________

Ehhhh . . . Ummmmm . . . errrrr . . . so, the poster of this ad is offering to teach the English? On a different note, I like the directness of the ad, no pussyfooting around. Subject line has all the information and BOOM, the body just reinforces the critical point, no punctuation necessary thank you very much.

Come Visit Stefan Picture of the Day

I live across from the Palestinian Embassy. I originally was going to say that we go buy some cheap booze, get drunk on my rooftop terraza (which I have never actually seen because I think someone lost the key) and with the excess alcohol make some nice molotov cocktails to toss over and turn my block into the Gaza Strip. That was what I was originally going to say. Now that I recently discovered a firework store a few blocks from my house I think it will probably be a much better idea to go there for the explosives, really do some damage and stir things up, bring the Middle East to us.

Note that they don't really open their windows to the daylight. Clearly we are going to need something stronger than bottle rockets: insert video of shooting bottle rockets out of wiffleball bat here (no video exists on youtube, has no one else ever done that?)

Food for thought

I don't think we realize how much of America is exported and reproduced around the world in a very formulaic way. My example today, on December 30th, 2010 is reality tv in Argentina.

This is a picture of the host of "Bailando 2010" which is basically "You Think You can Dance." Pretty much the identical twin of that asshole Ryan Seacrest who if I had a list of people to punch in the face if I ever saw them at a bar, he would be on it. Along with Dennis and Callahan, the NBA, French people, and whatever guy at the bar who is drinking a vodka cranberry. (I don't actually think I would punch any of the aforementioned people in the face but at the moment I can't think of any of the people who I actually would.)

Argentinean host:

 Ryan gayboy Seacrest:

Example 2: Talento Argentino. I don't think this one is any secret because every tv show like it follows the formula but I figured I'd show it anyway. It's the exact same set up as American Idol with the girl being the nicest, the guy on the right the asshole and the guy on the left kind of like the mediator more friendly type but in this case not black because they don't really exist in Argentina.):

American Idol:

Talento Argentino:

I'd give this post about a 9.5 out of 10 on the lame scale.

Música

Just got back from Christmas a couple days ago trying to get back into the swing of things but I've been having stomach pains from something I ate or drank . . . or I could just be pregnant, probably pregnant. Anyway back to my bread and butter, just throw up a Spanish song. Went with another duet, I'm dominating with these duets.

ps. Does anyone differentiate between Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias? I kind of always knew but not until recently did I concretely come to the realization that they are different people. I kind of just interchanged them before/never really thought about how they are different people.

The Bible Game comes to life

Except without Ruth always winning.

I am going to start this with a short list of things that are impossible:
1) Not peeing in the shower.
2) Starting a law & order episode halfway through because there is no way to know what is going on.
3) Chewing big league chew without swallowing it because it just tastes so good.

I consider trying to describe the experience of going to Tierra Santa up there with these things.

I went with my friend Maggie and going to the Park was not just a good decision but a great decision. Double period

Parque Tierra Santa is the world's first ever religious theme park. It's a town modeled after Jerusalem and completely lived up to every expectation I had. I believe it is made to look as it did during the time of Jesus. (In my mind it could also be present day, I kind of picture Jerusalem as a place that isn't allowed to change, it's just stuck in a 2,000 year and counting time warp).

Let's just say getting to the park was an adventure. That we were lost and then we were found.

Instead of trying to explain Tierra Santa and since I am already in a list making mode, I think I am just going do a top 12 of the park (could not for the life of me narrow it down to 10), more or less in order but it's kinda a pain in the ass to add and remove pictures, hence the kind of in order.

12. Calvario (that's the Spanish name, not sure what mountain it is referring to in English) Mount of Olives?

11. This palm tree with disco lights under it.

10. Jesus preaching peace.

 

9. Even the cleaning guy had to dress the part. Word to the wise: there are no short cuts when it comes to recreating a town from 2,000 years ago, it's a team effort.

8. This donkey and really budget camel, focus on the really budget camel.

I feel like it was made to be a dinosaur for Jurassic Park but got cut. Poor guy. Or maybe this is the camel before evolution. See what I did there? . . . Inject controversy into the blog . . . . Check.

PS. This camel also always seems to be paired with a donkey. In this case it seems there must have been some type of disagreement or unsavory discussion between the two.


7. This beer coozy on the table at the local pizzeria in Jerusalem is designed to keep a liter of cerveza cold for long periods of time. I honestly have not seen this outside the city walls but it is brilliant. Jesus is playing Egyptian Ratscrew while the rest of us are playing Go Fish, he's always 10 steps ahead.

You also probably have no idea what I am referring to. It's the big brown thing in the middle of the table. And you also probably didn't get that last joke, deal with it.


6. Every now and again I am walking down the street and I see someone and I think, "that's the argentine version of _____" it's like if someone was reborn as an argentine that is what they would look like.

This clearly would be Joe if he was born 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. Sidenote scary thought: if Joe was born 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem could you imagine if he was mistaken for Jesus?

5. This artfully placed loaf of bread. I was initially going to say tastefully placed but I'm not a huge fan of puns.

4. No need to gather two of every kind Noah, it's just a waterpark outside of the city walls.

3. . . . Speaking of Noah: Arca de Noe Restaurant:

This is not an actual picture of the restaurant due to the fact that I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant. It's just a random building in the town. Probably a brothel.

They served beer at the restaurant. However, it was quickly brought to my attention that wine would have been a much more appropriate purchase. Did beer even exist 2,000 years ago?

This miniature glass mug prompted me to try and explain the concept of Little Andy. That reaction seems about right for the subject matter.

Your guess is as good as mine.

2. The Resurrection was a clear number 2 for me. It did not have a shot at the number 1 spot, but all in all not too shabby. A couple points off for the resurrection due to the fact that it started about 8 minutes behind schedule and  I really had to go pee from the beer and did not have a chance to use my bathroom break. Also major points for the song choice.

That Jesus is over 60 feet tall and it rotates.

1. Coming it at number 1 and there was little doubt in my mind that this would be a highlight would have to be the Creation. Does anyone remember the voice over in the Bible Game challenge game 7 Days where you shoot the little gold balls around the blackness? That voice was so freaky. We used turn off all the lights in the room, plug in the surround sound and turn the subwoofer all the way up in an effort to capture how epic the voice of the creation was. I now realize what we were trying to do was create the atmosphere of The Creation at Parque Tierra Santa. I feel like only those who climbed Jacob's Ladder, ran through the Red Sea while jamming to this Bible Game classic, brought down the Tower of Babel, received the Wrath of God and was forced by that way-to-cheerful host to Do Unto Others can fully appreciate this.

(I know that the video is 4 minutes long but cut me a little slack, it's the creation of the world. It took 7 days, and I was able to edit it down to 4 minutes.)


And that's all I have to say about that.  I'm running out the door right now to go to Junin to spend Christmas with Emanuel's family. I'm pretty sure we get to shoot one of his uncle's cows for dinner. My mom also sent me Red Sox and Patriots boxers and silly bandz, I'll be sure to model them after I get back. Probably should do it before because I'm afraid that cow I shoot will go straight to my thighs.

A moment on the lips forever on the hips. Merry Christmas.

Come Visit Stefan Picture of the Day

We can go to the Kilkenny Irish Pub & Restaurant where all the beer is German and they have food since 12 to 4. Wait, what?

Does being able to recognize these things get you any where in the real world?

Maybe if I was a lawyer, a damn good lawyer. These are a pair of copy cat beer commercials. When I heard this Argentinean one the first time I knew something sounded familiar and I put on my Colombo cap and lit my cigar and discovered that these beer commercials both use the same song. Coincidence?? I think not. Probably owned by the same company.





2 things:
- I bet the first one is at least owned by a huge beer company that sends beer all over the world and that that was a generic commercial that they use in all countries because all they have to do is change the last two scenes to make it country specific.
- Amstel light sucks. FACT.

Sidewalk Driver

Scenes like this just make you want to learn an instrument.
'Oh hey, what are you doing,'
'nothin, just hanging out,'
'do you wanna drop me a baseline so we can make an impromptu awesome cover?'

My French roommates had French guests over, when I got back to the apartment I had clearly averted the most miserable 5 hours of my life

On Saturday night I luckily had plans and went out for the night. As I was leaving a bunch of French people were showing up for what we will call a mixer that my french roommates were hosting in the apartment. It easily would have been one of the most miserable nights here if I had stayed based on the evidence I found when I got home.

Fucking Crepes:

Fucking wine:

I don't care how thin you can make your pancakes until you shave your armpits and put on deodorant, then come talk to me. Oh, and take care of the peanut butter that you have permanently stuck in your throat. "Sahaghh, Sahaghh," Dude, the names "Sarah," clear your throat after you're done saying the name not during.


Kill me, kill me now.

Sidenote: I had a sushi that night, I don't know what everyone in the world is smoking but that shit is so gross. This guy Max showed up to the party with sushi and everyone was all over him and he started mixing drinks and everyone thought he was the greatest thing in the world. Let me tell you, I tried that sushi and sushi is bottom line cold, slimy, and gross and in no way has it earned the reputation it has.

On a second sidenote which I find to be more relevant than the above sidenote, my french roommates confronted me on Saturday morning about my failure to clean the sponge after I am doing using it to clean the dishes. Does that even classify as a real thing that someone is allowed to get upset over?

Wear a tobaggon to stay warm this winter

Just make sure you wear it properly.

- The staff at Youtube Advice

Do these Argentinean commercials make any sense?

Ok, so this first one has got me puzzled. This is what I do know or at the least I am pretty sure about:
- It's a commercial for a mall
- The two people in the commercial are in love

The rest is a mystery.
- So they both go to the mall to pick out the perfect outfit to profess their love for each other? But it takes 50 years to pick out the perfect outfit? and it's really cute after 50 years that they match?
- Or is that they have been going to the same mall for 50 years to shop and it has played an important role in their relationship?
- Or are they trying to say that in 50 years this is how I am going to look to see if they will still be enamorado?

Commercial 2:


This is a commercial for Fibertel, the internet service provider in Argentina.

She is trying to sleep during the day because she was out dancing all night after working hard all week but has to justify her actions to the bird and luckily she speaks bird? I think that's what is going on but what I don't get is the connection to the internet.

Come Visit Stefan MUSIC of the day

Decided to expand the function of "Come Visit Stefan Picture of the day" to "Come Visit Stefan . . . . . . of the day." Extended periods of time of inactivity breeds pure genious in me.

Come visit so we can bailar middle school dance style to the beginning of this song and then in a sexual manner that would be frowned upon at a middle school dance for the rest (unless you're Joe because that would just be weird given our history):



and come visit so we can go get a drink at the bar during this song:



Because lets face it no one I know can dance to this song.

I just found out one of the women who works in the office, her daughter is one of the hottest DJs in Argentina

I didn't even know that there were women DJs, I've never even pictured one in my head. Not that I am an expert on the club scene or anything but I just thought it was like being a doctor or a lawyer or voting or something where women just couldn't do it.

But anyway instead of having to use your imagination to try and imagine this impossible concept, a short video of the lady's daughter to give proof that there are women DJs in the world.

I don't have anything to say because I haven't done anything this week because there is nothing to do so I will explain the difference between white and brown eggs

Anyone ever gone to the grocery store and saw that they are both white and brown eggs? and noticed that the white eggs are cheaper? I sure as heck have and I am overjoyed to be the one to explain the difference as explained to me by my vegetable lady.

It turns out that the chicken who hatches brown eggs is only fed natural things that I chicken would eat. I don't know what those things are but the keyword is natural. Versus the white egg where the chicken is fed all types of stuff to make it grow and squirt out more eggs. So my vegetable lady said that the brown eggs are much more 'rico' and that I should eat them. I trust her because she is an impartial egg judge because I don't buy my eggs from her.


(I actually think this video is very stupid but I couldn't come up with anything at the moment. And who cooks their eggs in a pan full of vegetable oil? Throw down a little butter or give it a quick spray with the Pam.)

But I do buy things like garlic, is this not a really strange looking garlic? I also don't have a system for using garlic because I usually peel off one of those pieces and then cut it up, but I only need a little because garlic is so strong, so I am left with a 3/4 of a piece of garlic that I usually end up throwing out because it can't survive without its protective shell. Thoughts? Ideas? I also forget how to mince garlic, which is a cool skill.

(As you can tell, I truly have nothing to talk about, it's the week before christmas and it's hot as balls and there is nothing to do.)

Música

Got accordion?

Come Visit Stefan Picture of the Day

We can play Bingo!!!! They love bingo here, there are massive bingo places everywhere. Who doesn't love bingo? Three time Super Bowl Champion Troy Brown loves Bingo:

Villa Soldati

Warning the following is my attempt at an educational post. It's long and I'm not really sure if it goes anywhere, my sincerest of apologies . . . you'll be ok:

I woke up on Friday and on the news was an intense story about incidents of violence between the neighbors and the residents of Villa Soldati in Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires, where three people have died in the last week.

A little bit of background on what a villa is:

The full name is "villa miseria" and in Argentina it is basically the name given to any densely populated informal settlement. It is characterized by extreme poverty and the majority of the residents are undocumented families from neighboring countries. There are a fair number of villas in and around Buenos Aires as a result of the huge economic crisis that the country experienced in 2001. A lot of people had come to the metropolitan area for work and after the economy collapsed, these people nor the government had any way of supporting them. To give a comparison these villas and the reasons for their existence are very similar to the Hoovervilles during the Great Depression.

Villa 31

I believe right now there are approximately 45 villas in Buenos Aires with an estimated population of over 150,000. Some of them are so big that they have developed their own educational and social programs.

What is happening this week in Parque Indoamericano is that there is a villa of about 1,500 families that have been living there for quite some time but in the last week or so there have been increasingly violent clashes between neighbors of the park and residents of the villa. (It's important to note that the neighbors of the park are also very poor as well).

Villa Soldati, if you notice the ground is parceled off into little squares which are more or less to mark the different areas of the homes.

The neighbors of the park are upset that there is such a large population of completely off the books people living in an area that is a park, designed for the recreation use and enjoyment of all the surrounding residents. In their eyes, these people have no right to move in and settle in the park and make it their home. The villa is going to keep increasing in size and the park will no longer be a park. The residents are asking the government to get involved and free the occupied areas of the park which was designed as a public and not residential space.

For the residents of the villa it boils down to the fact that they have no other place to go. They have no money, work, and very little food and are lucky to have a tent to sleep under.

What makes the situation very interesting is that both the government of Buenos Aires and the national government refused to get involved even after a week of intense violence with 3 dead coming to a head on Friday:



The residents eventually went into the park and started setting the different tents and make-shift houses on fire. Sparking a big back and forth where one side would run forward throwing bottles and rocks and the other would retreat until the roles reversed and the opposite ensued.

The neighbors are demanding the desocupacion of the park, while the residents of the villa are demanding some alternative place to live.

Yesterday the government finally put security in place and meetings have begun in the Casa Rosada (the White House of Argentina) with representatives of both sides to find a solution.
______

I'm not 100% sure where I was going with sharing this story other than I thought it was really interesting and the news footage is pretty intense. I definitely see the gripe of the neighbors in all of this and in the end I believe they are in the right but lets face it, I'm guessing this was a fairly abandoned park that wasn't exactly being utilized by the surrounding communities, when everyone started setting up tents here. It's not like you can build a shelter in the middle of an active soccer field.

Since the situation is yet to be concluded, I guess for now I'll end with some food for thought while they try and resolve this:

• The head of the government of Buenos Aires is calling for the villa to be cleared out while the Casa Rosada (national government) is saying that the city needs to guarantee housing to the residents of the villa. 
• Christina Kirschner is the current president and comes from her husband's (former president) school of thought called "Kirchnerismo" which in a nutshell is a government of the people, of the worker. Therefore the Casa Rosada is demanding social services for the potentially soon to be even more homeless than before residents of the villa. 
• It's also important to note that the upcoming year is an election year so it is important for Christina to show solidarity with the people.
• The government of the city does not have the resources or any place to put the residents of the villa.

Come Visit Stefan Picture of the Day

I have a pull out bed underneath my bed. Pillow talk anyone?

Or we could put you in the bed and then roll you back under my bed to make it like one of those hotels in Japan where everyone sleeps in little pods. This would make more room for activities.

Will someone please send me a copy of Elf?

In the next 2-4 business days.

I'm sorry, I've become very demanding recently and have been requesting a lot. But for realsies this is not the first world, Elf is not on 24/7 on tnt, usa, and tbs like it is in the US. You don't know how bad I have it down here.


What song did I sing for your birthday this year? I'm seriously thinking about doing a different clip from Elf each day leading up to Christmas. Sometimes I just have the dumbest ideas ever. This is not one of those times.

Come Visit Stefan Picture of the Day

Got some Jewish in you? Come celebrate the Festival of Light in Buenos Aires! (I should go into Sales)

Today was a holiday and I found a street HOCKEY game in the park!

It was actually the second time I played. The first time was when I took those breathtaking shots of the lagoon where you can paddle in boats and hace picnic, to entice people to visit me. I just didn't take pictures of the game that day.

This timeeee, I did take a couple pics.

 What I do is rent skates for 5 bucks an hour and borrow a stick. I'm like a man among boys the way I dominate. That being said . . .

 Today 30 seconds in I dislocated my shoulder! Unlike in Wayne's World where Garth and Wayne have a system where they stop the game to let cars/people pass, that doesn't exist in the world of Buenos Aires street hockey.

(You can thank the fine folks at Paramount for the fact that this scene from one of the defining movies of our generation is not available in English on youtube. Also little known fact, Wayne's World was in fact filmed on location in Aurora, Illinois and not like most movies in Vancouver.).

What happens is you have a series of scooters, runners, skateboarders, fucking 2, 4, and 6 person bike car things constantly navigating through the game. As a result, I accidentally skated face first into one of the 4 passenger bike cars, driven by a guy and his girlfriend, (I can only hope it was a first date), in which I dislocated my shoulder and sustained some strange scratch/burn to the area behind my ear from the roof of the bike-car, but all in all was quite proud of how well I stood up the bike-car. If it was a fourth and inches, they would not have gotten the first down.

(Dramatic Reenactment. 

Not Actual Vehicle I crashed into)

Unfortunately, for me my shoulder is so loose that it's not like in Lethal Weapon where Mel Gibson can look really tough and cool because he has to slam his shoulder back into place. For me now, it's kind of like I bend over and dangle my arm and hop around and shake my body until it slips back into place. And now that I've turned the attention to my shouder, a picture of my legs:

And now a Mel Gibson shoulder video (I think this has to be my most well-organized post yet):

I'm always one to take a stroll down memory lane: this reminds me of the time that I dislocated my shoulder in my second ever rugby practice junior year and it popped back in while driving through the well-maintained streets of Cleveland Circle on my way to the hospital. After I was bumming pretty hard and my roommates got me so drunk that night that I dislocated it again while throwing up in the toilet. In an email I sent to my Uncle, who is a pediatrician, and my dad, I said that I dislocated it twice. The second time because my roommates gave me a "bad" beer thus causing me to throw up. I never realized until now just how stupid that must have sounded to them.

P.S. I tried to take a picture of my injured neck area. Still now sure how this mark would be defined. AND Update: If you look closely you will see that I still do not have the ability to grow facial hair in full.

I should know it's Christmas because it's already past Thanksgiving Perfect Christmas Snack Platter for Healthy Eating

Kige coming through big again in the clutch. Where would this world be without him?

Careful, it's an extreme close-up to start the video.


PS. He clearly didn't mention the other vegetables on the platter because he didn't know what the one in front is called.

New Hottest Christmas Item!

India is like some bizarro US.

I broke the damn pole that holds up my curtain that gives me privacy

 Woops. I really should just fix it. But for the time being I have my dress shirts and a bag of trash strategically hanging from different points on the window to give me a modest level of privacy. (You may note one of the dress shirts is in fact a towel masquerading as a dress shirt, if you did gold star for.). (I'm also getting sick of doing this retarded double period thing so someone please give me a definitive ruling, I mean you teacher of kids who can't read good.).

What makes me have very little privacy is due to the fact that the apartment is laid out in a U formation where my room and the kitchen are on opposite inner sides of the walls of the U and their windows look out on each other.

But all in all it really isn't that big of deal since deep down I am a bit of an exhibitionist. I enjoy a good audience for my morning calisthenics.

PS. I also never really realized how much like a jail cell my room looks until I took the above picture. I'm going to walk out of this place a changed man. hopefully no one tries to rape me in the butt while I am in the shower.

While I'm on a role and still lying in bed

I figure this is newsworthy: I'm watching Pregnancy Pact on tv right now. How weird is that? (not the fact that I am watching it but that it is on tv down here.). I worry about things like this that air and give people a warped view of what Americans are really like.

For example, when you've never visited the U.S. and don't understand the nuances of the culture it's difficult to understand that a show like Jersey Shore is more a fascination with a grotesque group of people and the way they live more than a true representation of la vida.

My movie review:

It sucks. There are all these pregnant girls walking around the high school and the principal frowning a lot. They also talk like Gloucestor is a tiny hobunk town isolated from the world. (While I am reviewing movies I will also mention that the Miley Cyrus movie also sucked.).

Freak Strike
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

Sidenote, only watch if you are really bored:


I was gonna just put up the trailer for the movie but I watched this Associated Press video on the pact and was impressed by how shittily made it was. It's just a collection of a camera man zooming in on girl's asses, blurry shots of people walking and they find the only guy in Gloucestor with a British accent to interview. I feel like that is a dead give away for a hastily made news video: don't want to do a lot of research or spend time finding an expert to talk to? Just find a British guy because no matter what he will sound intelligent even though he has no idea what he is talking about. (and Amen Linda Dolan, I hear ya sister.).

P.S. Do we know what happened to all these babies? We're going to be the 17 best friends that anyone has ever had . . .

Come visit Stefan picture of the Day

After much deliberation I have decided to change Buenos Aires Picture of the Day to Come visit Stefan picture of the day to to try and induce people to come visit my ass down here.

Visitors need to meet one of these two criteria:

1) I can get fall down drunk with you.

OR

2) I can take tango lessons with you.

To kick off this new twist on Buenos Aires Picture of the Day, I give you these not so well taken photographs of a really nice park where everyone goes to walk/run/rollerskate/bike/poop/rent paddle boats. It reminds me of a cross between the Public Gardens and Central Park with a different type of tree:

Also you may have noticed that there are ads now on the side of the blog. My goal was to have ads that show different airline flights down here but I haven't figured out how to do that yet or if it is possible. I think the ads are based off of what appears in the blog so for example there was an ad for "toilet paper machinery." I have no idea what that means but it sounds painful. That also tells me that too much of my material centers around bathroom humor.

Buenos Aires picture of the day

That would be a Subaru station wagon. I think the first I have ever seen south of Rhode Island. That is one sleek and stylish all wheel drive masterpiece of a car. Bravo Australia Bravo, maybe if you keep making fine automobiles like this one you won't be known just for your kangaroos!

Polish people: one step ahead of the rest . . . or we are just that stupid

BRITISH taxpayers have paid £1,500 for a foreign painter to exhibit INVISIBLE pictures.

Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant got the Arts Council England grant for a show that included "a painting that hasn't been painted yet".

Warsaw-based Kurant's Snow Black exhibition also had "an invisible sculpture" and "a movie shot with no film in the camera".

Her windfall was among £147,755 given to foreign artists by the Labour government in the year to last April.

Culture Department officials insisted there were "substantial benefits for English artists and audiences".

But Tory MP Matt Hancock condemned it as "a staggering waste".

The Sun told last week how £29,000 of public cash was spent moving art and other items abroad.

Pure genius coming from the Polish if you ask me. I am going to use this as inspiration to start asking for the payment for the services which I am not going to render.


I wonder how much this invisble art will appreciate once the artist dies?


PS. Does this make the British the new Polish?

II Simposio Spinelli

Spinelli after the creation of the European Union and in the State of Nature.

So as you may have noticed, my fb picture changed temporarily to the logo of the "Catedra Spinelli". If this is news to you because we aren't facebook friends you probably shouldn't be reading this blog because that would just be weird and creepy.

For the past month or so I've been helping helping organize the II Simposio Spinelli which is a series of talks on the regional integration of Latin America, based upon the model of the European Union. Altiero Spinelli is an Italian guy who was one of the founding fathers of the European Union, and don't worry if you have never heard of him, I sure as hell hadn't and I don't think anyone in Latin America has either. The panelists including our Argentinean Diputado guy, a Uruguayan Diputado, a German guy who is a member of the European Parliament, and some Italians.

My main role in all of this was to handle La Difusion Masiva. In English that translates directly to: get the word out and put asses in the seats by any means necessary, ie. facebook event, posters, emails, etc. I think in the long run this allowed me to contribute in a big way to DG. I was able to find a company in San Francisco, California called Vertical Response that basically serves as a secure way that assures delivery of emails to large lists of people. ie. if you have a huge email list and want to send everyone an email, gmail or hotmail or whatever will not allow you to send it because of spam protection. This service gets around that and in our case was perfect for sending a mass email.

Non-profit organizations can apply to get the service for free so they can reach their target audience and supporters. I had to apply and send in the official documents from the Congreso. It all was rather easy and we got approved. We can send 10,000 emails free per month, I now have all the email contacts on the server and am in the process of sorting by profession, institution, etc. (I also am still the only one that has the passwords and can access the service, so I am going to hold out until they give me the big bucks.

(I had to take one of the banners home with me one night, I had a little too much fun with it):

I made sure that Spinelli got a good night's rest before the event.

And I was even nice enough to give him my desk during the Symposium.

 And then was all said and done Spinelli let down his hair and then passed out in my bed. Can you believe the nerve?

Anyway the Simposium went pretty well and I guess I did a decent job about getting the word out. There were a couple of crazies that showed up, including a woimen stalker of Diputado Iglesias and also a pair of thieves who stole the German parliamentarians laptop before the first talk. However I don't feel too bad because he called in sick the second day but facebook showed him doing a bit of sight seeing in Buenos Aires.

I leave you with a quick point that I took away from the Symposium and hadn't really given much thought to as to why a Latin American Union would be an important step for the countries of Latin America:

Protection of the worker--> Latin America is comprised of largely third world countries and all of the economies are based in  production, agriculture, etc. When a multi-national company comes down here standard procedure is to shop around where to set-up shop based largely upon where they can find the cheapest labor and most lax government regulations. Because of that countries are competing over getting a company which causes them to make deals that sacrifice a lot of the worker's protections, including hours, wages, and safety in order to attract business. If there was a uniform, strong united front with universal workers' rights across Latin America, it could do a lot to prevent that type of behavior and create a minimum standard of working conditions.