In 2002, when Argentina was going through the acute stage of economic crisis, economic contraction reached -13.5% (out of 28% in the process) and unemployment has reached levels 24.2%. These data also are striking because of its strong impact in a short time. Spent a year just for this index increased by almost 10%. This statistic is not an isolated case of the debacle. There are also data on unmet basic needs in the order of 20 to 23.6% and the increase in infant mortality to 16.5%
All the data collected on quality of life shows definitely a big picture. The fractured economy of breaking with the tradition of positivism and installed neoliberal consciousness that "it was wrong."
Undoubtedly, this situation affects the average Argentine pride, detached from the media, talks taxis, elevators and cafes, opinion public. It is a clash with the characteristic arrogance, conceit and arrogance, typical of a Pharaonic tradition monstrous ads and projects. Iconicity Peronist military bombast, exacerbation Menem ... all made their dent in the consolidation of national sentiment (suitable also for non-nationalist Falklands Malvinas)
As the comedian says Ana von Rebeur ,
"Argentines spent the '60s and 70s listening in all media that this was the best country in the world. Speak ill of the country was an insult, a betrayal. From the '80s until now we have been tarnishing every day with the news that we're the worst country world, managed by a corrupt dynasty cuadillos inexhaustible served themselves rather than serve the people. "
The 2002 economic crisis was the coup de grace to the pride of being Argentina. You realize that "we are not the best in the world, that God is Argentine. Even our football, the first candidate to become the World Cup, was seen in plunged into the biggest failures.
The general circumstances of crisis is further exacerbated by other factors. The yard is one of them get to the middle class who had savings worked all his life was a true hondazo to its sufficiency. In a world where money is the standard measurement for all aspects of life (power, position, joy, etc..) Playard comes to destroy any remnant of national pride that may have resurfaced in the 1990's.
osmium, a humorist Rosario, reflected in these words:
"invented a playpen to keep all our small savings, and then on to manage our money as to mind. Gone was the illusion of many fools who believed dreamed we were in the First World. Fools and idiots, like the time a village in the middle of the Falklands War was held in Plaza de Mayo to hail the arrival of Prince of Great Britain to break the ass, while a group of soldiers, murderers and kidnappers of thousands of missing , ended up taking the white flag and surrender negotiations was not Maradona or the "hand of God" to win that damn war.
Another factor that feeds with high unemployment crisis. Not only for the loss purchasing power and low quality of life, but also by the sudden culture shock. We are used to define our identity around our business: "I am a teacher, metal worker, doctor, clerk, carpenter, architect, engineer, plumber, student, etc.." One is often defined by the role it plays in the system, according your trade or profession. The unemployment rate around 25% impact in this regard. When a quarter of the population has no occupation, loses its identity, its definition as a people. These individuals become excluded, offal and miseries of society that no longer has a place for them. What makes an engineer Unemployed?
Von Rebeur answer:
"Those who were dismissed late and poorly paid in colored paper, bond debt of a bankrupt country. To make matters worse, they have multiplied to get the job done left open the people she was fired.
But if anything good is that we Argentines are versatile. We can do five things at once, and adapt to change. We got carried away by the winds of fashion, and who had a water slide giant closed it to make room pools, a paddle court and a skating rink on the ice, and then a "All x $ 2" of the overnight as if they always had dedicated to it. Architects are taxi drivers, engineers distribute oil with his car, the master sold cakes, biochemical and even open a kiosk at a resort a group of engineers and doctors opened a place called "The Pie Degree", decorated with useless diplomas, where out delicious meat pies cut with a scalpel. "
That description, typical of previously occupied the middle class, complete with the industry that never had a place. The eternal marginalized towns and neighborhoods that never gave a direction to his life and whose identity and even managed to be defined by work, but that was based on other pillars (nationality, football, the neighborhood and then music)
The different paradigms of Argentine national identity take this crisis differently:
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Wealthy come to be isolated from the rest of society. Retreat further into their social circles and urban (country clubs, Uptown, resorts, etc.) Or leave the country search of better futures in the U.S. or Europe. The latter case entails a paradox: the Argentine rich prophet in his land, deny the identity of the collapse of Argentina and goes to a place where you will live a modest life will revive its national values \u200b\u200b(the nostalgia for the mate, dulce de leche, the derby, the Plaza de Mayo ...)
- The area called "middle class", although some exceptions can escape the model imitating the rich, generally stays in the Apocalypse acts as a key factor in the protests against the political and financial institutions. Live identity crisis at its best: unemployment, playpens, the pride of Argentina and the crisis of political representation. This group, which usually marks the prototype of the Argentine media, is the most beaten by the fall of their identities, reinforced in the honeys of convertibility and the illusion of personal economic power.
- In sectors that were already below the poverty line during this process is a situation similar to that of the middle class, although the impact on identity is not so great because the yard is not has an effect not too important and we have a high rate of professionalization. Still, there are those who fall below the poverty line and are in a desperate situation. The increase in rent or mortgage fees creates a housing crisis (another form of identity) and many have to move to lower economic neighborhoods, towns or squatter settlements.
- Those who were already poor form the last link in the economic chain, so beaten and are deeply discounted to inhumane living conditions. However, its identity does not have a significant impact, given that the economy could never be for them a parameter definition. These are the sectors that have always sought the identities of the other branch and the process economic would only strengthen this trend definitely.
The crisis of identity, then, shows drastic consequences for all sectors of the population. And then emerging cultural events attest.
One of the most popular television formats in these years was the wannabe reality: an ordinary person, so hit by the Argentinean crisis like any average, reaches the illusion of being someone in life. It is the search for identity in the television format.
Any dream can come true. Singer (Ladder to Fame, Popstars, Pop Idol), a model of beauty (Superman, 2002), get a date (blind trust), football player (Road to Glory), famous (Big Brother), bartender (The Bar ), beauty through surgery (Transformations), something for all tastes.
In all cases, a double set of definition. On one side are those participants who can leave their shattered world in crisis and excel in any activity. On the other hand, viewers will identify with some of the glory participant with them.
While the reality proliferates to usufruct the identity crisis in Argentina, the other major genre of the time gaining ground. This is the testimonial journalism, characterized by display cases of flagrant violations of the laws with a registration entertaining and often humorous. From hidden cameras and rapid reports, programs like Puntodoc, La Liga, Telenoche Research, Kaos in the City became popular to the point of stealing the screen heavyweights Tinelli (later to adopt the format wannabe reality) is not
striking that journalism testimony has been so successful. In a society in crisis, the viewer access to the contemplation of ethical and moral collapse in all areas, and through an "exclusive report" as a hidden camera. So come to light business, corruption, the quacks, the lie of good-natured of Socolinsky (RIP), diet pills, the former meditrucha Silvio Soldan, Solomon Beatriz's husband, Angel "Daddy" Rimini, Menem and arms sales, Father Grassi ...
Or, in other words, when the economic crisis and the crisis of representation lead to the identity crisis, reveals the lack of moral icons of our children, consumer products, celebrities, politicians and entrepreneurs, the Church ... The people eat them, eager for scandals and morbidity (perhaps the same morbid curiosity that catapulted, with a little help of multimedia Clarín, a Conzi cases, Dalmasso and Belsunce)
must ask, Kirchner immersed in the flood, how things have changed .
While the government and the media insist economic recovery, slowly seems to restore the proud national identity. Not only the hand of the manipulated economic data, the pompous openings and announcements, the recovery of purchasing power and the return of many who left during the crisis, but also the hand of artificial factors. I mean taken as feats campaigns with a strong nationalist tinge. The 2006 World Cup, the boycotts of the oil companies, international clashes, with Uruguay, the IMF, the United Kingdom, among others, the race against rising prices or regional and provincial elections (if being seen as a bipolar confrontation, like most people makes or has been compelled to do so)
However, behind the recovery contrived brings us back to the same path a decade ago (albeit with fewer imported shoes), there is really hard to hide. The energy crisis, the shortage of products, inflation, poor living conditions that still plague a significant portion of the population, the lack of a redistributive economic planning, the poor state of health systems and public education, the trigger easy, corruption still exist. Julio López is still missing. have not changed things much .
The most popular television show of the moment is Dancing for a Dream. A similar format to the old? wannabe reality, where a famous racing along with a person of humble origins who wants to meet a joint target impossible. Even knowing that in reality it is nothing more than an excuse to present the man! role-playing celebrities, we think that our present does not differ much from the modest dreamers.
Our future depends on the identity adopt and how well we can dance now.
