1027
Today, October 27 th, is a momentous day in the history of Argentina. Two dramatic events have or are taking place. In the news this morning, ex-president and husband of current Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner died from a heart attack in El Calafate at the young age of 60. He has had a huge impact on Argentine politics over the last 7 years and was thought of as a top contender for the 2011 presidential election. Now Cristina will have to reign the country alone, we will have to stay tuned as to the always interesting and sometimes turbulent politics will challenge her and her party. It is said there is now a big hole in Argentine politics now that Nestor is gone. (photo by Jorge Saenz/File/AP Photo)
Also in the news is the national Argentine Census. Basically the entire country shuts down for 1 day while they take a count. This is an interesting method, maybe more effective than that in the US, where is is taken over the course of 10 months. Everyone is by law required to stay in their house for the Census to come and then ask questions and document your presence. The hours are between 8am and 8pm and there are 2 types of questionnaires. If you live in the city you will be asked a brief 35 questions, whereas if you live in a private gated neighborhood, in the country, the ghetto, etc they will be asking 67 questions. I had the pleasure to engage in this civic duty this morning and the questions were interesting, not sure how much they are going to get from it and/or who created the list of questions. Obviously there are the regular:
first name?
age?
marital status?
do you have a refrigerator, bathroom?
computer, cellular phone?
education?
My favorite though was- Did you work at least 1 hour last week?
Really… what is this question? Nothing about profession, part time, full time, temporary work, employee, own a business… I think those might be more interesting and constructive questions. But, well that is what it was.
So today in Argentina it is both a national holiday in honor of the census as well as a day of mourning as one of their great political leaders passes into the history books.
