politics...

So, I’m coming close to not having anything to talk about. Nothing outstandingly amazing or strange has happened to me within the past few days. I have been going strong in classes, and trying to wrap my head around the extreme complexities of what is the Argentine government. Apparently Christina Kirchner (Current president of Argentina) is saying that Obama is nationalizing companies in America. This is true to an extent, but nationalizing to Argentines is when the government is sitting on the board of the nationalized company and making decisions for it. I am more and more dumbfounded by the political thought here. In elections, Argentines do not vote for a platform like we do in America. Argentines know that people voted into government will vote the same, which is whatever way the government decides they should vote. The failing nature of the government in Argentina goes to show that not all countries can copy the United States’ government and expect to be successful.
The failure of their judicial system became more aware to me yesterday. In a province of Buenos Aires, a 14 year-old boy shot and killed a man walking home. The response time of the police and ambulance were so delayed that the man died. When the detectives showed up to investigate the crime, the people of the neighborhood jumped him and began to beat him and hospitalize him. Apparently, in the provinces of Argentina, the jails are actually just police stations that harbor 30,000 people in rooms smaller than dorms at Wofford. The places are overcrowded, and people can spend 3 or 4 years in that room waiting for a trial. There are no speedy trials here. Also, if you are over the age of 70 you cannot go to jail, even if you kill someone you will just get house arrest. And if you are younger than 18, you cannot be tried as an adult. They do not go by severity of crime here, only by age. As a pre-law major, I am proud that at least America has the judicial system (no matter how flawed) that they do.