In Cobos We Trust

'May history judge me, my vote is not for, it is against.' Julio Cobos, Vice President, Argentina, 430am 16.7.08

And with that, Cobos becomes a legend, my hero, and everyone else's too. Cobos is now, consequently, and rightly, God. T-shirts have been printed, graffiti scrawled praising the now great man, a ray of light in the dark world of Argentine politics. Set in the context of the utter negativity of the news here, the belief that everybody can be bought, bribed, bullied out of what is the right thing to do, the belief amongst Argentines that Argentines self-destruct, lie, cheat, steal, stab each other in the back - this is a great thing. 

But first, a quick backtrack to set this in context. 

I made a commitment that this blog wouldn't be political - there are newspapers for that, nor would it be a guidebook, there are... Well, it's obvious isn't it? But this is an exception.

I make this exception because, in my first week of winter holidays, I was blissfully enjoying the unseasonable hot weather (29 degrees on Tuesday 15th, exactly a year after the snow...), playing a spot of tennis, hanging with the family. It was bliss. 

Catching up with a mate, who works for the Embassy, at as asado on Friday, as we 'cheers'd' the first drink of the weekend, she said:

'Cheers! Gosh... What a week!'

'Yeah...' I replied, realising that I was shamefully and utterly unaware of what was going on in the country/world, but hoping it was just a conversation filler.  I can be hard work sometimes.

My inspired reply of 'Yeah' invoked no verbal response. She did look at me incredulously, which in retrospect really did mean what I guessed: You actually do not have any idea what I'm referring to, do you?

To put off that moment by a split scond, I ventured: 'The.. weather? It's been...really... hot, eh?'

Swing and a miss. Picture how you would have reacted to someone on September 12th, 2001, who talked about the weather in New York when you said, 'What a day...' Well, that's the look I got.

For this week in Argentina was 'The Week of NO'.  

VERY briefly - The Argentine Senate were discussing Kirschner's controversial tax increases on agricultural exports that have provoked repeated protests by farmers, aka The Farmer's Strike. 

The BBC reported the story thus: 

(full story at http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7511111.stm):

With senators tied 36 to 36 after more than 16 hours of debate, Vice-President Julio Cobos cast the deciding vote to reject his government's proposals.

Mr Cobos, who is also leader of the Senate, said it had been "the most difficult day of my life".
Close to tears, he cast his deciding vote.

"They tell me I must go along with the government for institutional reasons, but my heart tells me otherwise. May history judge me, my vote is not for, it's against," he said.

And the country went mental (apparently). That, ladies and gents, is integrity. Permit me a small, retrospective vamos! In Cobos We Trust.