Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Oxymoron of the day: Argentine political culture

Post written with Mexfiles in mind.

The recent Nobel Literature prizewinner Mario Vargas Llosa is on something akin to a tour of South America right now and has just landed in Argentina. To mark the occasion Argentine politicos have been on full "oh yeah I just love them there book things" toady alert, with the usual hilarious consequences including:

1) José Adrián Pérez, idiot member of Argentina's national congress said that he was "a good author", but when pushed by a reporter said that he'd done "a lot of valuable things, for example 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'."

2) Diana Conti, another idiot member of congress (and ex-Senator to boot), noted Vargas Llosa as "a man true to his principles" but also the dude that wrote 'The Open Veins of Latin America'.

I'm pretty sure Galeano would have a good chuckle about it all, but it'd be fun to know what García Márquez thinks. Thus ends another day in the paradise that is South America, ladies and gentlemen.