How a man looking for his lama changed the world, and the Argentines dirty little secret

So i arrived to Potosi yesterday, i got a local bus to the centre

I couldn't help noticing the dirt roads, which seems strange? A town that gave so much to the world, has so little, after all it funded European culture especially Spain, Italy, The Vatican, Portugal and the Renaissance, you might have heard of Leonardo Da Vince, Michelangelo the list goes on...

What paid for this chapel?

Have you been to any of these European countries? Ask yourself how they funded the buildings in these cities? Pasta, Olives, tourism, cows? Maybe they exported something when they weren´t having a siesta?

Looking at the town of Potosi, as we descended to the town, i realised the tour guides in Buenos Aires were hiding some important facts, i was asking questions.

Ok, i went on three walking tours in Buenos Aires, they told us about the great Parisian architecture, Venetian architecture and its really amazing stuff, they had palaces brought over from Europe and put together like jigsaw puzzles, an amazing vision really!

The locals in Buenos Aires, the people of the port or ´Portenos´, didn't like the colonial buildings so they knocked them all down and built the European buildings, everyone was in agreement, it was much better, very European indeed, the Paris in South America. Bravo Argentina!

Then i would ask, who paid for it? And why would anyone knock down buildings that were functional, who would pay for this? What did it cost?

If you sell a few of these cash cows, maybe you could build a replica of the Eiffel tower?

The answer i always got was through cows, and trade and the guides would start talking about something else, oh how they love their city? Love indeed, a love supreme, reminds me of John Coltranes quest for equality

I don't know too many farmers that would knock down a good building to put up something he saw on his honeymoon, do you?

Any detective will tell you...

It didn't make sense, it would never make sense and then i saw Potosi and it all made sense.
The interesting thing about crime is when you follow the money, it leads you to the guilty ones.
And one google search later shed a lot of light.


Help me i am lost, but what will you find?

To cut a lost Lama story short, what happened was:

A guy was out looking for a Lama one night, it was getting dark, he lit a fire on the side of the mountain, later he noticed silver, he realised this was the stuff the Spanish was after, so the guy and his buddy started to mine it, later he wanted to split the silver 70/30 with his friend, as he was the one that found it, his friend said, no way, i don't want any, i´m going to tell the Spanish

In come the Spanish, thank you very much. they arrived in 1532, they started mining about 1545 and did they hit the jackpot or what? There was a god, not for everyone else, the Spanish actually invented a devil to get their superstitious slaves working hard underground, it was so dangerous the Spanish wouldn't go in, so about eight million died in this mountain, good for Europe, too bad for slaves?

If you want to learn what Potosi meant to countries all over the world, check out the history of the world in a hundred objects ´Pieces of eight´

The next problem after they had after mining it, was how do we get home to Spain, why it would appear they took it VIA ´The Silver road´, and where did the road go from you might ask?

Why, it went from Potosi to Buenos Aires, it took about 50 days with Lamas, interesting what you can learn isn´t it.

So the next problem the Spanish had was to get people to work in the mines, i´ve blogged about this before, so there is no point getting into this, but as well as enslaving indigenous people from Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru they got slaves from Brazil. Interesting how two countries like Portugal and Spain that didn't like each other very much, could bury their differences to do a lucrative business in slave trading.

Portugal got the slaves from Africa, the indigenous people in Brazil would rather die than work, working is womans work, so they got them over the way from Africa, and they sent them down to their customers in Buenos Aires, since they had plenty of slaves, what was the problem.

I would never have found out this slave history had the guides in Buenos Aires had mentioned how they got the money. One lie covering a bigger lie, the truth has to come out somehow.

To me its a bit like someone winning millions in the lottery, whats the first thing they do? Sports cars, mansions, they buy everything they could ever dream of.
 
A dream built upon what?

And that is the story of Buenos Aires, they built their dream, but it was all stolen from the poorest people in the planet.

When i was in Argentina, all i heard was people complaining about people from Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay and how they wanted to get rid of them, it seems they should be thanking them for funding the dream that is Argentina

The tour guide today pointed out how ´AG´ is the symbol for silver, it was the land of silver except they didn't have any?

Silver (n.) – argentum (Latin); a shiny metallic element used for making coins, jewellery, tableware, etc.
Symbol: Ag; atomic number: 47
Ag Forty-Seven takes its name from the role of silver in Argentina’s founding story. When settlers first arrived, they called the place a “Land of Silver” eventually leading to Argentina’s official name

AU is the symol for gold, ahem ´Australia´, the Chinese name for Australia is ´Mountain of gold´, but thats another story...

And the list goes on... Chile, Calafornia ect.. who paid? Indegenous people and they are still paying

Greek story time...with Yanis Varoufakis

 Yanis Varoufakis

I watched a video yesterday of Yanis Varoufakis, he was asked a question about can Europe be saved, instead of answering yes or no, he told a story, this story...

The Cumaean Sibyl
Ancient Rome's Great Priestess and Prophet

Centuries ago, concurrent with the Fiftieth Olympiad and the Founding of the City of Rome, an old woman arrived incognito in Rome. She came to see King Tarquin.
She told him that she came on business, which she then clarified for him: she came to see him on the business of the state. She offered to sell him nine books. Her price was three hundred pieces of gold.

The king couldn't believe his ears. Nor his eyes. "Books? What books?" She was such an old woman!
"I want to sell you nine books," she told him. "They contain the destiny of the world."
The king still could not believe his ears. "The what?" he asked.
"The future of the world," she told him in simpler terms. "My books contain the destiny of the world."
"Even so," said the king. "The price seems too high..."

A few weeks later -- for the old woman had to journey all the way from Rome to Cumae, which is on the north hook of the Bay of Naples, and then, all the way back, crossing the farm lands of Campania -- she presented herself again at the audience chamber of King Tarquin.

"What now?" he impatiently asked. She was really an old, old woman.
"I offer you six books for sale," she answered.
"How much?" he asked.
"I told you. Three hundred pieces of gold."
"Too much."

Some time later, for the old woman was not as young as she used to be, and the roads between Cumae and Rome are very long roads in any century, she presented herself again at the court of King Tarquin.

"I can offer you three books," she told the king.
"How much?" he inquired.
"Same price. Three hundred pieces of gold," she said.
"What happened to the other six," he asked.
"I burnt them," she said.

King Tarquin bought the three remaining books, which contained the destiny of the world, for three hundred pieces of gold, from the old woman. She was the Cumaean Sibyl in person.

Then he asked her to rewrite, or to have reconstituted, the other six books.

"No," was her reply.
After he had read his three books, he asked her again. "No," she repeated.

Thus, great Rome rose to be a kingdom and subsequently flourished as a republic, which conquered Gaul under Julius Caesar. Then Rome inaugurated its worldwide empire. That Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Forum. And all these centuries, Rome expanded but never knew its destiny, until it finally collapsed. What wisdom might have been gleaned from those six burnt books?

Apparently, we have to our best with whats left of the blunder of the European economic crisis?

I thought it was interesting that he would tell a story, but whats new in that? People have been doing it for thousands of years
I remember listening to a podcast, a few years ago, a woman was explaining if you want to keep your memories, put them in stories.

We all tell each other stories, we tell our self stories, its just a story, you can change it, change yourself, change your routine and your life.


Warren Buffet, a financial guru tells stories

Warren speaking



If you show this storytellers picture, no one will try and kill me, cool huh?

The Lord Buddha told stories, he told the same story in different ways, depending on the person he was telling it, quite clever


Jesus told some stories, they put them into a book, its the worlds best selling book for some time (google it yourself)

Jesus hanging out

Stephen Fry tells stories, this is a good one!!!



Yo, whats the story G?

Google when hiring people ask interviewees to explain complex ideas in the way an eight year old would understand., if it doesnt make sense to a child, it wont make sense


Ray Charles said he liked country music as the songs told stories




Paintings by Aboriginals in Australia, tell stories and of course they tell stories

The painting tells the story of people travelling to a meeting to learn about setting up their own businesses. The meaning of various symbols used on the painting is also explained under the main painting, below. 

 Source:

Of course a story is a very clever way to give someone information to help them make their own decision, your not telling them anything, your just singing in the shower, maybe in the rain? 

My favourite story has a Ute in it

A Ute

I was on a chair lift in Falls Creek in 2000, i girl i shared a ride in the lift up the mountain told me her mother was a cleanser in a motel in New Zealand, her father was a handy man and she was conceived in the back of a Ute (truck) next to a hoover,

I´m not really sure what the story means, but it always makes me laugh, maybe that's the point?

Religion is excellent stuff...

I finished reading ´The motorcycle diarys´ a few days ago, what struck as interesting was how much Che learned in his travel through Chile about mining.

Che new all the details, how the process worked, he knew what was involved, he saw how much minerals was being transported by rail from one mine site (20 tonnes) and he could see what the poor people got for it, absolutely nothing, and if you complained, the military, security came down on you, discredited you, you could go missing indefinitely or branded you a communist and that was the end of you.

Whats changed in the world? Not much, big business is too powerful, too efficient, they have too many lobby groups and they pay very little tax, in Australia they has a mining tax reversed VIA a puppet prime minister

In all, absentee landlords in Chile were making a killing off the people, and the government helped them do it, sound familiar? Just history repeating really, nothing new really, its all happened before, in Ireland for example.

The term Boycott was a term first used in Ireland, it would appear if the workers do not cooperate with the oppressors, they will have no other option but stop and leave for good

 Its only fair

I watched a TED talk a few months ago, by a banker from Canada, in it, he said the unsay able, he blew it for capitalists all over the world by saying the thing we are not supposed to hear, he said:

1. Companies do not create jobs, customers create jobs
2. In the USA, if you lift minimum wage, you increase peoples spending capability, its a win win situation, people have more money to spend, you can sell them more stuff

What did he get for telling the truth, his video got deleted.

Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs" 

 
Lets tale the first point, customer create jobs, i´ve been to Scandinavia a few times, from what i could see:

• The people don't go into big department store, they don't like big stores, they would rather buy what ever they need from small stores
• People look at the labels, they are informed consumers, they buy quality, not cheap stuff from China
• There are no big supermarkets, i looked, i was told the markets they have have everything we need, they didn't have sunblock, but that was my problem
• Everyone pays on credit card, not cash, money can be traced electronically
• They have a transparent government, you can see what the prime minister is sending and receiving through their freedom of information
• People love paying tax, they can see where it is going
• No one would every steal something, a cop told me the only ones that steal as tourists
• People are taught to be responsible so, like a gathering of a few thousand people drinking to watch the world cup soccer, you don't see a single security guy or cop
• People are encouraged to study, its free and thy get money from the government
• University students can do a semester overseas, the tax payer picks up the bill

Isn't it interesting Scandinavia, (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) they didn't join the Euro, and why would they, they seem to have gotten it right, why change a system that it working and the real wealth never leaves, it stays in the country as the people spend it locally and the tax they pay? They can see where it is going and its going back into the country, there are no secret deals, sounds perfect right?

Che Guevara would love Norway, the people own the natural resources, not the big companies. No one fired a shot, one one got killed either, strange huh?

Norway

Amazingly, the media will never tell you about Scandinavia, treat their citizens right and no one will tell you about Iceland putting the Bankers in jail, people liberated from debt slavery.

 The usual suspects?

Its estimated there are 27 million debt slaves in the world, back when slavery was legal, it was about 1.5 million in America and 5 million in Brazil

There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach—and in the destruction of lives.

New jobs, new jobs!!!

It seems like when you spend your money locally, eveyones lives are improved.
Companies never create jobs, they outsource and cut costs where ever they can, and dodge labor laws
You call your bank in Australia, you get someone in Pakistan, its a service they can outsourced, you are charged dollars, they are paying rupees with no benefits to the customer or the country

The second point to lift minimum wage seems like a no brainer, but its amazing how many billionaires oppose this? People with everything money can buy, hard to believe.

I went to a presentation in Sydney two years ago, a speaker said that America was the new third world, and his company was able to source call centre staff cheaper than third world countries, in the US of A, desperate people desperate times?

The message from Scandinavia is buy local, spend your money in your own area

Whats it going to take...

Know your enemy, it what the great librators know...

Belgrano and the flag he designed, recognise it?

Yesterday i went to Manuel Belgranos house here in Tucumán. Well a replica of his house, i took lots of pictures, just like any good tourist, so far so good.
Later i looked Belgrano up, to know a little bit more, suprise suprise, as it turns out, he studied overseas, where? Spain.

He didn't just study in Spain, a few interesting notes.

1. He was there when the French Revolution was kicking off
2. He was exposed to the age of enlightenment ideas
3. He got special permission from the pope to read banned books

Obviously he must of been a good student, i remember times in school getting permission to go to the toilet, but to get the key to the forbidden books? People were getting burned for writing these books, sounds hard to believe?

It makes you think, what books are banned now. Should we be reading them, if we could concentrate long enough to do so?

Fr Ted prostating, or is he protesting?

In Ireland i heard about a book ´The Tailer nd Ansty´ that was banned as there was a story about a woman that didn't know the difference between a cow and a bull, it was too filthy or something?

Gods Representatives in Cork didn't just ban the book, the priests came around, they go his copy, burned it in front of him, scared off his neighbours so no one would call in anymore, and they didn't, oh the fear of god!!

The message is clear...

As you can see, going into (Charlotte) Church is important to the Irish...

San Martin, the liberator

Another hero of Argentina, San Martin was educated in Spain, back when the world was flat, he left when he was a kid, he came back and kicked the Spanish out of Lima, everyone without question in Argentina loves San Martin, every town has a big statue!

Gandi knew it

Gandi knew the english system, this is how he got rid of the english in India, and the funny thing is he saw himself as an English gent until they threw him out of his first class carriage, he realised some are more equal than others.

Parnell knew it

In Ireland, Charles Stewart Parnell knew the English system, they educated him. He was a hero, until he started living with a divorced woman, in come our christian values, we couldnt have anymore to do with that sort of thing! 

The Irish caped cruisader, Daniel O´Connell knew it

 Daniel O´ Connell, he was known as ´The Liberator´ was once quoted saying 

"Gentlemen, you may soon have the alternative to live as slaves or die as free men"  

When you know all the rules, you can brake them, John Coltrane broke all the Jazz rules and reinvented Jazz, people initially hated him for destroying Jazz, but what he did was reinvent it

Blue Train Full Album

Gulliver, not going anywhere fast...

I read ´Gullivers Travels´ recently, if you ha vent read it, the analysis to the Giant king about the English empire is classic!!

Gulliver often goes to see the king, who requests a detailed description of the government of England, which Gulliver relates. The king asks him many questions, challenging various aspects of the government and having particular difficulty with England's violent past. 

In the end the king concludes that the English are well below the Brobdingnagians, calling them "the most pernicious Race of Little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth."

Che Guevara knew it

Another Liberator, El Che Guevara, he was inspired by Michael Collins, the Guerrilla ideas Che learned, he learned from Michael Collins, another liberator from Ireland, Collins was working in England as a Clerk before the troubles started in Ireland, he told his colleagues in England he was going back to fight for justice, they thought he was on the side of the English and he ended up bringing them to their knees.

Michael Collins knew it

Collins methods were also studied by the CIA, he liked to cycle around on a bicycle and act stupid, the only thing was they were never looking for a guerrilla leader acting stupid on a bike. Sounds almost like Ninja tactics? But that's another story...

Its interesting the Revolution ideas, for South America came from Europe, for Ireland, they came from England, for the rebellion to be a success, they needed to know the enemy, when you know how they think, can use it to your advantage and they all did.

The message is clear, know your enemy

The Goldfinch and me...and everything else in between

Last week i went to Iguazu falls. Like i always do, before i go somewhere, i book a hostel. just after booking the hostel i realised the hostel i booked was on the Brazil side, not the Argentinian side, not a great side, not a great start...

So one thing led to another, after an hour of coffee, ice cream and being normal after the night bus to Iguazu, it was time to find  a hostel on the right side of the river, more and more buses were arriving, everything was taken online, it was time to call around (the old fashioned way) and see if any hostels not listed online had a bed and my luck was running out.

Luckily, one hostel did, but the bed was on the other side of town, so off i went and i arrived at where i though the hostel was, wrong hostel, but they had a book exchange, so after a quick swap, with very little though, off i went to the right hostel further down the road.

The book i got? Why ´The Goldfinch´ by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch 

Before all this, i did not know what a Goldfinch looked like, now we both do.
Apparently, this is the book everyone is talking about, at cocktail parties and social gatherings, maybe now i will fit in? La de dah!!!

Ahem, Excuse me, i´ve read the Goldfinch, i have a feeling we have a mutual... connection

And now i´m going to add a few words, it wasn't do much the book that caught my attention, it was what was going on around me that related to the book that was captivating, let me begin...

A common theme in the book is:

Life is playing what ever cards your dealt with, and playing them well

And then i saw this...

Amazing hand with Miss Finland



Tom is listening to every word...

The last few chapters of the book are epic, words of wisdom are rolling like a herd of stampeeding buffalow, a bit like a Tom Robbins book, every sentence is gold!

Say his name and you were born to be, born to be Neal Cassedy...

One of the main characters Boris, he is to this book what Neal Cassedy is to ´On the road´ by Jack Kerouac. He is full of life and optamisim, things are never really bad, because they could be way worse, if he is going to hell, he´s going to go laughing, and you´d be tempted to go with him, because it will be fun.

On the road...

Boris says life is a miracle, where your born is luck, a toss of the coin and Boris point of view was that you cant see yourself as a victim asking why this happened to you, Nelson Mandela said something similar, although not recently.

And then i saw this...

Does money make you mean?


Boris was saying, good can come from bad, and when it does you need to take advantage of it.

One of the themes was trust, Boris talked about a book called ´The Idiot´, in it the character Prince Myshkin, all he ever did was good, he treated everyone with respect, compassion and what resulted was murder and disaster. He trusted all the wrong people and made bad decisions.


Also, the bad stuff we think we are going through, can be pushing us towards who we really are, our true selves. Anywhere you get there, isn´t really important. Reminds me of a farmer i met in Columbia that overturned a tractor on his way to a rave in Ireland, true story, and he paid for his holiday by selling drugs.

This book has made an impression on me, or maybe its becuse this month i havent been drinking, i´ve been eating less and losing tons of weight, or maybe its the voices in my mind?

Boris says, Embrace life, the good and the bad and when you get a bad deal, you can bluff and fake it until you make it. Snap out of the self destruction and get living.

´Worry is the mark of the primitive and spiritually unevolved person´

Boris as a Dinasaur...

As bad as Boris life was, he never saw it that way. He got beated up a lot by his father, it was nothing to him. The filter of his life, his way of thinking was different and he saw the world in an optimistic way, whats interesting was, from the first day he met him, his attitude never really changed throughout the book, and he never took no for an answer.

As crazy as Boris life was, he was pretty much in control, as much as anyone could be, he never saw iself as the victim.

Whats interesting about Boris was he saw the good and bad in people, he was objective he never judged people for who they were. Theo on the other hand was subjective, it was like they had two versions of the same story. Boris saw the good in Theos father, something Theo couldn´t see.

In Boris mind there was never a problem, since most of the worries and problems are in our heads.

The cuckoo clock

In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

And what funded the amazing Renaissance culture in europe? The misery, slavery and plundering the Spanish did in Potosi, Bolivia, but thats another story...

Sometimes all the bad stuff that has happened in your life can end up with people meeting and having a common bond, the current moment is always the most important time in your life, this was one of the themes, both had lost their mothers and nothing ever bad happened to their no good fathers.

By losing the Goldfinch painting, they end up helping recovering many more and collecting a huge ransom, the silver lining in the cloud, in the end.

Whether something is good or bad, who can tell? I missed a bus today, because i couldn't get money, good or bad? I don't know? i wouldn't be writing this now in a bus!!

Every story has a beginning middle and end, until you reach the end, its not a story

Keep going to the end...

Boris wasn't greedy either, he was more than happy to share the wealth with people along the way. Maybe because he was optimistic about making more in the future, he got shot, to him it was only a graze. He was luck he didnt get killed.
One of the differences between happy and unhappy people is happy people are optamistic

When Boris was young, he stole to survive, but he would only steal from people who could afford to lose it, especially corporations, never steal off of the working man.

Richard P Feynman

You can be at the wrong place at the wrong time, that's life. There sometimes no warning signs, you cant go on asking why me, to be here is a miracle, the universe is a miracle, to be born is a miracle, Richard P. Feynman said something similar once, check out his ´Pleasure of finding things out´

After all things going wrong for me, booking the wrong hostel, went to another wrong hostel, picked up a random book, everything turned out nicely in the end, and it might happen for you too, so what are you waiting for, get your library card and get that book, you can bring the dog for a walk too!

You see? A win win situation.

So much change going on, no coins, cant take a bus, get a taxi...

The wheels on the bus go...

So a few days ago i wanted to get a bus to the bus station in Rosario, sounds reasonable enough?
It does sound reasonable, except you need six pesos, in coins, you need coins and no one has them and if they do, they keep them!

Coins, worth their weight in...?

While i was looking for coins, i was getting flashbacks from my last time in Argentina, riding the bus home with an American dude from a Riverplate football game in Buenos Aires, they lost, that another story. Later going home, since we had no coins, the bus driver couldn't take notes, he let us ride for free, probably because we were tourists and he couldnt have been bothered telling us to get off.

At that time, bus drivers would sell coins, it was a good business, until someone made a law saying they couldn't sell coins and rip people off, only the banks are allowed to do that!
Bus drivers got regulated after seeing an economic oppurtiunity, hey, thats business!!

I remember coins being a topic that some politician was going to tackle if people votes for him, i guess they didn't vote for him and the problem still goes on.

What do we want?

Such was my desperation for change, i bought fruit, the guy selling fruit didn't have change, so he over charged me and then, i did what anybody would have done, faced with a forty minute walk in the sun, i took a taxi, hey i´m nearly 38 years old, you got to have a few comforts as you get older.

How people with no coins travel 

I remember people the last time i was here telling me to keep change, never give it away and not that i think of it, people did have stashes of coins, coins for a rainy day, since people don't trust each other, as far as money is concerned, this is how life is...in Argentina.

Blogging more should have been my new years resolution...

So, i am in Rosario. I was here six years ago, time flies when you are having fun, maybe i have had too much fun and now i am back.

Want a little tour?

This time i haven't been partying, walking is the new partying for me at least? When you walk, and when you especially don't have an iPhone (better when some one steals it on you and ´you´ is someone else)

The left hand doesn't know what the right one is doing?

I was on one of those walks yesterday, when i came across a statue of Admiral Brown, an Irish guy that migrated to America with his family, and through the misfortune of his father getting yellow fever ended up getting work on a ship that was bound for South America. His misfortune was a lucky break for Argentina.

Admiral Brown

Most people here know a bit about him, and they should too, if wasn't for this Mayo man, the entire country would be speaking Portuguese.  

When it came to doing things and getting things done, he would say

"Even if to the devil the word is given, then it must be kept"

You could say he was a man of his word?

In one battle, he got his leg blown off, he still conducted the battle from the deck of the ship and won, he did this with some cowboys ´Gauchos´ and a few ships, this is how the Argentine navy started, it had to start somewhere, so it started there.

Admiral Brown, kicking back

If you want to get into an Argentinians pants, you have to climb a tree!!

Other interesting things from the street...

 

Calavera

A calavera is a representation of human skull made from either sugar or clay, which is used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead and the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls Day

If you fix the hostel computer, you get your own dorm with this view

I went to the park, the time is updated every day, with flowers.

The time here is to start Febfast, i could sign up, i could pester people to sponsor me, but they would probably say, ´Go back to having a beer, we preferred you having a beer´, so i am not going to do that

First of February,  whoever did the ´Domingo´ didn´t do a very good job!

Of course Che Guevara lived here, until it got too humid for him, he couldnt breathe very well as a kid, they moved up to Cordobra for the air

If you have problems breathing, just do what Che would do, after all he was pals with Castro, he was helping the Americans burn their fields by smoking Cigars, look at him!

This first place the Argentina flag was raised for the first time..

 The flag...

  Of course Messi is from here

 and....Maradona played here for two months

Hey, it still counts.......It still counts!!!!!