Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile are places common to my past. So heading back there is always a mixture of feelings... Going to Argentina for my mum’s post surgery and my dad’s 70s, between two working trips to Chile and Uruguay was cool.
Working in Latin America is a different experience as to working in SE Asia, Africa or the Pacific, as you are dealing with quite prepared and knowledgeable people that know what to do, but live submerged in very difficult institutions... is really “command and control”... the challenge are the institutional politics, power bunkers, positioning based on who you know more than how good you are, personal vendettas, etc... All things I know well enough... (key reasons why I emigrated!)
Chile is perhaps the more “efficient” in terms of the role of government, and they are the most transparent government in the region (for Latin American standards), and in general terms is the most advanced and organised of all. I enjoy working there.
The job was to help on the set up of a regulatory/functional system with the local fisheries authorities, that could allow the products of the artisanal hand line fishery be monitored to comply with international management and sanitary standards and therefore allow for their fish to access the international markets (and ergo more money)
Chileans have a unique accent and use of words among the Spanish speaking countries, so working with them is funny... I had a young team and we had a great time on and off the job...
Southern Chile is a pretty unique part of the world, sandwiched among the Andes and the Ocean is a place of unique beauty and rugged lifestyles. To be an artisanal fisherman there is hard core... rough and exposed weather and cold... really cold.
Working details are boring... so have a look on the pictures....
Argentina... well... my relationship is complex... Kind of like seeing and ex-girlfriend that is beautiful, sexy, talented, smart with a great sense of humour but completely non trustable, she’ll treason you for nothing... and is not because she does not like you... is just that that is the way she is... so you either deal with it... or you move on, and get together for catch up once in while...
But then... my whole family is there... and a huge chunk of my past... and even if two of my best friends from my life there, now live in NZ... I amputated a huge chunk of me when I left... and the “what if I stayed” is a constant presence....
Besides going there means living at either may dad’s or my mum’s... something that as boarding school boy I haven’t done since childhood, but then this was an special occasion... I had my children with me.
My kids haven’t had close family dealings... Vib and I are immigrants in NZ... and while we have a fantastic extended adopted family in NZ (I love the whanau concept)... as my boy Felix said: this people look like us!
My mum has been quite sick and my dad was to be 70, so we went and spend almost a month.
Vib took a Spanish course in Buenos Aires (here is her blog ) and I took the children up north to where my family lives. Then she came over and we went even further north (near Paraguay) to the place I grow up.
My dad married again and it has 2 children aged 13 and 11... they are cool kids and love my family a lot, Vib and I are contributing to their education... as my dad is not a wealthy man.
My brother has to 2 kids (5 and 2 years old), so my ones had 2 weeks of playing all day with cousins and 1/2 uncles... which did wonders for their Spanish.
I had the chance to catch up with friends, and even became the godfather of my friend Sari little boy.
Going to the area I grow up and the wetlands surrounding it (Esteros del Ibera) was quite something... as for first time my children got to see the place and environment that I lived when I was their age...
The wildlife in the wetlands is incredible and well preserved as it is a natural reserve since the 90s (My dad was one of the founders)...
Meeting friends I have not seen in more than 30 years and having dinner with the lady whom I learnt to read with... was very moving.
And then my dad’s 70... not that he really represents his age... (he doesn’t really gives shit about it... or much else in a matter of fact)... saying that is a right wing hippie that set up socialist cooperatives, is ultra qualified and dress like a gaucho... is just scratching the surface of his complexity...
In any case the party was whole day affaire, I got to see my cousins with their kids (after 18 years!) and so on... if interested here are some pictures...
Uruguay has a special charm for me... on the distance I see it now as the NZ of down there... small, original, proudly independent but next door to giants. I have written about it before
Fisheries wise, the situation is complex as the share a huge part of their resources with Argentina Under a common fisheries zone “Zona Comun de Pesca”.
A key issue in managing a fishery is a form of “ownership” of the resource so is clear “how much” can the players catch based on good scientific evaluation of the maximum available catch volumes by using economic and biological sustainability.
Argentina’s fisheries policies have been a mess for a long time, and Uruguay while having good intentions find itself in a “tragedy of commons” situations. If they take an strong management actions, then Argentina is just going to keep fishing what Uruguay don’t catch...
A very tricky situation.
