I just saw the strangest thing about an hour ago. I coming out of the big park in palermo, and I hear police sirens coming from a long way away. As I was coming to the edge of the park, the sirens were just starting to pass by. There were a few motorcycle cops up front clearing the way, and then the main group, spread out over about a quarter mile came up. And this group seemed to be nothing but futbol fans on their way to today's game for River Plate, one of the two big local futbol teams.
There were four or five old dilapidated buses, with guys hanging out the windows and leaning out the doorwells, all yelling and hooting and what-not. My first thought was, oh, that might be fun, but then I saw that the buses were absolutely jammed inside, like worse than the worse rush-hour subway. I'm kind of guessing that the old buses didn't have any seats either, it looked like everyone was standing up, cattle-car style.
There were also about 15 or 20 cars filled with these guys, too, and some motorcycles. And these were for the most part grown men, I think, guys in their 20's it looks like, though surely there were plenty of teens and guys in their 30's and maybe even 40's.
And there were flags and banners and stuff, of course, draped across the sides of the buses, and held out the windows of the buses and cars. Because, lord knows, these guys want to make sure that we know who they support.
What's interesting here, of course, is that a bunch of knuckle-heads on their way to their team's game have to have a police escort. And it was a substantial police escort -- There must have been 10 motorcycle cops, and about 4 or 5 police cars, and they were stopping cross-traffic and everything. Clearing the way so these fans don't come to a stop. Lord knows what would happen then, I suppose.
I haven't researched this phenomenon or paid it much attention, but it seems to be a big part of life here, and elsewhere. Young men who support some sports team (pretty much always soccer, it appears) in such fervent fashion that they become dangerous. Here they refer to the rowdy fans as "the barra brava", which means the fierce, brave, or angry fans. Fierce seems to be the appropriate word here. There was a big scandal here a year or so ago, an internecine battle where the River barra brava fought amongst themselves to the point of plotting great violence against each others, maybe even murder. (I'm not that sure of the details, and don't really want to put in the effort to find out -- this stuff makes me sick.) Really, I just don't get it.
One thing that's interesting and not at all surprising, is that this is entirely a male phenomenon. I remember reading this about the UK, how twenty, thirty years ago when they were having real soccer thug problems, the fans were all male. Then after much cracking down and much cleaning up of stadiums and much general prosperity, soccer game attendance has become a family matter, and the thugs just aren't a problem anymore.
I thought of this when I came home and saw on the local news some beauty contest, swear to god, miss argentine wheat, or the wheat queen or something else suitable to the national wheat festival. It was the usual, fantastically beautiful twenty year-olds parading around in bathing suits. And I thought, girls, don't let your guys turn into soccer thugs. But they do, and I think this is a big problem in this society, and in a lot of societies.
What problem, you ask? It's this -- too much segregation of the sexes. The girls here seem to do girly things together, and the boys do boy things together. It's very group-y, this culture, it seems, much like spain. Everyone goes out in groups. But here the groups seem very sex-segregated. Mind you, there are plenty of counter-examples, but in general it seems that the girls here are happy being girly amongst themselves, and the boys are left to be boyish among themselves. And what does this produce?
Boys acting like sociopaths, that's what. Futbol fans that require a police escort.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
More on Cartoneros
I'm putting up another post on Cartoneros just because I got a better picture of one today, one with his cart somewhat loaded up. Cartoneros are the city's freelance recyclers. I wrote a long-ish post about them last week.
This guy is only 16 or 17, so his cart is on the small side, and not too loaded up. Bigger, older guys haul around four, five, six times this much stuff, all on these two wheel carts that require careful balancing.
Last night I went for a midnight bike ride downtown and back, and I saw lots of Cartoneros out.
I read recently that they canceled the tren blanco, the free cartonero train that they used to use to haul their findings out to the suburbs where they hand them in to the recycling companies or the brokers or whoever. Now, it seems that everything has to move by truck. So last night I saw six, seven, eight big ol' trucks being loaded up with these giant sacks full of recyclables. No forklifts here, these guys and women lift these sacks, some of which probably weight a couple hundred pounds. Serious work.
I also saw two of the trucks loaded to the brim with recyclables and also with cartoneros -- fifteen or twenty people perched on top of and between all the bags and piles of cardboard and whatever. People were still scrambling up into the second truck, and they were laughing and yucking it up quite a bit. It actually did look pretty funny, because the load is anything but stable so they were kind of falling around in the back as they jumped up and got settled.
I'm glad they were able to see the humor and enjoy themselves a bit after a hard day and night of work.
This guy is only 16 or 17, so his cart is on the small side, and not too loaded up. Bigger, older guys haul around four, five, six times this much stuff, all on these two wheel carts that require careful balancing.
Last night I went for a midnight bike ride downtown and back, and I saw lots of Cartoneros out.
I read recently that they canceled the tren blanco, the free cartonero train that they used to use to haul their findings out to the suburbs where they hand them in to the recycling companies or the brokers or whoever. Now, it seems that everything has to move by truck. So last night I saw six, seven, eight big ol' trucks being loaded up with these giant sacks full of recyclables. No forklifts here, these guys and women lift these sacks, some of which probably weight a couple hundred pounds. Serious work.
I also saw two of the trucks loaded to the brim with recyclables and also with cartoneros -- fifteen or twenty people perched on top of and between all the bags and piles of cardboard and whatever. People were still scrambling up into the second truck, and they were laughing and yucking it up quite a bit. It actually did look pretty funny, because the load is anything but stable so they were kind of falling around in the back as they jumped up and got settled.
I'm glad they were able to see the humor and enjoy themselves a bit after a hard day and night of work.
This begger got some money from me
I was riding the subte (subway) here today, and it was hot and crowded. It was 90, 92 humid degrees or so today, and there's no such thing as air conditioning in the subte. So, it was a kind of uncomfortable ride.
I hear a begger giving her speech down the car, but I can't see her. This is unusual, because you don't really get beggers on the subte here. You get tons of people selling things, all kinds of things. They have a funny technique, where they go up and down the car, and place the book, toy, hair clip, or whatever in everybody's lap or hand it to everybody, and then they go back and either pick up the item or if they're lucky the cash that someone is willing to part with. These men and women, boys and girls, definitely hustle, they are working, make no mistake about it.
So it was unusual to hear someone just asking for money. I couldn't hear/understand much of what she said, but she definitely said something about an operation in a hospital.
My New York wariness kicks in somewhat, but I don't want to be too cold here, so I take a look down the car to get a look at her between the people standing if I can. And right away, when I see her, I know I'm taking out the wallet. Because ... her whole face is burned off. Seriously, melted. After a while she made her way back down to our end, and I got a much better look as I handed her ten pesos (3 bucks or so). Her face was all melted, her ears were gone, they were just holes, and her whole scalp was gone, except for a patch in the very back where she had eight-inch long hair growing in a ponytail.
As she came closer, I saw that it wasn't just her face. Her arms were totally scarred, and, I hate to say it, she didn't have either hand. Both hands, gone. Stumps at the wrist, or slightly above. You couldn't hand her money, you had to put it in a little purse she had around her neck.
God, it breaks my heart just writing about it. Lord knows it set off a torrent of thinking about fate and merit and fairness and charity etc. etc. etc. etc., which you will be thankful to hear I won't bore you with here.
But what impressed me most about this woman, when she came by and I got a look at her face, we made some eye contact and she was very not self-conscious, it seemed she had made her peace with her condition. Later I thought, fuck, this woman is so much tougher than me.
One last detail, perhaps the most interesting. When I looked at this woman, with face seriously deformed, and no hands, I realized she was wearing eye makeup. It was kind of inspiring, she actually moved through the car with confidence. Like I said, fuck, this woman is tougher than me.
I hope I see her on the subte again -- I will give her more than a ten next time.
I hear a begger giving her speech down the car, but I can't see her. This is unusual, because you don't really get beggers on the subte here. You get tons of people selling things, all kinds of things. They have a funny technique, where they go up and down the car, and place the book, toy, hair clip, or whatever in everybody's lap or hand it to everybody, and then they go back and either pick up the item or if they're lucky the cash that someone is willing to part with. These men and women, boys and girls, definitely hustle, they are working, make no mistake about it.
So it was unusual to hear someone just asking for money. I couldn't hear/understand much of what she said, but she definitely said something about an operation in a hospital.
My New York wariness kicks in somewhat, but I don't want to be too cold here, so I take a look down the car to get a look at her between the people standing if I can. And right away, when I see her, I know I'm taking out the wallet. Because ... her whole face is burned off. Seriously, melted. After a while she made her way back down to our end, and I got a much better look as I handed her ten pesos (3 bucks or so). Her face was all melted, her ears were gone, they were just holes, and her whole scalp was gone, except for a patch in the very back where she had eight-inch long hair growing in a ponytail.
As she came closer, I saw that it wasn't just her face. Her arms were totally scarred, and, I hate to say it, she didn't have either hand. Both hands, gone. Stumps at the wrist, or slightly above. You couldn't hand her money, you had to put it in a little purse she had around her neck.
God, it breaks my heart just writing about it. Lord knows it set off a torrent of thinking about fate and merit and fairness and charity etc. etc. etc. etc., which you will be thankful to hear I won't bore you with here.
But what impressed me most about this woman, when she came by and I got a look at her face, we made some eye contact and she was very not self-conscious, it seemed she had made her peace with her condition. Later I thought, fuck, this woman is so much tougher than me.
One last detail, perhaps the most interesting. When I looked at this woman, with face seriously deformed, and no hands, I realized she was wearing eye makeup. It was kind of inspiring, she actually moved through the car with confidence. Like I said, fuck, this woman is tougher than me.
I hope I see her on the subte again -- I will give her more than a ten next time.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Oh, this is too good
Okay, I think this is the most ridiculous, most hilariously unique thing I've seen so far here in Buenos Aires.
I'm flippin' channels on the cable TV, going through the five sports channels because I know there was a tennis tournament today, and I see that two of the five channels are broadcasting the same Boca Juniors game. Boca Juniors are one of the two big local futbol (soccer) teams, the other being River Plate. Nice names, huh?
On both channels, they're showing the score and the time remaining in a box up top, and they're panning around the stadium, showing fans, going nuts as they always are. And on both channels the announcers are doing the play-by-play in spanish, with the usual ups and downs of the game -- the announcers always getting more excited as the ball gets down by the goal.
OK, here's the good part -- both channels just keep moving the camera around the crowd, they don't show the game at all. Even when the announcers are going nuts, the camera is just panning around the stadium. On both channels.
So, clearly, neither of these channels had the right to broadcast the game. But somehow, they have the right to broadcast shots of the stadium and play-by-play. But the really amazing thing is, they put this on TV, and people must watch it. And enough people watch it that they play it on two channels!
So they love their futbol.
And also, I guess, maybe this shows that the fan experience, the group nuttiness going on in the stands, must be a big part of the appeal of the game. I'm sure this is true with football fans in the states and soccer fans all over the world, but where else do they play the game on TV without showing the game?
UPDATE -- one week later
Right now there are two stations playing today's game involving River Plate, the other big futbol team in town. And, sure enough, they are not showing the game, just the fans in the stadium. Two channels, again. This is the weirdest thing ever, if you ask me.
UPDATE -- on hour later
OK, River game is over, now the Boca game is on. And once again, they are not showing the game, only the fans in the stadium. This game is only one one channel, for what it's worth. So clearly this is something pretty normal, at least here.
LAST UPDATE
Pato, my spanish teacher, confirmed that this happens because the cable companies have "premium" sports channels that broadcast the actual games. No surprise there, I guess. But still I think it's hilarious that there's enough interest to sustain two stations showing nothing but the stands for the whole game.
I'm flippin' channels on the cable TV, going through the five sports channels because I know there was a tennis tournament today, and I see that two of the five channels are broadcasting the same Boca Juniors game. Boca Juniors are one of the two big local futbol (soccer) teams, the other being River Plate. Nice names, huh?
On both channels, they're showing the score and the time remaining in a box up top, and they're panning around the stadium, showing fans, going nuts as they always are. And on both channels the announcers are doing the play-by-play in spanish, with the usual ups and downs of the game -- the announcers always getting more excited as the ball gets down by the goal.
OK, here's the good part -- both channels just keep moving the camera around the crowd, they don't show the game at all. Even when the announcers are going nuts, the camera is just panning around the stadium. On both channels.
So, clearly, neither of these channels had the right to broadcast the game. But somehow, they have the right to broadcast shots of the stadium and play-by-play. But the really amazing thing is, they put this on TV, and people must watch it. And enough people watch it that they play it on two channels!
So they love their futbol.
And also, I guess, maybe this shows that the fan experience, the group nuttiness going on in the stands, must be a big part of the appeal of the game. I'm sure this is true with football fans in the states and soccer fans all over the world, but where else do they play the game on TV without showing the game?
UPDATE -- one week later
Right now there are two stations playing today's game involving River Plate, the other big futbol team in town. And, sure enough, they are not showing the game, just the fans in the stadium. Two channels, again. This is the weirdest thing ever, if you ask me.
UPDATE -- on hour later
OK, River game is over, now the Boca game is on. And once again, they are not showing the game, only the fans in the stadium. This game is only one one channel, for what it's worth. So clearly this is something pretty normal, at least here.
LAST UPDATE
Pato, my spanish teacher, confirmed that this happens because the cable companies have "premium" sports channels that broadcast the actual games. No surprise there, I guess. But still I think it's hilarious that there's enough interest to sustain two stations showing nothing but the stands for the whole game.
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