Pig flu in Argentina

Right in time after the elections, pig flue takes over the country. Since one week, news are full of the influenca and politics and privates are asking what to do. With 55 deaths up till now, Argentina now is among the most effected countries. Schools allover the country closed down this week, as well as universities, kindergardens and courts, in some cities all public life like cafes, cinemas and shoppings has been closed down. Desinfecting alcohol lotions and face masks are sold out all over the country, while the suburbans already discovered it as the big business and sell it on the street.

Like many times, the up till now taken meassures are not effecting the poor. Closing down schools makes kids in the barrios hanging around on the streets, pleading to use desinfecting lotions can't be efforded, asking to use dry food in the soup kitchens doesn't make sense since the families dont have proper kitchens to cook. So the feedback from the social proyects in great Buenos Aires is quite different from reactions elsewhere. Completly closing down, would even multiply the bad effects for the most vulnerable groups of Argentine society. Not a single word about that in the big newspapers, media hysteria of pig flu is the scare of the middle class.

Therefore, while you in Cologne and Berlin celebrated in masses 40 years of the stonewall uprising (congrats!), I unfortunately had to decide for a calm weekend at home in self ordered isolation. Nevertheless, ISEDET´s famous hot salsa night took place on thursday, yet under stricter hygienical rules. My neighbour Thiago invited to a real feijoada and you can see a big part of my international home bases: Roberta (Italia), Vero (Ecuador), Simona (Italia), David (Colombia), Thiago (Brazil), Alejandra (Uruguay), the Brazilian friends Gilson and Luiz and Hanna (Germany).