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Society

The “Taxi Dancers” Of Buenos Aires, Giving Visitors And Older Women A Real Taste Of Tango

Professional tango dancers for hire in Buenos Aires are giving clients — mostly foreign women and retirees — a chance to experience Argentina’s signature dance.

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Society

After Milei’s Cuts, Buenos Aires Barrios Are Drowning In Trash

Among the many cuts by the Milei government was a program that paid people to clear trash from their own neighborhoods. Now, both garbage and health fears are piling up.

Categories
The Next Pope

Pope Francis’ First Guide To Catholicism? His Italian Grandmother

To revisit the life and journey of Pope Francis, we are republishing a La Stampa article from shortly after his rise to the papacy.

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Society

Lunar New Year Around The World In 18 Sparkling Photographs

The best images from the past week of celebrations of the Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, spread farther and wider around the globe.

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

How Trump’s Revival Of The Monroe Doctrine Looks From Latin America

In the past, the Monroe Doctrine has pushed the United States to meddle in hemispheric affairs to strangle Soviet and communist subversion. Will incoming President Donald Trump revive this 19th-century U.S. foreign policy position to keep China out? And what would that mean for other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

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Food / Travel Ideas Society

Dieting Is Hard — Archeologists Can Help Explain Why

Banning flour and carbs from our diet is unfair considering our history with the grains that helped our ancestors survive. The key is to reduce refined flours — and our guilt.

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Geopolitics

How Smaller Nations Can Profit From Superpowers Fighting Over Supremacy

It’s called Active Non-Alignment. The end of a bipolar world and of Western supremacy has created a more fluid, and threatening, geopolitical map. For smaller powers, especially in Latin America, this is the time to “get the best deal” for themselves with the superpowers.

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Society

Jetlag, Broken Bones, Identity Crisis: Parenthood Across Time And Space

Life is a constant transition — and so is parenthood. How do we find balance and meaning in the midst of chaos and uncertainty, asks journalist Ignacio Pereyra in the latest iteration of his “Recalculating” newsletter on parenthood.

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Ideas Society

Censorship 2.0: Why The Fight For Free Speech Is Never Over

Advances in the fight against direct and indirect censorship have forced the enemies of freedom of expression to seek other, more subtle methods to distort and weaken public debate.

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Geopolitics

How Can Maduro Get Away With It? Look At What Lula And Pope Francis Refuse To Say

The Left’s reluctance to denounce President Maduro’s fraudulent reelection in Venezuela may seem tactical or expedient to itself, but is nothing short of stabbing the very principle of democracy at a challenging juncture in modern history.

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Food / Travel Society

Salt Shakers, Knives, Toilet Seats: What And Why We Steal From Restaurants

Restaurateurs in Buenos Aires are baffled at the phenomenon of paying customers stealing cutlery or fixtures after paying for a meal. While many don’t bother to make it police matter, some admit they relish humiliating a culprit if caught.

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Ideas Society

The Problem With Our Modern Quest For A Pain-Free Existence

We live in a political, social, economic and fundamentally cultural environment that viscerally rejects all pain and suffering as irrelevant. For the modern individual, it is not so much a case of being free to do this or that, as to be free from whatever limits us.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Remember When Venezuela Was A Haven Of Freedom And Democracy?

Today, Venezuela is barely recognizable as the prosperous and liberal state of the late 20th century that gave refuge to regional dissidents, thanks to the resolve of the late Carlos Andrés Pérez — the “roguish” president whose commitment to democracy has put his socialist successors to shame.

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Economy Geopolitics Ideas Society

How Taxing The Super-Rich Can Calm Global Tensions

The biggest firms and richest people in the world have the money states need to invest in services that can improve the lives of billions of people. That could help stop a collective slide into acute social and political tensions.

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Ideas Society Women Worldwide

Next On Netflix: At 60, Mafalda Is Just As (Im)Pertinent As Ever

The Argentine comic strip, who is now about to get its own Netflix series, was created at a time when Latin America was going through political censorship. A testament to Mafalda’s innocent-but-serious attitude toward world problems, an excellent example of how young people often see more clearly than the rest of us.

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Geopolitics In The News

Western Pressure On Maduro? It’s The Venezuelan Military That Will Decide

Foreign condemnations and sanctions will not force Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro to abandon power after losing the recent presidential elections. The army could, but with a security system designed by Cuban advisers, it is firmly under regime control.

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Geopolitics

Maduro Claims Victory — This Is How Venezuelan Democracy Died

Venezuela’s Bolivarian regime has been trampling on democracy, by degree, for 25 years while deftly managing international opinion to avoid too much backlash. Now, with Maduro defying fair elections, there may be no turning back.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Can An Autocrat Ever Lose?  Venezuela Election Tests The Limits Of Democracy

What we are witnessing is the struggle of a people against their oppressors. This electoral process, although flawed, could become a milestone for Venezuelans to regain their freedom — and it is one that should concern everyone who believes in democracy.

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Economy Geopolitics

Why Trade With China Weakens Mercosur — And How South Americans Only Make It Worse

Asia and above all China, have shown how the size of a market can drive state relations, and nowhere is this truer than in the Mercosur bloc’s increasing dependence on Asian exports. But regional integration in South America is stalling, as Argentina and Brazil are in another nasty spat.

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Economy Geopolitics Ideas

Javier Milei And The Destructive Art Of Anti-Diplomacy

Argentina’s rabidly neo-liberal president, Javier Milei, is downsizing the state at home and curbing diplomacy to the bare minimum of promoting the free market, lambasting communism, and nurturing ties with just two, cherished states, Israel and the United States.

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Geopolitics

Will Evo Morales Use Bolivia’s Failed Coup As A Path Back To Power?

Bolivian President Luis Arce easily survived Wednesday’s bungled coup, which may suggest the populist Left is more resilient than it used to be. But it may also be the foreshadowing of the reigniting of an internal war with fellow Socialist and former President Evo Morales as unrest spreads around the country.

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Society Women Worldwide

Why Milei’s Attacks On Abortion Rights Are A Risk For Women Beyond Argentina

Legalized in Argentina up to 14 weeks in 2020, abortion is now under attack by Javier Milei’s far-right government, which is compromising access to the procedure and spurring anti-abortion movements in the country — with implications for women in neighboring Brazil, Paraguay and Chile.

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Geopolitics

Milei’s Folly: Argentina Will Pay A Real Price For Bad-Boy Diplomacy

Argentina’s erratic right-wing president Javier Milei, seems to emulate Trump and Bolsonaro. But he has taken his bad diplomacy to a new level after last week’s spat with Spain’s Socialist party prime minister Pedro Sánchez.

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Ideas Society

Sincericide — When Saying What You Really Think Can Doom A Relationship

We all know good communication is the bedrock of a healthy relationship. Here’s why keeping some of your thoughts to yourself, and a practiced lack of utter sincerity, is a bedrock of a healthy couple.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Echos Of Nuremberg: The Need For Justice In Our Dark New Age Of Violence

The UN and the international criminal justice system are failing to prevent and punish brazen aggressions and killings around the world. When this period of turmoil ends, states must find new rules and tools to prevent the return of totalitarian violence.

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Society

Narcos, Argentina-Style: Is Rosario Turning Into The New Medellin?

A recent spike in gang violence in Rosario in central Argentina is prompting comparisons to the old breeding ground of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. But where would organized crime be, without the quiet connivance of a host of social and political actors?

Categories
LGBTQ Plus

Testosterona, A Chilean Writer Confronts The Childhood Trauma Of “Gay Cure”

Chilean-born, Buenos Aires-based writer Cristian Alarcón says it took 30 years of therapy to get over his parents’ bid to “cure” him of being gay as a child, but insists it’s too late to be angry with them.

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Ideas Society

Meet Sigmund Freud’s Nephew, A Child Psychiatrist And Tough Love Advocate

Child psychiatrist Joseph Knobel Freud, a Barcelona-based descendent of Sigmund Freud, says modern parents are far too loose.

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Ideas Society

Dogs And Democracy: Pets As The Perfect Mirror Of A Nation’s Respect For The Law

An Argentine writer in Sweden was shocked to see pets as quiet and orderly as people there, quite in contrast with pet owners at home. Did that say all there is to say about the contrasting states of two countries?

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Ideas Society

Milei And The Pope: What This Argentine Odd Couple Tells Us About Capitalism Today

Argentina’s rabidly privatizing president, Javier Milei, had a curiously warm meeting with “socialist” and fellow Argentine Pope Francis. As both have an emotive side and abhor the technocratic élites, it could even open the door to an unlikely entente, and even a long-awaited papal visit.

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Society

What To Do With The Complainers In Your Life — Advice From A South American Shrink

Argentines love to complain. But when you listen to others who complain, there are options: must we be a sponge to this daily toxicity or should we, politely, block out this act of emotional vandalism?

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Society

Therapy-Speak Seeps Into The Land Where Everyone Seems To Have A Shrink

Argentines readily discuss their moods and states of mind — and that’s a good thing, as long as we don’t pretend to actually diagnose each other, writes a psychologist.

Categories
Food / Travel

Argentine Chefs Dream Up A Luxury Kobe Sausage

Hot dog-loving Argentines even have a high-class sausage made entirely of tender Kobe beef, to be enjoyed without a thought for its price.

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Society

In The Shantytowns Of Buenos Aires, Proof That Neighbors Function Better Than Cities

Residents of the most disadvantaged peripheries of the Argentine capital are pushed to collaborate in the absence of municipal support. They build homes and create services that should be public. It is both admirable, and deplorable.

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Food / Travel Green

Patagonian National Park, A Fragile Beauty At The End Of The World

The Patagonian National Park is a spectacular and unique landscape that illustrates the outstanding beauty of nature. But it is at risk of becoming a victim of the climate crisis.

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In The News

Synod Forecast: How Far The Pope Will Go Toward A More Inclusive Catholic Church

Two synods by the Catholic Church, to be held in Rome in late 2023 and 2024, are to debate possible and even radical changes to the Church’s practices and rules in line with the Argentine pope’s vision of a social and inclusive Church.

Categories
LGBTQ Plus Society

“They Thought Sofia Was Copying Me” — The World’s First Trans Twins Share Their Story

Identical twins Mayla and Sofia were 19 when they became the first twins to transition together. Now, two years later, and living separately, the two Brazilian trans women talk with Argentine daily Clarín about how family support and their love for each other have helped them through hard times.

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Society Women Worldwide

Domestic Violence: Why Do Some Women Retract Accusations?

Fears of reprisal mixed with emotional guilt prompt some of the women battered at home to withdraw accusations against an aggressor. In Argentina, however, depending on the gravity of allegations, the state must investigate household violence regardless.

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Food / Travel Society

Meet Blanca Alsogaray, The First Woman To Win Cuba’s “Oscar Of Cigars”

For the first time, Cuba’s prestigious annual cigar festival recognized a woman, Alsogaray, owner of an iconic cigar shop in Buenos Aires, as the top representative of this celebrated lifeline of the Cuban economy.

Categories
Ideas Society

An Ode To Gratitude — The First Step To A Better Life

Learning to actively be more grateful to those in our lives, even when it’s hard, can change everything.

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