John,
Okay, so BA is pretty cool, but like all big cities there are a huge amount of poor people here too.

This lady spends her days as we see in this photo, and there are thousands like her. Outside the Teatro Cervantes there's an indian looking woman who gives herself the vaguest hint of privacy with an umbrella... she lives on the steps of the theatre. There is a family of a mother and four children who live outside the supermarket. There's another old lady who sits all day, next to a telephone junction box, her hand permanetly outstretched and her voice croaky from asking for help.

You get it all over, but it's hard to walk past. If I have change I'll stop sometimes and hand over a peso. It's 20p for goodness' sake. But for every person you give a peso to there are a thousand, ten thousand living in the most awful poverty.

One step up from the people begging on the streets are the cartoneros. These are the people (some look ten years old) who come out at night and sort the rubbish left on the side of the street (there's a lot of that). It's the sort of job you would give... no I wouldn't give it to anyone... Imagine if instead of the dustmen collecting, they had to sort through your bins and they were paid according to how much recyclable material they could collect... I can hardly imagine it and I've seen it.

I'll return to frivolous posts another time (in the meantime, think on this: April 2 is Malvinas (Falklands) day... where do you think we'll be? The main square?)
  ¶ 12:55 AM