ARGENTINA: DESPERATE AND HUNGRY PEOPLE RUMMAGE THROUGH TRASH FOR SCRAPS OF FOOD AS UNEMPLOYMENT TOPS 40 PERCENT
Record ID:
640713
ARGENTINA: DESPERATE AND HUNGRY PEOPLE RUMMAGE THROUGH TRASH FOR SCRAPS OF FOOD AS UNEMPLOYMENT TOPS 40 PERCENT
- Title: ARGENTINA: DESPERATE AND HUNGRY PEOPLE RUMMAGE THROUGH TRASH FOR SCRAPS OF FOOD AS UNEMPLOYMENT TOPS 40 PERCENT
- Date: 21st June 2002
- Summary: CONCORDIA, ARGENTINA (JUNE 18, 2002) (REUTERS) SV ARRIVAL OF THE GARBAGE TRUCK CU BAGS FROM THE TRUCK ARE UNLOADED SV/CU/SLV PEOPLE SEARCHING TROUGH THE GARBAGE (3 SHOTS) MCU (Spanish) FABIAN MARTINEZ SAYING: "We can't find anything. You used to be able to find some chicken skins or maybe a piece of potato to take home, but now you can't find these things here." SV THE GARBAGE TRUCK ARRIVES AND UNLOADS THE GARBAGE. PEOPLE RUMMAGES THROUGH THE TRASH CU OF KIDS (2 SHOTS) SLV/MCU (Spanish) OSCAR ROMERO SAYING: "Unfortunately, the situation is bad and I have to come here. What could I do, we are really poor and both of us are old and alone." (2 SHOTS) TRACKING SHOT OF THE POOR SUBURBS SV MAN GOING TO THE BACKYARD OF HIS HOUSE. CHICKENS IN THE BACKGROUND SLV THREE MEN SITTING IN THE BACKYARD CU KID SV (Spanish) KID FOLLOWING A RABBIT SAYING: "Dad, look where the rabbit is going." MCU (Spanish) UNEMPLOYED FIDEL ESPINOSA SAYING: "Thanks to the barrio's president the school give us food. We are living from that, we are not getting any salary. My sons have no jobs. One is doing odd jobs, but we get very little money, 8 pesos per day, and with 8 pesos you can see that we can't live."
- Embargoed: 6th July 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CONCORDIA, ARGENTINA
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA6LQPOH38GXCBN2K3U7E88OOTA
- Story Text: In Argentina's poorest city, people rummage through trash for scraps of food alongside pigs and wild dogs, unemployment tops 40 percent and even the mayor says "hell" is just around the corner.
Desperate and hungry as Argentina suffers its worst economic crisis, dozens of jobless gather every day at Concordia's city dump to sift through mounds of plastic bags, shards of glass and cigarette butts in search of lunch.
"You used to be able to find some chicken skins or maybe a piece of potato to take home to your kids, but now too many people come here," said Fabian Martinez, 28, as others crowded around a recently arrived garbage truck.
"These people are killing themselves. There are no jobs."
Just like Argentina itself, decades of corruption and economic chaos have sparked Concordia's spectacular fall from one of the most opulent corners of the world to a wasteland of crime, poverty and financial ruin.
Only half a century ago, the "Citrus Capital of Argentina"
north of Buenos Aires was a vibrant exporter of oranges, lumber and Argentina's renowned grass-fed beef. Floods of German and Italian immigrants arrived to plant lush orchards and cash crops on some of the world's richest farmland.
Today, a nationwide-high 70 percent of Concordia's 140,000 people are unable to meet their basic needs in food, health and clothing. One U.S. dollar buys 40 pounds (20 kg) of oranges at local fruit stands, and the city's shantytowns are ringed by thousands of acres (hectares) of unused land.
Many of the local problems trickle down from a four-year recession that has left Argentina's financial system near collapse, closed entire industries and left half of the country's 36 million people living in poverty.
The current mayor says his town is now paying the cost for a long legacy of living off government handouts that suddenly dried up after Argentina's federal government defaulted in January on part of its $140 billion public debt.
Concordia has been further paralyzed by a nasty dispute with the the provincial governor, who Orduna says had been withholding funds needed to cover salaries for city officials like police, some of whom have not been paid for months.
The political brawl is the talk of Barrio Fatima, a shantytown where almost the only people with regular income "work" for the city government but are unable to explain what exactly it is they do.
Most in the neighborhood long ago gave up any hope of finding permanent work. Many are bloated from malnutrition.
Most have some kind of visible serious health problem.
Carlos Lieberman, editor of the daily El Heraldo, says such poverty is getting worse and will make the task of reviving the city that much harder if the national economy ever stabilizes.
Doctors at Concordia's largest hospital say a massive crime wave has been worsened by a sudden flood of guns into the city. An off-duty police officer had his throat slashed this month after being confronted in a bar.
Some efforts are being made locally to stem the crisis. The mayor waved a list of the names of the "sons of the bitches"
he said owed his government taxes. Others stage daily street protests to demand all politicians resign and call elections.
But Armando Rodriguez, an 80-year-old former barber who says he plans to die soon in his solitary tent in the plaza outside city hall, sees no end in sight to the decay. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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