Radio Reminder - La Isla

I will be on the radio today at noon. The show is called "La Visión" (The Vision) and I will be interviewed by Carlos Clerici and Alejandra Zuccoli.

La Isla 89.9 FM - La Vision


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Me van a entrevistar hoy a las doce del mediodía en el programa "La Visión" de Carlos Clerici y Alejandra Zuccoli en La Isla 89.9 FM.

Largest Environmental Disaster?

I wonder, if the US media aren't around to call it, then could it really be the largest environmental disaster?

Or could it be that George Bush does have a direct line to the big guy in the sky? I can just imagine his nightly prayers going something along the lines of "Dear Lord, if there is another major disaster please make the media blind to it, and could you maybe help in taking care of it? I mean, we are the greatest country in the world."

Source 1 - "Let's talk clean coal" by Pharyngula.
Source 2- "Environmental disaster in Tennessee rivals largest oil spills" by Inside, Looking Out.


Seriously though, where the hell is the major media coverage on this?

It's Christmas, Shut Up!

I found this video by ways of a very popular blog called Pharyngula. I guess we share a common appreciation of anti BillO humor.



And on a lighter side of the holidays (or holy days, but don't let any super religious, super conservative in on the origins of the word 'cause I like seeing them rant themselves into a circle) you might want to keep tabs on the big guy and see what he is up to. No, I mean the other big guy, the one that Coca Cola declared chubby, and white bearded with a love for red suits and pants. Click on the Norad Tracks Santa sight to track his whereabouts.

Merry X-mas, happy holidays and just have a great rest of the year for those of you who don't celebrate anything at all between now and New Year's Eve.

Pan Dulce on My Mind

This is the time of the year that I am busiest, stressed out, and would have been pulling my hair out by now, but that was last year´s trick.

Patricia Gilmore is this year´s Pan Dulce Angel. She, and 18 volunteers, went around the city and gave any homeless person they could find an edible hug (a.k.a. Pan Dulce). I donated some pan dulces to her idea and you could read more about that by clicking here. She promises to organize this thing better next year. She could possibly have a database that would be valuable to the city... just thinking out loud.

This year we participated with Girl´s Night Out and we raffled off 5 Pan Dulces de Tus Sueños. There were also many other things raffled off and it turned out to be a very fun night. The weather was very nice, drinking champagne, surrounded by women. Too bad I forgot the camera at home.

Yo Que Voz, also participated and they have a promotion going on with our cookies as well.

Oh, La La (the picture above was taken from the magazine) just placed us among the top 5 pan dulces this year. You won´t find it in the link I provided though; it´s only in their printed magazine.

So far, we are on track to selling almost three times as many Pan Dulces this year as we did last year, and that is a great way to wrap up this holiday season.

Running for Treasurer of Democrats Abroad Argentina

As if I didn´t have enough things on my plate right now, I decided to make a run for Treasurer of Democrats Abroad Argentina. For those of you who are not members and would not get to see my post on that website, I offer it to you here:

I am honored to be included for consideration for the position of Treasurer.

I have lived in Argentina since 1999 and have lived through the major financial meltdown of 2001. Catastrophe and crisis usually come hand in hand with opportunity. Back then that crisis was part of the world events that lead me to try something new. Out of that crisis Sugar & Spice was born and it grew to become Argentina´s first truly gourmet cookie brand, singel handedly creating the local retail gourmet cookie segment and reaching over 2 million pesos in sales this year.

Before I entered into the world of entreprenuership, I was working in corporate sales of Crown Relocations in Buenos Aires, and before that I ran English conversation classes and helped people create their own unique grad school essays.

Throughout the whole time I have been in Argentina I have also been involved with Fundación Leer, which is a local license of Reading is Fundamental from the United States. I saw first hand just how that group affected change, inspiration and hope in the eyes of the children that received their very first, and in many cases, the family´s only book. From that first tear streaked smile of a child hugging her book I was hooked. At first I donated time, and when I started my own company, I set aside a percentage of sales. We know have grown to be able to support a reading corner.

Democrats Abroad Argentina has also ventured into a crisis of its own. I am confident that we can pull it out of that mire and build upon the succesful work that has already been done. We should never forget how crisis and opportunity go hand in hand. I see living proof of that in every supermarket shelf and every child that recieves a book through Fundación Leer, and I would like to have a hand at making sure Democrats Abroad Argentina has a shot at success as well.

This would be something new for me and I would be honored to serve as your Treasurer.

Girl´s Night Out

This event is for all women, and for that woman in your life (if you are a guy reading this).

Go ahead, sign up, go have some fun drinking, socializing, shopping, eating, shopping some more and all the while knowing that you are also donating to a local charity.

For this event we are going to raffle off 5 of our Pan Dulce de Tus Sueños. You need to buy a ticket to the event be eligible for this raffle that they will organize.

For all who participate they are going to be giving away some goodie bags that will have Sugar & Spice goodies included.

Click below to get more details.

www.girlsnightoutbuenosaires.com

Now what are we to do on Wednesday night?

Now that the special vote isn´t happening and you, the *thirsty beer swigging mob, have no where to go Wednesday night you might want to consider ditching your beer mugs for wine glasses.

I wanted to drum up some support for a tasting that Gary and Nigel organize on a monthly basis. This month, I'm covering for Gary. The tasting costs 35 pesos and it is at Nigel Tollerman's wine cellar at Anchorena 695.

If you can't make it, feel free to spread the word to others who might be interested :) They can RSVP to the Google groups list, or me at phos at pobox.com or my cell is 15-6942-7132, but if it is just a few you can also come without RSVP as we don't usually get close to packing the house.

I'm also planning to bring some cheese this month, so we won't go hungry. We also have a Google group dedicated to this monthly tasting, http://groups.google.com/group/vinoba

Take care,

Jason

Okay Jason, you asked for it. Get your cleaning crew ready to receive the thirsty, beer swigging mob.

*reference to someone thinking that this type of mob was going to appear at their 6th floor home.

High School Musical 4 or Democrats Abroad Undone?

I just can´t get a break. I was looking forward to this meeting to at least have some closure. Is it too much to ask to have a defining moment? This brought flashbacks of high school petty squabbling.

The special vote is canceled. Joe Green, the Vice Chair for Dems Abroad of the Americas wrote to all of us with the news that the showdown was off.

Someone backed down? Someone repented and took back their accusations?

Hardly, what happened was that the entire board decided to throw in the towel. That´s right, all of them quit and now we will have the normal yearly vote in January:

I write to inform you that, because of the current leadership crisis in your Executive Committee, all members of that Committee have tendered their resignations to the Democrats Abroad (DPCA or Democratic Party Committee Abroad) global leadership team. This means that there will be no special meeting on Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

Although Mike doesn´t get to face a firing squad, I am kind of let down because he also doesn´t get to respond to his accusers. I am sure that Mike was also disappointed. Debbie explained it pretty well in her blog post on the latest happenings.

However, I am sure he will get over it and will run again. I am looking forward to it, and I will support Yanqui Mike once again.

But, who will run the show if we don´t have a board?

The January 2009 Annual General Meeting of DAAR will elect a new executive committee and its officers (this would have had to happen in any event, since the 2008 selection was part of an organizing meeting and requires a new election at the first AGM). This meeting will be organized by the DPCA leadership and I plan to be with you at that time.

That´s right, the big man himself is coming down here to make sure things run smoothly and nobody wants to run around and cancel meetings, and change venues, and worry about drunken mobs tracking mud all over their living rooms.

Political Drama in Buenos Aires

We just couldn´t let the Republicans have all the fun of political infighting. Could it have been the lack of fight, now that Obama won, that made us turn on each other?

Democtrats Abroad Argentina is now organizing a vote to remove Yanqui Mike from DAA for this Wednesday night at the home of a fellow expat Laura Atkins:

Calle Austria 2660,
the entire 6th floor,
Recoleta, Buenos Aires
6pm

View Larger Map

Being a member of Democrats Abroad, I think I have previously mentioned it here, I have received some e-mails on the subject; another expat mentioned those e-mails in her post. And yet, another expat wrote about the same thing, and according to her post, she seemed to have met Yanqui Mike the same way I met him.

For transparency´s sake I have to mention that I consider Yanqui Mike a friend. I have been social with him and his wife and have gone out and shared a beer or two. It should not be any surprise to anyone that I would find all this nonsense unsettling. My very first reaction is to stand up for my friends. What kind of a friend would I be if that was not the case?

My second reaction was to check with him to see if he did anything wrong.

The other two posts on the subject, written by Gina of Buenos Aires Style and Debbie of TangoSpam highlighted the little we know of the accusations. So far, in those accusations, I don´t see any reason to have taken things this far. If there are other reasons I guess I will have to wait to hear what those are at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the accused Yanqui Mike, did write on his blog regarding this turn of events. The very first post on the call for his resignation has him promising to post every e-mail that he receives. The second one is actually a listing of some more e-mails--this guy gets a lot of e-mails. In the third one he is posting information on the meeting and begging people to go and witness and vote. In this one, "Heidi in San Juan" makes an important observation.

"This is more like Democrats Abroad Buenos Aires" since people that live in the interior of the country are out of luck and will not be able to vote unless they travel to the big city.

One other little thorn to this event is the timing. 6pm is very early for Argentina. There will be some people who will not be able to attend becuase they will be either working or stuck in rush hour traffic. However, I have also been calling people and the word on the street is that there is a lot of interest in this meeting and some people are making arrangements to get there. Heck, one guy is coming straight from the hospital after recuperating from surgery and another person is coming from Quilmes just to name two examples.

I wonder how big Laura´s 6th floor really is? We might have to actually use the entire floor.

I will have to take time out of my day. I would rather be playing with my kids, or spending time with my parents who are visiting from out of town, or being in the company of my own wife, getting dinner ready and talking about our day, etc.

I probably echo most of my fellow Democrats when I say the following: There better be some damaging evidence there ´cause what I have seen so far is petty squabbling and if I drag my ass out there to hear whining and little substance I am going to be pissed.

And if that wasn´t bad enough Ian of Goodairs just had to highlight how now it looks like the famous Argentine beef will be a thing of the past much sooner than later.