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Monday, December 1, 2008

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






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.

3 comments:

tangocherie said...

Amen, Brother Frank!

99 said...

Well, as I write the bad news is that DAA has been intervened. The good news is DAA has not been de-certified. The last is only due to Mike extremely generous resignation.

Unfair for him who could not defend himself in public of any secret charges and show proofs of his innocence.
Fair for the members who still have a chapter in Argentina despite of "the 4".

You might meet some of "the 4" shortly in the U.S., in Uganda/Singapur or in Finland where they openly said they where planning to fly/live soon or already are.
You might even come across their resume for a position in your company or see them asking for a job at an NGO.
And who knows? you might even see some running for next elections at DAA or somewhere else.

Maybe, only maybe, you´ll find them before that in a celebration party somewhere in Buenos Aires.

Although I don´t think any decent democrat will join them celebrate, contract them, do business with them or vote for them, you can take the opportunity to ask them about the lose-lose game they played.

Again, don´t expect anything different than what you´ve witnessed in the past month.

Unknown said...

Hi Cherie and 99,

What a good point! There was something else that I never understood. Elections where coming up in January. Why go through a special vote a month before regular elections?

Something smells very fishy, especially if those people who threw out the accusations are not going to be around for elections.

Is this true? Any of the 4 reading this care to explain?