Much of life comes back to "The Godfather" so I'll start this post with:
"I believe in America. America has made my fortune."
I'm proud and thankful to be an American. I was before 'PatagoniaCaminada' but my pride increased during this past adventure. The rural scenery was fantastic but it's nice to be able to drink water from the tap and have an abundant supply of toilet paper for starters.
The flip side of being in a somewhat remote part of the world was the luxury of minimal internet access, which we used to post daily updates on our adventures in South America. It also allowed me to focus on not drinking out of the proverbial "firehose" of current events and actually read some books.
It's something I hope to carry throughout 2015 because I really enjoyed focusing on the story at hand for a change.
On the trip, I managed to finish 4.5 books. The last one was dense, full of detail and took awhile to get through. It wasn't for lack of interest. The book, "Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands" by Charles Moore, had so much information that you had to read and re-read due to the access the author had. I decided to pick a book on this topic due to our visit Patagonia and the Falklands War wounds still being fresh in the minds of the Argentines in the area. My interest was piqued after watching an episode of "Top Gear" and remembering it was still serious business the last time I was in Argentina in 1998 (the Falklands War was in 1982 in case you didn't know).
Before I had a chance to read the book, I asked our Argentine guides throughout our visit about their thoughts on the Falklands. Most said that it was a desperate attempt by General Galtieri to divert attention from many of the problems associated with his military dictatorship. All were sad that a fair amount of men who were not officially part of the military were ordered were to fight. Many of those men were killed and their families were never given proper respect afterwards. Protests continue to this day every week in specific locations, especially in Buenos Aires in front of where President Kirchner works.
The gist of what happened in the Falklands War was that Argentina tried to reclaim those islands from Great Britain. Margaret Thatcher, who was the Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time, basically said "no way" and sent in troops to get them back. She didn't have a ton of support when she made that gutsy call in the early 80s.
When Baroness Thatcher passed away, I posted on Facebook that she was "a person who was less concerned about keeping her job as opposed to doing her job. This quality is something that pretty much every politician in the US lacks." I will modify 'politician' to 'elected official'. We continue to see evidence of sustained "schmuckitude" (trademark pending) from our elected officials on every level. But citizens, including me, continue to believe in America and trips like the one we just took reinforce my gratitude of living in a democracy.
My thoughts on the book are that it was meticulously researched, which is why it took so long for me to finish. The mindsets of key decision makers during critical times during Baroness Thatcher's career were amazing to follow. I was overwhelmed by how much sourcing Mr. Moore did to ensure he had a comprehensive way to tell the story. Disclaimer: It was an authorized biography and he had an agreement with her that he would not publish it while she was alive.
While I learned a bit about her during the film "The Iron Lady", I feel the movie gave her the short end by choosing to focus on her dementia as opposed to the many barriers she broke down on the way to becoming Prime Minister as well as the decisions she had to make. Many despised her politics, but she had a true "courage of her convictions" and loved Great Britain.
Until today, I had no idea about 'International Women's Day'. I finished Moore's book this morning about one of the most controversial elected leaders in history, who happens to be a woman. An unexpected coincidence. After reading the book, I am even more impressed with what Baroness Thatcher dealt with on her rise to being Prime Minister as well as when she was PM. I am fairly confident that she would likely be horrified about the concept of 'International Women's Day' based on everything I have read about her.
Here's my beef with days like 'International Women's Day', 'Mother's Day' or whatever the current trend in social media with 'World Chocolate Day' (sorry, darling):
"How about trying to celebrate the things that matter to you everyday (like your mother for example)? Why do you need Facebook, Hallmark, Twitter, etc. to celebrate these things?"
I'd really like to see a day when we don't need to celebrate 'International Women's Day'. How about just celebrating meaningful contributions from everyone? Or treating all leaders the same, regardless of their gender.
I am not naive. Prejudice exists. Just look at the Ellen Pao suit against Kleiner Perkins. Be aggressive but don't be forceful and a bunch of other contradictory sexist crap. But women would be better served if all sexes were treated equally and we didn't need a call out for a specific day (IWD). If a person accomplishes something great, celebrate them. If a person commits a horrible offense against society (President Christina Kirchner of Argentina), prosecute them.
With respect to President Kirchner, everything that I have read about her and the situation currently dominating news in Argentina has been anything but complimentary. Yes, she is a woman but my hope that as an elected official in a "democracy" that she is treated in the same way as a man. Almost everyone in Argentina suspects something very nefarious is involved with the death of Alberto Nisman and that she had something to do with it. And sadly, everyone we talked to in Argentina doesn't think the real truth will come out with respect to the entire history related to the bombing that Nisman was investigating. This is why I continue to be thankful to be American.
[Rant over.]
By the way, we did take some notes on wine tasting. I'll post those and notes on other books read over the course of the trip in a few days.
"I believe in America. America has made my fortune."
I'm proud and thankful to be an American. I was before 'PatagoniaCaminada' but my pride increased during this past adventure. The rural scenery was fantastic but it's nice to be able to drink water from the tap and have an abundant supply of toilet paper for starters.
The flip side of being in a somewhat remote part of the world was the luxury of minimal internet access, which we used to post daily updates on our adventures in South America. It also allowed me to focus on not drinking out of the proverbial "firehose" of current events and actually read some books.
It's something I hope to carry throughout 2015 because I really enjoyed focusing on the story at hand for a change.
On the trip, I managed to finish 4.5 books. The last one was dense, full of detail and took awhile to get through. It wasn't for lack of interest. The book, "Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands" by Charles Moore, had so much information that you had to read and re-read due to the access the author had. I decided to pick a book on this topic due to our visit Patagonia and the Falklands War wounds still being fresh in the minds of the Argentines in the area. My interest was piqued after watching an episode of "Top Gear" and remembering it was still serious business the last time I was in Argentina in 1998 (the Falklands War was in 1982 in case you didn't know).
Before I had a chance to read the book, I asked our Argentine guides throughout our visit about their thoughts on the Falklands. Most said that it was a desperate attempt by General Galtieri to divert attention from many of the problems associated with his military dictatorship. All were sad that a fair amount of men who were not officially part of the military were ordered were to fight. Many of those men were killed and their families were never given proper respect afterwards. Protests continue to this day every week in specific locations, especially in Buenos Aires in front of where President Kirchner works.
The gist of what happened in the Falklands War was that Argentina tried to reclaim those islands from Great Britain. Margaret Thatcher, who was the Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time, basically said "no way" and sent in troops to get them back. She didn't have a ton of support when she made that gutsy call in the early 80s.
When Baroness Thatcher passed away, I posted on Facebook that she was "a person who was less concerned about keeping her job as opposed to doing her job. This quality is something that pretty much every politician in the US lacks." I will modify 'politician' to 'elected official'. We continue to see evidence of sustained "schmuckitude" (trademark pending) from our elected officials on every level. But citizens, including me, continue to believe in America and trips like the one we just took reinforce my gratitude of living in a democracy.
My thoughts on the book are that it was meticulously researched, which is why it took so long for me to finish. The mindsets of key decision makers during critical times during Baroness Thatcher's career were amazing to follow. I was overwhelmed by how much sourcing Mr. Moore did to ensure he had a comprehensive way to tell the story. Disclaimer: It was an authorized biography and he had an agreement with her that he would not publish it while she was alive.
While I learned a bit about her during the film "The Iron Lady", I feel the movie gave her the short end by choosing to focus on her dementia as opposed to the many barriers she broke down on the way to becoming Prime Minister as well as the decisions she had to make. Many despised her politics, but she had a true "courage of her convictions" and loved Great Britain.
Until today, I had no idea about 'International Women's Day'. I finished Moore's book this morning about one of the most controversial elected leaders in history, who happens to be a woman. An unexpected coincidence. After reading the book, I am even more impressed with what Baroness Thatcher dealt with on her rise to being Prime Minister as well as when she was PM. I am fairly confident that she would likely be horrified about the concept of 'International Women's Day' based on everything I have read about her.
Here's my beef with days like 'International Women's Day', 'Mother's Day' or whatever the current trend in social media with 'World Chocolate Day' (sorry, darling):
"How about trying to celebrate the things that matter to you everyday (like your mother for example)? Why do you need Facebook, Hallmark, Twitter, etc. to celebrate these things?"
I'd really like to see a day when we don't need to celebrate 'International Women's Day'. How about just celebrating meaningful contributions from everyone? Or treating all leaders the same, regardless of their gender.
I am not naive. Prejudice exists. Just look at the Ellen Pao suit against Kleiner Perkins. Be aggressive but don't be forceful and a bunch of other contradictory sexist crap. But women would be better served if all sexes were treated equally and we didn't need a call out for a specific day (IWD). If a person accomplishes something great, celebrate them. If a person commits a horrible offense against society (President Christina Kirchner of Argentina), prosecute them.
With respect to President Kirchner, everything that I have read about her and the situation currently dominating news in Argentina has been anything but complimentary. Yes, she is a woman but my hope that as an elected official in a "democracy" that she is treated in the same way as a man. Almost everyone in Argentina suspects something very nefarious is involved with the death of Alberto Nisman and that she had something to do with it. And sadly, everyone we talked to in Argentina doesn't think the real truth will come out with respect to the entire history related to the bombing that Nisman was investigating. This is why I continue to be thankful to be American.
[Rant over.]
By the way, we did take some notes on wine tasting. I'll post those and notes on other books read over the course of the trip in a few days.