Social Genocide Page #8

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An incredible number

of undernourished kids.

We said:
Enough!

In 1982, we took to the streets,

formed a major movement,

that the press took up,

and reached the whole country.

But the policy continued.

The policy of austerity...

Each time it was like a stab

in the back for us doctors.

We knew that

the kids born then

would be so poorly fed

that a huge amount of them

would wind up in here.

That's why we wrote

this text saying:

"Others decide,

but we see them dying."

When we started

to find out what to do,

we translated books from English.

We found some solutions there

for balancing liquids,

salts, and proteins.

But we were so overcrowded,

and then we read

a little Argentinean book,

by a man called Juan P. Garrahan...

He wrote:
"Undernourishment

"is a socio-economic

and cultural disease

that can be cured

by giving everyone a job."

He doesn't say:

"By giving food to everyone."

That triggered things off,

we got it...

Why send

an undernourished kid home?

What's the country doing?

We had a scientific approach,

but this year,

it's become exponential.

Before, we had

about 18% underfed kids.

Now it's close to 80%.

In garbage dumps,

all those abandoned children,

pregnant girls of 14 or 15,

the kids called "nobody's kids",

only eat every other day.

Should I tell a 14-year old mother:

"To fight your baby's diarrhea,

"you need chicken,

polenta, milk,

"clean water..."

It's totally unethical,

an inconceivable cruelty.

How can I say that,

if she's eating garbage?

These children live on garbage.

The survivors of the 3rd generation

of underfed people

are giving birth to these kids.

A lot of kids die.

Those that survive

are smaller, weaker,

and have less intellectual capacity.

But they're people like any others,

with feelings.

To consider them...

as a sub-species of society,

is revolting.

They're people like you and me.

They have the same rights as others,

they suffer like others,

if their child dies or gets sick,

they have a right to a home,

with drinking water,

and food daily, and a job.

We speak of human rights...

What rights do these people have,

when they're put down this way?

I really feel

that a certain part of society

wants to get rid of these people.

As if they were bothered by them.

What part?

We know who:

Those who grabbed everything.

and 10% own everything.

That's not a system...

I'm 54 and it's always the same.

That same old austerity.

They always go back

to the same things.

They don't give a damn.

And the kids

have no place at the table

and aren't fed.

The people we don't want to see

in this country

are those who are born,

who live and die

without ID's,

without legal existence.

The other Argentina,

the hidden one.

Those who've been excluded,

for whom nothing is done,

who shouldn't be allowed

to reproduce,

who should be taken out

of circulation,

of whom no one dares say yet:

"Let's hide them."

When our country

produces enough commodities to feed

300 million people,

the level of poverty denounced

in the film

"The Hour of the Furnaces"

in the 1960s,

never foresaw the incredible

neo-liberal genocide of the 1990s.

Curable diseases

and undernourishment

cause every day in Argentina

the death of 55 children,

35 youths and adults

and 10 elderly people.

An average

of 35000 people per year.

The international organizations

This country was held up

to the world

as a model to follow.

The IMF

applauded Menem in Washington

for the "Argentinean miracle."

President,

this photo will be great for me.

- For me, too.

- I don't know...

They say that a photo

with the devil is dangerous.

Come on...

Our government's responsibility

in social genocide

doesn't exonerate international

organizations, or their proxies,

the United States and Europe,

or the unfair North-South

commercial relationships.

These neo-racist programs

that generated huge profits

at the cost of segregation

and the premature death

of millions of people,

are peacetime crimes

against humanity.

Their authors

cannot go unpunished.

A quarter of century later,

the economic results

are disastrous:

The public and private debt

rose from 7,8 billion

to 170 billion dollars,

and 150 billion more

were paid out for services,

and a similar sum

was sent abroad.

Argentina lost another 150 billion

because of agricultural subsidies

in Europe and the U.S.

Since 1999,

growth is non-existent,

and the country

is heading toward devaluation

and bankruptcy.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Going over this memoir,

it may appear

that the reality can't be changed,

that the plunderers won the day,

and we are the losers.

It's closer to the opposite:

Neither the dictatorship,

Menem, or De la Ra

brought their projects to fruition,

and the wealth they gave away

isn't lost forever:

It can be recovered.

The neo-liberal model

ended in a mass sell-off,

but those responsible

weren't able to sell everything:

Not the major public banks,

or the big

Ro Santiago shipyards,

or the nuclear power plants,

or Yacyret,

or Salto Grande, or Epec.

Menem and De la Ra

weren't able

to impose a repressive solution,

or to silence the protests

against mafioso and police crimes,

or to stop the persistent action

of the Mothers,

Grandmothers and Children

of the "disappeared".

A new spirit kept them at bay:

That of all the struggles,

the rallying to causes,

in the social movements

that grew during the decade:

The local organizations,

the "piqueteros", canteens,

and neighborhood assemblies,

the occupation of land

and settlements,

the huge nation-wide march

and hundreds of other marches,

national strikes...

the CTA movement,

the factories

reclaimed by the workers,

the successive demos of pensioners,

the struggles of women farmhands,

students and bank depositors,

storekeepers, artists...

It all led

to the big December, 2001 uprising:

As on October 17, 1945

and in Crdoba in 1969,

Argentinean history was changed.

My heart has closed up tight

so it can survive

Living so I can save

my skin,

which is all I have left

My soul is wasting away

Don't think, don't protest

Don't even try, don't interfere

Anyway, nothing makes sense

Our lives are preordained

In this apocalyptic comedy

We're all headed

for the slaughterhouse

We're not eliminated

the same old way

Now we're told

to make ourselves disappear

Asking questions without answers

Protesting without hassling anyone

Domesticated, neutralized, paralyzed

When will we wake up?

There's no work,

might as well split

Human dignity

is as good as dead

Everything's hanging

by a thread

What's difference

between dead or alive?

I refuse to shut my mouth now

I'm not here

to spread around bad news

They haven't won yet,

so choose

You got balls or not?

I'm bug 'em,

but they listen to me

Friend I'm not scared

to go against the grain

And I encourage

all those who fight

To join us in our struggle

My heart has closed up tight

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