My University

My summer in Argentina is over, but I still have a lot to say. Unfortunately while in Argentina I prioritized tango over spending time in front of computer screens contemplating my blog, so now I will try to lay out a few of the ideas, thoughts, and beliefs that I never presented.

First of all, I need to remind everyone (including myself) the reason that I went to Argentina: to take summer classes. My subconscious desire to dance tango that I encountered shortly after my arrival was lucky to have found the study abroad program that I did where I did: it was one of the few programs that not only included a language course but also two courses on politics, economics, society and history (basically my major, Global Studies, in a nutshell,) all taught in Spanish. The courses were fairly slow paced because we were all foreigners, but I learned an immense amount about Argentina that was complimented by my living within the very society that I was studying (you see why I keep trying leave the country to study?) Also, I passed through with flying colors: I did very well in all of my classes and now have nine credits to show for an entire summer that cost less than the cost of nine credits at Hofstra.

Politics and Economics
The politics and economics of Argentina are horrendously depressing. Ask an Argentine, and while he may be quick to boast Argentine asados (BBQ’s) or soccer, he will be even quicker to use every adjective of insult to describe his politicians and the state of his government. “They are all corrupt, they become politicians to line their own pockets, they buy votes to win, the public good is last on their agenda...” And from all that I learned from conversations with Argentines, from my university courses, and from the news, that seems to be strikingly close to reality. My host and I could sit at the dinner table for hours discussing politics: they all seem to be passionate and eager to express their frustration.
And it is not difficult to understand why. At the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was considered one of the most developed countries in the world, but today it is struggling with much of Latin America and steadily falling further in reverse, even as countries like Chile and Brazil are moving forward. After long lasting dictators, series of military rulers that came into power without elections, and two serious economic crashes in the past three decades, Argentina has seen a rough century. In fact, many Argentines scoff at the economic crisis that the world is facing today: “this is Argentina. We are always in crisis.” The 2001 Argentine crisis was marked by panic, frozen bank funds, forced currency conversions, and inflation as salaries remained unchanged. Argentina went through five presidents in nine days. Middle class workers lost their jobs overnight, and just as fast informal employment soared.

Argentine Universities
Unfortunately the program that I found put us in classes at a private university in Buenos Aires. I say “unfortunately” because Argentina’s public universities are absolutely free to attend (I could have saved some money for more tango classes.) And not just free for Argentines (if you were to correlate it with in-state public university tuition) but to the world: the government is not choosy. They are also very good: for a professor it is a position of prestige to teach in one of Argentina’s public universities, public universities are much more competitive, and the education is thought to be much better than in private schools. Adequate acknowledgement of higher education is at least one thing that Argentina’s government has gotten right. Because of this lucky set of circumstances, students from all over Latin America can be found in Argentine cities studying at public universities. I met many, many young people from Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and across Latin America living and studying in Argentina because the education is better and less expensive than in their respective countries. With that said, private universities clearly have more money. I spent a day in classes at my Argentine friend's university, marked by graffiti falling down posters, bare bones rooms and bathrooms that made one question sanitation standards. My private university, on the other hand, was clean, pristine, often had trays of food and drinks catered to different classes and meet and greets, and the bathrooms were cleaned, always fully stocked (merely a silly dream to the students where I visited at University of Buenos Aires,) and smelled of fresh cleaning products.