Impressions about the work of Ala Plástica and Friends If Ala Plástica did not work in art, they could work as travel agency and help tourists organizing their alternative Buenos Aires trip. Traveling 14 hours in plain creates the impression that you are traveling in a totally different world. South America must be totally different to Europe, because it is that far away and the seasons are shifted. What we learned quite fast in Buenos Aires is: No, – except the kind of making pizza – the differences are not that big at first sight. The mentality of the citizens is not totally different from Europeans and it is easy to get in contact. Even we discovered lots of similarities we did not expect before: •
Integration. Here in Germany we have problems with integrating immigrants. Even if they live here for 40 years, some of them don't speak German. In average they are underrepresented at university and overrepresented in criminal statistics. Our intercultural garden is an integration project to help and learn from each other. It was interesting to see that in Argentina, where also a lot of immigrants live, the integration seems to worked much better (at least in the past). The people who migrated after the second world war are Argentineans today and they feel like Argentineans. The first generation of immigrants after the second world war in Germany always expected to go back to their home country soon.
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Ecological Destruction. Although there are many ecological laws here in Germany, there are several possibilities to by-pass them for economical and monetary reasons. In Argentina the control of who is doing what with the environment seems to be less. Even the country is much larger than Germany and the population is less. For economical reasons Argentina is disposed to make “exceptions” in environmental protection (e.g., soya cultivation in Tigre delta.)
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Unworldly Politicians. In Germany most of the politicians never were really poor. Most of them were teachers or public officers before they became professional politician. Goal of their politics is focused on economy growth. Corruption works behind the scenes: For a high donated jobs after (or during) a political career, some politicians become lobbyists for rich companies and not for the people who really need their help. The same is happening in Argentina. Maybe their industry focus and corruption is more visible than in Germany (e.g., Rio Santiago), but the problem is the same.
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Economical Differences. Germany affords an expensive social insurance system. But getting financial help from the state does not mean that you can attend at the society life.
Nevertheless by receiving financial help for years, the people become incapable to change their situation. Being poor in Argentina means that you are really poor and you have to fight everyday to get some food. But instead of giving them money, the Argentinean government helps by providing a piece of land, a bag of seeds and gardening trainings (ProHuerta). The people are leaded to help themselves. •
Voluntary Engagement. In Germany there are lots of people who voluntarily campaign for their environment or their fellow men. Many of them are well organized and work together in environmental organizations. It seems for us, also en Argentina there are lot of active and engaged people and organizations.
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Economical Crisis: Europe fights against the biggest financial crisis for years. The banks need billions of money. The politicians (who could not prevent the crisis) suddenly know what to do: They are giving to the banks the money they want. The normal citizens have to pay the bill later. Paralyzed and frightened they sitting in front of the television and don't know what to do. Argentina already had its economical crisis in 1992. In an Argentinean understanding, a crisis is a chance to become active to improve their environment. The current economical crisis is not understood as “crisis”, because a “crisis” is something like a natural disaster – not made by humans. What currently is shaking the markets to the core is a “robbery” or “fraudulent”.There are offender and victims.
In summary the problems in Germany and Argentina seem to be the same. Maybe the level, the cause and the way to handle them are different. For us, it seems important to communicate with each other to get new ideas for solving these problem. Some questions we took with us at home: •
Would something like community gardens also work here in bureaucratic Germany?
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What renewable resources do we have? What products could we produce out of it? Is it possible to produce them at a fair and competitive price? Is there are market for these products?
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What is the best way for starting a discussion?
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How can we continue the exchange with Ala Plástica? How can it be funded?
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What other organizations are working on the same goals? Where does creating strong communication networks make sense?
For hundreds of years Europe is exporting “development aid” to all other continents. Maybe today we should start thinking about importing aid, knowledge and experiences from countries that already have good ideas and solutions for our problems. Why do we think, the only way of making
really good pizza is a dough with a thickness of just a few millimeters? If you are hungry it is wrong time for arrogance. Our final result is: There is a lot we can learn from Argentina! We have to find a way of founding an invitation for Ala Plรกstica to come to Germany again. This valuable exchange has to be continued! Nina-Sophie Herberholz (nina-sophie@eicks.de) Michael Eicks (michael@eicks.de)