MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
The Buenos Aires Herald, part of Argentina's history folds after more than 140 years
The Buenos Aires Herald, a long established English-language newspaper lauded for its coverage of Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship, will close after more than 140 years of publication, the newspaper said late on Monday. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesAh, brings back so many memories enjoying their stories. I loved the one where they asserted that 'although men have for more accidents than women, women are not designed to drive'. In my early years in SoAm it was interesting to see an English language slant on the politics. It was for a long time pretty fair until it hitched its wagon to the Kirchner's. That was the beginning of the end for them.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 11:20 am - Link - Report abuse +1Tough times for the printed newspapers all round. I used to think some publications were still high in circulation until I discovered that they count all the copies they give away free in hotels and airlines as part of their circulation.
I'm absolutely gutted.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 11:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0Another proof of UK lost influence in the country....
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 12:16 pm - Link - Report abuse -5What influence?
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 01:55 pm - Link - Report abuse -3It's a shame, after so many years. I wonder how many other papers will follow it?
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 02:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Pgerman, if it's due to lost UK influence I'm surprised it didn't happen years ago.
@EB
How silly. Though the truth is that men aren't designed to drive either, I'm sure once we all have self-driving cars the accident rate will drop dramatically.
pgerman seems confused once again. For most of the past 50 years the Herald was owned by Americans. Does pgerman understand the difference between the UK and the US? The paper went into serious decline after 2007 when it was bought by an argie and from there was run into the ground. For pgerman's edification, UK influence in Argenzuela declined following WWI, as US interests grew to displace the UK. The economic decline of Argentina matches the reduction of UK influence in the country. Not surprising, since it was UK markets, management, and technology that made Argentina's economy in the first place.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 02:15 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Very sad to see a respected newspaper like the Buenos Aires Herald to fold.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 04:20 pm - Link - Report abuse +1It is true that the Herald, headed by courageous Robert Cox, became one of the few voices providing information about human rights violations perpetrated by the last civic-military dictatorship.
Will miss you, B.A. Herald.
@ EM I don't think you can compare the BAH as it was then with the recent years. Remember The Times was a respected newspaper in the U.K. until Murdoch got his hands on it. In recent years the BAH took a similar dive in credibility.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 04:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@DT Oh, the article went on to describe a theory they had that men crashed more because of their short tempers. They proved their theory by driving down the motorway leaning out of the car windows and insulting other male drivers who, not unexpectedly, got very annoyed. Ah, those were the days of real journalism. :)
I believe that was also the issue where I read about a gang of moped bag-snatchers being caught; they were all local policemen and the ring leader was the station sergeant. What a great city. :) (Seriously, I loved my time living there).
@Marti Llazo
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 05:41 pm - Link - Report abuse +1understand that certain things make you feel frustrated but facts are as tthey are even if you do not like it. It is not my fault.
For many years, the best years of Argentine history, both nations, Argentina and the United Kingdom, were strategic partners and had privileged commercial relations. Since the end of World War II the United Kingdom has been losing political and economic influence in Argentina. The 1982 War was the “coup de grâce” for British influence in the country.
Today, there are only a handful of British companies operating in Argentina, there is almost no participation of British companies in the public work, very few scholarships are granted to Argentine students, there are no official visits of UK Heads of State to Argentina. In the last 35 years only a single ship of the Royal Navy visited an Argentine port. It was as a consequence of an emergency (a fire) and had to be accepted in a military base forcing the sailors not to leave the base, Puerto Belgrano, to avoid the rejection of the civil population. Royal Air Force planes “in emergency” prefer to fly to Chile, taking additional risks, to avoid later problems in argentine soil... one wonders .. Who really won the war in 1982?
Argentina lost the war on the battlefield but it is difficult to accept that the winner has to hide itself in the region where it militarily triumphs. Clearly, there are no winner taking advantage of the War.
Only the nostalgic passion that the middle/upper local class citizens (myself included) feel for the British culture remains. That is why London is still one of the favorite destinations of Argentine tourists. That's the reason of the argentine passion for English rock bands (undoubtedly the best in the world).
I agree that Bs. As. Herald was the most acid critics of the Argentine Militar Regime but also, was, very critic of the Peronist government during the 90’s. I’ll miss Buenos Aires Herald.
pgerman,
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 05:57 pm - Link - Report abuse +2“Another proof of UK lost influence in the country....”
Since it's decline started when it was bought by an Argie and started printing Kirchnerist nonsense I'd say that it's decline is evidence of Kirchnerism's lost influence in the country.
@pgerman
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 07:42 pm - Link - Report abuse +1I read somewhere that the rise in power of the US vs Britain has been bad for Argentina, because Argentina was useful to Britain as a big agricultural exporter, but the US is an agricultural exporter itself and sees Argentina as unwanted competition.
“Who really won the war in 1982?”
You got rid of the military dictatorship as a result, that's a win of a sort. However, the continuing poor relationship is obviously a loss for both countries.
I think this is a hard time for newspapers in general though, due to the rise of the internet. People in Argentina can now read news in English from multiple sites online. Perhaps the BS Herald could have found a new niche for itself by attracting readers from outside the country, but it's too late now.
@EB
News at 10: people get angry when insulted! I wonder what insults they used?
pgerman, you have so much to learn, and so little capacity for learning it.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 08:28 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Recall that Argentina prior to 1880 had little to offer other than raw materials and unskilled labour. Even the fundamentals of animal husbandry that made argie beef acceptable to British/European markets came from the UK, along with technologies such as refrigeration, without which Argentina would still be eating worms and living in mud huts along the rivers.
Likewise, the majority of the sheep initially brought to southern Patagonia, as well as associated farming techniques making the region economically useful, were products of the UK (and particularly the Falkland Islands) as well as other British Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand. As in Chile, it was largely British railroads that allowed transportation of materials to ports and thus markets. In the case of the railroads it was not just the technology and rail system management, but British railwaymen who performed the skilled side of the work. The mark of civilising British culture (as opposed to the crude criollo nationals) remained even after Argentina began a long economic decline in the 1930s. Now, Argentines wishing to provide their children with decent education opt for the many British schools in the country, and send them to British universities. Nearly all major sports today in Argentina derived from British influence. Except the sport of viveza criolla, which is endemic.
To suggest in that most argie-pgerman way that that “Argentina and the United Kingdom, were strategic partners...” is like saying that during WWII, Singapore and Imperial Japan were “strategic partners.” One was the boss; the other the dirt-worker. But argie children are taught a very skewed version of their economic history, the likes of which would make Stalin proud.
pgerman (or our more capable readers) can start with “Britain and the Making of Argentina.”
The above is quite possibly the most inaccurate and twisted nonsense ever on this website.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 08:52 pm - Link - Report abuse -4And using Martillazo's necrotic logic of the “passing down” of civilizing culture, all which he mentions above was only made possible by the Romans lifting Britons out of the warm-dung heap holes on the ground they used to live in prior to 43AD. They went from living in smelly holes eating rotting meat overnight to brick homes, paved roads, mail, luxury trades, baths, free-potable water everywhere, heating systems, theater, fruits,wine, fish, and public sanitation, without which they could have never “civilized the Argentine”.
Thank you, Romans.
@Tr0lListic_Approach
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 09:24 pm - Link - Report abuse +6“All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?”
Try to concentrate on contemporary events, trolley. You have much to learn.
Aug 02nd, 2017 - 10:12 pm - Link - Report abuse +2------------------
More suggested readings:
“British Railways in Argentina 1857-1914: A Case Study of Foreign Investment” by Lewis
“The Argentine eclipse: The international factor in Argentina's post World War II decline ” by Escudel
“British Steam on the Pampas” by Purdom
“Activities of the British Community in Argentina During the Great War 1914-1919,” by Holder
“British Mail Steamers to South America, 1851-1965: A History of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and Royal Mail Lines” by Forrester
“British-Owned Railways in Argentina: Their Effect on the Growth of Economic Nationalism, 1854-1948 ” by Wright
“Britain and Argentina in the Nineteenth Century” by Ferns
“Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. How One of the Richest Countries in the World Lost Its Wealth” by Tanzi
“The Decline of Argentina's Agricultural Trade: Problems & Policies, 1929-54” by Woltman
“Argentina in the Postwar Era: Politics and Economic Policy Making in a Divided Society” by Wynia
And one book on the Bs As Herald during Argentina's finest years: “Dirty Secrets, Dirty War : Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1976-1983 : The Exile Of Editor Robert J. Cox”
Other readings involving the Herald, by former Bs As Herald editor Graham-Yooll (not my favourite writer, but much first-hand material - additional Yooll titles in Spanish):
“A State of Fear: Memories of Argentina's Nightmare”
“A Matter of Fear: Portrait of an Argentinian Exile”
“Press in Argentina, 1973-78”
You obviously don't know much about British history from the neolithic era- to the Roman era. Where do I start !
Aug 03rd, 2017 - 11:10 am - Link - Report abuse +4You suggest that there was no fish -Britain is an island surrounded with fish in the various seas but we couldn't catch them ? Rotten meat ? The place was full of abundant game and cattle farming was practised..
Fruits ? Have you never heard of apples, blaeberries and cloudberries
Why did the Romans come if not to plunder our natural resources. Yes, they built military roads to join up their settlements but not for the native population's benefit.
The only brick houses built were for wealthy romanised merchants or officials - timber or stone were used by local tribes. Neither did they live in holes in the ground.
They Romans brought theatres -arenas where they could indulge their passion for murder as a sport.
As for the locals, they had halls where poets,bards and musicians would entertain with stories and music.
In about 3180 BC, Neolithic man was living in stone built dwellings in Skara Brae in the Orkneys. This predates the pyramids in Egypt
The diet consisted of fresh beef, venison,salmon, sea fish, shellfish. Grains from oats or barley and berries. An early form of beer was also made. The Romans did not even exist then ! I think that living in Scotland, fresh water was never going to be a problem.
Yes the Romans did bring in many new ideas but civilization was here long before they arrived. There were trade links with N.Europe and as far as the continent to the south.
As usual you have shot from the hip without knowing much about the subject, basing it on your anti-British sentiments.
It will probably annoy TTT to know that I found very little anti-British sentiment amongst the disparate Argentines I associated with. Far from it, they were more obsessed with anything about our Royal Family than I have ever been (and I have respect for them), loved British bands beyond reason - what is the obsession with The Beatles there?. Whilst Argentines quite rightly are proud of their own country there was infinite affection for anything British - including me. :)
Aug 03rd, 2017 - 11:31 am - Link - Report abuse +2Honestly, TTT, why waste your life on such bitterness all because an English tourist rejected you?
@ DT They didn't mention the exact insults but they did include gesticulating, so you can probably picture it.
Clyde 15
Aug 03rd, 2017 - 11:37 am - Link - Report abuse +3Great post.
auld trolley has obviously never heard of other 'dung holes' like Stonehenge (quite famous I thought), Avebury (not so famous as Stonehenge but in some ways more impressive). The large number of equally impressive Iron Age hillforts that abound throughout the British Isles, Newgrange in Ireland, Silbury Hill (the largest man made mound in Europe from that era). Even here on the Dingle peninsula in the remote west of Ireland (I added that just in case auld Trolley doesn't know where it is and as you know he's not very good with maps) there are quite literally thousands of monuments from the Neolithic period etc. etc.
Let's face it: it was not the Espanish but the British that brought culture and economic success to Argentistan.
Aug 03rd, 2017 - 02:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Understandably, the French viewed this a little differently, as reflected in another relatively new book worth reading (evidently only available in Kindle and only in espanish) - “El país rico que se convirtió en pobre. Mitos y verdades de la Argentina” (The Rich Country that went Poor) by Guillermo Yeatts.
Describing the economic success of the country and citing a French source: “...por el brazo italiano, el capital inglés y el pensamiento francés”. (Precious little credit given any contributions from the guiding native spirit of viveza criolla). The book also cites a 2014 article in The Economist: “The tragedy of Argentina - A century of decline - One hundred years ago Argentina was the future. What went wrong? ” The book also includes material from professor (and ambassador ) and his only half-humourous “ ”los argentinos son italianos que se creen británicos y hablan español con acento genovés o napolitano” (the Argentines are Italians who think of themselves as British and speak Spanish with a Genovese or Neopolitan accent).
Worthwhile reading.
Marti, your isolation does affect your reasoning. Only a few families can afford to send their children to Britain for college, or afford the local Brittish high school payments.
Aug 03rd, 2017 - 03:04 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Fortunately there are more affordable options for the middle class to get a decent education. And if you want your children to learn English, there are quite a good number of small institutes that will provide classes for a modest fee.
You don't need to be that aggressive towards pgerman. You are not the sole owner of the truth regarding Brittish influence in Argentina.
T-Fin, my former neighbours moved to Bs As and tried to get their school-aged children into one of the better bilingual, British-oriented colegios. Nothing doing. Every one they tried was already over-enrolled and had a waiting list. And they had over 40 such schools to choose from.
Aug 03rd, 2017 - 08:27 pm - Link - Report abuse +1And small wonder. In many places the public schools here are declining fast, between clown teachers, politicised content, endless strikes/paros, shabby facilities reflecting a lack of investment and maintenance, the adolescent drug culture, and general lack of discipline in those schools. No-one should be surprised that fewer than half of the pibes even finish secondary school in Argentina.
Various UK programmes offer hundeds of becas for argie university students. Over 3000 argentos in UK universities in 2016. But then, the UK took in about 600,000 foreign students last year.
@Marti Llazo “UK influence in Argenzuela declined following WWI, as US interests grew to displace the UK. ” Perhaps, but not so fast. In the late 1960s the Bank of London and South America in Buenos Aires occupied the largest foreign branch of a bank anywhere in the world with a staff of around 1,500. They processed 30% of Argentine imports and 70% of Argentine exports. Sounds pretty influential to me. Of course, over a period of time the economy sagged, the government made it increasingly unattractive to do business and the sophistication of the local bank increased to the point that it became no longer attractive to trade and the bank, by that time owned by Lloyds Bank which has more pressing interests elsewhere, sold out. Still, at that time and probably still, Buenos Aires had the largest population of people of British descent outside the Commonwealth, including a large contingent of families of railroad pensioners. It is hard to believe that, at least culturally, that has not left its mark.
Aug 04th, 2017 - 02:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Pontefaction, Generally correct. But after WWI, Britain was heavily in debt to the US and no longer able to provide the levels of capital as it had prior to the war. The postwar British decision to restrict imports of Argentine beef in favour of meat from the Commonwealth had the effect of reducing its influence in Argentina. The UK certainly retained a degree of financial and cultural influence, as you indicated, but overall commercial and diplomatic power waned as the US increased its commercial and technological presence in such significant areas as manufactured goods which included machinery and motor vehicle exports along with vehicle in-country production. Ford essentially introduced vehicle CKD manufacturing to Argentina in 1917 (CKD: Crate-Knockdown - where Third World countries contribute token labour in re-assembling products from developed countries - and still practiced in Argentina).
Aug 04th, 2017 - 05:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0By 1920 there were nearly 300 Ford dealerships alone in Argentina. It is often said that by 1930, Argentina had the highest per-capita motor vehicle ownership in South America. And that was largely due to such US auto companies as Ford, and the profitability of Argentina's agro exports, which relied increasingly on US agricultural machinery. By the late 1930s, Argentine nationalistic hostility toward the UK was palpably underway, further eroding British influence, even though anglo capital and population largely remained.
“ Still, at that time and probably still, Buenos Aires had the largest population of people of British descent outside the Commonwealth,...” It has been convincingly argued that the US had a larger number of British descendants.
On one point we can probably all agree: the advent of peronismo heralded a death spiral for the Argentine economy and made Industria Argentina synonymous with schlock.
So sad..when so many people in Argentina speak English.
Aug 05th, 2017 - 04:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Newspaper folds”. Isn't that what newspapers are supposed to do? How else will you make silly paper hats out of it?
Aug 06th, 2017 - 03:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Too bad the Herald won't be around to cover some of those heart-warming tales of travel about the country, such as these jolly folks who felt the need to pretend to be “Scottish” so as not to be in danger of being killed for being “English.” (Good thing the locals had watched the Braveheart film). Ah, the marvels of argieland (and journalism)....
Aug 06th, 2017 - 03:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“......one of the scariest thoughts for the couple was the possibility of being shot by English-hating Argentinians....”
“We met a man who was shot at for being English. so we decided to say we were Scottish.”
“The couple would set off before dawn and run through gang-run towns rife with drug trafficking before retreating into the undergrowth to try to get some sleep between the gun shots.”
http://www.devonlive.com/devon-couple-escape-death-in-argentina-by-pretending-to-be-scottish/story-30471157-detail/story.html
It's safer in Piddlehinton, even if its media are a bit cockeyed.
I had school friends who had much the same experience. Six of them decided to cross the Sahara in a Volkswagen camper van -in 1960.
Aug 07th, 2017 - 09:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0About 400 miles into the adventure, the big end bearing went in the engine and that was it.
They were waiting for death to take them when a French Sahara oil prospecting team found them and towed them to the nearest Oasis, and then left.
They said they could here the Tuarags sharpening there knives for the kill as the natives were hostile to the British (English). Luckily one of the Tuarags could speak English and when they found out they were Scottish, the attitude changed.
They were treated like long - lost brothers. Goats were slaughtered and a feast was held in their honour. God knows what they thought about Scotland but it saved their bacon.
They travelled with them for 3 weeks until they got to the Mediterranean coast and then home via a Michelin Tyre Factory in France to get some money.
You would think that the Scots were never part of any war? Don't they have any regiments or soldiers? Of course they do and amongst the most fearsome in their slaughtering and conquering abroad. Funny how history is rewritten.
Aug 07th, 2017 - 09:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0I cannot for the life of me think what these English do to upset people when they travel. Or are they just trying to dine out on an exaggerated tale? In all the time I spent travelling the length and breadth of Argentina over the years I never felt my life was in danger. Never did I face active hostility towards me though I had some lively discussions at times. To be honest I avoid the English tourists because they embarrass me.
Elaine
Aug 07th, 2017 - 02:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I think that the “problem ”is that the English usually refer to Britain as England.
Foreigners in many places think that the British Isles is just another name for England.
They are sinonimus They can dislike Britain (England) without realising Scotland. N/Ireland and Wales are part of the country. So they are not tarred with the same brush.
Or maybe they come across as more friendly !
All it takes is a Chilean number plate on your vehicle in some jerkwater Argentine town, and inevitably some gap-toothed nationalist will come out swinging. Once in La Rioja I observed a tourist whose vehicle had a CL plate being berated by waiter for some perceived slight involving past history -- even though the tourist was not even chileno. In Chubut province I personally witnessed a YPF station attendant who refused to sell fuel to vehicles with CL plates. Hate to think of what might have happened there had the fellow encountered a UK plate. Assuming he was clever enough to recognise it as such. There's an immense xenophobia just beneath the surface here, in a decidedly hot-headed racist country that largely doesn't understand the difference between English and British, where hoodlums allied with a government in power can be dispatched with stones and bottles to attack journalists whose number plates are imagined to be offensive.
Aug 07th, 2017 - 02:13 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Expected but very sad indeed.
Aug 08th, 2017 - 09:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have been reading BsAs Herald since the first time I moved here in 2002.
Will miss you sadly, Herald.
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