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Publishing houses told to print in Argentina while imported books are blocked in Customs

Saturday, October 1st 2011 - 00:59 UTC
Full article 19 comments

Argentina's booksellers claim over a million imported books remain stacked up in customs while the government of President Cristina Fernandez moves ahead with its policy of substituting imports and defending local jobs and the domestic market. Read full article

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  • Redhoyt

    Protectionism ! A game the whole world can play :-)

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 03:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • jerry

    This is not only protectionism, but it is another way of controlling what the people are allowed to read; especially if it might be anti-K ideas.

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 06:06 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ElaineB

    This is why I bring so many books for my Argentine friends. They cannot get the books they need to study for their degree in their own country. Luckily they have a generous English friend who can help them.

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 08:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • geo

    the decision is true if the books are school Economy books ...!!

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 09:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • O gara

    The usual Clarin anti CFK nonsense that suits MI5 sheets like this.The facts are in the first eigth months of 2011 Argentine imports are up a whopping 38% another sign of a booming economy and hardly an indicator of a government curbing trade in books or anything else

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 10:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Rubino84

    If the books can be printed in Argentina giving jobs to OUR people... what else can we say

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 10:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ElaineB

    The point is the books are not available now. Why give students a reading list of unavailable books? They find it utterly frustrating. That and the fact that their teachers are always striking.

    If you want to manufacture the books in Argentina, fine, but it will be too late for the current students.

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 02:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    (7)ElaineB

    Ohhhhhh.............................
    Poor modern Argentinean students.....
    They can't get those expensive imported hard cover text-books at the moment.

    Utterly frustrating….. but.......................................Wait a minute!

    What did we do in my time?

    Ohhhh yes…... those good old mimeographs......
    And later…….. those big, ugly photocopying machines....
    And now…...... those small, cheap and practical scanners....

    Not to mention the Internet with its millions of more or less copyrighted download possibilities for ANY student, rich or poor.

    Climb down of your Ivory Tower girl....
    You don't meet the real South-America at British Airways business class....

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 02:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Redhoyt

    Fortunately, you don't meet them in the Falklands either :-)

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 03:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    Brasil should rapidly expand its publishing houses' output.
    There is no Argentinean protectionist 60 day (=1 year) border holdup on books.
    Great opportunity.

    Another topic, but I am aghast at the low level of reading and book purchase across the Continent in general.
    I know it is a cultural thing, but it points up a major weakness in the process of Development.

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 06:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • xbarilox

    @ 10 Geoff, you know that these countries will always be developing countries, until someone theaches people how to stop crying over the past.

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 07:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • O gara

    7 tell us Elaine what are the names of these unavailable books.i find this most unlikely to say the least so tell us the books you are talking about

    Oct 01st, 2011 - 08:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    (10) Geoff Ward

    You say:
    “I am aghast at the low level of reading and book purchase across the Continent in general. I know it is a cultural thing, but it points up a major weakness in the process of Development.”

    I say:
    And why do you “Think” we are telling publishing houses to print in Argentina?
    Published books are a clear indicator of a country's standard of living, education, and self-awareness.

    Oct 02nd, 2011 - 02:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • geo

    i know merely unique book /novel “” Idiot “”/1869 was
    written by Fyodor Dostoyevski in human history
    the rest all kinds of books are junk.......
    -----------------
    i understand /appreciate of Argentina's attention/seriousness
    becouse that
    some imported books could contain some secret intelligence messages
    for somebodies in the country...as like which made during 1970 .th terror years....and i know similair operations were made , before
    Lebanon Civil War (1970. th years) as ,from some American Lecture
    Books distribution center in Lebanon.....!!

    Oct 02nd, 2011 - 09:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    It may be that South America can 'jump technology' and read and learn through Kindle.
    Perhaps Tierra del Fuego could assemble the hardware.

    Billions of books imported by millions of people across borders with no protectionist 60 day (1 year) delays, and no import charges.

    Think of just how much this could change peoples' perceptions of world affairs - just by allowing the easy exposure to alternative propositions.
    Positively anarchistic! . . . . and definitely to be stamped on by weak and insecure authoritarian regimes.

    Oct 02nd, 2011 - 01:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    In Memoriam….Michael Stern Hart (1947-2011)

    “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world.
    Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.
    All progress,therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”

    http://www.gutenberg.org/

    Oct 02nd, 2011 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    My God!
    I never realised there was SO much potential for progress in Argentina!
    And, as long as they don't have to deal with the rest of the world, they can evolve within the studied unreasonableness of 'internal progress'.
    ;-)

    Oct 02nd, 2011 - 05:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Monty69

    13 Think
    This is nuts. Publishing and printing are not the same thing.
    Just lifting a couple of books off the pile on my desk......Conservation Biogeography....ooh look, printed and bound in...Malaysia. Geographical Information Systems.....well look at that...all the way from Spain. Published in the UK, printed wherever makes economic sense.
    As for Kindle, it will give you the world's great literature for free, printed nowhere. Are you really saying this doesn't add anything to education and self awareness?

    Oct 03rd, 2011 - 12:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    (18) Monty96

    You say:
    “Publishing and printing are not the same thing.”

    I say:
    Don't say!
    Our objective is published, printed and bound in Argentina.
    If it doesn't make “economic sense”..... well..... then we must teach the economy some sense............

    You say:
    ”Are you really saying this (E-Books / Kindle) doesn't add anything to education and self awareness?”

    I say:
    Make an effort to understand my post (16) instead of always trying to misinterpret me.

    “In honor of the thinking man that invented the eBook.”
    “Greatest publishing instrument since Gutenberg's press.”
    It's more than two years since my last pBook..............................

    Oct 03rd, 2011 - 05:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0

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