Not Evita, But.

Another strange milestone has passed in my odd, but colorful life. The new president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner, the wife of the incumbent and outgoing president, was elected as expected. And once again, by happenstance rather than design, I was physically in Argentina.


I have always been interested in politics. In a much younger life, I was actually going to follow my dream and ego and become senior senator from California. That ambition was cut short on the realization that a foreigner, lack of funds, and the anathema of being played by someone else's strings did not lead to a senate seat.



Nonetheless, much of my life - such as being in Argentina on a crucial election in its history - was being "in the right place" for potential historical events.



I was similarly in Warsaw, Poland, in June, 2003, only a few days before that country voted to join the European Union. At the same time, NATO had chosen to move some of its operations to Poland, and President Bush paid an official visit. People constantly asked me whether I was a member of George Bush's team, since he had arrived just days after my flight. Nothing could have been further from the truth with the beginnings of the war in Iraq just a few months earlier! I strictly went to Poland that summer to relax, teach a few classes, and see historic places like Krakow. It ended up being a fascinating election!



In November, 1992, I was in Little Rock, Arkansas at the Capital Hotel to watch Bill Clinton and wife Hillary revel in his victory. Nearly a year earlier, when I had barely moved to the southern town and knew little about Bill Clinton other than that he was a minor governor of a minor state, I was outside Arkansas' historic state house when the candidate first made his announcement. Again, seeing, and later meeting the candidate and President were fortunate, but not by design. The invitation to the Presidential Ball in Washington after Clinton's formal Inauguration came about through friends both in Arkansas and New York and California.



I was also in Munich, Germany in July,1990 on business. As luck would have it, one of the greatest celebrations was held in Berlin during my sojourn, the concert and celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Although I was far in the south of Germany and could not take the time to travel to Berlin, the celebration was transmitted across the world, and people everywhere joined in the spirit of nearly half a million people physically present at Potsdamer Platz.



Watching the festivities in Berlin in 1990, and the echo of Ronald Reagan's words of his "Tear Down This Wall" speech of 1987, brought home once more that I had met a truly great leader when he had been governor of California and I was simply a teacher in graduate school. More than that, it helped shape a philosophy of life.



More than sixty years ago, I saw first light on the Communist side of East Germany, followed by escapes and relocations over the years, both in Europe and the United States. My father had already been killed by the communists. Fortunately, the rest of my small family escaped unhurt.



That philosophy both gladdened and saddened my experience of election day in Argentina.



It gladdened me because the election, though voting is mandated by law instead of purely voluntary as in the United States, was generally honest, with more than a dozen candidates vying for the spot. It elated me especially since the country's history has been fraught with dictatorial regimes in the not-too-distant past. For many electors, that memory was still etched sharply in their minds. This election saw none of the atrocities of the past.



Yet, the election also saddened me, watching the revelers enjoy themselves with not much thought, setting off firecrackers, hugging, dancing and swaying to the rhythms of cacophanous music. Most congregated in large and small towns simply for the enjoyment. Some may have gyrated in hopes for the future. Few seemed in sober thought for the troubles ahead for the future. Inflation, productivity, foreign exchange, crime and corruption are as real today as they were yesterday. And the seemingly unstoppable selfishness punctuating human civilization seems to permeate society, whether in Argentina or Germany, the United States or Iraq or elsewhere in 2007 as it did in eons past.



Fortunately, I am only a guest in this country. This simple fact precludes me from much more than observing. Nonetheless, it does lead me to reinforce my thoughts that, while the majority of people may not give more than a microsecond of thought to the larger issues of life facing each an every one of us in the future, constitutional freedom and elections may perhaps spawn leadership with results like the United States under Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton.



Wealth and prosperity for the population of Argentina does not have to be an elusive exercise. Increased education and communication, along with a pause to assess the willingness to absorb the tradeoffs required, are not materials for a dime novel.



Whether people in this age and time are willing to make that small adjustment to change in human nature remains anyone's guess.