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Previous: March 24 1976
Porteños, as the citizens of Buenos Aires are called, are warm outgoing people who like to eat out and meet their friends in cafes and restaurants.
This is the Cafe Oasis on Avenida de Mayo where the the founding members of the Centro Argentino Para la Investigacion y Refutacion de la Pseudociencia (CAIRP) still meet on thursdays.
This is the elegant Valerio diagonally opposite my apartment at the intersection of Esmeralda and Lavalle. It was a very convenient place for me to meet acquaintances made on the internet or by telephone.
The exclusive Rochester on Florida was my favorite meeting place in 2004 because it was close to the hotel where I stayed at that time.
Baires is a city of cafés, restaurants and all kinds of public meeting places. This is a confiteria on Florida near Corrientes.
This café is on the corner of Lavalle and Maipu.
You can tie up a table for hours reading a book in front of a cup of coffee or a beer without anyone complaining.
Public cafes are an institution, they are very much a part of the porteños' life.
Soccer is the national sport like hockey in Canada and baseball in the USA. When an important match is on, cafes are full of fans who spend hours watching the game but very little money.
With porteños, all relationships, even professional ones, are very personal and almost intimate compared to our cold formal exchanges in the northern hemishere.
When my dentist, Paula Gold, delivered my new set of dentures, she was sincerely overjoyed with my appreciation of the result.
I was really fortunate for the local Mensa chapter had a club house just three blocks from my apartment where they met every Friday. I was received very warmly and treated like a member of the family.
Here you have three pillars of Mensa Argentina, Fernando the vice-president , Gladys the doer of everything that needs to be done and Miguel-Angel the wise president.
We also greet members from other countries in our Montreal group but not so affectionately. Here every arriving member goes around to kiss or hug all members present.
Damian, the group's secetary and Gladys present certificates to a new member (1) who has just passed the entrance tests.
Our Friday night meetings started at 7:00 with informal discution groups and sometimes a conference.
Here, (2) and (3) are chatting with (4) (nice hair) in the game room.
There is always some stimulating conversation going on.
Here, (5) and (6) are seriously listening to what Hernan has to say.
Around 10:00 our individual orders are delivered and we get down to the serious business of food and drink that sometimes lasts until past midnight.
In the usual order: Bernardo, Damian, (7), (8), (9), Facundo, (10), Miguel-Angel and Gladys are enjoying our weekly family dinner.
In my apartment, Juan de Genero, author of the website http://www.argentinaskeptics.com.ar and I review what has been done in the past two decades to promotre critical thinking in Argentina and exchange views on how to encourage the many isolated groups of skeptics and non-believers to work together.
Many individuals and groups have atempted to promote critical thinking in Argentina of which the above mentionned Centro Argentino Para la Investigacion y Refutacion de la Pseudociencia (CAIRP) created in 1990 but that broke up in 2001 due to internal frictions.
I met several individuals and had regular meeting on thursdays in my apartment over the concept of a Rationalist Social Club where all flavours of non-believers could get to know each other on a personal rather than ideological basis. Everybody was in favour of such a club subject to the exclusion of this or that individual or group they would not trust.
As far as I could see, this lack of trust seems to be caracteristic of the argentine psyche. It may stem from the delations that were common during the terrible dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983 or it may have deeper roots in the acknowledged argentine trait of "viveza".Viveza refers to the ability to hoodwink the neighbour. In this society, those who have it are proud of their viveza.
I failed to organise an open social association to welcome and care for all the porteños whose perception of the universe does not include a hypothetical supernatural world. of spirits, ghosts, angels, demons and immaterial deities.
I did however learn a lot about group dynamics, I made new friends and I deepened the bonds that tie me to old friends like Alberto who invited me to a farewell dinner with his partner Frida.
Finally all good things must come to an end and I had to board the shuttle bus to the Ezeiza airport on my way home in Montreal.
