We're mad as hell... and we're not gonna take this anymore!

Back to the room to contact my editor Barb about the abortion article. Showered, got myself a look, grabbed the camera, y me fui.

I wasn't really expecting much. It's always a good idea to shoot at dusk, makes the light look groovy. But no sooner had I crossed avenida "9 de Julio", I saw what looked to be a field trip where the parents outnumbered the kids 10 to 1. Except there was a big banner with Che Guevara on the front...and men with face masks and sticks...and police...

Well, it wasn't as cool as I thought. Apparently this was a mini-protest against the government. I'm not entirely sure what they were protesting. You can tell by the pictures there were a lot of groups represented. Mostly they were exercising their right to get pissed off and shout things in front of the congress.

I did my best to record the event in photos and recordings. Both are below:

Angry Argentineans

In the recording, for the most part, the speaker call for "los campesinos" (the people from the country) to leave their vote blank as a sign of protest.

It was important to look scary, even if no one looked scared.

"For a government of the working class people, don't vote, fight."

So much for a unified front.

Congress in the background. The "Fogoneros" is a militant student group.

Touch down

Damn, long flight. No time to waste. Preliminary impressions of Buenos Aires: it's a lot like Madrid. It's flat, the streets are laid out in a grid with huge "avenidas". Everything seems to feed into the Plaza de Mayo. Lots of pharmacies and cell phone stores. Lots of cafes and kiosks. I settled down in a cafe to read the paper and came across an interesting article on how none of the elected officials up for office on June 28th have come forward to talk about abortion. The economy is the biggest issues, obviously. But it could be a good first article.

Most interesting/frightening moment so far: right as we left the plane, the flight attendants gave us hygienic masks. Yeah, they're freaked out about the "la gripe" (the swine flu). Some passengers kept the mask on, some didn't. Some of the gate security had them on, most didn't. I spoke briefly with the woman who sold me a cell phone. She asked where I was from, and then asked if I had the swine flu. Come on, ask me about Obama, or about how the US soccer team just slipped into the semifinals of the Confederations Cup. I'm going to try and take pictures of people on the street wearing the masks. Hopefully some pictures tonight, it'll get dark fast here.