Tag Archives: latin america

Martin Renauld – The Activist Scholar

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Who are you?

My name is Martin Renauld. Even though I´m only 31 years old, I have been considered old for more than a decade… since I am both extremely wise and have grey hair. I´m Québécois, currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I am pursuing a PHD in social science, studying the Argentinean ecologist movement.  I also teach history at the UADE (Universidad Argentina de la Empresa).

What do you do for fun?

I enjoy playing basketball, drink wine and arguing with people. The last one is my favorite, some would say discuss, but I enjoy discussions when they become passionate and sometimes a little uncomfortable.  I think a little provocation is often useful to challenge others´ opinions and hopefully mine as well.

What is your Favorite Community and why?

My favorite community is Montevideo, Uruguay. Even though the city counts 1 million inhabitants, “barrio” (neighborhood) life is central. Montevideans have managed to make their city quite friendly by knowing their neighbors and fomenting local activities. Every barrio has its own farmer market (blocking a street once a week to sell agricultural goods), sport teams, a candombe group (music and dancing with drums) representing the barrio during carnival, a cultural center and a strong sense of belonging.

What is your superpower?

I would say my analytical and critical sense. It can get on people´s nerves once in a while, but I´m very good at finding what´s wrong (in general and for very specific issues). I am trying to work on the finding solution superpower, not as easy…

How do you use your superpower to build community?

Constructive comments would be my main contribution to humanity, sometimes to specific communities.

My Three Favourite Things About Martin Are…

1. Wool Socks. Whether it’s the middle of winter, middle of summer, during a basketball game, or when he’s not wearing anything else, Martin Renauld wears wool socks. Some have argued that this is a throw-back to his family’s historical roots as a notorious coureurs de bois collective, while others argue that he just really, really likes the way the fabric feels against his skin. Personally, I don’t care – when you look that good in something – anything – it doesn’t matter why you wear it.

2. Adventurous Tri-lingualism. Martin’s grasp – perhaps tenuous grasp – of three and a half languages (native French, Spanish, English, Portuguese) reflects his passion for exploring vibrant cultures around the world. I’ve known Martin since our days together as undergraduate students at Bishop’s University, where I edited many of his essays – I can safely say that, in addition to throwing the word “the” everywhere in his text, Martin’s ideas were/are as brilliant in English as they are in any other language…except, maybe, Portuguese.

3. Love of Debate. Wal-Mart? Hockey? Healthy living? Neo-colonialism? Kurt’s contradictory socio-economic views? Proper pronunciation my name in English? How Steve Nash would be better if he wore wool socks? You name it, Martin will debate it. Correspondent/My Special Lady, Michelle Burtnyk, spent nearly a month with Martin in his Buenos Aires home. Every morning Michelle, Martin and I engaged in (at least) four hour breakfast debates that totally solved all the world’s problems. We probably should’ve written things down. After all, Martin could do it in three languages!

As told by John Horn…

The Douchebag in Latin America: “We all have a little Tarado inside!”

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Douchebag does not have a literal translation in Argentinian Spanish. However, the term “tarado” , in the right context, can refer to a douchbag. Literally, a “tarado” is someone mentally ill, but nobody would actually use it in that sense (the closest word in English might be “retarded”). In Buenos Aires or Montevideo, someone who cuts in line would get called “tarado”.  In Argentina, everyone has a little “tarado” inside (I call mine Pedro), since general behavior in the public space is far from being valued. Argentinians show little respect for others and public life in general. It is more than common to see people throw garbage out of their car windows, they use the car horn a lot (I mean a lot) to express their frustration and as a rule are quite rude to each other. However, the same person who just yelled at you for no apparent reason or threw is cigarette’s butt in the hallway might be the most helpful person you have ever met if he or she knows you. Interaction between strangers and general perception of public life make it almost impossible to distinguish “tarados” from “none tarados”.

Google Images says that this picture is representative of a "Tarado" - what do you think?

In my opinion, a few factors make Argentina a low social capital country:  a history of dictatorships, bad governments (check out Carlos Menem in Google for a hint), some degree of corruption (though not as pronounced as other Latin American countries), strong social inequalities,  a better past (Argentina used to be a model of social equality, dominated by a strong middle class). This context makes most Argentinians think that nothing works as it should and everybody will try to take something from them. In recent years, the sensationalistic media has amplified this trend with an overemphasis on crime, fear and corruption. If nobody acts for the common good, why do it? This very cynical, often nostalgic, view of society justifies letting our little “tarado” express himself freely.

Do you think that everybody has a little douchebag inside them? I know that Pedro would want me to say something like, “would you like some?” Oh, Pedro…

DANGER: The Sun will Melt Your Community!

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Undeniably – at least here on the West Coast – summer has arrived. And, for 99% of the population, the sunny days of May, June, July, August, and some of September make for an “enjoyable” and/or “the best” part of peoples’ year. Today, though, I’d like to talk about the 1% – or less – of people who truly dislike summer. In this group you’ve got your goths, vampires, body-self-conscious-folks, ice-fisher-people, and senior citizens (but, really, they don’t like any season because of how young people today have ruined it). Also included in the 1% are people like me, who are both terrified of and angry with Mr. Sun because we are allergic to him.

The condition is called porphyria. It is very rare and was made famous by vampires and King George III, who allegedly “went mad” on account of his Sun disorder (as it turns out, monarchs have to be outside a lot). Fun fact: King George III was the guy who “lost” the American colonies to a group of tempestuous oligarchs, and the United Kingdom has been pretty much anti-Sun ever since.

There are different kinds of prophyria out there, and the one I was lucky to win in the crappy-disease-lottery is called eurythropoietic protoporphyria, which means that, because of extremely heightened photo-sensitivity, the porphyrins in my blood react very, very badly to ultraviolet rays – I describe this way: “it’s like being sun-burned from the inside-out – basically my blood boils, my energy is sapped, and, if it gets bad enough, a chain reaction of swelling, sores, scabbing, and scarring will put me out of commission for a few days.” For me, summer is a time of war against an unbeatable nemesis. His name is Apollo and, cloudy or not, he meets me for battle every single day.

For the record and with full disclosure, I have a very, very mild case of porphyria – there are folks out there who can’t go outside during a full moon, even with SPF 60 sunscreen.

So why am I telling you this? Well, the world being too hot and sunny is one of the biggest problems facing our global community these days. In the middle of our planet – and for a myriad of human and natural reasons – desertification is slowly eroding lush greenery and the water sources and two/four-legged food that make it a habitable place. With the greenery gone so goes most, if not all, of the natural shade. Such an inhospitable environment creates climate refugees – people who have to travel North or South in search of, well, let’s just call it “shade from the Sun” and let that be a metaphor we can all understand. More or less.

So, such is the case today in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Australia. But what about here, in Cascadia, twenty years from now? How will we cope with hotter, sunnier summers?

From me (a guy who has the superhuman ability to find shade and protect himself from the Sun) to you (a person who probably knows what suntanning feels like), here are some tips on how you can prepare for the future:

  1. Invest in a wide-brimmed hat. Cowboy, Tilly, Pirate, or Sombrero – they’re all good and they will all be in high demand in the future; start your stockpile today!
  2. Make friends with tall people. Tall people are automatic shade-makers. Enough said.
  3. Buy or make a UV-proof umbrella and/or tarp. Cool, shady brands like No Zone aside, such inventions are, sadly, few and far between; using umbrellas to ward off harmful UV rays is already popular in Asia and Africa, so you can start the trend here on the West Coast with one of these fine designs.
  4. Long sleeves, long pants and gloves. Let’s face it, gloves are cool and historically sexy – since Pharaohs sought to protect themselves from dust, Sun and slaves, gloves have been a part of out cultural fabric. Wearing them here and now might feel weird at first, but you’ll get used to it.
  5. “The Full Ninja” (pictured). Pictures say a thousand words, and this happy little outfit has gotten me through hikes, camping and road trips, as well as a jaunt through East Africa.

John and his friend, Sun-worshiper Natalie, on a summer hike across Nootka Island on the West Coast

So there it is. With this knowledge in your toolkit, I think and hope, you will be well-prepared to cope with the Sun. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it takes a bit of time to layer-myself-up for the walk from my office to the bus stop.

And, believe me when I say this, friends, whether it’s tomorrow or a billion years from now, the Sun has a pretty clear and transparent plan to engulf us all in giant balls of fiery death. I recommend you start planning for tomorrow today.

Good luck. And have fun with it.

–

Masthead photo courtesy of White93 on Flickr

The Community of South America – Chapter One

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Good day, good readers! In a matter of moments, a couple of The Gumboot‘s contributors – Michelle Burtnyk and, well, yours truly – will be heading way, way down South to the country of South America! Crap, I know better than that. After all, I am an historian. Michelle and I will be visiting our Latin America Correspondent, Martin Martin. He lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Funny story about Buenos Aires. The city’s mayor, Mauricio Macri, just declared a state of emergency in Argentina’s capital. Now, pessimists will tell you that traveling through a city and/or country during a state of emergency will doubtlessly present problems. But I beg to differ. There will be fewer tourists jamming the streets downtown area. The many rides in Buenos Aires will be free (I’ve been told/promised that there are several fun rides throughout the city). And here’s the biggest positive as I see it. Two words: discount pork.

In all seriousness for any of our friends and family who are seriously concerned, we’ll be fine. Michelle speaks fluent Portuguese and is a vegetarian (“Yo soy vegetariano!”). In 2004, she also, I kid you not, was teaching English in Guang Dong, the Chinese town that was where SARS started. She’s got street cred in spades, people. And, hey, even though I’m allergic to the Sun I went to Africa and survived – if not thrived – in the Dark Continent (which isn’t really dark at all, is it, misguided European colonial storytellers?!). And, much to my surprise, it turned out that I traveled through Northern Uganda during a civil war. Has Argentina been in a civil war since the early 1980s? I don’t think it has. But do you know what China, Uganda and Argentina do have? Adventure.

We will keep you abreast of our story-filled travels. Not swine flu nor revolution nor Sun nor emergency dental surgery will stop us from calling it as we see it and telling it like it is. We will collect stories from South America and use them to build community. At home, and abroad.

Happy travels!

- John and Michelle