I see a friend passing through Montevideo Buenos Aires heading east, and as is customary in Buenos Aires and its romantic vision of our capital, it makes me almost excessive praise on the city, its avenues , bars, your everything. But with some embarrassment I said that, however, in the five years since he first arrived in Montevideo, has noticed a change that does not seem particularly attractive. "I do not want to be bold," he says, "but what might be yet more dirty?". Yes, maybe. During the first decade Frente Amplio Administration of Montevideo, on the editorial page of the newspapers right, particularly the El Pais, mechanically repeated the charge that the city was dirtier than ever, that the garbage was piled in the corners, that Rats were patrons of the street. It was like a mantra, absolutely everyone was repeating the same thing, "the city is dirtier than ever, with almost the same words and work as a quartermaster is limited only to cleaning. And many readers of the newspaper and conservative politicians also repeated. But it was the absurdity almost funny that happened just the contrary, the street had dumps appeared during the last years of the dictatorship, and had increased during the administration of Elizabeth, but they disappeared during the years of Vázquez and the first municipal government Arana were almost nonexistent. Even some of the incurably dirty Montevideo got used - as in my case, to find the bins, which were more numerous now, instead of dropping on the floor so I get in the way the hand. The editorials were still repeating loop, as if they were siblings of The Decapitated Chicken de Quiroga, but it was a blatant lie for anyone not to look the city through the lens of partisan interests.
Today's editorial in El Pais and do not care much for the city Grela and engage in other mantras a little more varied, the major crisis is coming, Astori tax greed, evil infeccionsa of Hugo Chávez - but, paradoxically, the city is extremely dirty, and smells like rotten fruit summer sun.
containers in principle a perfect idea (although instrumented with a brutal disregard for the residents of such devices) for the capital's unruly to manage their waste, overflow of trash strewn around without even needing the help of indolence of scavengers, the containers are damaged, broken, burned by the Vandals, the plastic bags and papers pile up on the grass of the parks, the crap they pile on every corner and every hole unfilled, fountains are dry, the monuments are broken, pillaged, eaten by the voracity of the other dirt, spiritual and human. Perhaps few things are more symbolic of this than the poor image-intolerable for me but apparently invisible and to my fellow citizens-to see in full July 18 at the National Library with its marble walls completely covered with the most ugly political graffiti and unpleasant that can be devised and a swarm of homeless camping in his columns and filled with items and shit. In addition, the University of the Republic is not much better, with its walls covered with phrases fools the human brain can articulate in words. Ugly letters, written as if someone had cleaned up the ass with their hands and then hand on the wall, and it seems impossible to cover for the significant budget increases granted to tertiary education in this country.
nearly twenty years ago that the FA rules to Montevideo, the red, and now does so with great conviction-motivated enough "that so will the next five. This administration should be a long, long a curious mixture of merit and critical identification. In advance above, one can say that the first two municipalities had some good FA immediate consequences. On the one hand in the government-Vázquez was a little less, more crystalline access to jobs in the IMM, possibly the worst bastion of patronage throughout the state. Were undertaken for policy-oriented critics over social reform, something that is not necessarily power to a government department, which managed to focus away from the rich districts of the coast and the east, extending the sewerage network and infrastructure improvements the northern and western areas. Arana's first government could even think about the city in urban terms, establish policies modest beautification and preservation of certain sites and buildings threatened by the anarchy edilicia Montevideo. Both governments, inexperienced naive, but left some time bombs that would burst in the faces of the two following administrations. First, the policy of free grants of privileges absurd that Vazquez did with the guild ADEOM-possibly both demagogic overconfidence to buy the peace of the union during the first quartermaster frontage, the most-watched, not only did not improve the traditionally poor performance of municipal worker ', but they reduced their working hours and increased wages for nothing; and secondly the tendency to tolerate de facto privatization of public spaces. Fault panic on the left of having to sometimes suppress excessive freedoms that people with fewer resources is taken public spaces, those which are defined as public precisely because of its alleged inability to be appropriate and that their enjoyment nature is capable of short loans. It was so micro-settlements flourished, sometimes one-person, squares, parks, beaches and architectural nooks. It was so allowed the deterioration of the center-one of the city-building infrastructure to better tolerate informal market saturation in the act of unfair competition with the set, generating a ridiculous business deserted galleries and sidewalks blocked by makeshift tents which generated so much great work in the black industry as a metropolitan area ideal for thieves, even worse simultaneously with the creation of shopping malls, with the center thus had almost no competition damaged by the traditional mall.
What was also consciously decentralized municipal government itself through the CCZ (Zonal Community Centers), a good idea at first that point to relieve the bureaucracy of the palace of brick, but that by not granting financial autonomy and capacity manage procedures became exactly the opposite: a kind of grassroots committees payments, conduct mediation proposals and problems, and significantly increased the number of municipal employees, a job that by its immovability, their few responsibilities and hours worked and a host of extra benefits become a real lottery prize, and in the case of the CCZ, a valid material reward the militants. It is at this period beginning to realize the paradox that a trash can earn more than a university professor, with all that that entails in the symbolic level, forgotten by the IMM frontage from the time the TV decided it was a good idea to allow installation of a McDonalds at the municipal plaza.
The first FA administrations decided, but not urgent but not real power, direct its resources towards social policies to compensate the criminal indifference of governments to white and colored areas euphemistically called "distressed", favoring their access to decent health before the ornamental superfluous, such as caring for the appearance of the city, which is, however, a more specific role municipal social policies, "but the first government of Arana said to a midpoint between two priorities, considering also that the appearance of the city is not only an important issue for the bourgeois fag, but something crucial to establish the relationship of a citizen-in the full sense of the term, with their living environment.
But all these cost money and good intentions, but had increased noticeably and painful local taxes, especially those who fall on the shoulders of the middle class, as the frenzied land tax and auto-patent, the IMM - The Reds were left covered with rubbish but became violent surplus-deficit (aided also by a political party merely cruel and differential in central government subsidies to municipalities, whereby Montevideo was forgotten by governments and colored white when being assisted or tax-exempt). And the deficit was kicked forward until it broke during the second administration of Arana awful.
Some people call the second municipal government Mariano Arana the quartermaster María Julia Muñoz, whose influence grew in an obvious way for that government to the extent that some call this period "the quartermaster of Mary Julia" . Perhaps for exclupar the architect, because it was a horrible administration, full of unforgivable mistakes and not a few accusations of flattest corruption. Reach remember that these were the years of conflict between the IMM (our representatives) and ADEOM (our employees), for non-compliance of the irresponsible agreement that the administration had signed with the union, by which they undertook to automatically adjust municipal salaries in relation to increases in the CPI, a benefit that almost any other public or private employee has-and that meant that, no matter what. Generous local salary (which enabled many of us use the example of the absurdity of that Uruguay will pay more to a landfill than a university professor) were well-who knows in exchange for what "totally safe from any kind of crisis. And the crisis came and it was the fiercest in the history of Uruguay, and solidarity is a nice word in speeches but that ceases to exist when he goes into his pocket, and as dozens of businesses closed, thousands of employees were sent to insurance unemployment, and people committed suicide by dozens, ADEOM Guild went on strike because their salaries were not increased. A strike by ignorant bastards and privileged but completely legal, as opposed to breach of contract administration did Arana, so that not only the city was abandoned for weeks but eventually the economic gap had to be covered by Montevideans with increased numbers lost after a trial that left a group of public workers totally indifferent to the rest of the country (every so must also rethink what it means to "public employees" that is, workers who were allegedly in the service of the sum State), with more money than ever and with the security of having the bosses (all of us) grabbed the eggs. The only mistake would have cost the Administration the FA, but it all off was the unpresentable Areán scandal and questionable concessions, and the beginning of the scandal Bengoa, which showed that the casinos could give Montevideo losses and that the State was able to subsidize loss of casinos. And last but not least the city has deteriorated to a degree inconceivable because of the devastation that a new lumpenaje-usually consisting of coca paste smokers believe to be exempt from all human behavior "began to make all public spaces. This was a fault shared with the Ministry of Interior, but it's astonishing indifference with which the developer Arana reacted to the evidence of bronze monuments and sculptures were sawn Zorrilla abnormal slowly selling the material of statues by the weight of its material. Or they stole the other sources of water. O ate the ducks from the lakes. O converted to green space in no man's land for which could not be crossed in the night and made their toilets in sandboxes where logically children stopped playing.
The only explanation for the triumph of Ehrlich, and then the second FA Arana government must have suffered a similar electoral punishment suffered Jorge Batlle, was a combination of automation partisan inertia of the enthusiasm of the presidential and the bad choice of candidates from the opposition, which was also a divided election, ensuring that there was no way to win, "chose a clone of Montgomery Burns and the son of a hated dictator as options. So sad forced many options, like me, vote suppression, yet Ricardo Ehrlich was elected by an even higher percentage than that of Arana and the first months of his administration thought it was a good choice. Ehrlich, a man of low profile and few words, his government started doing some purging unpresentable circle that had gathered around the local casinos, proposing a register more adjusted to reality, confronting ADEOM seriously and creating a vital ranger service to prevent them from continuing their conversion into wasteland inhabited by characters torn and post-apocalyptic. Today, being near the end its management, the Ehrlich administration seems to be, at least as dire as that of Arana-Muñoz.
First, the cleanup work began on the circle Ehrlich Bengoa revealed ended more than a worthy self-purification, as part of a partisan purge simple swept almost all municipal cadres of other parties frontage, especially Assembly with Uruguay, a great opponent of Ehrlich's MPP. Among those purged was Alejandra Ostria , Director General of the Department of Environmental Development IMM, who had seized a huge Ehrlich but not with the entire leadership of MPP when gave the recommendation to close three tanneries in the neighborhood definitely New Paris - Uruven , napalan and Corbo - due to the repeated pollution and lack of guarantees for workers. The tanneries, as we know, are the principal (not sole) responsibility for the creek and marsh Miguelete have become a sort of open sewers, and are particularly the result of which, according to a shocking discovery data (and never assessed with due seriousness) by the weekly Brecha - many of the people, especially children, of land near these streams have a blood lead index (pollution Lead in the blood) that may already have irreversibly altered in their cognitive abilities. Not to mention what it means for any human being living in an area that smells like rotten pork. But although the report of the conditions of the tannery determined that there was a "total lack of guarantees for workers, locals and the environment in general" in these tanneries was Uruven, a company taken over by their workers according Luis Polakof , Development Director of the Municipality of Montevideo, had "the support of Montevideo and national government, and also has an agreement with the government of Venezuela for the purchase of machinery and production." And how known debris from dirty factories workers recover less than the capitalist. And if your child has the IQ of a Down syndrome affected not suffer from this syndrome is working for a noble cause, and appreciate a few votes.
Obviously the existence of a source of employment and development is not an issue of IMM but the central government and its ministries, but this case illustrates very well the background all of which fell on keeping the city in relation to corporate interests linked to the very IMM. The problem impresentable casinos with loss and the dark Bengoa administration revealed that the very reason for existence of local casinos -Justified, despite being clearly a destructive habit, as a kind of voluntary taxation to the (supposedly) wealthy granted and that can be used in more noble purposes-had disappeared, because the labor cost structure unfeasible made the Montevideo not only not win with these casinos, but also the subvencionáramos for their employees maintain a high modus vivendi. Another
reforms Ehrlich looks like a bad joke: introduced the figure of the rangers. Not that that is wrong, rather, is that it is similar to the Ministry of Culture said that, after 20 years, is setting up the figure of the teacher. Parks, left at the mercy of the worst Montevideo became the decades, except for a short time to first administration of Arana-in a no man's land, scorched and privatized by transvestite prostitutes, thieves, vandals and the homeless. Almost two years after the establishment of such guards, the difference is minimal, since their authority is very limited and your work schedule too.
Ehrlich also put into operation a new land register reset oriented contributions based on the famous property and relativist "to pay more to have more." The new cadastre decreased slightly the contributions of some houses and others rose an astronomical figure. Even knowing that there were areas, particularly in Carrasco, which were undervalued to the laughable, this rough idea of \u200b\u200b"pay more to have more" eggs are passed through the simple reality that in recent decades-and especially after the 2002 crisis - the value of houses is often not even remotely correspond to the monetary income of its occupants, these properties being its only real capital, a capital also generally impregnated great sentimental value, but unlike the capital saved in the banks can be sent overseas to tax primary threat. The land tax, a tax presupposes that every owner is wealthy (ignoring that most of the owners under fifty are by inheritance) is not only a tax-particularly painful in my case for example gets most of my Christmas bonus every year, but that takes nothing sensitive to change, as all municipal services have their specific duties, so that, one assumes, the capital raised by this contribution should be used in investments to improve the city. Assumed.
The newspaper El Pais published a couple of months, not in its editorial page stubborn but in the semi-objectivity of its front page, news that opposition to show some sign living brain should have been used to oust the municipal government and create a real scandal: the IMM confessed to the Court of Auditors would reduce investment by 50% for next year. Ie, in a landscape depicting a desolate city, dirty, broken, admitted that the IMM would spend half the money it spent, and no violence this year. The reason could not be more vile: that cost is the price end, at least during the election year with ADEOM conflict, and half of the investment money-religiously charged the Montevideo-be apportioned among the few thousand workers City to stay quiet for a while. Workers are now, as the Ehrlich administration significantly increased the municipal facility during his tenure, raising operating costs of the Administration still above their previous absurd. Meanwhile
one walks through July 18 saw burning garbage cans, watching the nylon bags to dance like American Beauty but thousands, swirling around the Plaza Independencia, seeing as all sources Park Rodo are dry or covered with dirt, seeing as the difference between higher-income neighborhoods, care for private and your garbage by outsourced companies, increasingly differentiated services over the media, left to luck or the unwillingness of those who ultimately are our people, seeing the tiles blown off by the estate for years that we cut and crushed by industry cyclists should have been pruned, seeing mutilated birds and small mammals in beaches by the exercise of de facto legalized umbandistas rituals and vindicated as a right by organizations involved in the MPP, seeing the persecution of any regulatory or medium-sized business to the voracity of the IMM-tax rather than a satyr just lazy fucks it can not move, the truly-local citizen and put in the spotlight as they cover the eye to the world of informal watching disciplined and impoverished artists see as the result of months and months of trial is thrown away because unionists brutal as Mabel Lolo or Anibal Varela decided that it is best to use the platform of blackmail scenarios that could never get for talent own, seeing as this is considered "normal" by those who should defend the most disadvantaged and weak in these games obscene seeing slum buildings, which should be condemned ipso facto by the constant danger that provide a sanctuary for criminals and as elements casigadas depreciation areas and are tolerated by inability to make a decision that may be presented as unpopular or repressive; watching over and over the damaged walls of the library on behalf of demands of Education, seeing advertising deregulation believed that if you pay enough you can do anything, even a horrible cardboard hand holding a bottle of alcohol on the beautiful skyline of the Quarry, and seeing as Montevideo, a beautiful city, is increasingly alien to its inhabitants, increasingly unable to decide on the smallest aspects of their care, less and less in common with the common spaces .
I wonder if Montevideo is more dirty, yes, in all respects, and immediately you feel that little twinge guilty to sit regretting for something superficial, decorative burguesón. One imagines a guardian of truth and imitating him, wrinkling her nose in a nasal voice saying, "Oh, how awful, how dirty it is everything," as if we had fallen from a cloud of ivory dust and we discovered Uruguay. But for me this super sophist-imaginary or real, can die shitting, breeds pestilence pestilence, common areas dirty dirty generate relationships between people, it ceases to be aware of the existence of these common areas. The city is, above all, the sum of the interaction of citizens, if these tracks suck is because they are sick, and no doubt it is a problem that goes beyond mere administration municipal. But there is no greater problem than that is not recognized as such, and here is a serious problem: we live in a city that makes us pay dearly for not being careful and public spaces which are not felt as such because they have ceased to be. And those are the things that make you start to hate their city. I like to Montevideo, and I prefer to hate others, and it is time to speak out about it. It was already well in romance, just excuses. Clean up your filth the fuck up.
