Cristina’s vision of how the world works is far from modest
There are few things Cristina likes more than connecting dots. Where others see only a confused jumble of events and trends that have little to do with one another, she sees a pattern that makes perfect sense. As she recently tweeted, in English, “Everything has to do with everything (when it comes to geopolitics and international power)”, before going on to inform us that the late public prosecutor Alberto Nisman, “Vulture Lord” Paul Singer, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, angry creditors who want their money back plus, it would seem, a pack of US congressmen and congresswomen who have it in for those nice Iranians and want to block any nuclear agreement with them, have ganged up against her, that is, against Argentina and all that is decent in the world. If she goes on like this for much longer, she will give solipsism a bad name.
Cristina and her fellow Kirchnerites would have it that Nisman, while alive, worked hand in glove with foreign financial speculators who, with the help of an elderly and therefore easily swayed New York judge, wanted to make a killing by unseating her. They suggest that, had he chosen his friends more carefully, he would still be with us. In any case, they will not give the vultures a single cent. If the next government wants to betray all that is good by caving in to their obscene demands, so be it. It will cost them dear.
To the surprise of many, for the last couple of weeks Cristina has refrained from reminding us that, behind the cosmopolitan array of forces that is trying to do her down, is Clarín’s CEO, the accountant Héctor Magnetto, an evidently masterful puppeteer who, according to loyal Kichnerites, has managed to mobilize a sizable part of the planet in his efforts to topple a government that lets common folk gorge themselves on sausages and ham, as she proudly pointed out in one of those regular addresses that have to be broadcast by all the country’s television channels and radio programmes.
Cristina’s vision of how the world works is far from modest. When those geopolitical tectonic plates out there move a couple of inches, she takes it for granted that they are being nudged by people who fear her and will go to any lengths to make her life more difficult. Her vision could be described as Churchillian: after producing several volumes about what was then still called the Great War, an unappreciative fellow politician said “Winston has written an enormous book about himself, and called it The World Crisis”. A former prime minister, Arthur Balfour, told his friends he was reading “Churchill’s autobiography disguised as a history of the universe”. But unlike Winnie, Cristina is a gentle soul who loves peace. That is why she finds the macho behaviour of other countries’ leaders, among them Barack Obama, so deplorable and is not afraid to say so.
Argentina’s foreign policy, economic policy and much else is of Cristina’s making. Her underlings are lucky to get a word in. On occasion, Héctor Timerman, Axel Kiciloff and the rest of them may try to influence her, but unless they are strongly backed by her son Máximo who is an expert on computer games and therefore a political genius, they will be slapped down for getting above themselves. Cristina rules because she won the 2011 elections with over half the votes cast by a suitably grateful populace. Nothing will ever change that.
People like Obama, David Cameron, Mariano Rajoy and company made a big mistake when they decided not to pay Cristina the homage which is her due. Had Obama treated her better by inviting her now and then to dinner in the White House and listening carefully to her advice on how to repair his country’s broken-backed economy, Cristina would in all likelihood have steered clear of Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro, Vlad Putin and the Iranian theocrats. But the coloured man, as Cristina kindly called him when he was first elected, has proved invulnerable to her charms. That is the main reason, perhaps the only reason, why she decided to flirt with his country’s enemies.
Argentina’s economy is in a bad shape because Cristina wanted to show the world that the ideas that had excited her more adventurous friends when she was a law student in La Plata forty odd years ago were right and the ones hawked by creeps on the other side of the political spectrum were dead wrong. In those days, litterateurs such as the late Eduardo Galeano were taken far more seriously than any professional economist. In some places, among them the Pink House, they still are. No doubt the until quite recently modish Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis finds them congenial, but, alas, desperately wanting something to be true does not make it so.
With her in charge, the economy is going to the dogs with inflation picking up again, dollar reserves running out and industry sinking deeper into the mire, but Cristina bravely refuses to give in. Why should she? It will be up to her foes to clear up the mess they and their vulture leaders have managed to bring about. That will teach them. In any case, every other country is in trouble because too many politicians pay attention to the IMF, an utterly useless organization that never gets everything right. Whenever Cristina looks at Europe she sees a disaster area with millions upon millions of youngsters without jobs, she knows the US is a capitalist inferno and is sure that tomorrow belongs to China, a place where people treat their benefactors with the respect they deserve.