Half of the Foz do Iguacu waterfall is in Argentina and half
is in Brazil. The Brazilian half
is amazing. But, the wife and I
heard that the Argentinean side was even more spectacular. Getting to the Argentinean side fueled
the following explosive culturist rant!
Long story short, Americans must pay $160 to visit Argentina
for a day. Why? Reciprocity. We charge them for visas generally, so they charge us huge
sums for one day. They said it was
fair? Fair?!?! I’ll
tell you what fair is!
When nations get angry at the United States for not being
fair and generous, remember that the West – largely the US – invented the ideas
of being fair.
We have endless nuclear weapons and Argentina has zero. If we wanted to, we could easily tell
them, “Tell you what, you drop the visa fee, and send us 4 billion dollars a
month and we won’t nuke you! Is
that fair?”
If you think this policy suggestion is outlandish, think
again. Historically, nations have gone to war to steal land and get
slaves. Even now, Iran just wants
to nuke Israel to kill its people, with no eye to profit. China is slowly retaking Asia via
expanding its air and water borders because it can, not to spread
fairness.
So Argentina is using the “fairness” doctrine we created,
with resentment, against us. As
always, of course, it is much worse than it seems.
In 2012 Argentina got 178.9 million dollars in aid.[i] This is from the ‘global
community.’ But the ‘global
community’ always means the US is footing the majority of the bill. This even though, Pew Global Attitude
Survey shows Argentina’s population largely considers us, an “enemy.”[ii]
Of course, it is much worse than it seems. In 2012, the West Bank and Gaza got 1.8
billion dollars in US aid.[iii] This is the very same Gaza that is
hurling missiles at our ally Israel every chance it gets. Is that fair enough for you? It is even worse that this indicates!!!
Click HERE to read the rest of the article.
[i] List of
Countries by Foreign Aid Received, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign_aid_received
[ii] The U.S.
Gives the Most Aid to Countries that Hate It the Most, Vocative, http://www.vocativ.com/usa/us-politics/irony-alert-u-s-gives-aid-countries-hate-us/
[iii] West Bank
and Gaza Strip, Global Humanitarian Assistance, http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/countryprofile/palestineopt
[iv] Aiding and
Abetting: Why are the United States and Japan still giving Tens of Millions of
Dollars in Aid to China? Foreign Policy Magazine, July 12, 2013, http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/12/aiding-and-abetting/
4 comments:
BTW the $160 is for 10 years, not one trip. As long as you make sure to always keep the payment slip in your passport when passing through the border, you will be fine.
While the "reciprocity" ransom is childish by the Argentines, it is up to them to implement it or not, and up to you to visit Argentina or not.
Agree with the rest of the post though, if America wasn't restrained in its military exploits, we actually might have a better world on our hands than the mess we find ourselves in. I've been a proponent of American Imperialism for a long time. The real kind, not the fake "Imperialism" America is blamed for by loony liberals and Muzzies.
I would not pay that. Who gives a shit about Argentina. The notion of paying $160, on top of all the other expenses, to get to a friggin' wasteland of people who hate us?
Fuck that.
John is such a world traveller, loves travel, and, as such, he is brought to his knees at the border.
Robert Downey Jr. moment.
Argentina is worth less than zero to me.
To John, it was worth the whole down on the knees thing.
Other than that, I agree with the whole post.
LOL Pasto, you crack me up.
John another thing: I've heard from many people who've been to the falls that the Brazilian side is better than the Argentine. So I would fire my tour guide if I were you.
Maybe the tour guide is getting a kickback from the government.
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