Saturday, December 8, 2012

You Can Cry For Me, Argentina

I spent half-an-hour flipping through unread, half-read, and quarter-read Globes to find these:

"Argentina wants foreigners, 16-year-olds to vote" Associated Press, August 21, 2012

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina is rethinking what it means to be a citizen, proposing radical changes that would have foreigners and 16-year-olds vote to determine who should run the country. 

I actually agree with lowering the age to 16 here. Those will soon be the kids fighting the next war and occupying some foreign land. They should have a say. 

President Cristina Fernandez’s legislative leaders say the proposed electoral laws will enhance democracy and challenge the world to treat voting as a universal human right.

If only we could get honest and accurate results. 

Opponents call it a naked attempt to prolong the power of a decade-old government that has showered public money on migrants and young people.

Related: What's Next For Mitt Romney?

With approval likely in a Congress controlled by the president’s allies, the laws would expand Argentina’s electorate by 3 million voters, or roughly 10 percent, and make it among the world’s most permissive countries in terms of voting rights, allowing foreigners with two years of permanent residency to cast ballots....

The feeling here is Israel already exercises too much influence over our foreign policy. 

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"Argentine court OK’s abortion in sex slave case" Associated Press, October 13, 2012

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s Supreme Court has ruled that a woman rescued from a prostitution ring must get the abortion she wants and chastised public officials who put her in the center of a political firestorm.

The ruling was celebrated Friday by women’s advocates in Buenos Aires, where the federal justice ministry has been protecting the 32-year-old in a refuge for freed sex slaves.

Argentina allows legal abortions in rape cases or to protect a woman’s health. But politicians, doctors, and judges often continue to block them, despite a Supreme Court ruling in March that was supposed to remove barriers to abortion.

In this case, a judge intervened anyway, saying there was no proof of rape even though the woman had been kidnapped and forced into prostitution....

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Also seeDon't Cry For Us, Argentina!

I Will Cry For You, Argentina!

That deserves some tears.