I was deeply moved when I read that over 3.000 homeless individuals attended a festive charity dinner in front of Buenos Aires Congress last Tuesday. A crude reminder of our 52.9 poverty percentage. Child poverty has reached 66 percent, which means that 7 million children under 14 are poor. Meanwhile, our so-called representatives in Congress, shamelessly keep increasing their salaries overnight. I wonder: do they ever leave their ivory towers or gated neighborhoods and walk the streets? Don’t they ever see the people who can hardly survive by collecting cans, bottles, boxes, rummaging through trash in search for food or anything useful? How on earth can they be so callous, so insensitive, so cold-hearted, so uncaring? Don’t get me wrong. I do look up to the volunteers who organised that Christmas Eve dinner, but I guess we all agree it’s not enough. We should demand more solidarity from the powerful ones who run the country. That’s their job, that’s why voters have chosen them: to eradicate poverty instead of filling their own pockets.
Buenos Aires Times, December 28, 2024