"DORMANT ARGENTINA" "Dedicated to the young men and women, workers and scientists willing to recover the dormant Argentina" "In the southern end of Latin America unfolds the triangle-shaped Argentinean soil, almost as big as Western Europe but only with 15% of its population." "From Tierra del Fuego to La Quiaca, 4,000 kilometers with all types of soils and variety of climates." "A maritime shelf of 900,000 square kilometers and one of the largest drinkable water reserves in the planet." "30 million hectares are cultivated and the same amount is fiscal land, still there is no legislation to protect them from the increasing amount of foreigners that acquire large estates." "It's one of the biggest food producers of the world, but one third of its population lives in poverty." "Astate-owned oil industry that accomplished self-sufficiency, but was fraudulently privatized." "Argentina has the 6th biggest metal reserve in the world, but these are exploited by corporations without any kind of state supervision, leaving polluted underground water behind." "The industry produced more than 90% of the country's needs." "But the neo-liberal adventure led it to bankruptcy and most of the larger companies ended up in foreign hands." "Argentina maintains high scientific development, but only a third of its population received high school education and 3 million argentines suffer from Chagas disease." "A country as powerful in resources and raw material as incapable of defending them:" "38 million people don't know they're co-owners of the multi-million dollar argentine consortium." "Guys, would you say Argentina is a wealthy or a poor country?" "Poor." "Which resources would you say Argentina has left?" "I don't understand the question very well." "To which kind of resources are you referring to?" "What does Argentina have?" "Nothing." "I'd say the State itself doesn't have anything." "I don't remember if there's anything left." "Unfortunately, we don't have much left." "There's the sea, but we don't take care of it;" "we don't take care of our land either." "We gave away our mining, our oil..." "That's it, I'd better go..." "We know the oil belongs to Spain..." " Argentina is rich in minerals." " How rich?" " It's not mine." " Why not?" "Because I don't have a job right now." " Argentina is a wealthy country?" " What do you mean by wealthy?" "That issue is hard to evaluate, but..." "Here at the School of Economics, is there a subject dedicated to the study of Argentina's national wealth?" "No, not specifically." "However, the country's assets and natural resources haven't been sold." "These concessions can be recuperated." "What industrial and scientific resources does Argentina keep in order to reconstruct itself?" "Which is Argentina's objective?" "What can the country offer its South American brothers to help materialize the dream of a great Latin American nation?" "RÍO SANTIAGO SHIPYARD" "This is the biggest machining center of the largest shipyard in Latin America;" "the Río Santiago shipyard." "We made diesel engines that weighed up to 400 tons, chassis for locomotives, hydraulic pieces, and turbines such as the ones in Yacyretá." "We also made pieces for atomic stations, and everything that could be made in a high-complexity workshop such as ours." "We use to make grain and oil ships." "We have even made 230 meters long ships with a 60,000 net ton capacity." "We also made highly complex warships such as the "Santísima Trinidad" frigate." "They tried to privatize all of this..." "This company was the first of 27 companies in the national defense industry that were meant to be privatized, but we didn't let it happen." "We all fought to keep this national asset in the hands of the State." "We can now count on it to reactivate our economy." "Potentially, it can employ 9 thousand men." "Cadelli, when did you first start working at the shipyard?" "I started in 1974." "I cleaned the bathrooms, carried parts around, swept the floors..." "Whatever a handyman can do." "Have you worked with "El Ruso" since then?" "He was higher-ranked than me then, he was the boss." "I finally got my Engineer degree, got promoted and continued my career." "RESISTANCE TO THE PRIVATIZATIONS" "We organized over 20 protests between the years 1991 and 1992." "We took over the "Sociedad Rural" (landowners' society), the Stock Exchange building, the Cathedral while Monsignor Quarracino was still in the building, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs while Ministry Cavallo was inside." "Nobody paid attention to these mobilizations in those days because people had their heads in the clouds, people believed that privatizations were a good idea, there weren't any roadblocks and unemployment wasn't an issue..." "THE VICTIMS" "What did you have to go through?" "Many beloved comrades took their own lives by throwing themselves off of cranes and warehouses." "The struggle and injustices we had to put up with depressed them and led them to suicide." "We lost 27 comrades in 1992;" "none of them were even 55 years old." "Angelito, who worked the forges, he was very depressed from a protest that ended up in a confrontation with the police, and said: "I can't stand this anymore." "I'm killing myself this weekend"." "Unfortunately, he kept his word." "Those incidents happened in the struggle against the privatizations?" "Yes, against the privatizations..." "We put a stop to privatizations then, but the price we had to pay was the lives of many of our men." "70 people disappeared during the dictatorship." "Luciano Sander was tortured, even after his death he was mutilated" "There are always vindications though..." "There's always vindications that gratify you..." "Such as?" "Such as the memoirs of Major Alberte, which were published with the help of his son." "They thank me because" "Beatriz Ronco endured the tortures silently, thus allowing her comrades to escape." "Life gives vindication, even if your wounds will never close." "Somehow that book vindicated some of the comrades, who were consistent even under torture, with the commitment they made to the people," "To be part of a movement which members are willing to sacrifice their lives to save someone else's, it fills me with pride, albeit the pain." "We messed it up!" "COMPLETE LOYALTY" "Hey mom!" "Was this engineer a handful, ma'am?" "No, the other way around;" "he was a very good boy." "He was never a handful." "He grew up without even having to water him..." " Without watering him?" " Without watering..." "What about his character?" "He's very stubborn..." "Yes, he is stubborn but when he is right, and I think that's a good thing." "I helped him be that way..." "That I got from my mom..." "How long have you been here for?" "I have lived here for 54 years." "My father came here from Ucrania, in a boat, like every immigrant from Europe did." "He got a job at the Armur meat-processing plant and settled down in this neighborhood called Villa Sula." "What about your mom?" "My mom was descendant of Polish immigrants." "I am expanding my house because I have a large family," "I have four children." "My wife is a teacher at the Number 18 Public School." "You look great from behind." "What does your relationship with "El Ruso" represent?" "We're inseparable." "We can't even picture ourselves working apart in politics." "We've been together for so long, and have gone through so much that our bond is now unbreakable." "What do you say, Ruso?" "I always say he has a degree in Engineering and I have one in Streets." "We balance each other out." "Besides that, I know he always has my back and there's a moral and ethic obligation to..." "It's about complete loyalty." "God left me out of every bad situation that "El Ruso"" "found himself in, so that I could rescue him." "God left "El Ruso" standing every time I fell down so he could rescue me." "It's always been like that." "THE REACTIVATION" "These are the ships we have under construction right now:" "A Bull Carrier, going to Germany, which is a multi-purpose ship, and a tow ship, the grey one down there, for the "Tranzona" company, here in Argentina." "You should be able to see in the back the "Libertad" frigate, which is in for its mid-life repair." "We're making two ships for Venezuela, and there's talk of constructing another two." "They have capacity for 47 thousand tons each." "What's the project about?" "The objective is to create a cutting-edge multimodal transport company." "The multinational companies rule Argentinean transportation right now." "The country spends between three and four thousand million dollars a year in international freights." "We could have 50% of that if we had a law to ensure national companies a portion of the goods transported, even countries with no territorial sea have laws of the sort." "Argentina can and should rebuild its entire multimodal transport system." "There are thousands of workers, technicians and engineers just waiting to do it." "If Argentina succeeded in doing this in the 40s, under a national and popular government, we can do it again anytime." "It should be even easier nowadays." "AERONAUTICAL INDUSTRY" "Córdoba was the center of metal mechanical industries and researches." "The National Airplane Factory, founded in 1927 by Brigadier De la Colina, drove the Argentinean aeronautical industry into becoming the most advanced one in the southern hemisphere by the end of the 40s." "Industrial Museum" "Our aeronautical history started in the year 1930, when Brigadier De la Colina had the bold idea of making an Argentinean airplane." "Completely national." "It was viewed at the time as so daring that the National Congress actually summoned him to a hearing." "Over 30 airplanes where completely designed and made in Argentina by the year 1955." "We could point out the AS 1, which was the first airplane designed by De la Colina, and the ET 1, which was a commercial airplane that flew between Córdoba and Buenos Aires..." "The first flight of the IA 35 marked the broad path to our growing prosperity." "The ongoing war around 1944 made the import of airplanes impossible." "My father, who was President of the Airplane Factory in those days, ordered the manufacture of a DL plane with the Gaucho engine so he invited every known workshop and company to choose which part they dared build." "107 industrialists rose to the challenge and produced 200 units of this plane." "They went on to make the "Pulqui 1" in the year 1947, which was also the first reactor ever made in the southern hemisphere and the 8th in the world." "In 1950, the "Pulqui 2" was made, a combat aircraft similar to the Russians' MIG XV." "This aircraft put our aero-spatial technology at the level of France." "Former military airplane factory Córdoba 2003" "The aeronautical industry was dismantled by Menem's government in the 1990s." "The "Embraer" project, which was a joint effort between" "Brazil and Argentina to manufacture commercial airplanes, was dropped." "The National Airplane Factory was put in the hands of the biggest armament and missile consortium of the United States." "We're standing in front of the "Pampa", the last airplane made in the Military Airplane Factory, here in Córdoba." "Commodore, what are the characteristics of the "Pampa"?" "The "Pampa" is an advanced training airplane with many other capacities that could be added to it." "This aircraft came out in 1988 and had cutting-edge technology at the time." "This factory was once the biggest in all of South and Central America." "Over 10 thousand people worked here then;" "we had engineers, researchers and labs." "The industry grew here and was practiced as it should be." "We owned all of it." "That great factory is now a simple workshop dedicated to the maintenance of aircrafts." "The Lockheed Company didn't invest in the factory at all;" "they didn't need to." "Everything was ready." "The personnel was already trained, the facilities were in perfect conditions." "They had it all." "The government gave away every intellectual patent to Lockheed." "Every single development, even the "Pampa", was given away." " In exchange of what?" " Absolutely nothing; nothing at all..." " The "Pampa" is owned by Lockheed..." " Lockheed owns it." "I believe this was orchestrated and planned to dismantle every single Argentinean industry, so nothing is manufactured here anymore..." "Do you think the aeronautical industry can be reactivated?" " Yes, I believe so..." " Why?" "I think reactivation is possible because there is a will to do it." "The installed capacity exists in Cordoba and in other parts of the country and it is ready to be used immediately." "AEROSPATIAL AND ROCKETINDUSTRY" "Aeronautical University Institute" "The National aeronautic industry achieved a level of technologic development that allowed aerospatial technology to be used in meteorology, agriculture and communications." "We reached space in 1961." "The level of our technology and the fact that we manufactured our own propelling grains allowed us to launch a nationally-made rocket called Antares." "The second stage of this development was built using the configuration of the Castor rocket." "Argentina was the 4th country to put a living being in space and safely return it to earth/ right after Russia, EEUU and France." "The first tests were made with mice and afterwards with a monkey named "Juan", who ended up living in the Córdoba Zoo." "The aim of The Condor project consisted of advanced domestic technology." "It was simply a vector." "However..." "Some of the world's superpowers wickedly determined that Argentina's vector technology development was meant to be used in missiles..." "This is where the old misile factory was, where the Condor was manufactured." "Production was cancelled in 1991." "Falda del Carmen" has 500 hectares 48 buildings with an area of 11 thousand square meters." "These are high-tech buildings and there were, at one point, 800 people working here." "What did they take from here?" "Every piece in production was taken to the United States via Spain." "The machinery is still here." "Yes, people say the American Ambassador Toddman was here..." "He came two or three times," "I don't really know how many times he came." "He inspected the facility to make sure it was shut down." "THEAUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY" "Racing was a great national passion in the 50s." "The "Municipal Racetrack" had been inaugurated recently and Juan Manuel Fangio was a F1 champion." "The National Airplane factory helped give birth to the automobile industry in those days." "In 1952, the "Justicialista" was the first car made in Argentina." "It was a low-tech inexpensive automobile." "The "Graciela", the "Pampa" tractor and the useful "Rastrojero" followed." "The poor "Rastrojero" was cancelled by Martínez de Hoz because it was too good and competed with a pickup manufactured by a multinational company." " Howmany units were made?" " About 200 thousand." "The worst of it all was that the commission that shut us down invited every supplier to a "Shutting down party"." "My name is Leopoldo López Orozco..." "I'm a technician from San Juan." "In spite of having studied in San Juan, the country's industrial center was in Córdoba and this led me to settle there." "When did this happen?" "We're talking about the glorious era of "Turismo de Carretera" (Car Races)." "I was lucky to have Oscar Galves as my mentor." "Once again the steep mountains fight against the drivers, throwing its harsh topography at them." "But the drivers' skills and enthusiasm allows them to overcome every obstacle and keep driving hard..." "Turismo Carretera" (TC) was the best school that I had." "The knowledge taken from it was applied in our engines and I believe it shows in all our projects." "These are the models and casts that will eventually give birth to an 100% Argentinean engine." "This is my life, Pino." "I've been working on this since I was 15 years old." "I've worked towards building an Argentinean engine for 50 years now." "This is the engine we made for the Diesel "Rastrojero", we had to pay the log house or Royalty because we didn't have a national engine to put in it." "Having in mind the need of Latin-Americans to be able to use their cars in auxiliary roads, we made a 4x4 car that had the power of two engines." "That engine had to work for ambulances and generators, if needed." "This engine was meant for the "Black Latinamerica"" "and to export it from there." "Unfortunately to every Argentinean, the factory was shut down, along with our chances to manufacture our own horse power." "The fact that our own factories were abandoned and railways were downsized, leaving thousands of workers unemployed... was functional to the settlement of the multinacional automobile companies" "Since the 70s the United States' government along with the "Trilateral Commission"" "stated that Argentina and Chile should dismantle their industries and become raw materials providers." "Brazil would be the industrial center of the south." "MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES AND ROBOTIZATION" "Back in 1991, the idea was to make factories more competitive by bringing them up to date so it was a big change we made, thinking in producing exportable products." "Today we are 2,500 employees, between blue and white collars, but Ford once had over 12,000 people working at the factory." "We are using more and more robots but not just to downsize labour but to standarize Quality." "Let's remember Charles Chaplin movie, Modern Times, men don't do that sort of work any more." "May be the negative face of this situation is that there are less jobs available but blue collars are more specialized:" "Most of them operate computers." "How does it feel to work with these robotic things?" "It's mainly positive but on the other hand, ...we lost many co-workers." " Why?" "Each of these creatures works as much as five of us;" "besides the fact that robots don't have to go to the bathroom or visit the doctor." "That's the negative side, but..." " They keep a certain rhythm going..." " A steady rhythm..." "Their work is perfect." "They receive their orders through a computer which tells them howmany stitches to make." "They don't miss one, they're really good." "It's a shame they're made in Japan, they could at least be domestically made..." "It's like a bacteriologic war, don't you think?" "The building is here but people in it seem to be disappearing." "The robot is calling..." "The robot is calling..." "INDUSTRIAL REACTIVATION" "The National Industry, regardless robotization, began its recovery when the convertibility currency system became unsustainable and the amount of imported goods diminished." "The Zanello tractores factory, known today as Pauny, went bankrupt during the 2001 crisis." "Workers and dealers recovered the factory by turning the company into a cooperative." "They are now leaders in the domestic market and produce 800 agricultural machines per year and manufactured the first liquated gas tractor." "Most parts are manufactured right here in the factory." "Components are designed and developed here as well." "We export to the Netherlands," "Kazakhstan, Peru and Venezuela." "Are you happy and satisfied with working here?" "Yes, yes, it is very different now." "We began this together and we are all mates so we are very happy with our coworkers here." "Okay, now, show me the girls..." "THE EMPLOYMENT DEFENCE" "The innovative experience carried out in the I.M.P.A. Aluminum factory, which was recovered by the workers after bankruptcy, shows labor cost and job reduction is not the only way to go." "They chose to cut off managing costs and executives' salaries instead." "We took over the factory ourselves because we were not being paid." "It was almost a hobby." "For howmany months did you not receive your salary?" "For about seven or eight months approximately." " And how did it make you feel?" " We felt dignified..." "The workers have a great self managing capacity." "Therefore, we all have responsibility over every aspect, there is no supervisor to put the blame on." "We have coordinators instead of supervisors." "There is no disciplinary chain as normal or private industries have." "The coordinator uses general agreement instead of discipline." "We all know we are working for our own interest." "Thanks to the work experience and boldness of all the co-workers, we were successful in transforming the whole production process into a scrap recycling plant." "Now, a tin you may find on the street gets into I.M.P.A. And after 10 days, comes out as a useful product for society." "Therefore we, the workers by ourselves, without any professional help what so ever, as there is not one engineer or metallurgical technician among us, using only our collective work experience achieved through 40 years, the same workers you are seeing right now," "succeeded in becoming independent." "Our working system, inside the factory, is not a competitive one." "The power of our cooperation system, which contradicts the paradigm of competition that liberalism imposes on us, made us stand on our feet and defend this project from the privatized companies' violence." "Like the time when EDESUR tried to cut off our electricity, which we did not have enough money to pay." "This man over here, who has 8 children, tied up his van and told them it would stay there unless they turned the power back on, and it did stay there while we were negotiating." "He used chains..." "That comrade was defending what was his..." " He was really mistreated..." " No, that was his wife..." "The organization "Sons of the Disappeared"" "lent us money from their parents' compensation plan to pay for electricity." "SOCIAL ENGINEERING" "Our newest machine, here at IMPA, is 30 years old." "Our experience shows that even obsolete machinery can be productive if there's a solid "social engineering" behind it." "The fact that one of our comrades has 10 children is more important to us than the productivity we could have if we had more modern machines." "Who do you sell your production to?" "Last year, Johnson  Johnson told us that they couldn't do business with us because we didn't meet the International Standards Organization's (ISO) requirements." "The devaluation of the peso made it impossible for them to keep importing their products into our country." "They called us last June saying we were now meeting every ISO rules;" "without us having changed anything." "They sent us an email today asking us to supply all of Latin America." "We went from nothing, to having an order for 10 million aerosols;" "one million per month." "FACTORY OF IDEAS" "We had a globalization issue to face." "Technological evolution allows us to produce the same amount as we did before, in less time." "This gives the workers free time that has to be somehow filled." "This is how we came up with the idea of turning the empty rooms of the factory into an Idea Factory." "Howmany workshops are there?" "There're about 35 workshops that cover areas from trapeze and African drums to baby massages." "That sounds to me as something heroic" "If you don't feel attached to previous endeavors, if you don't feed from previous endeavors..." "That's what I meant when I talked about a generation," "I'm a survivor from the generation of the disappeared." "That bounds me;" "that bounds many people." "People usually say things that this or that is impossible;" "but there are also people that say that every disappeared ratted on everyone when they were taken." "I am the son of five disappeared who never told them a thing." "Having known everything about me, where I lived... they endured torture," "resisted and never told them a single thing." "I call them my parents." "I have parents who gave me life and parents who kept me from dying." "This is where my strength comes from..." "UNISERSITY AND EDUCATION" "Córdoba University" "Universities took a beating from the dictatorships in the last decades." "They also suffered attacks to their economy in the 90s from the neoliberal project that meant to dismantle the nation's industrial, technical and scientific potential." "Professionals are being trained at the university to be able to make malls, 5 stars hotels," "Places like "Puerto Madero"" "in Buenos Aires." "However, we aren't even thinking of how to resolve the housing problem." "The lack of students today is astonishing." "The university seems to be focused on a specific market, preoccupied about duties and quotas..." "After graduation, the only path they think promising is emigration." "The Medicine School couldn't stand up to the huge private labs." "The Engineering School couldn't stand up to the private constructing companies." "The Social Sciences school couldn't meet the demands of the media." "In a way, our intellectual, cultural and teaching lives, and I say this with great regret, were tacitly privatized." "Engineering University" " Buenos Aires" "In the 90s, electronic engineering turned into telecommunications and industrial engineering turned into business administration." "We could say that engineers were trained according to what the market demanded." "Society needed maintenance technicians, sale engineers and managers, that's what the universities taught." "The eternal question rises again:" "What do we educate engineers for?" "Do we want them to work for whoever pays them more, to make their careers else where or do we want them to work towards the country's best interest?" "These questions were asked by engineer Juan Eugenio Maggi, a man who graduated from this university and was a pioneer in hydroelectric engineering, transportation and the nationalization of the railway." "He used to say:" ""We can't train technocrats who'll work for whoever gives them more money." "We have to train engineers who'll work in defense of our country's interest." "We have to give them a strong scientific education tied to the country's strategic development"." "That's what we had to figure out then, and that's what we still have to decide today." "Argentinean engineers were the ones who constructed the great public works and the country's strategic infrastructure." "Luis Huergo made bridges, roads and harbors such as the Buenos Aires Harbor." "General Mosconi and General Baldrich multiplied YPF's capital by 400 in the 7 years they ran the company." "Julio Caresa, C.E.O. Of "Gas State Own-Company"" "constructed a gas pipeline between Buenos Aires and La Patagonia." "General Manuel Savio, father of the iron and steel industry's strategy, turned "Altos Hornos Zapla" into a profitable company, and founded Somisa/ the two largest iron and steel companies in the country." "THE FUSION OF KNOWLEDGE" "A Nuclear power plant requires there to be metallurgists, electronic engineers, electricians and chemists;" "those professionals weren't born five days before the plant's construction." "They were born in a different history;" "in a time, may be a hundred years ago, when people like Huergo knew how to relate to the universities and specialists to..." "Of what decade are we talking about?" "We are talking about the 30's." "The University of Chemical Engineering of the Litoral, first one in Latin America, nourished from immigrants fleeing from the Italian fascism." "Those were the pioneers of the Argentinean chemical industry." "That's why there were chemical, petrochemical and refinement engineering technicians here." "Is this an Argentinean lathe?" "Precisely." "That's an emblematic brand of lathes, it's not made anymore." "One may think that it should've been turned into something else, but the machine itself is not important." "What's important is the person who made it." "What ever happened to him?" "We have lost and destroyed our human capital." "That's the most serious aspect of this." "Today we need to have a main girder to follow as a national strategic and industrial project." "WHAT'S OUR PROJECT AS A COUNTRY?" "An agricultural and mining economic model is being consolidated in the country today." "The design of our economic, crediting and taxing politics benefits large monopolistic groups." "The privatization policy is still applied;" "privatized companies are receiving even larger subsidies, concessions and credit are given to large groups while small and medium sized companies are denied of them." "It was said, 60 years ago, that the country couldn't be industrialized." "It's being said again;" "but Argentina was, is and will be able to do it." "National College of Buenos Aires" "There are a million three hundred thousand students attending class at 38 public and 41 private universities." "The budget destined to higher education doesn't cover its needs." "Carlos Pellegrini School" "The National Universities of Mexico and Sao Pablo invest six times more money per student than the one in Buenos Aires." "The pay of a full time professor with more than 20 years of experience is less than 1,000 dollars per month." "Thousand of teachers work for free." "Doctor, in which socioeconomic reality are people studying and teaching in Argentina in 2005?" "The largest flaw we're dealing with right now is the unbalanced distribution ofincomes." "30 or 40 years ago Argentina had a 50/50 relation between capital and work." "Nowadays, the best paid employees are earning 30 times more money that the ones in the bottom of the chart." " How big was that gap in the 70s?" " About six or seven times more money." "SCHOOL DESERTION" "We are at the number 18 condominium in Evita City;" "a high-risk area." "The school is in a high-risk neighborhood." "These kids come from problematic families and this determines the high-risk factor." "There are many people injail, there're many parents who haven't been able to take care of their children..." "Why is it they weren't able to take care of them?" "Because there are many mothers who are extremely young and have their husbands injail or even dead." "The mortality rate of parents is very high in this area." "Poverty is also very important because most of these people are unemployed." "My name is Dante Alfaro," "I've been the principal at this school since 1998." "I've lived in Evita City for42 years now." "I'm part of this scenery and I fight from within this scenery." "We have over 300 students." "Unemployment is a huge problem here, most people live on welfare." "The corruption in politics has always made it harder for these families to try to get their dignity back." "The situation of education in our country is terrible for everyone." "Nobody benefits from this situation, not students, not families, not teachers." "We're working against ourselves here." "Children are thrown into school and we are expected to fix everything, but you can't work with children that are hungry or don't respect rules." "We have nowhere to send children who are very violent or are psychologically troubled." "The families can't deal with them and, in most cases, they don't even have a hospital to go to." "They might be able to get an appointment for the children to see a doctor but several months later." "People can't even afford bus fares." "This is the situation in which children do evaluations and tests, those results are supposed to show how good our public education is." "By the way, the school doesn't even receive a hundred pesos per month, not even a hundred..." "They grow up lacking everything, watching the world developing around them." "When these children reach eleven or twelve years old, they get to the conclusion that their lives are miserable and not worth living." "They see their mothers starving, their siblings sick and with no money for medication;" "that desperation makes them consider robbing or killing anyone in order to get their mothers or siblings their medication." "In spite of everything, teachers do teach these kids, teaching is a heroic profession nowadays." "Schools are teaching values that are opposite to those society lives by." "Hedonism and irresponsibility are the dominant values in our society." "Schools, however, still teach the value of making an effort and cooperating with others." "Does television have a role in any of this?" "Television is the enemy of every value schools try to teach." "The values taught by schools are opposite to the ones spread by the media." "It's very hard for teachers to stimulate children's interest for knowledge when television does the opposite." "It's very hard for schools to teach children to be well-spoken when they see people on television everyday who can't even say a coherent sentence." "We teach them about Rodrigo, the "Bailanta" and Cumbia," "I'm not passing judgment on that, but I think schools should teach children about things they don't see everyday on the streets." "We should give them Bach, Beethoven," "Atahualpa and John Lennon." "We have to teach them a universal culture." "I don't think they oppose each other; in fact," "I think our culture feeds from the universal culture, and vice versa." "The beloved Simón Rodriguez, mentor of Bolivar, used to say:" "Either we invent or err"." "Instead of looking for examples in Europe, we should be thinking about ourselves, about Latin America;" "I think that's the answer." "We should stand on the universal culture heritage to invent our own society, the new world we need to build here." "We have thousands of uncared-for children that lack love." "I may be bringing a political idea into play here, but... "Che" used to say:" ""Well, this may sound absurd but I'm going to talk about love..."" "The deep changes we need to make here are fundamentally love issues." "There isn't just a lack of material possessions here;" "there's also a lack of love and care." "I would summarize this in a single idea:" "A project for our country and our society." "Like Eric From used to say:" "We teachers also have the obligation to fight for a society where the social condition allows love to prevail..."" "The one who guesses, guess..." "Guess, the one who guesses..." "The one who guesses," "How can one accept school desertion as a fact when the country has natural resources, which belong to the people, worth millions of dollars?" "How can one accept the fact that there are thousands of empty factories in the country and 20,000 thousand young people in jail when the National Bank has more reserves and capital than ever?" "MINERAL RESOURCES" "The Kirchner administration managed to reduce unemployment by 50% and the country's economy grew by 8,5%, with fiscal surplus." "However, the agricultural and mining model proposed by Menen is still essentially applied." "The country still gives away our fabulous rent from oil and mining to multinational companies." "The corporations extract with no State supervision and half of the concessions given are illegal." "We are at the Gulf of Saint George basin, it runs from the south of Chubut to the north of Santa Cruz." "It goes hundreds of kilometers west, east and south of this region." "This basin is the second most important one in the country." "There are thousands of oil wells producing from 5,000," "10,000; 30,000 and 40,000 liters of oil per day." "Each liter of oil is worth 70 dollars, these wells generate thousands of dollars per day." "Most of this money goes to private companies and, unfortunately, as Mosconi used to say:" ""The oil is flushed out to the sea"." "Nobody knows how much they extract from mining either." "They just leave the 1,5% behind and to top things off, they are subsidized." "The oil rent alone is over 15 billions dollars a year." "Our rich maritime platform has been now given away for exploration, free of taxes." "How much longer will this impunity exist?" "Argentina could recover its wealth just by applying our existing laws." "If a country wants to serve its people, it needs to have control of its own natural resources." "This means the country has to be able to produce everything from energy and food to clothing and education." "The country has to exploit every natural resource it has to benefit its people." "Any country that wishes to develop its industry needs a great deal of cheap energy, this is why they usually start by controlling their oil wells." "SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION" "Malbrán Institute" " Buenos Aires" "The National Commission of Scientific Investigations (CONICET)" "Groups together 12,000 investigators, grant holders and technicians who work on every field." "In spite of the successive crisis Argentina went through, they didn't stop contributing to the development of science." "The Commission's most relevant achievements are on the biomedical field." "Three Nobel Prizes awarded to" "Bernardo Houssay," "Federico Leloir and César Millstein for their work" "Houssay founded both the School of Physiology of Argentina and the CONICET" "he was also Doctor Charreu's mentor." "Where did Houssay learn so much?" "I think he had an innate talent;" "that's why I say he was self-taught." "He studied the work of Claude Bernard, the first experimental physiologist of the world, by himself." "He then applied the scientific method." "To experiment, to try and to err, to try and to err and so on." "He believed one could make a living by taking scientific research as a profession." "Back then, there weren't any full-time research positions available in the country." "Houssay changed that..." "What do you remember of him?" "I decided to get my masters degree at Harvard;" "they eventually offered me a position as a professor there." "I wrote Houssay about it and he said:" "Very well, but I remind you about everything your parents did for you, your teachers, every one of us." "This is why I'm going to write to your boss and tell him to give you one more month for you to get your personal matters in order and you should come back home..."" "Well, I came back to Argentina." "THE PURSUIT OF SCIENCE" "How can one explain the fact that promotions at the C.N.E.A. Are on hold?" "That's a critical problem for the entire scientific and technological Argentinean system." "I understand that almost 4,000 technicians lost their promotions at INTA and they couldn't get them back in many years." "The C.N.E.A. Is having the same problem." "The country invests in training people, but those human resources are afterwards lost." "People have no other option but to leave the country." "In C.N.E.A.'s case, there hasn't been any regular hiring since 1996." "There will be 500 empty positions in the organization chart within the next five years." "To put hiring on hold is one of those decisions nobody understands." "You suddenly find very good institutions that aren't allowing young people to work there, for some reason." "It's like government telling women they can't have any children for 20 years;" "you would destroy society." "It is not to understand what governing a country is all about." "Bariloche Atomic Center (CAB)" "I am a nuclear engineer, I specialize in neutronics, that is to say that I use a computer to do calculations about the heart, the core, of a nuclear reactor." "How much do you get paid for your work?" "1,400 pesos" "Less than 500 dollars..." "Less than 500 dollars;" "about three dollars per hour." "This is the punishment people who stay in the country get." "The country tends to lead highly qualified professionals towards emigration." "Why do they emigrate?" "Well, they emigrate because they are qualified, intelligent professionals sought by several countries which understand human resources are the most important assets you can have nowadays." "Does the government know what it wants from science and technology?" "I believe so; but without a strategic national plan, it's impossible to ask anything from the science and technology field... when I ask them something, I do so based on universal knowledge." "Is there a strategic national plan?" "No, I think there isn't a national plan." "Howmany storeys high is this building?" "It's a seven-storey building if we count the intermediate level." "Each level is twice as high as the ones they build now." "Does this happen to you frequently?" "Well, yes, unfortunately it happens." "The cardiologist told me this isn't good for me." "Is the Argentinean budget for research low?" "Our budget is very low." "They give us 0.4% of the Gross National Product." "Brazil grants them about 1%..." "What about France or the United States?" "They grant over 2% of their gross products." "The State finances scientific research in almost every country;" "even the countries that tend to privatize everything." "Tell me Enrique, how many researchers have left the country by now?" "Around 50,000 or 60,000." " Are they all abroad?" " Yes, abroad." "I studied physics at the Exact Sciences University of Buenos Aires, and worked for the Atomic Energy Commission." "I came to the United States to get a Masters degree and then I returned to Argentina." "I wanted to live in Argentina." "The economy and the state of everything was such a disaster that I really got scared and left the country." "Scared of what exactly?" "Scared of not being able to move forward, scared of not being able to grow professionally, scared of not being able to give my children the education they deserve, scared of finding myself old and living in poverty." "Scientifics fear not being able to grow professionally." "The problem Argentinean scientists face is that they usually do research on areas interesting to economic centers but not necessarily to the country, that's because the country doesn't have developments of its own." "I got my doctorate here at the Balseiro Institute and then I studied for some time in Italy, Spain," "France and North America;" "I returned after that." "When did you come back?" "I came back in 1991." "Why?" "Because I decided this is where I wanted to work." "I wanted to put my efforts into this country and not elsewhere." "Why?" "I felt I had to give back to the country everything that was given to me, which is my training;" "this free education we receive." "Would you say that the tendency is reverting?" "People are returning to our country." "It has been said that one cannot have a successful scientific career here because you're isolated from the world." "This isn't true and I think that it's even more absurd nowadays." "UNPROTECTED INVENTIONS" "Argentina has 20 thousand researchers working at universities and technological institutes, but without having a strategic national project to guide them towards the country's needs, these professionals are wasted, and they end up emigrating or working for multinational companies." "In the 90's, research centers became business units." "We were very affected by the denationalization of the Argentinean industry." "We can say that 800 out of 1,000 productive companies in the country today are branches of multinational corporations;" "those 800 companies don't do any research in Argentina." "How did researches at INTI came to be?" "Our work depends on what we are asked for." "I'm not being heretic by saying that but we haven't had any official production policies for a long time now." "Brazil has consolidated a legislation over the years that, for example, applies an important tax on royalties and profits sent abroad and uses that tax money to finance Brazilian researches." "We in Argentina pay thousands of millions of dollars in royalties and usage of knowledge developed abroad." "We even pay royalties to manufacture a simple detergent." "The lack of a policy to protect and patent national inventions allows corporations to end up patenting the product of researches, ordered by them, but financed by the State." "NUCLEAR DEVELOPMENT" "Nuclear development was the most ambitious technological project in the country." "The National Atomic Energy Commission was created in 1950 and it became the largest concentration of national technology." "6,000 technicians and scientists worked on hundreds of projects in the fields of materials, weather, space, medicine and metallurgics guided by the talented physicist, Jorge Sábato." "In 1974, the first nuclear center of the continent is established in Atucha." "Years later, another center is founded in Córdoba." "In 1981, uranium is enriched using technology of its own factory in Pilcaniyeu and the Commission signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." "However, Menem's administration decided to cancel nuclear development and cut the number of C.N.E.A. Employees by half." "Heavy Water Factory" "Arroyito- Neuquén" "The attempt to privatize our nuclear centrals and the Heavy Water factory was strongly resisted" "but nevertheless, tens of physicists and researchers left the country." "We produce heavy water in this plant, which is used in nuclear centrals which, as ours, use natural uranium." "Howmany heavy water factories are there?" "Well, none as this one." "This is the plant with most capacity in the world." "We produce about 200 tons of high-quality heavy water a year." "The level of purity defines the quality, and in our case the water's purity is the highest possible; 99.8%." "Whom are you producing for?" "We're about to start supplying Atucha 2, which means we'll work exclusively for them for about 4 years." "We have exported heavy water to countries like France," "South Korea, United States and Germany." "The nuclear plan was reactivated by Kirchner's administration in order to finish building Atucha 2, start uranium enrichment again and build our first power reactor, Carem, which could supply energy to cities with a population of up to 100 thousand." "The development of reactors for scientific research, like the RA6, was achieved by hundreds of physicists and engineers from C.N.E.A." "I am Carlos Gho, chief of the nuclear engineering activity unit at the Bariloche Atomic Center." "This unit has the RA6 reactor, which is the first one built and designed by Argentineans." "What is the reactor for?" "It was created as a training tool for nuclear engineers, but we have been using it in the environmental and medicine fields as well." "The reactor is working right now, if you look over the handrail you will see a slightly blue radiation, which is the only visible indication of whether the reactor is working or not." "BALSEIRO INSTITUTE" "The Jose Balseiro physics institute is located in the Bariloche Center." "Generations of nuclear physicists and engineers were trained who dominated the complete atomic energy cycle." "One of its first graduates is Edgardo Bisogni." "We are in the classrooms of the Balseiro Institute." "Grants are awarded every year to about 30 students of physics and nuclear engineering." "Students join the research team after two years." "We have more teachers than students here." "How is your relationship with the students?" "I really believe it's a two-way street." "They propose ideas to me as well." "They have made me review many matters;" "I have learnt a lot." " Does a teacher learn?" " Yes, for sure." "We specially learn from these courses because the issues discussed are currently being researched." "Why is this generation so good?" "This generation..." "I don't know, it must be plain good luck." "Where did the physics core begin in Argentina, Lito?" "Physics activity in Argentina starts at the La Plata University between the years 1910 and 1920." "Enrique Gaviola was a notorious Argentinean physicist who graduated from the La Plata University and had the privilege of getting his Masters degree in Germany, in the 1920s when quantum mechanics was being born and would eventually completely change modern physics." "Balseiro takes Gaviola's idea to create a high-tech institute to train researchers next to researchers in activity so that they can learn values seen only in the practice of scientific investigation." " Such as?" " Our intellectual idea... of independent criteria, the training of a critical spirit which will allow the researcher to have ideas of his own." "He taught us ethical values that have marked our professional development, like rectitude and integrity." "Balseiro lived by his ethical values, it wasn't just a shallow declamation of his." "Balseiro was a man who lived by his ethical values." "Balseiro knew that scientists have to give back to the country the effort society makes to train them." "He was 43 years old when he died of leukemia." "TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS" "One of our most successful public companies is I.N.V.A.P., created by the National Atomic Energy Commission and the Province of Río Negro." "In 30 years, this company was in forefront of both the nuclear and industrial fields." "This shows, once again, that the State is capable of managing profitable and ambitious companies." "We wanted to show it is possible to make technological developments based on Argentinean science." "The idea of Doctor Conrado Varotto, founder of this group... was to apply the ability to resolve specific problems, in the industrial field, to the economic activity." "Which were the most important works done?" "I would say on a national level, it is the uranium enrichment plant in Pilcaniyeu and the Zirconium plant." "Zirconium is a special metal used in the nuclear industry." "It's very hard to obtain and there are very few countries in the world with the technology to do it." "This allowed us to export the metal, for instance, to the Algerian reactor." "We also had a project with Egypt in the 90s." "This let us participate in the Australian tendering procedures along with eight other companies like Siemens and General Atomic, from the US." "This reactor is meant to produce radioisotopes and will again be the safest and most modern of its kind in the world." "Using nuclear technology," "INVAP has built radiotherapy equipments, industrial automation equipments, radars and satellites." "We are at the area called Villa Golf, at INVAP." "It's a laboratory where 70 people work." "There's the satellite integration area..." "Howmany satellites are there in orbit right now?" "Ourthird satellite is in orbit right now." "The three of them were completely made in Bariloche," "Argentina; every accessory they have, which are basically cameras, were also made in this laboratory." "This is where the three Argentinean satellites were integrated." "This area is the pre-integration room, and over there is the integration room where you can see a replica which is used for environmental tests." "The development of a satellite takes about 4 or 5 years, which is to say about 600 thousands hours of work." "We are now developing two other satellites." "One is called Saocom and the other one is called Sac-D which is a joint mission between the US and Argentina." "The Space Activities Commission and the NASA are working together on this." "If we wanted to sell satellites to the US, even if we made them with the same quality in the same amount of time and even cheaper, we can't because 100% of the United State's federal money" "is spent on American companies." "Let's compare everything we have done and do today." "It's shameful." "Brazil and Australia always make sure 50% of any given project involves their national industry." "You can set conditions when you are the buyer." "We haven't." "On the opposite." "In our mental colonialism we still think countries like Argentina shouldn't be making developments in technology and science." "We are determined, from the beginning that, lead by Varotto, all of us are against the colonial mindset." "We can do anything if we have the elements, clear goals and firm policies are applied." "Argentina has shown its capability to achieve complex technological objectives and was able to make a disproportionate millionaire investment in its nuclear project." "However, its colonial mindset prevents Argentina from creating a strategic plan of its own." "Now that the oil civilization is ending, we are still attached to the contaminating and predatory model from the northern capitalism." "The country doesn't develop renewable and non-contaminating energy such as solar, tidal, wind and biomass energy." "CORDOBA EARTH STATION" "Space Activities Commission" "We are at the Cordoba earth station." "This is where we capture images from over ten satellites and control and download information from the Sac-C satellite." "This is the operations center..." "This is where we receive data and control the antennas in real time." "Over there is the control center of the Argentinean satellite Sac-C." "Right now, the Sac-C is orbiting over the Antarctica." "It takes it about 90 minutes to finish its orbit around the earth and when it hovers over this area over here we'll be able to see it from the Cordoba earth station." "It goes around the earth in Argentinean satellite Sac-C around 90 minutes and it takes about 10 minutes to go through our territory." "Doctor Conrado Varotto is one of the most renowned physicists in the country and directs the National Space Activities Commission." "We usually call ourselves space architects." "The core of the national space plan is not to look up, just down; to look down at our territory." "Argentinean space activities have a high technological content." "We develop technology and science but with a socioeconomic purpose." "Such as?" "Such as the optimization of every issue related to medicine and Panoramic technology." "C.O.N.A.E. Has been pioneer in this new field." "We also have the responsibility of measuring the sea's salinity, which depends on various climatic variables and ichthyological problems." "This is a high-resolution satellite;" "it has almost 2 meters of resolution." "This means you can distinguish things that are around 2 meters apart from each other." "Our space plan is designed to fill gaps in our information by the usage of satellites." "The satellites under construction right now will give Argentina one of the most advanced earth-observation systems in the world." "To have radars like these makes it possible for you to have information regardless of time of day or cloudiness." "Which were the hardest projects you coped with?" "For instance, Argentina developed uranium enrichment technology by its own, using its own technology." "Those developments were carried away by young people like the ones you see over there, which are the backbone of our capacity." "People always say our education is deficient, however the kids that graduate are great." "There are countries that have something like an impulse that gives kids amazing creativity and they become eels that swim amongst chaos." "They create in the middle of that." "There's something great about these kids..." "What do you mean by chaos, Varotto?" "It means that in spite of the fact that every country is different, you can't expect to have a super structured and perfectly ordered country to get things done." "Important things get done with creativity." "Our kids always face problems and imagine a new way to solve them." "We need a government which understands and believes in what Argentina is capable of achieving." "I always use the events of May 25th as an example." "If it hadn't been for those kind of crazy people that one day, a 25th of May... between the 22nd and the 25th, stood at a square a long time ago..." "I'm talking about 1810, with innovative ideas, of being an independent nation." "They were a hundred or two hundred, how many were they?" "We wouldn't have a country today." "Those are the moments when you need brilliant innovative minds to propose new ideas, having someone follow them and make the decision." "Argentina must look for answers in our knowledgeable society." "We are prepared and have all that is needed to do it." "We have our kids, which are essential." "If I don't give those kids an opportunity, there is no hope at all." "What are you doing?" "We are designing a computer to be used on in-flight satellite applications." "We are working on a device that is installed in a vehicle, such as a satellite, to process and calculate the vehicle's position, speed and direction at any given time." "Argentina has solid developments in almost every field of knowledge." "The challenge we face is to learn how to make those specialists work together, creating interdisciplinary teams." "How do those teams work?" "A situation comes up and specialists from every field try to solve it." "Each specialist puts his own knowledge and capabilities into work." "By interacting the resulting synergy doesn't give us a result of 2+2=4 but of 2+2=100, that's the point of interdisciplinary teams." " 2+2..." " Equals 100..." " 100!" " Yes, yes." "When you think about Argentina's science and technology you can go back as far as you want." "Just think about that the entire Andes army was put together in Plumerillo." "You can think about how San Martin decided to go to Chile and Peru and put his army together in Plumerillo." "Did someone think of Fray Beltrán?" "Things like that..." "Argentina has always made things." "For God's sake, we need to think about what this country really is." "The most renowned foreign professionals come to this country." "Argentinean science keeps growing with the German and Italian schools." "There's a thing we lived." "But at the same time we lived our training we live for our training but also in a sort of mystique;" "it was said: "Nobody says things can't be done here"." " What?" " Things always get done here." "There isn't a colonial mindset imposed." "Things get done in this country." "For example?" "Take the enrichment of uranium as an example." "We developed that technology on our own almost without access to public bibliography." "Nobody thought we couldn't do it here;" "it was done." "This goes together with the fact that our young professionals are awesome." "Did our kids work?" "I was 35 years old when we began the uranium enrichment project, may be 36." "My coworkers were even younger than me." "I was born in Italy and came to Argentina when I was about nine years old." "I have to say Argentina gave me everything." "To give you an idea of how grateful I am to this country, my final thesis was dedicated to an extraordinary country and to my parents for having me brought here." "I graduated from the Balseiro Institute." "I wrote that and I meant it, I still do." " This is a wonderful country." " Why?" "Any kid born in the middle of a war and who lived in postwar and comes to Argentina in the 50s, thinks it's paradise." "It's a country that welcomes you with open arms;" "a country that gives you every opportunity without discrimination and allows someone like me to get to where I am now." "This country got me a scholarship to study abroad when I needed it." "Argentina is unique." "We have to understand that this is the kind of country Argentina is, in spite of the mistakes we make now and then." "We have to sort out the sheep from the goats." "The essence of Argentina is the one I lived, and what I live now." "The rest is anecdotic, circumstantial and sometimes is really hurtful." "But the essence of Argentina is still strong." "In spite of the dead and the experiences lived," "I stand by you, dear shipyard..." "Shipyardl" "Shipyardl Shipyardl Shipyardl" "Our independent history began with men who said:" ""It's possible", and showed it was so, with the stubborn effort of the people." "After decades of darkness, a rebirth emerges from the Caribbean to the Patagonia as the utopia of native nations and majorities that have been fighting for their emancipation." "Latin America has every resource, knowledge and original cultural heritage it needs." "It is time to become a great community of nations in order to overcome our little countries' weaknesses." "It is time to resume the ideals of people like Tupac Amaru, San Martín," "Bolívar, Hidalgo, Artigas, Solano López, Martí, Zapata," "Yrigoyen, Sandino, Perón, Gular, Allende, El Che," "Fidel and the 21st century leaders who are again waving the flags of the great Latin American nation."