Sometimes Kids Cannot Just Be Kids (The Littlest Gaucho)**+ *

This five or six year old, in gaucho costume, in a plastic chair

with a bandoneon (an accordion-like instrument common to Argentina),

appeals to shoppers and tourists alike as he carrys on the family

business of 'busking' -- street entertaining -- or better yet --

begging under the guise of entertaining. The sign behind provides

contrast as does the 'window dressing'. Your ratings and critiques

are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment/Please

share your superior knowledge to help improve my photography.

(Scene, Calle Florida (pronounced Cazhay Flo ri' da) pedestrian

shopping mall, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This photo was taken at night.

This capture called for careful camera holding, as the lens was not a vibration reduction model, and the shutter speed was very, very slow (see the bandoneon -- accordion-like instrument) which is blurred as the boy flexes it while playing.

Also, the aperture was 'stopped down' for this particular shot, for which I was waiting, with the 'kids, kids' with in the background begging to be shown 'in focus' and clearly which called for a smaller aperture, thus forcing an even slower shutter speed than might have been achieved with my f 2.8 lens.

Sometimes the necessity of stopping down, eliminates the advantage of a 'fast' lens such as a f 2.8 zoom which can allow for a faster shutter speed (if used at full aperture) as I had on the camera, but it calls for very steady camera holding, when stopped down, as here.

John (Crosley)

The background sign 'kids' kids' and its placement in the photo, of course, is no accident.

Since this was a photo about a child begging (entertaining?), and since he was entertaining in front of a storefront at night (what about bedtime?) in front of boys' clothing, why not include the sign that said 'kids' 'kids' in large type which identified the window for all to see.

Maybe that's why his mother placed him there; if she was literate, or maybe she just saw the 'window dressing' -- the family, mother, daughter and boy (maybe more) are regulars on that stretch of the pedestrian mall.

It is estimated in 2001 when the Peso which was pegged at 1 peso equaled $1 USD and Argentina defaulted on its debt and failed to support its currency, that half the population was thrown below the poverty line.

The currency became worthless and things were bartered on the street; trading clubs with 'credits' were exchanged among people because of lack of a currency; anyone with dollars (or Euros) became a person of great means.

Eventually the banking system got launched again and the money is worth something -- one peso now equals one-third of a dollar approximately or conversely $1 USD = 3 pesos +, and inflating and Argentina is a great bargain for those with foreign currency.

The President, Nestor Kirchner, a Personist (advocates the common man in the manner of Eva and Juan Peron -- of Evita fame), estimated that the population was thrown into hell and it will last until the end of his term Dec. 12, 2007.

At that time, he estimates the economy will enter 'purgatory'.

In the meantime, it's a great bargain for the tourists who overwhelm the country, eating cheap steaks and filling the numerous wonderful restaurants that pre-2001 were full of Argentines who thought they were wealthy and who bought foreign good with Pesos they thought were 'strong'. The collapse of the peso caught them somewhat by surprise, as did the bank failures.

This is unlike what happened in the rest of the modern world; an entire country defaulted on its currency and the currency literally had no value and the country subsisted on 'trade' and 'barter' for a while and it was pandemonium and economic anarchy.

Things are 'normal' to the casual outside now; with bargains galore, for things 'made in Argentina', for imports are scarce as Argentines have had to 'make do'.

That is the background of 'why children busk on the streets at night' (or better, beg), even while there are numerous wealthy people shopping nearby. And Argentina has a serious middle class, championed by Eva Peron -- which accounts for her lasting popularity -- she and her husband, Juan, instigated something that didn't exist previously in numbers in Argentina before and harnassed that force -- and her husband, Juan, the leader, made ample opportunity of her ambition and her popularity to attain and retain power.

(An outsider's quickie view of modern Argentine economic history, omitting the terror of the country being run by 'generals' who committed torture and killing between 1976 and 1982 which is protested almost daily by Argentines and is a constant subject of upset event today in this relatively stable democracy.)

John (Crosley)