[A-List] Argentina: Hunger spreads

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Soup kitchens and Dumpster-diving; hunger spreads in
recession-wracked Argentina
Wed Jun 12, 3:36 AM ET
By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Jose Perez and his wife Maria have 11
hungry mouths to feed. So they travel each week to Argentina's
biggest vegetable market to raid the Dumpsters.


Rotten tomatoes, blackened potatoes, rubbery bell peppers ? the
throwaways from the central market are all the Perez family will
eat today.

Oblivious to trucks rumbling into the market with loads of fresh
oranges, melons and other produce, they fend off the flies and
claw through the mushy debris for anything edible.

A four-year-old economic downturn has become the worst recession
in Argentine history. The jobless rate has soared to 20 percent,
the peso has devalued more than 70 percent against the dollar,
and more than one-third of the 36 million people now live in
poverty.

"My husband hasn't been able to work a decent job in years, and
we still have to eat," said Maria, hefting a paring knife in
calloused hands as she hacked out black spots in rotting
potatoes.

Jose, a laid-off electrician, carried a plastic bucket of water
to wash the vegetables that often give his family stomach aches.

Nearby, a grizzled man in an old army jacket already had a meager
pot of potatoes and cabbage bubbling over a smoky fire. "Tell Mr.
Bush we still want to pay back the debt, but give us more time,"
he said with a laugh.

He meant the dlrs 141 billion Argentina owes after January's
default, when the crisis exploded.

Hunger is becoming evident in Argentina ? from the overrun soup
kitchens to the streets of the capital where armies of people
sift the trash each night for anything to recycle, sell or eat.

On March 23 a truck carrying 22 cattle overturned near Rosario,
180 miles (290 kilometers) to the north.

As hungry shantytown dwellers gathered around the injured
animals, men appeared with butcher's knives and carted away
dripping sides of beef.

Sociologist Artemio Lopez, at the Equis consulting group, said
the price for the government's "basic food basket" of essential
goods like bread, rice and eggs soared 47.4 percent in the first
five months of the year.

"With each passing day there is more hunger in Argentina," said
Lopez, who estimates the proportion of the population that cannot
afford the basics has nearly doubled to 21 percent in a year.

To properly feed a family of four cost 215 pesos in March and 252
pesos in April, government figures show. That's an increase from
dlrs 61 to dlrs 72, and salaries haven't risen at all.

The cash-strapped government has social programs for the poor,
but critics say these can't keep pace with the spreading crisis.
On May 17 the government started dispensing 150 pesos (dlrs 42) a
month to 1 million unemployed heads of households. The critics
say it should be double that amount.

Community and religious groups struggle to fill the gap. Genia
Skegin is supervising donations of foodstuffs like pasta and
flour at a synagogue in northern Buenos Aires. "Every month there
are more and more families coming here," she said. "People are
losing jobs, it's just terrible."

Across town, at a warehouse piled high with bags of pasta and
rice, hundreds of women with plastic buckets wait outside a soup
kitchen where 300 pounds (135 kilograms) of macaroni are boiling
in a steel vat.

At a guard's signal, they rush forward, frantically holding out
plastic tubs. "Keep in line, one at a time!" the guard shouts.

"This is my only meal of the day," said Catalina Pineyro, a
71-year-old grandmother, as she gulped her plate down.

The soup kitchen is called Cara Sucias, Spanish for "Dirty
Faces," as the homeless are known. The founder, Monica Carranza,
said she gets 800 visitors on a big day, more than double that of
a year ago.

"It's always been hard," she said, "but nothing so bad as now."

She said the soup kitchen has registered 95 especially
malnourished families, up from 25 a year ago, who get extra food,
iron pills for anemia and antibiotics for bronchitis.

Those worst off see the soup kitchen's specialist, Dr. Javier
Sary. Wearing a white smock, he listened with a stethoscope to
the hacking cough of Daniel, not yet 2, his eyes slightly sunken.

"Here is a case of malnutrition," the doctor said as Daniel's
worried mother looked on. "He lacks the basics and is at risk of
bronchitis or pneumonia if he isn't treated."

He gave the mother antibiotics and shook his head as she left.

"This is certainly not the hunger you see in Africa ... but this
is an Argentina that didn't exist before: people going hungry,
people malnourished ... If it weren't for the help these people
receive, I'm afraid they'd simply die in the streets."

Full at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020612/ap_wo_
en_po/argentina_s_hungry_2