Let Us Celebrate Barcelona

A while back, a reader of our blog suggested that we check out Barcelona. Not the city per se, but the Argentine satirical biweekly magazine, the one with that memorable logo "A European Solution For Argentina's Problems" (so much better than "All The News That's Fit to Print") and the online polls like "How Will Maradona Die?" (Overdose / Cirrhosis / AIDS / Equestrian Accident / Killed By A Bullet Meant For Hugo Chavez). We did, and we've become readers. For those angloparlantes who aren't familiar with it, it's like The Onion, but with a harsher--and definitely porteño--political edge. Rather than mock midwestern dweebs who can't get laid or call center middle managers as The Onion might do, Barcelona goes for the socio-poltical jugular and hits enough to be worth a read. Among classically snide headlines like "The Iraqi Government Calls For Dialogue After Realizing That 'The Path of Attacks and Massacres Is Now Exhausted'", the magazine has articles like "More and More Residents Demand Their Neighborhood Be Named 'Palermo' Something", mocking at the growing desire to cash in on rising property rates and tourism by associating one's neighborhood with Palermo (i.e. calling Villa Crespo "Palermo Queens"). Barcelona's suggestions: Palermo Bronx for Ciudad Oculta, Palermo Deadtown for Mataderos, and, interestingly, Palermo Asshole for Villa Ortúzar. The story:
But the most cutting article in the last issue, for those of us who follow Argentine politics, was the following: a piece using Argentine's desire to become investor-friendly by becoming more economically predictable to mock President Kirchner's modifying of the annual inflation rate (supposedly by replacing a long-term stat chief with a political operative whose measurements would--and seem to--reflect a low inflation rate the President prefers to the one existing in reality). The article's title? "Aiming to 'Help Create a Predictable Country', the New Statistics Chief Will Release The Inflation Numbers For The Rest of 2007." If you're not laughing even a little, well, it's a bit of an inside joke.