Versión Español
Spanish – Argentina’s largest district is in grave difficulty. The province of Buenos Aires has officially recognized that it will not be able to pay the bonds that mature at the end of the month and has asked for a restructuring of the capital disbursements for the month of May. The bondholders are angry and, to add fuel to the fire, the outgoing administration of María Eugenia Vidal said that the government of Axel Kicillof has the resources, if it wishes, to comply with the bond maturity in question. Now we have to wait for the magic number of “75.” That is the percentage of debt holders who must accept the official proposal to avoid automatic default.
However, in true Argentine fashion, the political concerns and the discussion around the Buenos Aires problem go beyond that. Each person can decide for themselves whether or not this issue was a strategy to distract public opinion. But the truth is that, in the last few hours, the only thing discussed concerning the Kicillof administration is “inclusive language.”
“When we speak using masculine nouns, we do not include all people.” It was with this silly phrase that the new “Minister of Women, Gender Policies, and Sexual Diversity,” Estela Díaz, opened the least thoughtful debate in a time of extreme economic crisis.
According to the official of the absurdly named ministry, “there are people with disabilities, native communities, a whole diversity of age, culture, and gender identities in the province,” who deserve to be included to a greater extent in the language. That is why, although we do not know how it will be done, the province of Buenos Aires will officially promote and implement the use of the absurdity called “inclusive language.”
In Díaz’s view, women, who are not well represented in the language as we know it, “have to be mentioned and incorporated, and they have to feel that they are included in public policy provisions.”
In this way, the former president (current acting president because Alberto Fernández is traveling abroad), can be satisfied. Now, Christina Kirchner can officially call herself “presidenta” in Buenos Aires. It does not matter that the role of a president is to “preside” over something, so it is a genderless action. She likes to be called “presidenta” and even fights with Peronist senators who dare to call her “presidente.”
It is not yet clear what the government’s plan is to implement language inclusivity. In the last few hours, several language specialists agreed that these issues should not be coercive and that citizens should understand that officials cannot and should not seek any “compulsion” around the topic of so-called “inclusive language.”
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