Vox Publica

My niece Nikki has a new blog, filled with pictures of her cutie self:

Her dad, unfortunately, doesn't want to edit the pictures to a reasonable size, so the page is very slow to load.

her blog is at: http://www.ournikki.com/

Today I found out about the death of two people I cared about.

This morning my uncle Tití, AKA Vicente Fernando Ardenghi, died of a massive heart attack. He was only 63, an year older than my mother. My grandfather, after whom he was named, died of the same cause when he was 69. In both cases the heart attacks were unexpected. Both men were doctors.

I hadn't seen my uncle Tití in over 22 years, since I left Argentina when I was a kid. Unlike the majority of my aunts and uncles, he lived far away, in Punta Alta at the Naval Base where he worked. Still, we saw him and his family - my aunt Lelé and cousin Fernando at holidays or during business trips to La Plata. Mostly I remember him from the stories my mother told about him. He was only a year older and they were very close growing up, specially when they were both in college. Tití had been a brillant and committed student.

I was already in the United States when my passion for human rights developed. Since then I've had missguivings about my uncle, not just because he was a Navy officer (albeing a medical one) during the whole of the dirty war, but also because he seemed to dismiss the or deny the crimes against humanity committed by his colleagues. He seemed to have similar misguivings about me - I heard he was afraid that his colleagues would find out I was related to him. During my last trip to Argentina he was in La Plata, but neither of us made an effort to see the other one. Now, of course, I regret it.

I mourn his death, I'm specially sad for the four children he left behind: my cousins Fernando, Guadalupe, Itatí and Estefanía. Indeed, the last thing my mom received from him was the announcement of Guadalupe's wedding a few weeks from now.

Bernie Hamilton died a few months ago, during my trip to Argentina and my overall sabatical from human rights, but I didn't find out about his death until today. He was a great defender of human rights, a fighter against genocide, and an all-around nice guy. I won't write his full biography here, you can read it at Genocide Watch, but he was one of the most well respected and admired human rights advocates I've known. And definitely one of my favorites. He was always so helpful, so cheery and human and ready to march on. I know I'm going to miss him so much. I already do.

Today, 34 years ago, was the massacre of Trelew. Sixteen young Argentinians, mostly belonging to militant organizations, had managed to fled the Patagonian prison where they had been imprisoned. Six got away for good (though 3 would be later disappeared during the upcoming military dictatorship), the rest gave themselves up after receiving guarantees that their physical integrity would be respected. They were taken back to jail were they were all extra-judicially executed, shot to death, some after being tortured.

They were young kids, idealistic kids, who were trying to make a better Argentina. They probably chose a different path than the one I would have chosen - but I was 3 at the time - but they didn't deserve their fate.

Today, Argentina remember them. I remember them. Let's never forget.

I was reading The Fix in Salon (yes, from time to time I read it, I plead guilty and ashamed) and run across this comment from Nicole Kidman on having more children:

"I'd like to be a mum again. I always thought I'd live on a Fijian island. I love the idea of being in a sarong, with hair down to my bum and kids following me around."

AFAIK, she has two or three kids already. But what puzzles me is her belief that she could go someplace, even in an island, and have her kids just follow her around. Huh? Are there kids who do that, just blindly follow their parents around? No tantrums as to where they are going, no hour to get them out the door as they change their outfit for the hundreds time, or they get distracted and start playing when they go retrieve their shoes?, no "I'm bored, mommy" if you are going someplace boring. Does she indeed have three perfectly content, quiet kids who would follow her around, or has she just not experienced enough of motherhood to know it doesn't work that way?