NPR on Argentina

2 stories from National Public Radio worth listening to and or reading:
Piece 1

Piece 2

I can't say I necessarily agree with the stories and how "rosy" they paint a picture of Argentina and its current state. Yes, the crisis here in 2001 was horrible. The crisis helped out the wealthy very much, and no, that's not a typo. Most of the wealthy had their assets held in foreign accounts, and thus escaped their net worth being reduced by 2/3 due to the peso devaluation. It severely punished the middle and lower classes. In my opinion, they're doing better, yes, but it is still hard and tight for middle class people and impossible for lower class people to make ends meet with the high inflation rate that is present here. By the way, I saw walking by that the all-you-can-eat place down the street just raised their price to $19. 7 times since I've been here they've raised the price.

I think it's interesting to think of however many Americans, driving around in their cars, tuned to NPR, would listen to this story and form an opinion on Argentina, most likely a "rosy" one. I think NPR is a news organization in which there is a lesser amount of bias involved compared to many of the other news sources out there, but it's still interesting to realize how much an effect our knowledge about other countries, people, and world affairs depends SO MUCH on HOW information is presented. It almost becomes more important than the WHAT itself.