Argentina: Loving the Country You Complain About
- Admin
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
The temperature is now above 37 degrees Celsius.
It is so hot that even stepping outside feels difficult.
I often encourage my clients to exercise.
But on a day like this, I cannot recommend walking outdoors.
The best thing may be to remain quietly at home.
Sometimes, not moving is also a way of protecting the body.
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When did Japanese summers become this hot?
In 2011, I spent the summer in Buenos Aires.
There were days when the temperature rose above 30 degrees.
But the air was dry, and it was far more comfortable than a Japanese summer.
Even so, the Argentinians complained about everything.
The weather.
Politics.
Their neighbors.
The electricity, which frequently went out.
The internet, which rarely worked properly.
And the inflation that no one seemed able to control.
They were angry about everything.
At least, that was how it appeared to me at the time.
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The internet stopped working so often that I once complained about it to my Spanish teacher.
She looked at me seriously and said,
“In Argentina, nothing happens unless you get angry.”
If you want your opinion to be heard, you get angry.
If you want someone to solve a problem, you complain loudly.
If you wait quietly, no one will do anything.
So you have to remain angry and keep complaining until something happens.
What an exhausting country, I thought.
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When I had an electrician come to connect power to my apartment, he suddenly gave me a warning.
“Never trust an Argentinian who calls you amigo.”
One day, he told me, some relatives arrived at his grandmother’s house.
“Amigo, amigo.”
They said it as they entered the house.
Then they simply began living there.
They paid no rent.
They paid neither the electricity bill nor the gas bill.
But they continued to live there.
“That is why you must never trust someone who calls you amigo.”
I wondered why I was hearing this story from a man who had simply come to connect my electricity.
But he was completely serious.
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Watching this year’s World Cup brought all these memories back.
After the final between Argentina and Spain, players from both teams clashed, and FIFA reportedly began an investigation.
Before the match, Times Square in New York was filled with the blue of Argentinian supporters.
The excitement was extraordinary.
Later, videos appeared showing rubbish scattered across the streets.
Of course, the actions of a few people cannot represent an entire country.
Still, watching that intensity, I could not help remembering the people I met in Buenos Aires.
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When they won, it was because of their own strength.
When they lost, it was someone else’s fault.
That was how it often looked to me.
But perhaps it was not simply selfishness.
In some societies, anger itself becomes a way of surviving.
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Argentina has experienced economic crisis after economic crisis.
Inflation continues to threaten daily life.
Neither its politics nor its society seems to remain stable for long.
And yet, Argentina gave us Messi.
It gave us tango.
It has wonderful red wine and beautiful red meat.
And its people, while endlessly complaining, deeply love their country.
How can people be so angry with their country and still be so proud of it?
I still do not fully understand.
Perhaps complaining is one way of remaining connected to a place.
If you no longer cared, you would not even become angry.
Sometimes, it is precisely because you love something that it makes you angry.
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As a Japanese person, there are many parts of their way of thinking that I cannot share.
I would quickly become exhausted in a society where nothing moves unless people remain angry.
Watching Argentina’s passion from a distance, I live quietly in the countryside of Chiba.
The only sound is the air conditioner.
Outside, it is still more than 37 degrees.
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