Uruguayan president’s ‘old hag’ remark stokes tensions with Argentina

[Bosonic]

Source: The Irish Times

Uruguayan president José Mujica has sparked a diplomatic incident after he was caught referring to his Argentinian peer, Cristina Kirchner, as “an old hag”.

A microphone caught the president after a press conference on Thursday telling an official: “The old hag is worse than the cross-eyed one.”

Néstor Kirchner, Ms Kirchner’s husband and predecessor as president, who died suddenly in 2010, was frequently made fun of by opponents and caricaturists for being cross-eyed and having a lisp.

...

Unaware that his comments were being overheard, the president continued: “The cross-eyed one was more of a politician; this one is obstinate.

Read more: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uruguayan-president-s-old-hag-remark-stokes-tensions-with-argentina-1.1350284

[Beacool]

1. I like Mujica, but that was a sexist remark.

Last edited Fri Apr 5, 2013, 05:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Besides, Mujica calling Kirchner old is as ridiculous as McConnell doing it to Hillary. They are both older than the women they criticized. Cristina is 17 years younger than him (she's 60 and he's 77).

[Enrique]

2. i like him too

I'll excuse him because of the years he spent in solitary confinement in a well.

[Igel]

6. Dunno.

Unless calling somebody "old" is sexist all by itself if the person's a woman. I think 77 is old. I also think 60 is old. And for somebody aged 77 to call somebody aged 60 old is simply factual. Perhaps unnecessary, perhaps condescending, but certainly factual.

But there's no word for "hag" necessarily in Mujica's statement: "Esta vieja es peor que el tuerto." Both were intended as voicing condescension--but when you're irritated with somebody you seldom show appreciation. (The idea of expecting people to show both annoyance and insult somebody using terms of neutrality and respect always strikes me as a Catch-22--a way of setting the ground rules so that you have to be right and they have to be wrong but with no expectation that you're to be held to the same standard.)

"Old hag" is as good as translation as "old woman" or, since you have to indicate gender and since Kirchner's female "woman" is automatic, "old person."

[LibertyLover]

3. Note to politicians everywhere:

Always assume that the microphone is (a) on; and (b) sensitive. That is all.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Saw this material yesterday. It's typical the anti-leftist corporate media and others rush this crap

out, to feed the hopes of right-wing a-holes that there might be a rift in the solidarity the South American leftist Presidents have been cultivating, after all the US-supported fascist dictators tore the hearts of the people of their countries out for decades upon decades.

Let's make sure to whoop it up over this, and hope it creates a schism where Latin America can afford it least.
Let's have a real field day, why not? Who cares about the hundreds of thousands of people in the Americas who were tortured sadistically, horrifically over the decades, often by personel trained at the School of the Americas in Panama, and later Ft. Benning, Georgia.

Cristina Fernandez' husband, Nestor Kirchner, was himself imprisoned for his political views, and tortured. He is the one, who, after election, made it possible for Argentina to withdraw immunity from the military responsible for the deaths, the tortures, and the thefts of infants, sometimes extracted from their prisoner mothers surgically, who were then chained together and thrown out of airplanes into the water, sometimes they missed, and were squashed upon the land. Yes, it's just great to also hear the "truth" from the writer than the writer apparently imagines absolves him from his filthy story by passing on the information other people used to make fun of Nestor Kirchner, also! Wow! Only the assholes did. Only the assholes.

Another great step for showing the world what a total lack of class we can expect from some people who want to pass these dirty smears around, hoping to bring sneers to tear down the leftists in this world.

By the way, the little Uruguayan President and his wife BOTH were prisoners of their military government. You'd think they would have more loyalty and respect for fellow humans who endured the hell the U.S.-supported fascist monsters put their countries through.

[Bacchus4.0]

5. Argentina strongly protests President Mujica remarks about Nestor and Cristina Kirchner

http://en.mercopress.com/2013/04/05/argentina-strongly-protests-president-mujica-remarks-about-nestor-and-cristina-kirchner


A few hours after Mujica was ‘caught’ on Thursday following a local press conference saying that “the old lady in worse than the crossed eye man”, the Argentine Foreign ministry summoned Uruguayan ambassador Guillermo Pomi and presented him with a written protest letter.

“The Foreign Ministry would like to let the Uruguayan Embassy know of the deep discomfort created by President José Mujica’s statements regarding late President Néstor Kirchner”.

The statement released by the Foreign Ministry adds that “it is unacceptable for Argentina that these denigrating statements that offend the memory and office of a dead person, unable to reply or defend himself, were particularly made by someone who Dr. Kirchner considered his friend.”

The statement also said that President Cristina Fernández “would not be making any statements on the matter or the grievances”.