News of Michael Soltys

Michael Soltys

Michael Soltys, who first entered the Buenos Aires Herald in 1983, held various editorial posts at the newspaper from 1990 and was the lead writer of the publication’s editorials from 1987 until 2017.

The 76th birthday of King Charles III was celebrated in the ample British Embassy residence gardens on November 14, 2024.

COMMUNITY

British Embassy in Argentina celebrates King Charles III’s birthday

16-11-2024 14:39 British Embassy in Argentina celebrates King Charles III's birthday.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Juan Donaldo moving from Pink to White House?

16-11-2024 05:59 Javier Milei might be The Donald’s “favourite president” yet Trump’s campaign rhetoric would seem to be on a collision course with the Argentine’s track record after almost a year in office.

by Michael Soltys

US ELECTION 2024 – ANALYSIS

MAGAlomaniac – no Camelot for Kamala

09-11-2024 06:13 Milei does not seem to care a hoot about Trump being politically incorrect but he should worry more about his being fiscally incorrect.

by Michael Soltys

the week in review

Stories that caught our eye: November 1 to 8

08-11-2024 17:05 A selection of the stories that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

by Michael Soltys

THEATRE

How to see better in the dark

08-11-2024 00:32 ‘Black Comedy’ by Peter Schaffer; Directed by Alice Penn; Suburban Players at The Playhouse, San Isidro.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Poverty lies under the mattress

05-10-2024 06:06 Idle capital amounting to over half of Gross Domestic Product surely goes a long way towards explaining why over half the population is poor.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Untidily Crumbling Radicals

28-09-2024 06:05 The Unión Cívica Radical crisis perhaps stems from standing or falling from being the men in the middle in many senses – representing a middle class facing extinction and a middle ground squeezed out by polarisation.

by Michael Soltys

Indonesian Embassy celebrates ties with a cultural show at the Borges Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires.

CULTURE & DIPLOMACY

Indonesian Embassy celebrates ties with cultural show

26-09-2024 13:21 Indonesian Embassy celebrates triple occasion – the 79th anniversary of Indonesian independence, the 68th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Argentina and the recent formation of a parliamentary friendship group between two nations.

by Michael Soltys

Milei on the march against universities.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Higher learning versus hire learning

21-09-2024 06:19 There is no chance of improving the quality of higher education without doing something about the quantity of both universities and students.

by Michael Soltys

THEATRE: REVIEW

'Love letters' straight from the heart

20-09-2024 10:09 A.R. Gurney’s ‘Love Letters’ by The Suburban Players; Directed by Hugo Halbrich; Starring Ximena Faralla & Michael James Fortino.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Teachers left alone

14-09-2024 09:35 If education began with Socrates and his pupil Plato on two ends of a log, both learning and teaching are in crisis today.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

The whys and whens of decline

07-09-2024 05:08 Analysts of Argentina’s decline understandably focus on the whys but there is a strong case for saying that they are inextricably intertwined with the whens.

by Michael Soltys

diplomacy & community

British Embassy hosts world-class tango talent and Oxbridge alumni

31-08-2024 20:56 Seventy-second Oxford & Cambridge dinner takes place at British Ambassador’s Residence in Buenos Aires, which the following night hosts world-class tango talents.

by Michael Soltys

La Libertad Avanza and the dictatorship.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

When ugly ducklings are black swans

31-08-2024 05:27 How can the libertarian creed possibly have anything in common with the totalitarian model of a military dictatorship?

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Worthy of their hire?

24-08-2024 05:31 Two other leading issues this past week – the senatorial pay hike and Congress rejection of the 12-digit SIDE intelligence booster. Nothing is black and white but try convincing most people otherwise.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Liberating the Liberator

17-08-2024 06:31 Today is the 174th anniversary of the death of independence hero José de San Martín – but he has become so frozen in marble that his humanity escapes our grasp.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Is there life after presidency?

10-08-2024 05:12 If vice-presidents have historically been a pebble in the shoe for heads of state, ex-presidents have also been a factor worthy of mention.

by Michael Soltys

The Suburban Players' production of West Side Story.

MUSICALS

West Side Story NYC, North Side version BA

03-08-2024 14:48 The Suburban Players pride themselves on being an amateur ensemble but they grow more professional with every production.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

To breed or not to breed

03-08-2024 14:17 Until now either population growth or control was the clear preference but today both look a dead end.

by Michael Soltys

Nicolás Maduro and María Corina Machado.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Transcending the transition

27-07-2024 14:17 Venezuela's problems are huge and the expectations high but the bar extremely low with a rebound soon generating a positive momentum.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Quasi-fiscal as Milei's Quasimodo

23-07-2024 15:15 And those liabilities have come to infest the Central Bank via all those bonds issued over the years to shunt the Treasury’s fiscal deficit their way – the Lebacs, Letes, Lecaps, Leliqs, puts and all the rest of them.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

No economising economists

13-07-2024 07:44 The atomisation of economic thinking prevails far beyond the ministerial level in Argentina.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Staging a coup

06-07-2024 05:54 The historical yardstick of coups d’état has been whether they are successful or not with their authenticity seldom coming into question. Except in Latin America, where magic realism has added that word “autogolpe” to its vocabulary.

by Michael Soltys

Beyond the headlines

Work in regress?

29-06-2024 04:27 How can having a job continue to be synonymous with making a living if there are around seven times as many people below the poverty line as jobless?

by Michael Soltys

Beyond the headlines

All in the family

22-06-2024 05:05 Nepotism is an even more chronic vice of Argentine politics than corruption. And if nepotism requires nephews, these are forthcoming in the Javier Milei administration.

by Michael Soltys

Beyond the headlines

Right is always right, right?

15-06-2024 06:24 Fragmentation is the name of the game both here and there – Europe’s far right is merely the loudest and most visible.

by Michael Soltys

Beyond the headlines

Friends will not always be friends

08-06-2024 05:49 Professionalism is plunging to new lows under a president who at times seems to take the first half of his self-definition of “anarcho-capitalist” just as seriously as the second.

by Michael Soltys

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (adapted by Ken Ludwig); Directed by Laura Riera.

THEATRE

Players suburban but not the railway line

07-06-2024 17:03 Murder on the Orient Express; by Agatha Christie (adapted by Ken Ludwig); Directed by Laura Riera; June 14, 15, 16; Friday & Saturday 9pm – Sunday 7pm; The Playhouse – Moreno 80, San Isidro.

by Michael Soltys

Beyond the headlines

When the essential is invisible

01-06-2024 05:05 In Argentina, the urgent is forever crowding out the important.

by Michael Soltys

Former 'Buenos Aires Herald' editor Robert Cox.

COMMUNITY

Robert Cox speaks up for independent journalism

24-05-2024 14:54 Former 'Buenos Aires Herald' editor warns of threat to freedom in speech at UWC luncheon.

by Michael Soltys

Who’s in Bed with the Butler?; By Michael Parker; Directed by Sylveen Smith; The Surburban Players; The Playhouse, Moreno 80, San Isidro.

theatre

What didn’t the butler do?

17-05-2024 12:33 Who’s in Bed with the Butler?; By Michael Parker; Directed by Sylveen Smith; The Surburban Players; The Playhouse, Moreno 80, San Isidro.

by Michael Soltys

Dara Calleary, Ireland’s Minister for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, appears at a St. Patrick's Day event in Buenos Aires.

COMMUNITY

Irish Embassy celebrates St Patrick’s Day with minister’s visit

18-03-2024 14:09 Irish Embassy combines traditional elements with an original venue for Saint Patrick’s Day celebration.

by Michael Soltys

Burns Night celebrations at the British Ambassador's residence in Buenos Aires.

United Kingdom

Whisky, haggis and plentiful toasts: British Embassy marks Burns Night in style

29-01-2024 07:23 Birth of Scotland’s most famous poet Robert Burns marked in appropriate fashion by UK diplomacy.

by Michael Soltys

YEAR IN REVIEW

2023 - The year that was

31-12-2023 08:22 Economic unrest, never-ending price hikes, never-ending drought, devaluations, Alberto absent and often abroad (even Maximo in China), Cecilia Strzyzowski, re-enter Macri and ‘Toto’ Caputo, backstabbing and scheming, opposition infighting, Berni actually beaten up, scandals about ‘Chocolate’ and yachts in Marbella, Massa wins then loses, Milei goes from playing his ‘la casta’ hit to ‘cacerolazos’ in weeks, the appearances of Tucker Carlson, Taylor Swift, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the election that immediately delivered change… just another year in Argentina.

by Michael Soltys

Türkiye’s 100 years

Turkey’s centenary through Argentine eyes

23-12-2023 06:12 While Argentina ends this year with a dramatic change of government and the open-ended dawn of a new era, the Republic of Turkey starts its second century with domestic continuity – the 100 years of Turkey beginning with Atatürk have been celebrated this year under Erdogan.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Going to the dogs?

16-12-2023 07:20 This final election 2023 column concludes a series running the length of the campaign – now it’s time to detail the resulting political architecture in the present tense.

by Michael Soltys

A WALK THROUGH HISTORY

How Argentina arrived to 40 years of democracy

09-12-2023 09:31 From Raúl Alfonsín to Alberto Fernández, a breathless, compressed account of how Argentina traversed four decades of democracy.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

They also serve…

02-12-2023 10:23 That stateside visit threw something of a spanner into what is anyway very much a stop-go process of transition and Cabinet-building – Milei would seem anxious to remind people of the first half of his self-definition as an anarcho-capitalist.

by Michael Soltys

The Cox family, pictured during the late 1970s.

OBITUARY

A personal tribute: Maud Daverio de Cox, 1931-2023

02-12-2023 08:44 Maud Daverio de Cox's story is quite rightly centred on human rights, but the late 92-year-old was remarkable woman and loyal wife who shone through her writing despite a brutal battle with blindness.

by Michael Soltys

Birthday of His Majesty King Charles III celebrated at UK Ambassador Kirsty Hayes' Residence in Buenos Aires.

COMMUNITY

Ambassador stages grand occasion for royal birthday

26-11-2023 22:14 British Embassy opens doors of residence to celebrate the 75th birthday of King Charles III.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Method in his madness?

25-11-2023 14:16 Javier Milei’s solitary rise to the top from almost nowhere in a couple of years is more apparent than real. The key to this success is more like the solution to Agatha Christie’s 'Murder on the Orient Express' – they all did it.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

18-11-2023 06:42 Democratic voting in Argentina ran on the basis of simple majorities until 1972 when that system was a non-starter for a military régime since it would guarantee victory for a Juan Domingo Perón. In order to give themselves the faint chance of the anti-Peronist chunk of society outnumbering the Peronist masses if obliged to vote en bloc, they introduced a system whereby nothing short of an absolute majority would permit victory in the first round.

by Michael Soltys

Poppy Day was faithfully marked by a Remembrance Day service in St. John’s Anglican cathedral last Sunday.

community

Poppy Day marked at Remembrance Day service

16-11-2023 15:17 Poppy Day was faithfully marked by a Remembrance Day service in St. John’s Anglican cathedral last Sunday.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Run-up to run-off II

11-11-2023 05:40 If everybody assumed Milei to be the next president after his PASO primary upset with Massa massively favoured following last month’s turnaround, the wheel could be turning full circle again.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Run-up to run-off

04-11-2023 05:37 If we have had two straight surprises in the voting so far this year, why not three?

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Crouching tiger, hidden lion

28-10-2023 04:18 Fear of the unknown is such a conservative emotion that instead people ended up clinging to the status quo, inflation and scandals included.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTIONS 2023: PREVIEW

Election 2023: Not just a presidential vote

21-10-2023 05:57 No less than 18 of the 23 provinces have already voted with Corrientes and Santiago del Estero not renewing their governors until 2025. But the few remaining contests are far from minor – almost half the national electorate (or 48.39 percent, to be exact) between Buenos Aires City and Province, Catamarca and Entre Ríos.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Expecting every voter to do their duty

21-10-2023 05:51 While tomorrow’s election is widely seen as a three-cornered affair (like the hats in the times of Trafalgar), all three of its fleets tend to believe that there are only two sides. Could tomorrow’s election echo the battle by ultimately leading to a breakdown of existing alliances with a new Argentina eventually resulting?

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

The pit and the pendulum II

14-10-2023 05:22 The pit and the pendulum feed each other with “the worse, the better” logic, appealing to most candidates with Milei’s advice against renewing fixed-term peso deposits the outstanding example.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The pit and the pendulum

07-10-2023 06:22 Neither last Sunday’s debate nor the passage of eight weeks have produced any paradigmatic shift from the three-way tie of the PASO primary.

by Michael Soltys