Scandal: La Pinguina, Argentina and the MacBook Air
There’s a Sherman Adams-style political controversy heating up in South America in which the role of the vicuna fur coat is played by a MacBook Air.
The star is Cristina Kirchner, the president of Argentina — the second woman to hold that office (after Isabel Martinez de Peron).
The supporting role is played by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, the second richest man in the world, who controls Telefonos de Mexico (TMX) and thus telecommunications over much of Latin America. His name came up in association with Apple earlier this month when Steve Jobs chose his wireless spinoff, America Movil (AMX), to bring the iPhone to 16 countries in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. (see here)
The story begins when billionaire Slim gave President Kirchner the gift of a slim, elegant MacBook Air. The Argentine press got hold of a photograph of the event and began stirring up trouble for La Pinguina, as they have nicknamed her (because of her husband’s roots in southern Argentina).
The issue, for several Argentinian newspapers (see here, for example, in Spanish) is whether a MacBook Air, which can fetch more than AR$9,600 in the devalued Argentinian dollar ($3,096 in U.S. dollars), should be considered a “luxury item” — something the President is forbidden by article 256 of the Penal Code to accept as a personal gift.
The code is usually invoked for really big items, like the $120,000 red Ferrari one of her predecessors, Carlos Menem, was forced to turn over to the state.
At least one Argentinian lawyer has come to Kirchner’s defense, arguing that by comparison a MacBook Air might be considered just a “courtesy,” a thing of “little value.” (see here)
Maybe in Argentina.
Anway, thanks for the tip goes to Investor Village’s boxerconan, who sees the whole thing as more free publicity for Apple (AAPL). Thanks also to macenstein for the link to the photograph. For more on the story, see huibert-aalbers.com.
And as noted, Hussein, the smoke came out of Fox News & the Bush Presidency, not the Clinton Presidency. So clearly you believe Bush purposely dispersed the story then.
Not penguina but pingüina.
Yours truly
ex ped: Gracias!
Where there is smoke there is fire.
Clintons are trying to get back into the White House to finish what they didn’t manage to get the first time around.
Hussein, you fell for a load of Rove propaganda. I’m sure it didn’t get much coverage in Fox News, but all the claims about what the Clintons took with them, did to the plane, did to the computers in the White House, did to Air Force One… it was all investigated and the findings were that nothing at all happened. Nothing. It was all bull. Then they tried to find out where the stories came from, and guess what? Nobody in the White House ever admitted to saying any of it, and no real investigation was ever held. To non-Fox News America, THAT’s the scandal in the story.
Scandalous?
Do you know what is scandalous?
I remember the Clintons making off with irreplaceable chinas from the China Room and other White House objects.
I’m not even going to mention what they did to AirForce One on their last trip in it.
Then again I will. They practically strip it bare; took everything inside that wasn’t bolted down.
my comment is that Eva Peron was never a president. She was the wife of a president and died at a very young age. The third wife of Peron, Isabel Martinez became president when her husband died.
ex ped: Right you are. I’ll fix that. Thanks.
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The article in Spanish was quoting the price in Argentinian pesos whose symbol is also the dollar sign. The conversion rate is currently AR$3.1 for US$1, so the price of a MacBook Air in Argentina is US$3,096, not US$9,600.
ex ped: I will add the AR$ and the US$ symbols, to make it clearer. Thanks.