I realized two important things today while on a visit to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts) today between classes. Art museums generally are reliable for calming me down and this seemed like the perfect remedy after a hectic morning. The museum is still free, I think perhaps because they haven't opened the entire museum still after the quake. It's in a gorgeous and very lavish building built about a century ago. They essentially only had 4 small rooms of art, but it was a nice collection and was very peaceful, at least until a class worth of 14 and 15 year olds were released unattended into the space.
Anyway, the two things I realized were:
1) I freaked out so much earlier because I began to worry that I am picking up the worldview of upper class Chileans a little bit.
Being in Chile has actually made me realize in general how established my views are, at least in this point in my life. But there are certain things about being part of a more upper class family here that I'm worried are becoming incorporated into my thought process a bit too much, ie. the idea that everywhere that isn't above Santiago Center presents a danger, particularly the people you will encounter in those areas. Things like that...
BUT 2) I have been too hard on upper class Chile, in my blog and in general.
I should make it clear that I have recieved nothing but goodwill, hospitality and downright love from my host parents and everyone else's families that I have met. While we may not agree on views, I'm glad in a lot of ways that I have exposure to people who represent a distinct side of Chile. And just because people have a higher level of wealth doesn't mean they aren't conscious of the "other" Chile or unsympathetic to it. I also think a lot about this paradox in every society: so much of what is beautiful physically within a city is the product of concentrated wealth and without it, perhaps our lives in this physical space would be that much duller. Not as good as every child growing up free from hunger or everyone having access to a good education, but sometimes you gotta take what you can get.
Regina Spektor, "Ghost of Corporate Future"- Truly some words to live by.
"And people are just people,
They shouldn't make you nervous.
The world is everlasting,
It's coming and it's going.
If you don't toss your plastic,
The streets won't be so plastic.
And if you kiss somebody,
Then both of you'll get practice."
"The world is everlasting
Put dirtballs in your pocket,
Put dirtballs in your pocket,
And take off both your shoes.
'Cause people are just people,
People are just people,
People are just people like you.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
September 30: Excessive Punctuality
Word of the Day:
taco (Chile)- traffic jam
So today has made me feel excessively stupid and sheltered and its not even noon yet. I should just start listing ¨really good at overreacting¨ on my resume.
I woke early up after a night of weird dreams about minature temblores that may actually have been real light seismic activity. Anyway, left my house around 8:30 thinking that would be more than enough time to get to the internship. I had found a different way to go online that wouldnt require a 500 peso ($1, although technically more now that the dollar has been falling a lot) collectivo, a shared taxi. This required taking 2 buses, but seemed a lot simpler. I dont really mind taking the buses even though there are all sorts of class issues involved in public transport. At least til recently, the metro was the more upper class form of transport and much more exclusive. Now, with some extenstions, its much more overcrowded. Generally, wealthy Chileans love to complain about how the metro has been ruined. My host parents were telling last night about how there was a famous skit called Transcagamos, the polite translation of which would be Transscrewedusover. At any rate, by now, I found micros to be much more reasonable. People are nice! Everyone offers seats to babies and old women. Unlike the mad dash to push onto the metro.
Today was the first time I{ve really experienced the wonders of Santiago traffic. It took me 30 minutes to get down Avenida Tobalaba, which is essentially how long it takes me to run the same distance. All in all, my trip took about 2 hours from door to door. Ive gotten to my grandmother{s house in Connecticut, 2 states away!, in less time.
Maipu used to be its own separate town and in a way it still sort of is: its population is around the same as Boston proper. As the city of Santiago grew, the fields separating the two shrank, and it sort of just got incorporated in. There are still a couple fields between all the housing areas, but Im guessing theyre not long for this world with all the development pressure.
While I was on the bus, however, my (hopefully) future boss called me to confirm our interview. I thought I was late, so I told her I was on my way, to which she replied that we were meeting TOMORROW. Silly viernes and jueves, I can never tell you apart!
At this point, I figured I should at least try to find where the internship is. I had freaked out unnecessarily about the neighborhood. I still stuck out like a sore thumb, sure, but there was a supermarket by the bus station whereas I had been expecting Las Turbinas like conditions. Not to say that things looked like home in Ñuñoa or that Id want to hang out there at night, but it definitely allayed at lot of my fears. Im still so incredibly unstreetwise and sheltered. For which I should count myself lucky, but I blister at my own naivete sometimes. Just because a neighborhood may not have the best conditions doesnt mean that people cant live their lives in it in a totally routine fashion.
I wonder how I get percieved by Chileans who see me (without hearing me talk): do they assume Im a gringo or an upper class Las Condes type? Im defintely not really fashionable enough and my complexion is even a little bit olivey for upper class Chile but I hope, but maybe since Im not blonde, that I dont automatically come off as a gringa. In the end, Im not really sure which is better, if either.
One other anecdote for today: the bus I was riding on back to Santiago Centro contained a very demanding clown, who both did some sort of performance while organizing the flow of people on the bus.
taco (Chile)- traffic jam
So today has made me feel excessively stupid and sheltered and its not even noon yet. I should just start listing ¨really good at overreacting¨ on my resume.
I woke early up after a night of weird dreams about minature temblores that may actually have been real light seismic activity. Anyway, left my house around 8:30 thinking that would be more than enough time to get to the internship. I had found a different way to go online that wouldnt require a 500 peso ($1, although technically more now that the dollar has been falling a lot) collectivo, a shared taxi. This required taking 2 buses, but seemed a lot simpler. I dont really mind taking the buses even though there are all sorts of class issues involved in public transport. At least til recently, the metro was the more upper class form of transport and much more exclusive. Now, with some extenstions, its much more overcrowded. Generally, wealthy Chileans love to complain about how the metro has been ruined. My host parents were telling last night about how there was a famous skit called Transcagamos, the polite translation of which would be Transscrewedusover. At any rate, by now, I found micros to be much more reasonable. People are nice! Everyone offers seats to babies and old women. Unlike the mad dash to push onto the metro.
Today was the first time I{ve really experienced the wonders of Santiago traffic. It took me 30 minutes to get down Avenida Tobalaba, which is essentially how long it takes me to run the same distance. All in all, my trip took about 2 hours from door to door. Ive gotten to my grandmother{s house in Connecticut, 2 states away!, in less time.
Maipu used to be its own separate town and in a way it still sort of is: its population is around the same as Boston proper. As the city of Santiago grew, the fields separating the two shrank, and it sort of just got incorporated in. There are still a couple fields between all the housing areas, but Im guessing theyre not long for this world with all the development pressure.
While I was on the bus, however, my (hopefully) future boss called me to confirm our interview. I thought I was late, so I told her I was on my way, to which she replied that we were meeting TOMORROW. Silly viernes and jueves, I can never tell you apart!
At this point, I figured I should at least try to find where the internship is. I had freaked out unnecessarily about the neighborhood. I still stuck out like a sore thumb, sure, but there was a supermarket by the bus station whereas I had been expecting Las Turbinas like conditions. Not to say that things looked like home in Ñuñoa or that Id want to hang out there at night, but it definitely allayed at lot of my fears. Im still so incredibly unstreetwise and sheltered. For which I should count myself lucky, but I blister at my own naivete sometimes. Just because a neighborhood may not have the best conditions doesnt mean that people cant live their lives in it in a totally routine fashion.
I wonder how I get percieved by Chileans who see me (without hearing me talk): do they assume Im a gringo or an upper class Las Condes type? Im defintely not really fashionable enough and my complexion is even a little bit olivey for upper class Chile but I hope, but maybe since Im not blonde, that I dont automatically come off as a gringa. In the end, Im not really sure which is better, if either.
One other anecdote for today: the bus I was riding on back to Santiago Centro contained a very demanding clown, who both did some sort of performance while organizing the flow of people on the bus.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
September 29: I'm All Shook Up (?)
Word of the Day: hacinamiento- overcrowding
So good news! The internship situation appears to be figured out! Tufts in Chile can be very efficient sometimes. I will, assuming my interview tomorrow goes well, be working with El Trampolin, an organization that works in Villa San Luis, Maipu, pretty much completely on the other side of the city in a poor area that suffers from many structural issues such as lack of adequate housing, education, green spaces, transport that have given rise to a whole host of other problems such as gangs, unemployment, etc.
This is something of a shallow concern, but I have not totally figured out what to wear: it's not a totally safe area, at least from the description on the website so I need to not draw attention to myself. Normally this means I'd throw on my most Chilean pair of jeans (think fading and patches) and some converses but I also figure I should try and look somewhat professional and capable. Hopefully this can be achieved. I also am not totally sure what I'll be working on/with, but at the very least it will be eye opening experience. I've gotten a bit too comfortable in my upper class barrio alto life here and I'm definitely overdue for a shakeup. While the commute there is going to be a least a hour, this will also give me a bit more of a reality check of what it's really like to get around Santiago for a lot of people.
Speaking of being comfortable in my wonderful life, I had a great time this morning at the gorgeous "cafe literaria" (literary cafe) essentially a municipality run café/library hybrid in a park in Providencia this morning. Sat and read about conditions in Chilean prisons for my human rights class in a leather chair with lovely sunlight streaming in and park views. I am a lucky son of a gun. Especially because I am not incarcerated in Chile without adequate blanketing and protection from the outdoors, as was the contention of the 2006 (?) case that I was reading about. Then, I sat outside in the sun and ate my lunch and was wished "MUY buen provecho" by several slightly creepy guys on bicycles. It was kind of cute actually, and better than being called "princesa" yet again. Oh, darn, I forgot to take off my crown before I left the house! For all my complaining about it, I actually don't mind the catcalling anymore and pretty much just find it entertaining: it's hard not to.
One minor complaint: I think I am imagining earthquakes. Or rather mini tremors. There were definitely at least 2 or 3 baby tremors today. But after them, I kept feeling all shook up as if they were going on pretty much constantly, which I'm fairly certain is not true.
Speaking of things that are shaken up, no major strikes I've run into recently, but the Mapuche hunger strike situation here has gotten quite out of hand. By which I mean that there are a lot of protests going on in the South which are running into confrontations, sometimes quite violent, with the police. There were a lot of police trucks and horses out in the streets today and I wonder if this was related. Attempts at negotiating a settlement have failed so far, I believe, because the Mapuche contigent was dissastified with the government's offer. It's really hard for me to get actual news on the situation and demands since the news and my host parents have a pretty dismissive viewpoint on the legitimacy of what is wanted.
So good news! The internship situation appears to be figured out! Tufts in Chile can be very efficient sometimes. I will, assuming my interview tomorrow goes well, be working with El Trampolin, an organization that works in Villa San Luis, Maipu, pretty much completely on the other side of the city in a poor area that suffers from many structural issues such as lack of adequate housing, education, green spaces, transport that have given rise to a whole host of other problems such as gangs, unemployment, etc.
This is something of a shallow concern, but I have not totally figured out what to wear: it's not a totally safe area, at least from the description on the website so I need to not draw attention to myself. Normally this means I'd throw on my most Chilean pair of jeans (think fading and patches) and some converses but I also figure I should try and look somewhat professional and capable. Hopefully this can be achieved. I also am not totally sure what I'll be working on/with, but at the very least it will be eye opening experience. I've gotten a bit too comfortable in my upper class barrio alto life here and I'm definitely overdue for a shakeup. While the commute there is going to be a least a hour, this will also give me a bit more of a reality check of what it's really like to get around Santiago for a lot of people.
Speaking of being comfortable in my wonderful life, I had a great time this morning at the gorgeous "cafe literaria" (literary cafe) essentially a municipality run café/library hybrid in a park in Providencia this morning. Sat and read about conditions in Chilean prisons for my human rights class in a leather chair with lovely sunlight streaming in and park views. I am a lucky son of a gun. Especially because I am not incarcerated in Chile without adequate blanketing and protection from the outdoors, as was the contention of the 2006 (?) case that I was reading about. Then, I sat outside in the sun and ate my lunch and was wished "MUY buen provecho" by several slightly creepy guys on bicycles. It was kind of cute actually, and better than being called "princesa" yet again. Oh, darn, I forgot to take off my crown before I left the house! For all my complaining about it, I actually don't mind the catcalling anymore and pretty much just find it entertaining: it's hard not to.
One minor complaint: I think I am imagining earthquakes. Or rather mini tremors. There were definitely at least 2 or 3 baby tremors today. But after them, I kept feeling all shook up as if they were going on pretty much constantly, which I'm fairly certain is not true.
Speaking of things that are shaken up, no major strikes I've run into recently, but the Mapuche hunger strike situation here has gotten quite out of hand. By which I mean that there are a lot of protests going on in the South which are running into confrontations, sometimes quite violent, with the police. There were a lot of police trucks and horses out in the streets today and I wonder if this was related. Attempts at negotiating a settlement have failed so far, I believe, because the Mapuche contigent was dissastified with the government's offer. It's really hard for me to get actual news on the situation and demands since the news and my host parents have a pretty dismissive viewpoint on the legitimacy of what is wanted.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
September 28: Sarna con gusto
Words of the Day:
Sarna con gusto no pica- A very idiomatic expression that is hard to render in English. Literally: "If you like scabies, it won't itch". Figuratively: Something that's hard/bad can be worth it to you, if you choose it freely. i.e. exercise
Learned this one from the host mom today after soccer.
fané- (Argentine- another one from the host mom) totally exhausted, broken, disheveled, done for (I think this was the word, can't find a reference to it anywhere)
agotado/a- exhausted (literally: all dropped out, like drops of water from a bucket)
cansador/a- tiring or exhausting
So after all my whining about lack of homework yesterday, I finally got assigned some readings for law class! Well, more specifically, supplementary readings for a supplementary portion of the class, but still an improvement! Between looking at some other supplementary articles and reading some interesting articles about Lula and heroin trafficking that I found on the Economist website I'm keeping busy. (I'm guessing The Economist is probably not Chilean student approved reading material, o well) I've also discovered that I can watch soap operas online and am currently indulging in "Primera Dama" (First Lady). It's a new series and in my opinion, falls short of the advertising hype. Can't believe I just tried to critique a soap opera. Enough with that, hope that at least the language practice makes up for the lost brain cells.
As might be surmised from today's word choices, I am feeling a bit tired. The good kind of tired, thanks to a challenging fútbol practice. Not to mention over 2 hours of walking ( I took a stupidly long route to school this morning) and salsa. I really like our coach, he's very laid back and has the amusing habit of making challenging exercises sound fun and easy. For example, today he told us to do 3 sets of 15 star jumps like it was a great time and not at all difficult. He's also very vague which amuses me because I will understand the words he is using, ie "behind" but he will use them to mean "Do the stretch where you put one leg behind you and reach for your toes on the other." We got to practice shooting a whole lot today which was good because I'm horrible at it and it was just nice to handle the ball a bit. I'm so glad I ended up having time for this: I really really enjoy playing. For all the things I'm missing academically, I do feel like a more holistic person this semester. I"m less overweight, less stressed/underslept and more able to explore what I want freely. And in the long run, those might be the most important things after all.
Sarna con gusto no pica- A very idiomatic expression that is hard to render in English. Literally: "If you like scabies, it won't itch". Figuratively: Something that's hard/bad can be worth it to you, if you choose it freely. i.e. exercise
Learned this one from the host mom today after soccer.
fané- (Argentine- another one from the host mom) totally exhausted, broken, disheveled, done for (I think this was the word, can't find a reference to it anywhere)
agotado/a- exhausted (literally: all dropped out, like drops of water from a bucket)
cansador/a- tiring or exhausting
So after all my whining about lack of homework yesterday, I finally got assigned some readings for law class! Well, more specifically, supplementary readings for a supplementary portion of the class, but still an improvement! Between looking at some other supplementary articles and reading some interesting articles about Lula and heroin trafficking that I found on the Economist website I'm keeping busy. (I'm guessing The Economist is probably not Chilean student approved reading material, o well) I've also discovered that I can watch soap operas online and am currently indulging in "Primera Dama" (First Lady). It's a new series and in my opinion, falls short of the advertising hype. Can't believe I just tried to critique a soap opera. Enough with that, hope that at least the language practice makes up for the lost brain cells.
As might be surmised from today's word choices, I am feeling a bit tired. The good kind of tired, thanks to a challenging fútbol practice. Not to mention over 2 hours of walking ( I took a stupidly long route to school this morning) and salsa. I really like our coach, he's very laid back and has the amusing habit of making challenging exercises sound fun and easy. For example, today he told us to do 3 sets of 15 star jumps like it was a great time and not at all difficult. He's also very vague which amuses me because I will understand the words he is using, ie "behind" but he will use them to mean "Do the stretch where you put one leg behind you and reach for your toes on the other." We got to practice shooting a whole lot today which was good because I'm horrible at it and it was just nice to handle the ball a bit. I'm so glad I ended up having time for this: I really really enjoy playing. For all the things I'm missing academically, I do feel like a more holistic person this semester. I"m less overweight, less stressed/underslept and more able to explore what I want freely. And in the long run, those might be the most important things after all.
Monday, September 27, 2010
September 27: "Lo sabemos todo de antemano o no sabremos nunca absolutamente nada"
"We'll know everything beforehand or we will never know absolutely anything"- This oddly enough made me feel comforted when I came across it today at a museum. By poet Nicanor Parra, who we met this one time while creeping on his house.
Words of the Day:
los aeropostales- airmail
los pliegues-folds
hilvanados- basted, tacked, put together
el dedal- thimble
I will say one thing: my life here in Chile is never lacking in things to do. I go to class. I explore the city by foot, micro and metro. I go out a lot on weekends. I hang with the family. I read fiction in Spanish. I read the news. I read online magazines and reports. When I remember to buy one, I read the Clinic, Chile's satirical magazine. I blog and go on facebook extensively. I spend a lot of time looking at places I could travel. I watch TV. I listen to the radio.
I just miss having...work. Homework more specifically. Also a regular job. I miss having unfinishable amounts of work piled on me so that I become saturated with information about the courses I am taking. Because Chileans take 5 or 6 or 7 courses that are essentially about the same thing, each one of their courses doesn't actually have that much work for it. I miss being stressed. As sick as it is, I have become so accustomed to high levels of stress that when I am not stressed, I get stressed, worrying about WHY i could possibly not be stressed. Isn't there something I should be doing???? If there's nothing I should be doing, why haven't I figured out my LIFE yet???? Sometimes I wish I were less tightly wound.
I've been a little frustrated with how my internship situation has worked out, although I suppose it has given me a fair amount of cultural insight. Last week, when I was supposed to finally begin the computer workshop, my supervisor emailed me that there was a "problemita" (small problem) with the computers we were supposed to be using, at a high school near the community. Typical example of Chileans understating the case for things. I finally was able to meet with the program director Carmen Gloria today to look for something else because I can't rely on the workshop at this point anymore for credit. If it does work out, I'll do it as a volunteer.
So we'll see how that goes. On the upside, I'll have stuff to do, because I will need to work 20 hours a week instead of the requisite 10. This will certainly be interesting because my schedule is very open, but I'm not sure it's quite THAT open.
An upside of not having homework is that I can check out museums and other cultural things. I stopped by the Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI) today which featured the work of Eugenio Dittborn, a Chilean artist. While the entire idea of putting certain works up on a wall and calling them art is in itself an elitist concept, at the very least, the prices of museums here aren't as exclusionary as in the US- it only cost me $1 to get in.
Being in the museum reminded me that many aspects of my life beyond homework teach me about language- I learned a ton of vocab just from checking out the exhibits. The "airmail paintings," sent by Dittborn all over the world were really interesting, seriographed images on fabric with many collage like elements and the occasional splash of color. My favorite pieces included one that featured images of artifacts that had been brought from one place in the world to another (like the airmail paintings themselves) and another that featured all different types of faces, from anthropology texts, drawing books, police sketches and children's art. There was a lot of poetry and writing incorporated into the exhibit, written on the airmail envelopes that were displayed next to the works of art, although they themselves were part of the art.
I also saw one of the videos that was part of the exhibit, entitled "Lo que vimos en el cumbre de la Corona" (What I saw on Corona peak) which featured a relatively non-descript middle aged woman reading a newspaper very theatrically and emotionally. It was the first time I had ever sat in a theater completely alone and while it magnified my loneliness a bit, it was also beautiful to be the only witness to the screen.
Today was a cloudy/rainy day, which are generally my favorites. The cordillera was so so clearly visible and a beautiful deep blue color, still veined with snow that seemed whiter than I've ever seen it.
I met up with the rest of the gringo pack after their spanish class for some kuchen, a German cake popular in Chile, to celebrate the halfway there of our time in Chile. As much as it makes me sad that I only have a limited time here, especially when I think about the state of my language skills, I miss my academic life at Tufts. That, along with the fact that I was only able to get a visa for 6 months is going to make it a lot easier to return when the time comes.
Words of the Day:
los aeropostales- airmail
los pliegues-folds
hilvanados- basted, tacked, put together
el dedal- thimble
I will say one thing: my life here in Chile is never lacking in things to do. I go to class. I explore the city by foot, micro and metro. I go out a lot on weekends. I hang with the family. I read fiction in Spanish. I read the news. I read online magazines and reports. When I remember to buy one, I read the Clinic, Chile's satirical magazine. I blog and go on facebook extensively. I spend a lot of time looking at places I could travel. I watch TV. I listen to the radio.
I just miss having...work. Homework more specifically. Also a regular job. I miss having unfinishable amounts of work piled on me so that I become saturated with information about the courses I am taking. Because Chileans take 5 or 6 or 7 courses that are essentially about the same thing, each one of their courses doesn't actually have that much work for it. I miss being stressed. As sick as it is, I have become so accustomed to high levels of stress that when I am not stressed, I get stressed, worrying about WHY i could possibly not be stressed. Isn't there something I should be doing???? If there's nothing I should be doing, why haven't I figured out my LIFE yet???? Sometimes I wish I were less tightly wound.
I've been a little frustrated with how my internship situation has worked out, although I suppose it has given me a fair amount of cultural insight. Last week, when I was supposed to finally begin the computer workshop, my supervisor emailed me that there was a "problemita" (small problem) with the computers we were supposed to be using, at a high school near the community. Typical example of Chileans understating the case for things. I finally was able to meet with the program director Carmen Gloria today to look for something else because I can't rely on the workshop at this point anymore for credit. If it does work out, I'll do it as a volunteer.
So we'll see how that goes. On the upside, I'll have stuff to do, because I will need to work 20 hours a week instead of the requisite 10. This will certainly be interesting because my schedule is very open, but I'm not sure it's quite THAT open.
An upside of not having homework is that I can check out museums and other cultural things. I stopped by the Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI) today which featured the work of Eugenio Dittborn, a Chilean artist. While the entire idea of putting certain works up on a wall and calling them art is in itself an elitist concept, at the very least, the prices of museums here aren't as exclusionary as in the US- it only cost me $1 to get in.
Being in the museum reminded me that many aspects of my life beyond homework teach me about language- I learned a ton of vocab just from checking out the exhibits. The "airmail paintings," sent by Dittborn all over the world were really interesting, seriographed images on fabric with many collage like elements and the occasional splash of color. My favorite pieces included one that featured images of artifacts that had been brought from one place in the world to another (like the airmail paintings themselves) and another that featured all different types of faces, from anthropology texts, drawing books, police sketches and children's art. There was a lot of poetry and writing incorporated into the exhibit, written on the airmail envelopes that were displayed next to the works of art, although they themselves were part of the art.
I also saw one of the videos that was part of the exhibit, entitled "Lo que vimos en el cumbre de la Corona" (What I saw on Corona peak) which featured a relatively non-descript middle aged woman reading a newspaper very theatrically and emotionally. It was the first time I had ever sat in a theater completely alone and while it magnified my loneliness a bit, it was also beautiful to be the only witness to the screen.
Today was a cloudy/rainy day, which are generally my favorites. The cordillera was so so clearly visible and a beautiful deep blue color, still veined with snow that seemed whiter than I've ever seen it.
I met up with the rest of the gringo pack after their spanish class for some kuchen, a German cake popular in Chile, to celebrate the halfway there of our time in Chile. As much as it makes me sad that I only have a limited time here, especially when I think about the state of my language skills, I miss my academic life at Tufts. That, along with the fact that I was only able to get a visa for 6 months is going to make it a lot easier to return when the time comes.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Energy Ideas in Chile
So as a country with one of the highest energy needs per capita in Latin America, Chile's a great place to be for an energy nerd like me! With needs growing, here are a few articles about ways in which demand might be satisfied, which due to the geographic diversity of Chile are quite varied in approach.
Cactus Power! A really interesting approach to bio-fuels.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/chile/100730/cactus-power
Nuclear?!?!?
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/news/other/19840-chilean-energy-minister-tours-california-nuclear-plant
Not Thermoelectric Anymore...
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/news/environmental/19814-chilean-court-rules-against-castilla-thermoelectric-energy-plant-
Controversial Dams, known as the HidroAysén Project, in the south of Chile.
http://www.internationalrivers.org/latin-america/patagonia-campaign/support-patagonia-dam-project-will-come-very-high-cost-says-u-s-ngo
Solar in the Atacama! (Sorry, could only find in Spanish)
http://elsalvadorchile.bligoo.com/content/view/445822/PROYECTO-SOLAR-ATACAMA.html
Wind!
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/08/wind-energy-catches-on-in-chile-49716
Cactus Power! A really interesting approach to bio-fuels.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/chile/100730/cactus-power
Nuclear?!?!?
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/news/other/19840-chilean-energy-minister-tours-california-nuclear-plant
Not Thermoelectric Anymore...
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/news/environmental/19814-chilean-court-rules-against-castilla-thermoelectric-energy-plant-
Controversial Dams, known as the HidroAysén Project, in the south of Chile.
http://www.internationalrivers.org/latin-america/patagonia-campaign/support-patagonia-dam-project-will-come-very-high-cost-says-u-s-ngo
Solar in the Atacama! (Sorry, could only find in Spanish)
http://elsalvadorchile.bligoo.com/content/view/445822/PROYECTO-SOLAR-ATACAMA.html
Wind!
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/08/wind-energy-catches-on-in-chile-49716
Saturday, September 25, 2010
September 25: The Why I Am Not a Communist Manifesto
Word of the Day: Conservador- conservative (conservativo means something else that has much less to do with politics.)
I've been having a hard time explaining my political opinions to people lately. Like every other part of me that I have to translate between languages, there are some things that just get lost along the way. For instance, my personality is completely different in Spanish: while in English I derive a lot of my humor from sarcasm, in Spanish, I rely a lot more on self- mockery, whether of my language abilities or my physical klutziness.
When it comes to political opinions, however, I think part of the problem is that my beliefs don't transfer well culturally. Chilean society is so polarized between left and right, especially between older and younger generations. There's very little left of the tradition of centrism that originally distinguished Chile as "exceptional" to political scientists, which arguably was never as strong as some claimed to begin with.
This presents a problem because I consider myself a moderate. I had a long discussion with a friend yesterday about what that means. He argued that it meant being willing to split the difference on issues sometimes in order to accomplish tasks, but that means ultimately you will always have to pick one side or the other, meaning there's not really any such thing. Kind of valid I guess, but for me, I see being a moderate as recognizing that issues are never black and white problems and that therefore, their solutions should be not be treated as such.
I tried to briefly explain my political beliefs to a friend the other day who wanted to know if I'm a democrat or a republican back home. I replied that I'm to the left of both parties, which is sort of true, but I'm not sure I did a good job explaining why in culturally appropriate terms. Ultimately, I accept the free market system, although I maintain that it needs a load of reforms to make it just, equitable and sustainable. I accept capitalism as a paradigm that is best for generating innovation but I don't agree with the highly consumeristic society it has created nor the inequities it continues to perpetuate. Nor am I an anarchist by any stretch: I recognize the need for authority within society and the good that responsible political policy can create.
I describe myself to the left of the left in the sense that I am frustrated by the inability of either party in America to truly distinguish itself from the other, other than in useless shouting matches. Additionally, as someone I was interviewing for my research in Guatemala once described to me "The parties have their owners". This holds true in the US and if you look hard enough on either side of the aisle, the "owners" are pretty much the same people. Or rather, corporations. Ultimately, I'm the most disillusioned by the lack of focus by either party on issues that I think should be of the upmost priority, namely education, poverty and the environment.
I was thinking a lot about politics during a visit to El Teniente, the largest mine in the world yesterday. It was a very interesting site, but our exposure to the actual issues surrounding mining were very sanitized. I think this was partly due to the fact that the mine is very mechanized because it is so big, leading many of the employees to be technicians operating complicated machines rather than what we might traditionally think of as miners. I really missed Professor Winn this round: I feel like he would have squirreled us off on some side path somewhere to talk with some workers directly. Instead, we were accompanied by Carmen Gloria, our program director, Loreto, her assistant and Loreto's husband, a captain in the navy. Wonderful and gracious people, but as they represent a very specific segment of Chilean society, not the right people to bring along for a critical viewpoint. There was little talk of anything related to environmental issues or worker's rights during the trip although they were very open to showing us how a lot of machinery operated and explaining processes which were astounding when thinking about the phenomenal human ability to dominate the natural world. We also visited Sewell, a restored mining town, right near El Teniente. At one point, our guide described the conditions of workers as "a paradise." I'm pretty sure that no one's job is a paradise, especially a 19th/20th century miner who worked in the ground for 12 hours at a time. "Well managed", "good relative to other working conditions" might have been more appropriate phrases that wouldn't have put me off quite so much. I just found the comment to be intellectually dishonest and patronizing, a somewhat stereotypical example of a dialectic within Chilean society that maintains that the empresarial business class is responsible for the wealth and well being of the country.
In reality, both workers and empresarios need each other. I'm still waiting for a political dialogue to emerge that will recognize this, pretty much anywhere in the world. Workers deserve rights, respect and equality. To achieve this ideal, there would hypothetically have to be sacrifices from the business class, because wealth distribution, not to mention its social affects, are far too skewed. But the problem I have with the extreme left here is that it seeks to demonize the business class. In many cases, this is fair: why do some people in Chile get to have 3 houses in safe and gorgeous neighborhoods while others only have cardboard shacks that barely stand? There are too many inequalities in this world that are undeniably inhumane and wrong.
For me, however, any dialogue that attempts to deny humanity to any class group is unacceptable and ultimately unrealistic, however historically justified it may be due to exploitation. At the end of the day, we've all got to live with each other and as I see it, the challenge is not to let the popular segment of society "win" but rather to create a societal will to allow everyone to prosper, according to their own terms, rather than as a paternalistic imposition.
All in all, I grateful for the fact that feel I've made connections with so many people during this trip whose political beliefs vary widely from my own, whether they are further to the left or the right. While it's wonderful to be in the Tufts bubble where the majority of people agree on issues, I've found it really stimulating to have my beliefs challenged, because it forces me to analyze why I think the way I do. While it can be frustrating at times to avoid offending people unnecessarily, particularly my host family, I love seeing the way in which the circumstances of people's lives have affected the way they think. And furthermore, being able to connect with people despite huge differences makes me very hopeful about the possibilities of creating societies that are civil. If I can agree with a republican over the stupidity of corn subsidies, who knows what's possible!
I've been having a hard time explaining my political opinions to people lately. Like every other part of me that I have to translate between languages, there are some things that just get lost along the way. For instance, my personality is completely different in Spanish: while in English I derive a lot of my humor from sarcasm, in Spanish, I rely a lot more on self- mockery, whether of my language abilities or my physical klutziness.
When it comes to political opinions, however, I think part of the problem is that my beliefs don't transfer well culturally. Chilean society is so polarized between left and right, especially between older and younger generations. There's very little left of the tradition of centrism that originally distinguished Chile as "exceptional" to political scientists, which arguably was never as strong as some claimed to begin with.
This presents a problem because I consider myself a moderate. I had a long discussion with a friend yesterday about what that means. He argued that it meant being willing to split the difference on issues sometimes in order to accomplish tasks, but that means ultimately you will always have to pick one side or the other, meaning there's not really any such thing. Kind of valid I guess, but for me, I see being a moderate as recognizing that issues are never black and white problems and that therefore, their solutions should be not be treated as such.
I tried to briefly explain my political beliefs to a friend the other day who wanted to know if I'm a democrat or a republican back home. I replied that I'm to the left of both parties, which is sort of true, but I'm not sure I did a good job explaining why in culturally appropriate terms. Ultimately, I accept the free market system, although I maintain that it needs a load of reforms to make it just, equitable and sustainable. I accept capitalism as a paradigm that is best for generating innovation but I don't agree with the highly consumeristic society it has created nor the inequities it continues to perpetuate. Nor am I an anarchist by any stretch: I recognize the need for authority within society and the good that responsible political policy can create.
I describe myself to the left of the left in the sense that I am frustrated by the inability of either party in America to truly distinguish itself from the other, other than in useless shouting matches. Additionally, as someone I was interviewing for my research in Guatemala once described to me "The parties have their owners". This holds true in the US and if you look hard enough on either side of the aisle, the "owners" are pretty much the same people. Or rather, corporations. Ultimately, I'm the most disillusioned by the lack of focus by either party on issues that I think should be of the upmost priority, namely education, poverty and the environment.
I was thinking a lot about politics during a visit to El Teniente, the largest mine in the world yesterday. It was a very interesting site, but our exposure to the actual issues surrounding mining were very sanitized. I think this was partly due to the fact that the mine is very mechanized because it is so big, leading many of the employees to be technicians operating complicated machines rather than what we might traditionally think of as miners. I really missed Professor Winn this round: I feel like he would have squirreled us off on some side path somewhere to talk with some workers directly. Instead, we were accompanied by Carmen Gloria, our program director, Loreto, her assistant and Loreto's husband, a captain in the navy. Wonderful and gracious people, but as they represent a very specific segment of Chilean society, not the right people to bring along for a critical viewpoint. There was little talk of anything related to environmental issues or worker's rights during the trip although they were very open to showing us how a lot of machinery operated and explaining processes which were astounding when thinking about the phenomenal human ability to dominate the natural world. We also visited Sewell, a restored mining town, right near El Teniente. At one point, our guide described the conditions of workers as "a paradise." I'm pretty sure that no one's job is a paradise, especially a 19th/20th century miner who worked in the ground for 12 hours at a time. "Well managed", "good relative to other working conditions" might have been more appropriate phrases that wouldn't have put me off quite so much. I just found the comment to be intellectually dishonest and patronizing, a somewhat stereotypical example of a dialectic within Chilean society that maintains that the empresarial business class is responsible for the wealth and well being of the country.
In reality, both workers and empresarios need each other. I'm still waiting for a political dialogue to emerge that will recognize this, pretty much anywhere in the world. Workers deserve rights, respect and equality. To achieve this ideal, there would hypothetically have to be sacrifices from the business class, because wealth distribution, not to mention its social affects, are far too skewed. But the problem I have with the extreme left here is that it seeks to demonize the business class. In many cases, this is fair: why do some people in Chile get to have 3 houses in safe and gorgeous neighborhoods while others only have cardboard shacks that barely stand? There are too many inequalities in this world that are undeniably inhumane and wrong.
For me, however, any dialogue that attempts to deny humanity to any class group is unacceptable and ultimately unrealistic, however historically justified it may be due to exploitation. At the end of the day, we've all got to live with each other and as I see it, the challenge is not to let the popular segment of society "win" but rather to create a societal will to allow everyone to prosper, according to their own terms, rather than as a paternalistic imposition.
All in all, I grateful for the fact that feel I've made connections with so many people during this trip whose political beliefs vary widely from my own, whether they are further to the left or the right. While it's wonderful to be in the Tufts bubble where the majority of people agree on issues, I've found it really stimulating to have my beliefs challenged, because it forces me to analyze why I think the way I do. While it can be frustrating at times to avoid offending people unnecessarily, particularly my host family, I love seeing the way in which the circumstances of people's lives have affected the way they think. And furthermore, being able to connect with people despite huge differences makes me very hopeful about the possibilities of creating societies that are civil. If I can agree with a republican over the stupidity of corn subsidies, who knows what's possible!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
September 23: The Teeny Tiny Terremoto
Word of the Day: temblor- small earthshaking, without any damage
My first seismic experience occurred during law class today. I thought someone was shaking the back of my chair really hard, which seemed odd since the law students are so serious, but then I noticed the power point projection shaking. After a minute or two of nervous laughter, class resumed, no big deal. Just mother nature reminding us she's there.
Speaking of nature, Santiago has become absurdly beautiful of late, with spring busting out of every corner. Bright flowers are all over the place.
In other news, I finally got around to checking out the thrift store section of Santiago, centered on this one street called Bandera that runs up from the Plaza de Armas. It was AWESOME. Like Patronato, except cheaper and more funky. I'm starting to understand where all the hipsters shop... Certainly nothing eco-friendly like recycling- I felt bad about how many new things I've been purchasing of late, especially after a friend showed me a mini-documentary, "The Story of Stuff" http://www.storyofstuff.com/ yesterday. It reminded me that just because I'm not vegetarian anymore doesn't mean I should let all my environmentally focused habits go to hell, especially since the US is responsibly for disproportionately more environmental damage, especially when you consider how our product chains that may orginate elsewhere end up creating goods that are by and large consumed in the developed world.
I also my first two Chilean tests this week. Kind of hard for different reasons. My law exam was reasonable, but the essay format taxed me a bit since I hadn't written anything formal in any language in a couple of months.
The second was a quiz for "Globalization and Copper" which was short, but hard because it asked slightly ridiculous things, such as the exact number that the money supply had increased relative to how much it is actually backed. It was nice to have a taste of what examinations here are like though.
My first seismic experience occurred during law class today. I thought someone was shaking the back of my chair really hard, which seemed odd since the law students are so serious, but then I noticed the power point projection shaking. After a minute or two of nervous laughter, class resumed, no big deal. Just mother nature reminding us she's there.
Speaking of nature, Santiago has become absurdly beautiful of late, with spring busting out of every corner. Bright flowers are all over the place.
In other news, I finally got around to checking out the thrift store section of Santiago, centered on this one street called Bandera that runs up from the Plaza de Armas. It was AWESOME. Like Patronato, except cheaper and more funky. I'm starting to understand where all the hipsters shop... Certainly nothing eco-friendly like recycling- I felt bad about how many new things I've been purchasing of late, especially after a friend showed me a mini-documentary, "The Story of Stuff" http://www.storyofstuff.com/ yesterday. It reminded me that just because I'm not vegetarian anymore doesn't mean I should let all my environmentally focused habits go to hell, especially since the US is responsibly for disproportionately more environmental damage, especially when you consider how our product chains that may orginate elsewhere end up creating goods that are by and large consumed in the developed world.
I also my first two Chilean tests this week. Kind of hard for different reasons. My law exam was reasonable, but the essay format taxed me a bit since I hadn't written anything formal in any language in a couple of months.
The second was a quiz for "Globalization and Copper" which was short, but hard because it asked slightly ridiculous things, such as the exact number that the money supply had increased relative to how much it is actually backed. It was nice to have a taste of what examinations here are like though.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Chilean Music for Your Listening Pleasure!
Chilean music is so good, and since it makes me very happy I would like to share some.
Juana Fe (saw them Saturday!)- Callejero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRPXl6fqImw
Chico Trujillo (saw them Sunday!)- Loca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwtcyXl5y9c
and the song of the bicentenario? something like that. Ay Cariño
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMA2YAJiRNc
PedroPiedras- Intelligencia Dormida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFACePrQvdQ&feature=related
Juana Fe (saw them Saturday!)- Callejero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRPXl6fqImw
Chico Trujillo (saw them Sunday!)- Loca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwtcyXl5y9c
and the song of the bicentenario? something like that. Ay Cariño
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMA2YAJiRNc
PedroPiedras- Intelligencia Dormida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFACePrQvdQ&feature=related
September 17- 20: CHI-CHI-CHI-LE-LE-LE-VIVA CHILE!!!!
Word of the Day:
izamiento de bandera- flag raising
volantin- kite
borgoña- wine with fruit in it. Didn't actually try it yet, but sounds nice.
anticucho- kabobs
fonda- originally small temporary tent celebrations that are now gigantic outdoor parties, crowded with people
banda de tributo- cover band
asado- barbeque
Here is the story of how I celebrated 200 years of Chilean independence with a very diverse group of individuals.
Friday the 17
9 AM
We started off our celebration quite typically for Tufts in Chile: with an academic lecture. Professor Winn who led our orientation was back in town and brought a guest speaker, who talked about collective memory and how certain events are interpreted differently and how certain currents of memory are surpressed in order to make way for the official story. She shared some information about the Centenial to give us an idea of the comparative context. She urged us to pay attention to the story of Chile that was being constructed through the Bicentenario.
12PM
We headed down the Alameda to the raising of a giant flag made especially for the Bicentennial and a speech by Piñera. Pretty bland speech, although he did talk a lot about the importance of indigenous culture. The cynic in me thinks he's making a focus now that there's a lot more press on the Mapuche huelga de hambre, which makes Chile look bad in the international community.
2 PM
Ended up at La Piojera, a famous Chilean bar which was quite the fun location to start off the bicentennial. We made friends with a hilarious group of 30 year old Chileans and ended up buying cowboy hats.
10PM
Met up with some Tufts friends, a friend of a friend, her Chilean host brother, and his friends, in Providencia at a much classier bar. Friend's host brother, Diego, suggested we got to a show by a Nirvana cover band in Nuñoa, leading to the best bus ride ever. People were dancing cueca, singing and chanting. The show was also very entertaining as the band was excellent and the whole thing just felt like a throw back to high school.
3 AM
Went to hang out with Molly and some of the people we went to Algorobbo with. Very chill, so much so that we were falling asleep, and had to count the number of times the phrase "weon, po" was used in order to stay awake.
Saturday the 18 : Fiestas Patrias!
2PM- Went to Plaza de Armas for a spectacular in which paper strips were thrown from planes, creating a really cool effect. Ran into Professor Winn and got ice cream with him at Bravisimo, a very famous ice cream chain that he claims is the best (I beg to differ). He pointed out the historical context of the event: at one point during the 1973 coup, the Plaza de Armas was bombed by aircraft.
4 PM- Went to my first fonda, all the way up in La Reina nearly the mountains. It was slightly cuica (high class, with a snob connotation), especially the prices, but still a wonderful time. There were tents with sample food, cueca dancing, traditional dances, traditional horse back rodeo tricks, dances with horses, traditional pueblo originario dances, Rapa Nui dances, historically themed interpretitive dance, a carnival, and arcade games.
Tried some chicha and anticucho that were superb! and of course the requisite empanada.
11PM- Went to Espacio Arte Matta, for a fonda featuring several cumbia bands. It was sort of like a crowded frat party, except way more fun because the music was so unbelievably fun and danceable. They played literally until 6 am- also in complete contrast to Tufts where parties never make it past 2 without being busted by the cops.
Sunday the 19:
1 PM- Asado with the family! Tons of meat. But it tasted good. Really good. It's going to be hard to transition myself back to an non-animal diet. Watched the traditional military parade on TV. I had planned on going, but it was far away and I was in no mood to be jostled by gigantic crowds in Parque O' Higgins, the biggest fonda.
5PM- Went to Barrio Yungay for the Bicentenario Ciudadano y Popular, meeting up with Chilean friend Ingrid, her friends, and some other TinChilers. No cost and filled with young hip people which was super cool. An awesome band, Chico Trujillo, was playing as well as several other acts. There were really creative floats made by college students. Totally leftist, totally different than the other celebrations. I love the ways holidays are celebrated here: streets just shut down and then everything is relaxed, people just drink and be merry in the street and no one really cares. I spent the whole time with a large enough group of Chileans that we had to speak spanish the whole night, which was good. We ended up bumping into a friend from soccer as well and then his friends came along too. This led to sitting around singing with a guitar, my favorite!
12PM- After hanging out for a while in various public parks waiting for Ingrid and her friends to finish going out to eat, we went to a gay club. I found it sort of amusing that we managed to bring along 3 straight Chilean men while we couldn't get any of our American male friends to come. There were a fair number of straight people there though. It was SOOOOOOO fun, ridiculously fun. Great music- it switched between American dance music, to which all the men were busting out the moves from music videos and fast fast paced Chilean music for the bicentenario. It just made me happy to see so many people getting to be themselves. Other than that night, I'd only seen 2 openly gay male couples in public, although I've seen many more lesbian couples in public which I find sort of interesting.
Monday the 20:
7 PM- Light show at La Moneda. I know, light show sounds corny. But there were such good effects! Lasers, lights, fountains, fireworks and projections. Of course, the cost of it probably could have easily paid for tons of educational reforms. Good thing I'm not in charge of a country: I would totally fail at spending sufficiently on "bread and circuses".
Such an amazing week and a half!!! Like a year's worth of fun condensed. Now it's back to reality with 2 tests.
izamiento de bandera- flag raising
volantin- kite
borgoña- wine with fruit in it. Didn't actually try it yet, but sounds nice.
anticucho- kabobs
fonda- originally small temporary tent celebrations that are now gigantic outdoor parties, crowded with people
banda de tributo- cover band
asado- barbeque
Here is the story of how I celebrated 200 years of Chilean independence with a very diverse group of individuals.
Friday the 17
9 AM
We started off our celebration quite typically for Tufts in Chile: with an academic lecture. Professor Winn who led our orientation was back in town and brought a guest speaker, who talked about collective memory and how certain events are interpreted differently and how certain currents of memory are surpressed in order to make way for the official story. She shared some information about the Centenial to give us an idea of the comparative context. She urged us to pay attention to the story of Chile that was being constructed through the Bicentenario.
12PM
We headed down the Alameda to the raising of a giant flag made especially for the Bicentennial and a speech by Piñera. Pretty bland speech, although he did talk a lot about the importance of indigenous culture. The cynic in me thinks he's making a focus now that there's a lot more press on the Mapuche huelga de hambre, which makes Chile look bad in the international community.
2 PM
Ended up at La Piojera, a famous Chilean bar which was quite the fun location to start off the bicentennial. We made friends with a hilarious group of 30 year old Chileans and ended up buying cowboy hats.
10PM
Met up with some Tufts friends, a friend of a friend, her Chilean host brother, and his friends, in Providencia at a much classier bar. Friend's host brother, Diego, suggested we got to a show by a Nirvana cover band in Nuñoa, leading to the best bus ride ever. People were dancing cueca, singing and chanting. The show was also very entertaining as the band was excellent and the whole thing just felt like a throw back to high school.
3 AM
Went to hang out with Molly and some of the people we went to Algorobbo with. Very chill, so much so that we were falling asleep, and had to count the number of times the phrase "weon, po" was used in order to stay awake.
Saturday the 18 : Fiestas Patrias!
2PM- Went to Plaza de Armas for a spectacular in which paper strips were thrown from planes, creating a really cool effect. Ran into Professor Winn and got ice cream with him at Bravisimo, a very famous ice cream chain that he claims is the best (I beg to differ). He pointed out the historical context of the event: at one point during the 1973 coup, the Plaza de Armas was bombed by aircraft.
4 PM- Went to my first fonda, all the way up in La Reina nearly the mountains. It was slightly cuica (high class, with a snob connotation), especially the prices, but still a wonderful time. There were tents with sample food, cueca dancing, traditional dances, traditional horse back rodeo tricks, dances with horses, traditional pueblo originario dances, Rapa Nui dances, historically themed interpretitive dance, a carnival, and arcade games.
Tried some chicha and anticucho that were superb! and of course the requisite empanada.
11PM- Went to Espacio Arte Matta, for a fonda featuring several cumbia bands. It was sort of like a crowded frat party, except way more fun because the music was so unbelievably fun and danceable. They played literally until 6 am- also in complete contrast to Tufts where parties never make it past 2 without being busted by the cops.
Sunday the 19:
1 PM- Asado with the family! Tons of meat. But it tasted good. Really good. It's going to be hard to transition myself back to an non-animal diet. Watched the traditional military parade on TV. I had planned on going, but it was far away and I was in no mood to be jostled by gigantic crowds in Parque O' Higgins, the biggest fonda.
5PM- Went to Barrio Yungay for the Bicentenario Ciudadano y Popular, meeting up with Chilean friend Ingrid, her friends, and some other TinChilers. No cost and filled with young hip people which was super cool. An awesome band, Chico Trujillo, was playing as well as several other acts. There were really creative floats made by college students. Totally leftist, totally different than the other celebrations. I love the ways holidays are celebrated here: streets just shut down and then everything is relaxed, people just drink and be merry in the street and no one really cares. I spent the whole time with a large enough group of Chileans that we had to speak spanish the whole night, which was good. We ended up bumping into a friend from soccer as well and then his friends came along too. This led to sitting around singing with a guitar, my favorite!
12PM- After hanging out for a while in various public parks waiting for Ingrid and her friends to finish going out to eat, we went to a gay club. I found it sort of amusing that we managed to bring along 3 straight Chilean men while we couldn't get any of our American male friends to come. There were a fair number of straight people there though. It was SOOOOOOO fun, ridiculously fun. Great music- it switched between American dance music, to which all the men were busting out the moves from music videos and fast fast paced Chilean music for the bicentenario. It just made me happy to see so many people getting to be themselves. Other than that night, I'd only seen 2 openly gay male couples in public, although I've seen many more lesbian couples in public which I find sort of interesting.
Monday the 20:
7 PM- Light show at La Moneda. I know, light show sounds corny. But there were such good effects! Lasers, lights, fountains, fireworks and projections. Of course, the cost of it probably could have easily paid for tons of educational reforms. Good thing I'm not in charge of a country: I would totally fail at spending sufficiently on "bread and circuses".
Such an amazing week and a half!!! Like a year's worth of fun condensed. Now it's back to reality with 2 tests.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sept 15: Lima and Out.
Back in Lima, late afternoon, we checked out the town center which took a ton of organization due to our needing to order a taxi, but was worth it to see the gorgeous colonial architecture of what essentially was the Spanish capital of South America, as well as the gorgeous interior of the cathedral. We also stopped by Barrio Chino (Chinese Neighborhood), seat of Lima's large Asian population which certainly gave us a glimpse of some very interesting cultural hybridism.
Back at the hostel, the owner whipped us up some delicious pisco sours, a traditional fluffy pisco, egg white, sugar drink, yet another thing Peru and Chile fight over (ie who originated the drink). Although many Chileans would disagree with me on this, Peruvian pisco is better. Especially the version he made: frozen, slushy style.
We went out for dinner in one of the nicest restaurants in the city in Miraflores on the ocean, in a spiral shaped mall called Larcomar near a park known as Parque de Amor. (Love Park) Despite the name, it was surprisingly and thankfully devoid of lovers, unlike any park in Santiago. Even though we seemed to be dining among perhaps the top 10% of Limeñans, my delicious plate of shrimp, octopus, scallops and rice, flavored perfectly, cost a little more than a burger and a drink in any decent Boston joint. Certainly something to think about. Despite my dislike of upscale malls, it was undeniable gorgeous and fun. We were able to walk home (the hostel owner encouraged it) which I found odd, given how dangerous most of Lima can be and considering it's very frowned on to walk in Santiago at night, even though it's a safer place.
Although I was glad to see the pretty parts of Lima, in my humble opinion, Santiago is sooooo much cooler of a city, especially for students. I had thought about studying abroad in Peru at one point, but I'm glad I didn't. Getting around is such a pain and unlike in Santiago, it's too dangerous for gringos to get an idea of what most of the city is like..
Back at the hostel, the owner whipped us up some delicious pisco sours, a traditional fluffy pisco, egg white, sugar drink, yet another thing Peru and Chile fight over (ie who originated the drink). Although many Chileans would disagree with me on this, Peruvian pisco is better. Especially the version he made: frozen, slushy style.
We went out for dinner in one of the nicest restaurants in the city in Miraflores on the ocean, in a spiral shaped mall called Larcomar near a park known as Parque de Amor. (Love Park) Despite the name, it was surprisingly and thankfully devoid of lovers, unlike any park in Santiago. Even though we seemed to be dining among perhaps the top 10% of Limeñans, my delicious plate of shrimp, octopus, scallops and rice, flavored perfectly, cost a little more than a burger and a drink in any decent Boston joint. Certainly something to think about. Despite my dislike of upscale malls, it was undeniable gorgeous and fun. We were able to walk home (the hostel owner encouraged it) which I found odd, given how dangerous most of Lima can be and considering it's very frowned on to walk in Santiago at night, even though it's a safer place.
Although I was glad to see the pretty parts of Lima, in my humble opinion, Santiago is sooooo much cooler of a city, especially for students. I had thought about studying abroad in Peru at one point, but I'm glad I didn't. Getting around is such a pain and unlike in Santiago, it's too dangerous for gringos to get an idea of what most of the city is like..
Sept 14: Really Exploring Cuzco
Word of the Day:
mami(cita)- form of address
polo- tee shirt, without a collar (go figure on that one...)
cojín- pillow case
chicha morada- until Chilean chicha which is alcholic and made from apples, this is made from purple corn, tastes cinnamony and is not alcoholic. Although I did see a translation somewhere as "corn beer," which seemed sort of misleading.
After a night back in Cuzco and a quick out for Machu Pichus (grape brandy known as pisco, orange juice and creme de menthe) by the Plaza de Armas, I hit the town early to walk around on our last day there and also get a bit of much needed time away from the pack. Despite being a tourist mecca, Cuzco definitely has its own unique vibe that is somewhat separate from the crowds. I decided that I would try and check some of that out on my last day there.
I had a very reflective walk which showed me how small indeed the touristy areas were. There was such a contrast between the institutional splendor of the old churches and archways and the informal bustle of the streets. Uniformed schoolchildren traveled in groups. People gathered at informal stands to eat and drink, off ceramic plates that the vendors then washed. People with scales offered to let you weigh yourself for a small fee. Stop signs were lacking. Women carried and nursed babies in colorful shawls. A band played outside the church, with a traditionally embroidered banner hoisted high, no doubt for someone's feast day.
I wandered into a market, which was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I have been known to cry at the beauty of farmers markets, and this one was pretty close to being a tear jerker. Everything was organized by section, with entire sections devoted to lamb, chicken, beef, artisanal goods, cheese, bread (in giant wheels!), grains, gorgeous vegetables and another section of informal restaurants with small counters. The vendors were mainly older female indigenous women, grizzled and tough. I realized how present traditional styles of dress still are, especially among the middle aged and above. So many people were wearing the bowler hat and skirt combo, with their long straight hair in two braids. I had previously thought this style had been preserved because tourists find it interesting, but I'm pretty sure that's not accurate.
I thought a lot on my walk about what it means to be a tourist and to "want to get to know the local culture." So many times we want to fool ourselves into thinking that taking a walk to see the sights, buying some indigenous weavings and going to a culture show will give us a taste of what life is like. But really, is it possible to know anything of the reality of a place? especially one that struggles with poverty without knowning what it is like to struggle to put food on the table, to live with physical insecurity, lacking clean drinking water, health care, waste disposal and education. Similarly, it's far to easy to take in the surroundings and assume that just because people live in less than ideal conditions that they lack agency or unique skills.
We spent much of the rest of morning in the artesanal markets which were filled with far too many beautiful things than I had money for. It was also customary to bargain a bit, which I found uncomfortable, mainly because I'm really bad at it, but also because it seemed absurb to tell someone that I think their handmade textile handbag is worth less than $10 US. Plus, Peruvians have the habit of sounding really friendly, because they call everyone "amiga" (friend) which makes you feel extra bad. However, I did successfully bargain down a few items a little bit, once I got into the swing of it more.
Then, my friend Regina and I wandered around another non-touristy area of the city, just taking in the sights, having some snacks and wandering. We talked a lot about the way that societies are organized by their own rules, which might not be codified by something like traffic lights but doesn't mean they don't have their own workable logic.
Wonderful way to end the Cuzco part of the trip. Then, we got back on the bus for more fun. The movies were better this time, including the spanish version of "The Hangover" which uses laughable amounts of Mexican slang and "The Proposal" but there was not heat or AC on the bus, both of which were sorely needed at various points. Also, the lack of AC made the Australian men sitting across from me whine like little babies which was incredibly annoying. Australia is a hot place, right? They should have been able to deal with it better.
mami(cita)- form of address
polo- tee shirt, without a collar (go figure on that one...)
cojín- pillow case
chicha morada- until Chilean chicha which is alcholic and made from apples, this is made from purple corn, tastes cinnamony and is not alcoholic. Although I did see a translation somewhere as "corn beer," which seemed sort of misleading.
After a night back in Cuzco and a quick out for Machu Pichus (grape brandy known as pisco, orange juice and creme de menthe) by the Plaza de Armas, I hit the town early to walk around on our last day there and also get a bit of much needed time away from the pack. Despite being a tourist mecca, Cuzco definitely has its own unique vibe that is somewhat separate from the crowds. I decided that I would try and check some of that out on my last day there.
I had a very reflective walk which showed me how small indeed the touristy areas were. There was such a contrast between the institutional splendor of the old churches and archways and the informal bustle of the streets. Uniformed schoolchildren traveled in groups. People gathered at informal stands to eat and drink, off ceramic plates that the vendors then washed. People with scales offered to let you weigh yourself for a small fee. Stop signs were lacking. Women carried and nursed babies in colorful shawls. A band played outside the church, with a traditionally embroidered banner hoisted high, no doubt for someone's feast day.
I wandered into a market, which was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I have been known to cry at the beauty of farmers markets, and this one was pretty close to being a tear jerker. Everything was organized by section, with entire sections devoted to lamb, chicken, beef, artisanal goods, cheese, bread (in giant wheels!), grains, gorgeous vegetables and another section of informal restaurants with small counters. The vendors were mainly older female indigenous women, grizzled and tough. I realized how present traditional styles of dress still are, especially among the middle aged and above. So many people were wearing the bowler hat and skirt combo, with their long straight hair in two braids. I had previously thought this style had been preserved because tourists find it interesting, but I'm pretty sure that's not accurate.
I thought a lot on my walk about what it means to be a tourist and to "want to get to know the local culture." So many times we want to fool ourselves into thinking that taking a walk to see the sights, buying some indigenous weavings and going to a culture show will give us a taste of what life is like. But really, is it possible to know anything of the reality of a place? especially one that struggles with poverty without knowning what it is like to struggle to put food on the table, to live with physical insecurity, lacking clean drinking water, health care, waste disposal and education. Similarly, it's far to easy to take in the surroundings and assume that just because people live in less than ideal conditions that they lack agency or unique skills.
We spent much of the rest of morning in the artesanal markets which were filled with far too many beautiful things than I had money for. It was also customary to bargain a bit, which I found uncomfortable, mainly because I'm really bad at it, but also because it seemed absurb to tell someone that I think their handmade textile handbag is worth less than $10 US. Plus, Peruvians have the habit of sounding really friendly, because they call everyone "amiga" (friend) which makes you feel extra bad. However, I did successfully bargain down a few items a little bit, once I got into the swing of it more.
Then, my friend Regina and I wandered around another non-touristy area of the city, just taking in the sights, having some snacks and wandering. We talked a lot about the way that societies are organized by their own rules, which might not be codified by something like traffic lights but doesn't mean they don't have their own workable logic.
Wonderful way to end the Cuzco part of the trip. Then, we got back on the bus for more fun. The movies were better this time, including the spanish version of "The Hangover" which uses laughable amounts of Mexican slang and "The Proposal" but there was not heat or AC on the bus, both of which were sorely needed at various points. Also, the lack of AC made the Australian men sitting across from me whine like little babies which was incredibly annoying. Australia is a hot place, right? They should have been able to deal with it better.
Sept 13: Machu Pichu!
Word of the Day: gringovered: Credits to my friend Saumya on this one- When white people "find" things such as the Americas and become famous despite the fact that there are already people living there who know about the place.
Machu Pichu was gringovered in 1911 by explorer Hiram Bingham and an 8 year old, who received pretty much no credit.
paja-straw- as in straw roofs
We left from the hostel around 4 (!) to begin the hike up to Machu Pichu. We wanted to be able to climb Waynupichu, a mountain inside the sight, but to do so, you have to be among the first 400 people to the site. Plus, we wanted to see the sun rise and early morning. We could have left later and taken the bus, but that seemed way less epic. Especially since we had originally considered doing the Inca trail before we realized we couldn't get any spots.
Anyway, the hike was fairly demanding physically, pretty much an hour and a half stairmaster work out. It was really cool once the light started to come out as everything was misty and cloud shrouded.
We got to the site around 6 and there was already a big line, although I was number 44. The ruins immediately amazed me. They seemed so much bigger and beautiful than pictures I had seen: it's really hard to do the place justice. Plus, the sun was just starting to hit the rocks and there were still clouds covering the mountains across the way. Exquisite.
We climbed Waynu Pichu around 7, which was another hour of scary vertical climbing, on all fours occasionally. Totally worth several near panic attacks though-it was an unbelievable view plus the ruins were visible from below in their shape of a condor.
We had a really interesting tour around 11. I could write about this place all day and I have plenty of other experiences to share, so I'll have to settle for showing the pictures to some of you all at some point. Two quick things I learned: The site was built around 1500 (much more recently than I thought) and was never discovered by the Spanish(although I guess I should have known that)
The number of tourists throughout the day was quite a sight, although I'd sort of expected it. It was great in the early morning and around noon, once it got hot, it emptied out really quickly. Even though it was crowded though, there were plenty of places were it was easy to sit alone, out of sight and just appreciate the intimacy and beauty of the place.
As I did in San Pedro, I started thinking about the effects of my visit on the place itself. Even worse than the desert, the sheer numbers of tourists visiting Macchu Pichu are essentially destroying the site, according to UNESCO, as over 1000 people visit daily from June to September, placing a heavy weight on the mountain side. Similarly, Waynupichu has been estimated to only be able to sustainably allow 100 people a day, yet 400 are able to climb. With tourism forming such a great part of the Peruvian economy, there isn't the incentive to restrict access further.
I also thought a lot about access more generally: there were so relatively few Peruvians who were at the site, and yet here I was, relatively ignorant about Peruvian and Incan culture and because I have a US passport and american money I am able to move relatively freely around the world, savings permiting of course. The exhorbitant prices of the site are no doubt something close to what many Peruvians living in the nearby highlands earn in months. It was certainly something to think about, how lucky and incredibly priviledged am I to be having such experiences, especially at my young age.
All in all, an absolutely unforgettable day. I would write more, but words/pictures really fail to render it well.
Machu Pichu was gringovered in 1911 by explorer Hiram Bingham and an 8 year old, who received pretty much no credit.
paja-straw- as in straw roofs
We left from the hostel around 4 (!) to begin the hike up to Machu Pichu. We wanted to be able to climb Waynupichu, a mountain inside the sight, but to do so, you have to be among the first 400 people to the site. Plus, we wanted to see the sun rise and early morning. We could have left later and taken the bus, but that seemed way less epic. Especially since we had originally considered doing the Inca trail before we realized we couldn't get any spots.
Anyway, the hike was fairly demanding physically, pretty much an hour and a half stairmaster work out. It was really cool once the light started to come out as everything was misty and cloud shrouded.
We got to the site around 6 and there was already a big line, although I was number 44. The ruins immediately amazed me. They seemed so much bigger and beautiful than pictures I had seen: it's really hard to do the place justice. Plus, the sun was just starting to hit the rocks and there were still clouds covering the mountains across the way. Exquisite.
We climbed Waynu Pichu around 7, which was another hour of scary vertical climbing, on all fours occasionally. Totally worth several near panic attacks though-it was an unbelievable view plus the ruins were visible from below in their shape of a condor.
We had a really interesting tour around 11. I could write about this place all day and I have plenty of other experiences to share, so I'll have to settle for showing the pictures to some of you all at some point. Two quick things I learned: The site was built around 1500 (much more recently than I thought) and was never discovered by the Spanish(although I guess I should have known that)
The number of tourists throughout the day was quite a sight, although I'd sort of expected it. It was great in the early morning and around noon, once it got hot, it emptied out really quickly. Even though it was crowded though, there were plenty of places were it was easy to sit alone, out of sight and just appreciate the intimacy and beauty of the place.
As I did in San Pedro, I started thinking about the effects of my visit on the place itself. Even worse than the desert, the sheer numbers of tourists visiting Macchu Pichu are essentially destroying the site, according to UNESCO, as over 1000 people visit daily from June to September, placing a heavy weight on the mountain side. Similarly, Waynupichu has been estimated to only be able to sustainably allow 100 people a day, yet 400 are able to climb. With tourism forming such a great part of the Peruvian economy, there isn't the incentive to restrict access further.
I also thought a lot about access more generally: there were so relatively few Peruvians who were at the site, and yet here I was, relatively ignorant about Peruvian and Incan culture and because I have a US passport and american money I am able to move relatively freely around the world, savings permiting of course. The exhorbitant prices of the site are no doubt something close to what many Peruvians living in the nearby highlands earn in months. It was certainly something to think about, how lucky and incredibly priviledged am I to be having such experiences, especially at my young age.
All in all, an absolutely unforgettable day. I would write more, but words/pictures really fail to render it well.
Sept 12: Onward Ho!
Word of the Day: chúpe (Peru)- soup
Woke up early with 2 friends to go for a morning walk. Interesting sights included:
- Qorinchanka ruins
-Delicious delicious tamales, corn meal, meat, onions and spice cooked inside corn husks
-Gigantic bread wheels
-brightly dressed indigenous women holding goats who pose for tourists and who you can pay to take pictures with
Around 10 or so, we departed by van to Ollaytaytambo to take the train to Aguas Calientes, the small tourist town surrounding Macchu Picchu. It was another gorgeous and fun ride, no less twisty, across sweeping hills, past farms and with far off views of high Andean snow capped peaks. The poverty was very apparent: most of the fields were being worked by hand and tiny homes in a continual process of rebuilding crowded the roadside, forming small towns on occasion.
We took the gringolicious train for about 2 hours to Aguas. Very quickly into the ride, the landscape transitioned to more jungly and humid as we drove past cloud shrouded hills and a river.
Upon our arrival in Aguas Calientes, we encountered the whole town in festival mood, since a community center had recently been built. In general though, the place had little character and nothing past tourist catered offerings. There was a surprising amount of Mexican food, which kind of bothered me, mainly because I assume it was there to cater to wealthy American tourists who would assume that every country in "South America" has the same food. Despite the fact that México is not even located in South America. I know, I'm guilty of this too: I often complain about the lack of black beans in Chile, but still!
We got to do some hiking! We tried to climb Putucusi, a hill that supposedly overlooked Machu Pichu but we got to a point where we could no longer go up due to a lack of ladders. It took some convincing to pull the male members of the group away, but we finally managed to convince them that bouldering on Peruvian cliffs was a bad idea....We decided to head to the hot springs. Despite my dislike of termal baths as overpriced and overrated, we admittedly had quite a relaxing time, although someone stole my Tufts 2012 shirt :( which was sort of amusing, come to think of it.
We had a nice dinner and tried alpaca meat, which I felt sort of bad about, but I figure that while I'm being un-vegetarian, I might as well go all the way. We also tried sopa a la criolla, a Peruvian specialty. We tried to get some shut eye before our early early morning departure for Machu Pichu!
Woke up early with 2 friends to go for a morning walk. Interesting sights included:
- Qorinchanka ruins
-Delicious delicious tamales, corn meal, meat, onions and spice cooked inside corn husks
-Gigantic bread wheels
-brightly dressed indigenous women holding goats who pose for tourists and who you can pay to take pictures with
Around 10 or so, we departed by van to Ollaytaytambo to take the train to Aguas Calientes, the small tourist town surrounding Macchu Picchu. It was another gorgeous and fun ride, no less twisty, across sweeping hills, past farms and with far off views of high Andean snow capped peaks. The poverty was very apparent: most of the fields were being worked by hand and tiny homes in a continual process of rebuilding crowded the roadside, forming small towns on occasion.
We took the gringolicious train for about 2 hours to Aguas. Very quickly into the ride, the landscape transitioned to more jungly and humid as we drove past cloud shrouded hills and a river.
Upon our arrival in Aguas Calientes, we encountered the whole town in festival mood, since a community center had recently been built. In general though, the place had little character and nothing past tourist catered offerings. There was a surprising amount of Mexican food, which kind of bothered me, mainly because I assume it was there to cater to wealthy American tourists who would assume that every country in "South America" has the same food. Despite the fact that México is not even located in South America. I know, I'm guilty of this too: I often complain about the lack of black beans in Chile, but still!
We got to do some hiking! We tried to climb Putucusi, a hill that supposedly overlooked Machu Pichu but we got to a point where we could no longer go up due to a lack of ladders. It took some convincing to pull the male members of the group away, but we finally managed to convince them that bouldering on Peruvian cliffs was a bad idea....We decided to head to the hot springs. Despite my dislike of termal baths as overpriced and overrated, we admittedly had quite a relaxing time, although someone stole my Tufts 2012 shirt :( which was sort of amusing, come to think of it.
We had a nice dinner and tried alpaca meat, which I felt sort of bad about, but I figure that while I'm being un-vegetarian, I might as well go all the way. We also tried sopa a la criolla, a Peruvian specialty. We tried to get some shut eye before our early early morning departure for Machu Pichu!
September 11: Exploring Cuzco
Word of the day: gaseosa (Peru)- soda
After throwing our stuff in the hostel and dining on pollo a la brasa, richly flavorful coal cooked chicken, we went to wander around Cuzco for a while. It was an absolutely wonderful and unique city. Although it is one of the largest in Peru, it's fairly small, especially to explore the areas that are touristy. We visited the Plaza de Armas first and the surroundings, filled with gorgeous Spanish churches set against a backdrop of terracotta rooftops, bronze colored hills and blue skies. We also got to see Santo Domingo, a gorgeous Spanish church built on top of Incan ruins. The contrast between the simplicity of the houses and the detailed churches was really neat, as well as the contrast between the tourists and the high presence of indigenous culture. Walking in Cuzco is hilly though, which was interesting with the altitude adjustments, since it was over a mile high.
Although I love traveling with friends, being with our giant group of 11 was trying sometimes. As one of us said, it was just the size of the group, nothing to do with the people. A classic example of this was trying to get dinner. We went at a crowded hour and couldn't find anywhere with enough seats. Fed up and with low blood sugar, my friend Regina and I peeled off from the group to find something quickly. We ended up finding a 3 course menú (set meal) for $2.50. We were worried we would get sick because the food was so cheap, but there were other gringos, so we figured we'd be ok. We weren't sure what kind of meat they served us because it didn't have a texture like any of the usual suspects, but it was still good. Since we were leaving early in morning and exhausted, we retired early, although not before a lot of money arrangements to pay for things. So much math on this trip, with learning a new currency.
Example of the kind of thinking that went on a lot:
-Peruvian money is based on the 1 sol unit, but this is about 1/3 of a $1 US, so there was a lot of mental dividing by 3.
-Chilean money is based in $1000 units, known as a luca, but each of these is worth $2 US, so there was all that to forget.
-Then, there was the problem of some things being cheaper if you paid in certain currencies, plus the changing exchange rates- basically just tons of math.
September 10-11: The Real Traveling Begins...
Word of the Day: cuy- guinea pig. Food here, but I never got around to trying it.
We awoke to an excellent breakfast of bread, jam and real coffee(!!!!!!!!!!!!) and headed out to see a bit of Lima and attend to tasks such as buying groceries and changing money to soles. Thank goodness I had american $$ with me: the rate between Chilean pesos and Peruvian Nuevo Soles was slightly ridiculous- they wanted 650 peso to the dollar, when the real rate is something like 500 to $1. I wonder if this has anything to do with the two countries animosity or more to do with the fact that they produce relatively similar goods and may not actually have very high levels of trade despite their proximity.
After some grocery store adventures in something that seemed like a Peruvian version of Whole Foods, we walked through Miraflores, the part of the city where we were staying to Huaca Pucllana, an ancient ruin right in the midst of a residential neighborhood. It was built by people from the Lima culture, in 200(?)AD, from mud bricks. Much of it has been restored now, because until recently it was essentially buried and the space functioned as a garbage dump/soccer field for the community. Our tour guide estimated that it could take up to another 20 years for them to finish unearthing the ruins and restoring it. Nevertheless, much of the site has undoubtedly been lost because it was destroyed in the urbanization and expansion of the neighborhood. The construction of the site was very interesting: to be earthquake proof, the layers were built with triangles included to provide flexibility. The people of the Lima culture were believed to have had a very female-centric culture due to finding of female human sacrifices on the site: usually cultures that practiced human sacrifice offered up the best to the gods.
We then headed out to the bus station to embark on our 22 hour journey (Only $30 US!) to Cuzco for the next leg of our journey.
Have to say, Lima really wasn't that pretty or special, at least my impressions of it up to that point. I really wanted to like it because travelers are generally said to have the same reaction as mine, but for me it was hard to like a city that was so decentralized, lacked public transport, was dangerous to walk due to lack of stop lights or stop signs and was in many areas devoid of the art and graffiti that make Santiago so vibrant. Occasionally in Miraflores there was some colonial architecture, but not a whole lot, due to its relative newness.
My reaction to the Peruvian desert was also somewhat similar. Kind of bland. I started to realize how little I really knew about Peru though. This was the first international trip I had ever taken without semi-extensive academic study first: I'd touched on Peru in a few classes, but very specific topics that weren't especially relevant to where we were going, such as civil society under Fujimori, the Shining Path and Afro-Peruvian culture.
Everything was way more rural and much poorer than I had expected: outside of the city, there were almost no houses that reflected a higher standard of living. Nevertheless, I've gotten more used to seeing what rural poverty in Latin America looks like, which is kind of disconcerting. I don't like the fact that the existence of such a particularized difficult lifestyle has stopped shocking me so much: I feel a bit jaded that I've come to expect it.
The ride got more interesting at night although not for good reasons, once we started on high altitude curving roads. I hadn't wanted to risk bringing coca leaves on the plane; having seen too many episodes of "Locked Up Abroad," I just didn't want to have to have someone mistake them for any other sort of leaf. Since these were pretty much the only thing that help me, I was kind of in a bind. I kind of lost track of how many times I threw up in the bus bathroom: needless to say, not a good night. I was glad for the group that I was the only one who was vomiting, although we were all affected by the lack of air. I will say this about my study abroad trips: it's making me much more flexible and better at coping, because when stuff goes wrong while traveling, there's nothing I can do but wait it out or solve it on my own.
They also showed quite an awful bunch of movies, including a ridiculously violent kungfu movie, "The Descent", a terror movie about spelunkers and "The Bear" which was sort of like a nature movie with fictional characters and exceptionally bad dialogue and plot line and finally, (twice!) "The Boy with the Striped Pijamas," an exceptional downer of a holocaust movie.
On the positive side, once we "woke up" (I hadn't really slept), the scenery was gorgeous. Mountains, gorges, rivers, winding bends: it was impossible to take fotos because we were curving so much but unforgettable. Around noon, we finally pulled into Cuzco, dusty, terracota colored, but stunning in its own way.
September 9: The Best Flight Ever
Word of the day:
tragamoneda- casino (literally translates to "bring money")
Note: Fellow Tufts in Chile member Jon Danzig pointed out that the translation should be "swallows money". Much more sinister.
After a day of last minute packing, due to canceled classes with yet another paro still going on, we left for our flight to Lima around 4 in the evening. It was kind of weird to be in the airport again, because it made me realize both how long and how little my time here has been. Also, the people traveling on this particular afternoon were some of the least diverse people both from a racial and class stand point which felt a little Stepford Wives-esque. But generally, I suppose this is the reality of the people in the world that have the mobility to fly internationally.
We flew on LAN, which was phenomenal. I don't mind flying, but I've never been on a flight before that was as pleasurable as the actual destination. An Almodovar movie, a glass of free wine, comfy seats and excellent food?!? It seemed almost to good to be true. Good work, LAN.
We arrived in Lima around 11, an hour behind Santiago/EST. Even just from the airport, things seemed totally different. Instead of lines of blonde, vaguely Germanic looking people, there was a lot of diversity, due to Peru's indigenous and African heritage. Unsurprisingly, things also seemed much more dangerous, although nowhere near on the level of concern as when we landed in Guatemala City at night on my trip last January. We had taxi drivers waiting in vans, booked through our hostel and drove through Callao, the port area of Lima, which was admittedly creepy at night. There were a ton of casinos, which surprised me because I didn't know Peru was known for casinos. There were also tons of political posters for local leaders for an upcoming election which was a pretty good introduction to political rhetoric. Above all, there was a ton of concern over corruption. Posters blazoned with the slogan "La [pot decorated with a peruvian flag] no es ollanta", essentially, state coffers are not just something you can just reach into, were all over. Candidates seemed to be doing a lot to appear trust worthy, friendly and "popular" (of the people). Basically the same thing they do everywhere, but definitely confronting more distrust of the political classes than in a lot of places. Also some rhetoric about change, jobs, public works, but this type of focus was a bit more common in the countryside. Another interesting feature of the posters were the boxed symbols of the parties with giant xs through them, demonstrating how to vote. We weren't sure if this was a correct interpretation, but we thought this might have been done to facilitate voting for the illiterate.
We finally arrived at our hostal, which despite being in a very good neighborhood, pretty much the wealthiest one in Lima, was surrounded with high metal gates. It was quite nice inside though, and the staff was wonderful. We crashed right away so we could get up and see some of the city ASAP in the morning.
tragamoneda- casino (literally translates to "bring money")
Note: Fellow Tufts in Chile member Jon Danzig pointed out that the translation should be "swallows money". Much more sinister.
After a day of last minute packing, due to canceled classes with yet another paro still going on, we left for our flight to Lima around 4 in the evening. It was kind of weird to be in the airport again, because it made me realize both how long and how little my time here has been. Also, the people traveling on this particular afternoon were some of the least diverse people both from a racial and class stand point which felt a little Stepford Wives-esque. But generally, I suppose this is the reality of the people in the world that have the mobility to fly internationally.
We flew on LAN, which was phenomenal. I don't mind flying, but I've never been on a flight before that was as pleasurable as the actual destination. An Almodovar movie, a glass of free wine, comfy seats and excellent food?!? It seemed almost to good to be true. Good work, LAN.
We arrived in Lima around 11, an hour behind Santiago/EST. Even just from the airport, things seemed totally different. Instead of lines of blonde, vaguely Germanic looking people, there was a lot of diversity, due to Peru's indigenous and African heritage. Unsurprisingly, things also seemed much more dangerous, although nowhere near on the level of concern as when we landed in Guatemala City at night on my trip last January. We had taxi drivers waiting in vans, booked through our hostel and drove through Callao, the port area of Lima, which was admittedly creepy at night. There were a ton of casinos, which surprised me because I didn't know Peru was known for casinos. There were also tons of political posters for local leaders for an upcoming election which was a pretty good introduction to political rhetoric. Above all, there was a ton of concern over corruption. Posters blazoned with the slogan "La [pot decorated with a peruvian flag] no es ollanta", essentially, state coffers are not just something you can just reach into, were all over. Candidates seemed to be doing a lot to appear trust worthy, friendly and "popular" (of the people). Basically the same thing they do everywhere, but definitely confronting more distrust of the political classes than in a lot of places. Also some rhetoric about change, jobs, public works, but this type of focus was a bit more common in the countryside. Another interesting feature of the posters were the boxed symbols of the parties with giant xs through them, demonstrating how to vote. We weren't sure if this was a correct interpretation, but we thought this might have been done to facilitate voting for the illiterate.
We finally arrived at our hostal, which despite being in a very good neighborhood, pretty much the wealthiest one in Lima, was surrounded with high metal gates. It was quite nice inside though, and the staff was wonderful. We crashed right away so we could get up and see some of the city ASAP in the morning.
September Catching Up
So, I haven't written in slightly longer than a week, which has actually felt like about a month due to the sheer amount of things I've done during that period, namely
a)An epic spring break trip to Peru
b)An epic weekend of Bicentennial/Chilean independence adventures
Here come my best attempts to catch up!
a)An epic spring break trip to Peru
b)An epic weekend of Bicentennial/Chilean independence adventures
Here come my best attempts to catch up!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
September 8: North American Scum
This song came on my ipod on my way home and it seemed quite appropriately timed, given that we had just had a guest lecture in my "Globalization, Copper and the New Chilean Economy" class about the socio/political/economic effects of drug networks in Latin America, with a special focus on Mexico. Guess where the biggest market for drugs is worldwide? Guess what country refuses to take steps on a policy level to treat drug addiction as a health issue? I was personally really fascinated by the class, although some of my classmates were much less so, although I guess I should technically be more interested since it is kind of my country's fault after all. I feel like people in the US definitely make the mistake of lumping "Latin America" together all the time and assuming that everyone will have the same interest in topics that are "regionally" related. Based on the questions students were asking, I'd say there tends to be a lot more interest in Chile in the topic of violence on the part of the state rather than the topic of the state combating asymmetrical forces, mainly due to the historical circumstances.
My International Human Rights Law Class got canceled today, since the school of Derecho is on paro through the weekend, which I've heard is somewhat rare for them, give how pre-professional they are. Maybe they were grumpy about the fact that they don't get a week off like everybody else. This was secretly kind of good, because I finished up some work for my computer skills workshop. I also had time to walk to class and ran into 3 protests, one featuring a full-fledged live music concert in the middle of a park on the Alameda, the main drag of downtown Santiago. There's also been an interesting postering campaign going on: posters with different variations of the phrase "Machismo Mata" (Machismo Kills) peppered the walls in many of the usual spots.
I'm leaving for Peru tomorrow for "Spring Break"! My friend Regina christened the trip "Alpacas Gone Wild": we're going to see Machu Pichu, spending time in Lima and Cuzco along the way. Definitely the trip of a lifetime! It's going to be really interesting see the differences between Chile and Peru: economically, racially, socially and politically. The two countries are historical enemies with much animosity towards each other. Somewhat understandably so: if not for the War of the Pacific, Peru would have held on to its nitrates, which fueled the first great economic boom for Chile, which, despite leading to the development of an economy essentially centered around 1 primary product, began its first real rise. There's a good deal of racism against Peruvians in Chile and I wonder if it will come up in conversation with anyone at all.
We're coming back in time for the BiCentennial/Independence Day celebrations, which is sure to be absolutely an amazing 4 days, but unfortunately, we won't be here for September 11, which (in an interesting historical coincidence) marks the anniversary of the 1973 coup that installed Pinochet in power. I'm guessing there may be more protest than usual, giving that a right wing government is in power. Would have been interesting to see, but on the bright side, I can be more sure of not getting tear gassed, so that's convenient.
This is pretty much unrelated to anything in Chile, but I found out about this today and it made me upset that I hadn't really ever heard anything about it before and wanted to share it. Although the Mexican drug war gets pretty much all the press, the situation in Venezuela has become equally deadly, for less clear reasons. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/americas/23venez.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Thinking about all this made me appreciate even more how safe I felt on my walk home, something that far too few people in this world ever get to feel.
Don't expect to have time to blog in Perú, but talk to you all soon!
My International Human Rights Law Class got canceled today, since the school of Derecho is on paro through the weekend, which I've heard is somewhat rare for them, give how pre-professional they are. Maybe they were grumpy about the fact that they don't get a week off like everybody else. This was secretly kind of good, because I finished up some work for my computer skills workshop. I also had time to walk to class and ran into 3 protests, one featuring a full-fledged live music concert in the middle of a park on the Alameda, the main drag of downtown Santiago. There's also been an interesting postering campaign going on: posters with different variations of the phrase "Machismo Mata" (Machismo Kills) peppered the walls in many of the usual spots.
I'm leaving for Peru tomorrow for "Spring Break"! My friend Regina christened the trip "Alpacas Gone Wild": we're going to see Machu Pichu, spending time in Lima and Cuzco along the way. Definitely the trip of a lifetime! It's going to be really interesting see the differences between Chile and Peru: economically, racially, socially and politically. The two countries are historical enemies with much animosity towards each other. Somewhat understandably so: if not for the War of the Pacific, Peru would have held on to its nitrates, which fueled the first great economic boom for Chile, which, despite leading to the development of an economy essentially centered around 1 primary product, began its first real rise. There's a good deal of racism against Peruvians in Chile and I wonder if it will come up in conversation with anyone at all.
We're coming back in time for the BiCentennial/Independence Day celebrations, which is sure to be absolutely an amazing 4 days, but unfortunately, we won't be here for September 11, which (in an interesting historical coincidence) marks the anniversary of the 1973 coup that installed Pinochet in power. I'm guessing there may be more protest than usual, giving that a right wing government is in power. Would have been interesting to see, but on the bright side, I can be more sure of not getting tear gassed, so that's convenient.
This is pretty much unrelated to anything in Chile, but I found out about this today and it made me upset that I hadn't really ever heard anything about it before and wanted to share it. Although the Mexican drug war gets pretty much all the press, the situation in Venezuela has become equally deadly, for less clear reasons. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/americas/23venez.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Thinking about all this made me appreciate even more how safe I felt on my walk home, something that far too few people in this world ever get to feel.
Don't expect to have time to blog in Perú, but talk to you all soon!
Monday, September 6, 2010
September 6: Santiago Sightings
Word of the Day: testigo de Jehová- Jehovah's witness
-Interesting characters/things I chanced across today:
- A Jehovah's witness who gave the most relaxed convert to my religion pitch I've ever been subjected to, essentially handed me a piece of paper, said "read this and then we'll talk next time you walk by"
- A cuenca (Chile^s national dance) dancing couple next to the crowded bus stop near Plaza Italia, with musical accompaniment
-Chilean flags starting to adorn more and more buildings as the Bicentenario approaches
-A delicious cheese, corn and artichoke empanada in Bellavista
-The usual rasta sandwhich sellers
-Intricate victorian architecture along the Alameda, the central street
-Tarot card readers
- A blind street vendor who knew what I had picked up from his stack of wares without my needing to say a word
-A bunch of gypsies near Cerro Santa Lucia
-Interesting characters/things I chanced across today:
- A Jehovah's witness who gave the most relaxed convert to my religion pitch I've ever been subjected to, essentially handed me a piece of paper, said "read this and then we'll talk next time you walk by"
- A cuenca (Chile^s national dance) dancing couple next to the crowded bus stop near Plaza Italia, with musical accompaniment
-Chilean flags starting to adorn more and more buildings as the Bicentenario approaches
-A delicious cheese, corn and artichoke empanada in Bellavista
-The usual rasta sandwhich sellers
-Intricate victorian architecture along the Alameda, the central street
-Tarot card readers
- A blind street vendor who knew what I had picked up from his stack of wares without my needing to say a word
-A bunch of gypsies near Cerro Santa Lucia
Saturday, September 4, 2010
September 3-4: "Un Poeta Es Un Pequeño Dios"
Word of the day: entretenido- fun or interesting (often shortened to entrete)
It's been quite the busy weekend! In a good way. Quick update on it all:
Friday
-After many weeks of emails back and forth, I finally met with the coordinator for my internship. I took the bus out to the Un Techo Para Chile Office in San Joaquin, a much poorer community than I had been in for a while which was eye opening and made me realize how easy it is to become comfortably situated in upper class Chilean life without any frequent visceral reminders of poverty. Today also reminded me how big the city is and how little I actually know of it: I was only 2 comunas away(there are 37 communas), but it took me about 40 minutes to get where I was going. I'm going to be teaching a computer course to the directors (all female) of a project known as Mano a Mano in a community next to the one where I live called Peñalolen. I'm hoping the internship will provide a really interesting look at class, Chilean NGOs and community democracy projects! More updates soon.
-Went to a famous Chilean bar known as "La Piojera" (The Lousy One) with my tandem partner and some of his friends to get "terremotos," a very Chilean drink. I feel like I've met so many more Chileans in the last week, which has been really great!
-We went out for Peruvian food for my host mom's birthday. I've been lucky to have a family with a great sense of humor and it was really enjoyable. Chileans are so funny about their relationship with Peru: even though there is a fair deal of discrimination against Peruvians, ironically Peruvian restaurants represent some of the best cuisine in Santiago. In my opinion, this is because Peruvian cuisine actually uses spices, something Chilean food is generally lacking in.
-I went on a double date last night with my friend Emily (which was slightly confusing) and 2 Chileans. We went salsa dancing, which was quite entertaining and generally had a great time.
Saturday
-We went on "The Poet's Route" to visit homes of poets along the Chilean coast. We visited Cartagena, a old summer hot spot of the Chilean elite in the 1940s and 1950s. We started out visiting the grave of Vincent Huidobro, a famous Chilean poet whose philosophy of "creationism" in poetry is pretty well summed up in the line: "Un poeta es un pequeño dios" (A poet is a little god". Meaning: poetry can be whatever you want it to be- run wild!
Much of Cartagena's beauty has decayed over time due to lack of preservation as the elite have moved on to other places, but it still has its share of beautiful architecture, including the lovely Villa Lucia museum, a house filled with old objects and paintings from the town's heyday. Most recently the house belonged to Chilean artist Aldolfo Couve. It was incredibly sunny and there were gorgeous views of the ocean.
-After a filling lunch of fresh fish, we visited Pablo Neruda's most famous home, Isla Negra, a little bit further up the coast. There were gorgeous, gorgeous views of the waves and it was incredibly how varied and creative the items he owned were- everything from giant paper mache horses to a collection of ship prows to sea shells to african masks. A true global citizen right there. Have to say: although the scenery was definitely the best of his 3 houses, the way the collection was displayed felt way less "homey" and natural than the other 2. The tour was also less natural: the guide didn't tell as many stories and anecdotes as in some of the other places so I felt like I learned less about Neruda as a person from the experience, aside from what the objects said about him. Still worth it though.
-Then, we went by the home of famous 95 year old "anti-poet" Nicanor Parra. He happened to be at home! It was slightly awkward because I felt like we were intruding (it was his private home after all) but he was totally interested in talking to us, going on for quite sometime about about racism in the US, Obama, his experiences in England and Shakespeare. It was kind of surreal to be talking to someone in real life who's poetry I've read in classes.
Sunday
-Went to some activities for the day of Cultural Patrimony, near the Plaza de Armas, a beautiful central plaza in the downtown. I hadn't been by in a while, so it was nice to have a visit and to be out in fresh air on a sunny warm day.
-I tried to go a concert by Fernando Milagros, a Chilean guitarrist I really like, but we couldn't find the place where it was! At the very least, we got quite a bit of exercise. And on the way home, I found some really neat areas right by my house that have beautiful cobblestone streets. Getting to see something new every day, even if it's not what I expect!
It's been quite the busy weekend! In a good way. Quick update on it all:
Friday
-After many weeks of emails back and forth, I finally met with the coordinator for my internship. I took the bus out to the Un Techo Para Chile Office in San Joaquin, a much poorer community than I had been in for a while which was eye opening and made me realize how easy it is to become comfortably situated in upper class Chilean life without any frequent visceral reminders of poverty. Today also reminded me how big the city is and how little I actually know of it: I was only 2 comunas away(there are 37 communas), but it took me about 40 minutes to get where I was going. I'm going to be teaching a computer course to the directors (all female) of a project known as Mano a Mano in a community next to the one where I live called Peñalolen. I'm hoping the internship will provide a really interesting look at class, Chilean NGOs and community democracy projects! More updates soon.
-Went to a famous Chilean bar known as "La Piojera" (The Lousy One) with my tandem partner and some of his friends to get "terremotos," a very Chilean drink. I feel like I've met so many more Chileans in the last week, which has been really great!
-We went out for Peruvian food for my host mom's birthday. I've been lucky to have a family with a great sense of humor and it was really enjoyable. Chileans are so funny about their relationship with Peru: even though there is a fair deal of discrimination against Peruvians, ironically Peruvian restaurants represent some of the best cuisine in Santiago. In my opinion, this is because Peruvian cuisine actually uses spices, something Chilean food is generally lacking in.
-I went on a double date last night with my friend Emily (which was slightly confusing) and 2 Chileans. We went salsa dancing, which was quite entertaining and generally had a great time.
Saturday
-We went on "The Poet's Route" to visit homes of poets along the Chilean coast. We visited Cartagena, a old summer hot spot of the Chilean elite in the 1940s and 1950s. We started out visiting the grave of Vincent Huidobro, a famous Chilean poet whose philosophy of "creationism" in poetry is pretty well summed up in the line: "Un poeta es un pequeño dios" (A poet is a little god". Meaning: poetry can be whatever you want it to be- run wild!
Much of Cartagena's beauty has decayed over time due to lack of preservation as the elite have moved on to other places, but it still has its share of beautiful architecture, including the lovely Villa Lucia museum, a house filled with old objects and paintings from the town's heyday. Most recently the house belonged to Chilean artist Aldolfo Couve. It was incredibly sunny and there were gorgeous views of the ocean.
-After a filling lunch of fresh fish, we visited Pablo Neruda's most famous home, Isla Negra, a little bit further up the coast. There were gorgeous, gorgeous views of the waves and it was incredibly how varied and creative the items he owned were- everything from giant paper mache horses to a collection of ship prows to sea shells to african masks. A true global citizen right there. Have to say: although the scenery was definitely the best of his 3 houses, the way the collection was displayed felt way less "homey" and natural than the other 2. The tour was also less natural: the guide didn't tell as many stories and anecdotes as in some of the other places so I felt like I learned less about Neruda as a person from the experience, aside from what the objects said about him. Still worth it though.
-Then, we went by the home of famous 95 year old "anti-poet" Nicanor Parra. He happened to be at home! It was slightly awkward because I felt like we were intruding (it was his private home after all) but he was totally interested in talking to us, going on for quite sometime about about racism in the US, Obama, his experiences in England and Shakespeare. It was kind of surreal to be talking to someone in real life who's poetry I've read in classes.
Sunday
-Went to some activities for the day of Cultural Patrimony, near the Plaza de Armas, a beautiful central plaza in the downtown. I hadn't been by in a while, so it was nice to have a visit and to be out in fresh air on a sunny warm day.
-I tried to go a concert by Fernando Milagros, a Chilean guitarrist I really like, but we couldn't find the place where it was! At the very least, we got quite a bit of exercise. And on the way home, I found some really neat areas right by my house that have beautiful cobblestone streets. Getting to see something new every day, even if it's not what I expect!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
September 2: The Media Lies !?!
Should qualify this post by saying that it is a bunch of observation that is certainly from an outside viewpoint on Chilean society and should be read as such.
As I've become a bit more familiar with some of the issues going on in Chile, I've finally been starting to get sense of what some have complained about when they say the Chilean media is really one sided and weak. In general, it seems to me that the "lies" that the media perpetuate are not as much blatant manufacturing of falsehoods as much as things that go unreported, thereby creating an inaccurate picture of society. This is by no means a problem unique to Chile- for example, I was talking last night with a friend who was just in India about how the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan is going completely unreported in India due to their long standing conflict. Another problem in the way media outlets are increasingly being bundled into mega-mega corporations that can effectively decide what voices will and will not be allowed airing. However, in the specific case of Chile, because of the point where Chile is at as a nation, I believe that the absence of many issues and stories in the media may hurt its progress and development in the long run.
A couple examples to illustrate what I mean when I say the Chilean media is anemic at best:
- Since the dictatorship effectively shut down the leftist print media, little of it has returned and certainly not any slightly left but trying to be balanced NPR like entities.(GOD I MISS YOU NPR!!!!!!!!) The print media that remains is El Mercurio( a conservative daily), a bunch of sensationalistic tabloid type newspapers that probably only sell if they even do because they feature half or mostly naked women on them, The Clinic(a satirical although also featuring serious articles weekly) and a couple of leftist newspapers such as El Cuidadano that aren't on most stands. But just like in America, or possibly even more so, nobody really reads newspapers. Meaning that TV is the main source of news.
So, here's my beef with TV news:
-Generally, nightly news broadcasts (we watch during dinner almost every night) feature a segment about crimes that have occurred, generally robberies, the occasional home invasion, or somewhat recently, a bout of pyromania in the upscale neighborhood of Las Condes. Not to say this isn't important, but I can't help feeling that there's an eerie subtext to it, ie. justifying policies that deny civil rights at the expense of public safety and security, although to be fair, I may be reading into this with too much of an eye in the past. Of course, there's also always something about fútbol, whether or not there was a game, because between the various teams and their various stadiums and various international competitions, there's always something.
-Lately, there's been almost constant updates about the miners, which is understandable, given how miraculous it is they've survived. However, there's definitely a sick media circus sensationalized aspect to the way the story has been developed: while the miners have certainly been fleshed out as individuals, and their families, etc, their plight has, for the most part in the mainstream media, not been used to call for any examination of the larger issues surrounding mining, such as the working conditions for miners, Chile's economic dependence on mining or the way in which revenues from the mines of the North mainly benefit Santiago's coffers.
-Another story that is pretty much entirely absent from the mainstream TV media is the hunger strike that Mapuche political prisoners are currently enacting, which recently reached 50 days. The Mapuche prisoners are protesting the application of the "anti-terrorist law" [No.18.314], enacted under Pinochet, against them for crimes that are not capital offenses. The reason this absence from the media is so negative is that it deprives Chile of what I feel is an important discussion: is it acceptable for Chile as a democracy to have these kinds of double standards? Imagine if the US had never gotten to have discussions over Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or extraordinary rendition. I know the scale and circumstances are hardly the same, but the basic principle is: I firmly believe societies, above all so-called democracies, lose out when we cannot discuss and evaluate the legitimacy of our policies.
-Any environmentally interested readers I'm sure will have heard about the recent Punta de Choros incident in which President Piñera saved a pristine wildlife area from a thermoelectric plant. While I am agreement with pretty much everyone that this was a good end result, Piñera's actions were of a dubious constitionality. In the TV media, people who protested the constitutionality of his actions were portrayed as people from opposite political parties just trying to protest for the sake of it, which they undoubtedly were but I also think they do have a point. Is it good for a society that has only returned to democracy in the last 20 years to be setting precedents of circumventing institutional channels?
-If we think about media/civil society as another wing of democracy, Chile and pretty much everywhere else, including the US, have a ways to go or at least a challenge ahead to prevent backsliding. With the blog, social networking sites and youtube atomizing the "official story," traditional media sources face the challenge of compellingly reinventing themselves.
Today, I went to a colloquim that a friend from soccer invited me to entitled "Culture and Citizenship: Somos o solo eres?" The title, which roughly translates to "Is there a we or are we alone?" implied the dichotomy between projects (national and transnational) that create collective identities and the individual. The colloquim was right on time for me personally since it touched on a lot of similar territory as my "Globalization and Copper" class, which has been on a kick lately about postmodernism and its vision of a world in which there are only fractured identities, rather than collective ones. While I definitely struggled to understand a lot of what was said due to the abstractness of the concepts, and the way that the Chilean students like to "ask questions" by giving their opinions for 5 minutes (and I thought people at Tufts were bad), something one of the panelists at the end really stuck out. He characterized democracy as an increase in conflict, at least in terms of discourse, rather than the sanitation and denial of difference within society. It's a really interesting way to look at it which I think really does have validity. I suppose the real challenge to creating a mature democracy comes in allowing competing discourses to thrive in a space where they are relevant yet don't threaten to displace the others.
Enough with me being semi-pretentious and ranting about the media. Other happenings today:
- Visited La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's Santiago hideaway (it started out as a home to hide his affair) which was simply delightful. Neruda's homes are filled with cool objects from all over the world as well as paintings that were gifted to him and inevitably make me want to interior decorate something.
- I'm not entirely horrible at salsa anymore! I actually knew what I was doing, more or less, although I still have no style whatsoever. As Carmen Gloria, our program assistant joked, half way to being a professional!
-1 Week til Peru! We're going for "Spring Break". Weird to be having "Spring break" before Tufts in actually in session.
As I've become a bit more familiar with some of the issues going on in Chile, I've finally been starting to get sense of what some have complained about when they say the Chilean media is really one sided and weak. In general, it seems to me that the "lies" that the media perpetuate are not as much blatant manufacturing of falsehoods as much as things that go unreported, thereby creating an inaccurate picture of society. This is by no means a problem unique to Chile- for example, I was talking last night with a friend who was just in India about how the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan is going completely unreported in India due to their long standing conflict. Another problem in the way media outlets are increasingly being bundled into mega-mega corporations that can effectively decide what voices will and will not be allowed airing. However, in the specific case of Chile, because of the point where Chile is at as a nation, I believe that the absence of many issues and stories in the media may hurt its progress and development in the long run.
A couple examples to illustrate what I mean when I say the Chilean media is anemic at best:
- Since the dictatorship effectively shut down the leftist print media, little of it has returned and certainly not any slightly left but trying to be balanced NPR like entities.(GOD I MISS YOU NPR!!!!!!!!) The print media that remains is El Mercurio( a conservative daily), a bunch of sensationalistic tabloid type newspapers that probably only sell if they even do because they feature half or mostly naked women on them, The Clinic(a satirical although also featuring serious articles weekly) and a couple of leftist newspapers such as El Cuidadano that aren't on most stands. But just like in America, or possibly even more so, nobody really reads newspapers. Meaning that TV is the main source of news.
So, here's my beef with TV news:
-Generally, nightly news broadcasts (we watch during dinner almost every night) feature a segment about crimes that have occurred, generally robberies, the occasional home invasion, or somewhat recently, a bout of pyromania in the upscale neighborhood of Las Condes. Not to say this isn't important, but I can't help feeling that there's an eerie subtext to it, ie. justifying policies that deny civil rights at the expense of public safety and security, although to be fair, I may be reading into this with too much of an eye in the past. Of course, there's also always something about fútbol, whether or not there was a game, because between the various teams and their various stadiums and various international competitions, there's always something.
-Lately, there's been almost constant updates about the miners, which is understandable, given how miraculous it is they've survived. However, there's definitely a sick media circus sensationalized aspect to the way the story has been developed: while the miners have certainly been fleshed out as individuals, and their families, etc, their plight has, for the most part in the mainstream media, not been used to call for any examination of the larger issues surrounding mining, such as the working conditions for miners, Chile's economic dependence on mining or the way in which revenues from the mines of the North mainly benefit Santiago's coffers.
-Another story that is pretty much entirely absent from the mainstream TV media is the hunger strike that Mapuche political prisoners are currently enacting, which recently reached 50 days. The Mapuche prisoners are protesting the application of the "anti-terrorist law" [No.18.314], enacted under Pinochet, against them for crimes that are not capital offenses. The reason this absence from the media is so negative is that it deprives Chile of what I feel is an important discussion: is it acceptable for Chile as a democracy to have these kinds of double standards? Imagine if the US had never gotten to have discussions over Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or extraordinary rendition. I know the scale and circumstances are hardly the same, but the basic principle is: I firmly believe societies, above all so-called democracies, lose out when we cannot discuss and evaluate the legitimacy of our policies.
-Any environmentally interested readers I'm sure will have heard about the recent Punta de Choros incident in which President Piñera saved a pristine wildlife area from a thermoelectric plant. While I am agreement with pretty much everyone that this was a good end result, Piñera's actions were of a dubious constitionality. In the TV media, people who protested the constitutionality of his actions were portrayed as people from opposite political parties just trying to protest for the sake of it, which they undoubtedly were but I also think they do have a point. Is it good for a society that has only returned to democracy in the last 20 years to be setting precedents of circumventing institutional channels?
-If we think about media/civil society as another wing of democracy, Chile and pretty much everywhere else, including the US, have a ways to go or at least a challenge ahead to prevent backsliding. With the blog, social networking sites and youtube atomizing the "official story," traditional media sources face the challenge of compellingly reinventing themselves.
Today, I went to a colloquim that a friend from soccer invited me to entitled "Culture and Citizenship: Somos o solo eres?" The title, which roughly translates to "Is there a we or are we alone?" implied the dichotomy between projects (national and transnational) that create collective identities and the individual. The colloquim was right on time for me personally since it touched on a lot of similar territory as my "Globalization and Copper" class, which has been on a kick lately about postmodernism and its vision of a world in which there are only fractured identities, rather than collective ones. While I definitely struggled to understand a lot of what was said due to the abstractness of the concepts, and the way that the Chilean students like to "ask questions" by giving their opinions for 5 minutes (and I thought people at Tufts were bad), something one of the panelists at the end really stuck out. He characterized democracy as an increase in conflict, at least in terms of discourse, rather than the sanitation and denial of difference within society. It's a really interesting way to look at it which I think really does have validity. I suppose the real challenge to creating a mature democracy comes in allowing competing discourses to thrive in a space where they are relevant yet don't threaten to displace the others.
Enough with me being semi-pretentious and ranting about the media. Other happenings today:
- Visited La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's Santiago hideaway (it started out as a home to hide his affair) which was simply delightful. Neruda's homes are filled with cool objects from all over the world as well as paintings that were gifted to him and inevitably make me want to interior decorate something.
- I'm not entirely horrible at salsa anymore! I actually knew what I was doing, more or less, although I still have no style whatsoever. As Carmen Gloria, our program assistant joked, half way to being a professional!
-1 Week til Peru! We're going for "Spring Break". Weird to be having "Spring break" before Tufts in actually in session.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Who Needs the Swedes? Chileans Can Do Cold Rainy Day Music Too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcKJnF5dI-M
August 31/September 1: The Grey City
Fun Fact (no particularly compelling words for today): Covering your head with a scarf to approximate a conservative muslim does not disuade construction workers from cat calling. O well, it was worth a try.
In advance, I apologize, I sense a somewhat unfocused blog post coming on.
Just when flowers were starting to bust out all the over the place, we've had a spot of gross cold cloudy/ rainy weather the last few days, leaving me more in the mood for Swedish guitarists than salsa or reggaeton. This is super weird, but i kind of like Santiago better when its overcast (although the cold damp is no fun, especially with my hair). I never really realize how old and beautiful the city is until then. There's so much great architecture, color, grafitti and sculpture in the city that isn't super obvious at first glance but if you just focus a bit, another city entirely is there for the viewing. I've been obsessed with trying to take different routes to places lately, because I love variation and the way different things look from different angles. Just walking down another street in Bellavista was like finding a whole different world I had never noticed: colorful bars, artistic grafitti and beautiful mosaic tiles in the street. One of the really interesting things about Santiago is the way the city has and is constantly reinvented/ing itself. The areas of wealth in the city have pretty much always been on the outskirts nearest the mountains, but due to the city's expansion over the years, the upper class areas have constantly more farther and farther out. Which essentially means that there is beautiful architecture all over the place.
Classes have been really good, when I've had them. One of my facultades, Public Affairs, has been on and off strike pretty much all the time, which means that my econ class gets cancelled every once in a while, like today. One thing I don't really get about classes here is how much repetition there is: professors generally spend at least 20 minutes re-capping previous classes at the beginning of every class, so the introduction of new material is certainly much slower, which helps, but also makes it really tempting to zone out for a while. Despite the fact that they never seem to go to class and are taught much slower, I feel like Chilean students are definitely as well read or better read than we are. And they are definitely better at discussing/arguing a point verbally than the average American student. My Globalization and Copper class never fails to make me feel deficient in both of these points. We've been talking about postmodernism the last 2 weeks, of which I know almost nothing. I have no idea how our professor had time to read the work of so many people. I suppose being an upper class male in Latin America guarantees that you'll have a lot of extra time thanks to mothers, maids and wives, but even then! He seems to have econ/business stuff down but probably also has a philosophy degree or something. He's always got another book or philosopher or idea up his sleeve.
Soccer has been really fun too. I realized I can probably only make 1 practice a week, which is fine, but I wish I could do more to get to know people better. Yesterday's practice was great though- running, cardio, strength training, and then an informal game vs. the ladies of the chemistry faculty. My friend Molly and I ended up hanging out with several members of the team until after midnight, which was somewhat ill advised since I didn't do my econ homework/it was a school night (not for them, their facultad is on strike), although I think 4 hours of intensive spanish slang class probably was actually more useful in the long run.
I caught up my econ reading this afternoon, in a cute café. The most interesting thing I've learned from my econ class so far is how the tables have really turned as Latin American economies go: the wealthiest colonies in the 16th/17th century are now some of the poorest areas on the continent (ie Bolivia, Peru). Even in Argentina, the wealthiest areas in the colonial period are now those that struggle most, thanks to the introduction of the Borbonic Reforms turning Buenos Aires from a pirate infested backwater to a more legitimate economic power.
Back to what I what I was talking before with the city, it's so interesting to me how although levels of inequality or poverty might be relatively constant within societies, their geographic distribution can evolve, even into a completely opposite situation.
I still haven't quite figured out cafe culture here. Rather than ordering, getting food and then sitting down in standard Boston café style, I'm never sure if I should:
a) Order at the front or wait for a waiter.
b) Clear my own dishes
c) Pay at the front (this generally seems to be the case)
d) Do I leave a tip? (For a lot of things you don't, like in cabs)
Just a few more things to figure out, when I thought I had the drill down.
In advance, I apologize, I sense a somewhat unfocused blog post coming on.
Just when flowers were starting to bust out all the over the place, we've had a spot of gross cold cloudy/ rainy weather the last few days, leaving me more in the mood for Swedish guitarists than salsa or reggaeton. This is super weird, but i kind of like Santiago better when its overcast (although the cold damp is no fun, especially with my hair). I never really realize how old and beautiful the city is until then. There's so much great architecture, color, grafitti and sculpture in the city that isn't super obvious at first glance but if you just focus a bit, another city entirely is there for the viewing. I've been obsessed with trying to take different routes to places lately, because I love variation and the way different things look from different angles. Just walking down another street in Bellavista was like finding a whole different world I had never noticed: colorful bars, artistic grafitti and beautiful mosaic tiles in the street. One of the really interesting things about Santiago is the way the city has and is constantly reinvented/ing itself. The areas of wealth in the city have pretty much always been on the outskirts nearest the mountains, but due to the city's expansion over the years, the upper class areas have constantly more farther and farther out. Which essentially means that there is beautiful architecture all over the place.
Classes have been really good, when I've had them. One of my facultades, Public Affairs, has been on and off strike pretty much all the time, which means that my econ class gets cancelled every once in a while, like today. One thing I don't really get about classes here is how much repetition there is: professors generally spend at least 20 minutes re-capping previous classes at the beginning of every class, so the introduction of new material is certainly much slower, which helps, but also makes it really tempting to zone out for a while. Despite the fact that they never seem to go to class and are taught much slower, I feel like Chilean students are definitely as well read or better read than we are. And they are definitely better at discussing/arguing a point verbally than the average American student. My Globalization and Copper class never fails to make me feel deficient in both of these points. We've been talking about postmodernism the last 2 weeks, of which I know almost nothing. I have no idea how our professor had time to read the work of so many people. I suppose being an upper class male in Latin America guarantees that you'll have a lot of extra time thanks to mothers, maids and wives, but even then! He seems to have econ/business stuff down but probably also has a philosophy degree or something. He's always got another book or philosopher or idea up his sleeve.
Soccer has been really fun too. I realized I can probably only make 1 practice a week, which is fine, but I wish I could do more to get to know people better. Yesterday's practice was great though- running, cardio, strength training, and then an informal game vs. the ladies of the chemistry faculty. My friend Molly and I ended up hanging out with several members of the team until after midnight, which was somewhat ill advised since I didn't do my econ homework/it was a school night (not for them, their facultad is on strike), although I think 4 hours of intensive spanish slang class probably was actually more useful in the long run.
I caught up my econ reading this afternoon, in a cute café. The most interesting thing I've learned from my econ class so far is how the tables have really turned as Latin American economies go: the wealthiest colonies in the 16th/17th century are now some of the poorest areas on the continent (ie Bolivia, Peru). Even in Argentina, the wealthiest areas in the colonial period are now those that struggle most, thanks to the introduction of the Borbonic Reforms turning Buenos Aires from a pirate infested backwater to a more legitimate economic power.
Back to what I what I was talking before with the city, it's so interesting to me how although levels of inequality or poverty might be relatively constant within societies, their geographic distribution can evolve, even into a completely opposite situation.
I still haven't quite figured out cafe culture here. Rather than ordering, getting food and then sitting down in standard Boston café style, I'm never sure if I should:
a) Order at the front or wait for a waiter.
b) Clear my own dishes
c) Pay at the front (this generally seems to be the case)
d) Do I leave a tip? (For a lot of things you don't, like in cabs)
Just a few more things to figure out, when I thought I had the drill down.
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