Education: The Heart of the Issue

From personal experience it seems that education in Chile is in a fragile state. Before leaving to study abroad you are warned that there is always a chance for strikes.
As the semester starts up, one of the strangest things you will notice walking down the street, apart from the freshman covered in fish, paint, and condiments (picture on the right) begging for change to get their shoes back from the upperclassmen, are the droves of university employees accosting you with pamphlets. These pamphlets offer deals on admission and the various courses they offer. It almost feels like walking down a street populated by bars and bar promoters trying to get you to come in for a drink special . . . Except in this case, you are not just going to get a buzz on, it's for your education and future.


Another aspect of the education system that drew my attention and is distinct from the United States is that you pay depending on what major you select. For example, to study engineering or biology, the tuition per semester is much higher than to study a noble but largely useless subject, like Political Science.


How did it end up like this?

The public universities are for-profit institutions. Wait, what? Yes, the universities are designed to bring in the $$. During the Pinochet dictatorship, he introduced many neoliberal policies to all industries, including to education with the idea that competition between universities would improve the quality of education and as a result public universities were converted into for-profit institutions. In addition, Pinochet transferred funds that were previously used to subsidize the public universities into a voucher system that parents could use to enroll their children in private schools and universities. As a result private universities sprung up that could cash in on the voucher system and continued to appear in the early 1990's and 2000's after the Dictatorship ended.

Part of the problem with so many small private universities is the lack of uniformity in the curriculum and inability to control the quality of the education. As I said, it feels like a bit of a crap shoot walking down the street and being handed a pamphlet from 10 different universities advertising what they have to offer and recruiting you to enroll . . . If I remember correctly when I applied to college I had to fill out a dozen applications, interview, and in the end beg a college to take me.

These policies seem to have had mixed results. Middle classes moved their students out of public schools as the quality deteriorated and poorer students who have stayed in the public schools tend not to test as well and are forced into attending private universities that can be more expensive and have a dubious quality of education. More students than ever are attending college, 7 out of 10 are the first in their family, but with funds redirected to the voucher system and similar initiatives, the available resources to help students attend the public universities have dwindled. Students are leaving with massive debts up to $45-50,000, which in a country that has the highest average wages relative to the rest of Latin America, is still an astronomical sum. (The price of education leads to some awkward moments in Chile when a Chilean student would ask how much you pay, a.k.a. that amount per semester but it is so much and sounds so ridiculous that the only way to respond was "a lot" and mention The Simpsons or that you have been to New York as a quick way out of the subject.)

Facts that don're reflect to well on the system:

- Minimal funding is put into higher education- about 2.2% of GDP and just over 0.5% of GDP go toward public universities.

- In 1986, 63% if students were enrolled in public schools. In 2008 about 43%

- 80% of students are in private universities. Loans for private universities have higher interest rates and students are leaving with higher debts.

- Students are using as much as 18% of their salaries over 15 years to pay off debts.- According to a study by the World Bank

That is my best attempt to explain what is going on and what has joined students and teachers, young and old and has dropped the President's approval rating to 26% as they attempt to reform the education system through a massive movement that has been felt by everyone in Chile, but has not been so much as a blip on the radar in these parts.

Student Struggle Chile: Introduction

"The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence." ~ Oscar Wilde



Chile(Massive protests for education + 3 month shut down of public higher education + 2 day national strike + Riots + Potato sack material student leader + Dictatorial flashbacks )/ (I have no job  x  there is no coverage of this in the U.S.) = New informative post for Us vs. Chile!

Over the last 3 months Chile has been experiencing widespread student protests. Looking at the media coverage the London riots got in the U.S. you'd think that they were the only riots that were going on in the world outside of Syria. Not so my friends, my best educated guess is that London received so much coverage here because it directly affected our economy as metal baseball bat sales went up over %6,500 (wooden only 4,000%, it's like the English don't have any sense of tradition or respect for our national pastime). However, if you were to open a Chilean newspaper you would see similar images on a weekly, almost daily basis.

Let's take a deeper look at some of our variables from the above equation:

Students and professors have joined forces in an ongoing strike that has shut down public higher education and high schools in Chile for close to three months. Over 17 million classes have been cancelled.

Students have taken control of the public universities.

Hunger strikes by students living in their high schools that have lasted over a month:

"I prefer my education before my food."

Kiss-ins . . . sign me up.

(These could actually be pictures from any random day in Chile, where PDA is a favorite pastime.)

A two day national strike led by the biggest union in the country:

"National Strike, Chile should be different: fight for equality." 

And maybe one of the most dynamic young leaders who is becoming a folkloric hero not just in Chile but across Latin America. She has been put under police protection after receiving death threats and a Senior Minister of Culture official in the Chilean government tweeted, "Se mata a la perra, se acaba la leva." . . "If you kill the bitch, you get rid of the litter." A famous phrase used by Chile's 17 year Dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew the Marxist President of Chile in 1973. And all this time we thought it was just professional athletes getting themselves into trouble on Twitter.

Camila Vallejo, leading student movements and making gas masks
a must have accessory since 2011

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Well, if you live in the U.S. you are out of luck finding information on this because the only coverage you will find is from business journals worried about the finacial losses expected by companies in Chile as a result of the stoppages.

For all the above reasons I felt the need to write this. I've got about 3 months to catch up on so I'll just go with the basics and try and cover the more interesting story lines.

The central issue: Think Pink Floyd, "We Don't Need No Education" but the opposite.

On the surface it seems like a fairly straight forward concept that should not have lead to such a long drawn out and explosive situation. Like the Hidroaysen project, something on the surface that seemed like a common sense and straight forward initiative, it soon becomes evident that there are a multitude of other factors in the background that need to be taken into consideration. Again, when you factor in Chile's past history, it's future, and the deeply drawn lines in society, nothing comes easy.

Relegation: The unimaginable a reality for River

It's always tough to put these things into perspective, especially if you have not been to the other place. But fuck it, that's basically the premise for this whole blog, so here we go again.

River Plate is the most successful professional Argentine football club out there. They've won the national tournament 33 times, 10 more championships than any other team in the country. That was until Sunday when they fell to the B Division of Argentine football.

River just didn't recently shit the bed a.k.a. like got a stomach bug for a little and had a few bad games or a bad season. No, River has been in free fall, Montezuma's revenge cronic shitting the bed of sorts for a considerable period of time.

Little bit of background:

In Argentine soccer teams can move up and down between divisions according to performance, which I find to be pretty awesome. Two seasons are played each year and at the end of the second season they add up your total number of points over the last 3 years and 2 teams are sent down and 2 teams are on the chopping block playing for their division 1 life. What this means is that River, one of the most storied teams in South America, has had a stretch of 6 pretty bad seasons which eventually lead to a 2 game home and home playoff this past week with the top team of the B Division.

A semi-decent comparison of the magnitude of what transpired would be to use everybody's favorite (*cough cough*) football team, Notre Dame, as an example. Imagine that as a result of this dismal stretch of football Notre Dame is experiencing that it was moved from 1-A to 1-AA (and still have their games televised nationally). Think about the outcry, the heads that would roll, the drop in value of our picture with Rudy if that were to happen. Now picture that in Argentina where there is no other sport but soccer, with the most successful team, that has the biggest stadium, and a fan base with like maybe two things they love more in life which is probably meat and 1980's British rock music. Shit just got serious.

So you are probably wondering how the 2 game playoff went, well, not exactly to plan for River.

When you are a fan after driving 12 hours to see yout team losing 2-0 to a division 2 team, you may get a little pissed and no fence will hold you:

Getting your ass kicked? Time to rush the field and let them know they have no marbles. Perhaps time to sacrific a live chicken?



Boom. Time to incorporate awesome fact about the team River played, Belgrano de Cordoba. Belgrano is known as Los Piratas because the first time they made it to Division 1 in the early 1900's their stadium did not meet the requirements of a Division 1 field and the players and fans before each game fans borrowed posts, fencing, and wire from nearby homes and businesses to have the field be eligible for play. It looks like they could have used a few extra fences for that game.

Part two brings us to the home half of the playoff for River. Given what happened in Cordoba, this had the makings to be one ugly day in and around El Estadio Monumental for River . . . And it turned out just about as bad as it could have. 2,200 police officers were dispatched to the stadium in addition to the normal security, after league and team officials trounced the idea of playing the game without fans due to what had already happened in Cordoba. I'm guessing the decision to play with fans present probably had something to do with the 19 million dollars of debt River has.

There is one game that I previously wrote about that is considered THE game in Argentine soccer and this game trounced it in interest and viewers. The 2,200 police apparently did little to prevent as many as 14,000 extra ticketless fans from forcing their way in led by the Borrachos del Tablon, the "barra brava" or main backers of River.

River needed a 2-0 win to stay alive, but ended up tying 1-1.



for the English version, with the quintessential British soccer annoucer, click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtBbLpl7tPk. (He missed a classic "this could be trouble!" when the fire hose came out.)

After the game outside:

Closing notes:

- It's not going to be easy to get back to La Primera A for River. The team is in shambles financially and keeps selling its good young players to Europe to try to offset it's financial woes. It's been a revolving door of coaches for River in search of an answer that probably isn't there because it is more a problem of how the club is being run. In the last three years the club has had 6 coaches, each averaging only 19 games at the helm and 64 different players have donned the jersey. They also may have to play the entire season away from their home stadium as a sanction for the violence after the game and for something absolutely ridiculous. Probably the craziest thing to come out of the game and gives you a sense of how corrupt and out of control Argentine soccer is.

At the half River was winning 1-0 but still needed at least one more goal (Belgrano won 2-0 at home, so River had to win this game 2-0 and they get the tie breaker as the division 1 team). Members of la barra, the main backers of River, were let into the inside of the stadium as security and police turned a blind eye to them. The group even received a call from a club official telling them to "do it quickly." The group went from the stands to the dressing room of the referees as the guards walked away and threatened to kill the referee if he did not call a penalty shot for River. In Argentina, soccer is extremely corrupt and the barras of each time basically work as a mafia and have a considerable amount of influence on the teams and actually meet with club officials, even the club president.

Pictures from security cameras of the group going to the referees' dressing room. The news station even has a kinda hilarious dramatic computer generated re-enactment of what happened.

In the video of it, you actually see the security and police walk away when they show up. For the record Argentine police are an absolute joke. Laziest and most disorganized police force I've seen. In the riots after outside they just started throwing rocks back at the people who were throwing rocks at them.

(If you pull it off, bucket hats with track suits might just be the most thug life look out there. A bucket hat with like a pair of khaki shorts or a lobster bathing suit at the beach, pretty fucking lame, but when you throw it on with the adidas track suit, all white sneakers, and you are rolling with a crew that has collectively like 6 teeth, everyone, including the police don't make eye contact with you.)

P.S. You know they take their club seriously when they molotov coctail the house of one the club's directors (who does not seem phased).

(That place should be studied as a model for home zombie apocalypse defenses)

Remember those french dancers and how much I said they were going to suck as guests? Well they did.

I wrote a post a while ago about French dancers coming to stay at the hostel and how they were getting all sorts of special treatment. Well, at that point I was just joking about them being dicks. However, it turns they were dicks!


Anyone can look that good after eating special fruit, with that much bass, a low camera angle, and those light effects.

They were pissed off right from the get go because they had been told before coming to Chile that they would be staying in a hotel, so understandibly they were annoyed when they were brought to a hostel. However, each one had their own private room with cable TV, internet, private shower, and a king sized bed. Not too shabby right? And we treated them like kings. When they woke up in the morning they got specially made hot chocolate. I don't even get specially made hot chocolate.

Problem was they were looking for pretty much any reason to leave and ended up getting into it with the night receptionist, Eli, after arriving back at the hostel at 7 in the morning after partying all night and demanded breakfast. They started smoking, drinking, and one of them passed out on the couch with his hand down his pants.

Eli, who doesn't speak French or English put the rules in front of them on the couch and one of them started videotaping the rules and Eli getting all angry. Eli's response? Video tape right back. Boom. (I feel like these videotaping battles are becoming more common place in. The only way to combat someone videotaping you is to videotape right back, I guess. I myself would like to see more iphones ripped out of hands and smashed on the ground as the appropriate response to being videotaped.)

How 'bout that footage (Anyone know any French so we can figure out what he's going on about?):

(Note to the black dude: I feel you with the hand down the pants, we all know it's comfortable, but there is a time and a place, a time and a place.)

Things almost turned really ugly because we had a group of 15 or so "wassos" really blue collar unrefined guys from way outside the city who worked for one of the cell phone companies and were in Santiago for a couple weeks for work. They were all getting up for work that morning and came down to the above scene and apparently when they saw what was going on offered to punch the French guys in the face for Eli. (Which they did not end up doing). Long story short, the Frenchies used their run-in with Eli as an excuse to leave. They didn't feel "comfortable" with her around.

Now cue more of Ben and Stefan dancing!

Cribs: Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia Cribs from stefan modz on Vimeo.
(I recommend clicking on the link and watching this in vimeo, it's bigger/better quality)

A lot of people were asking me about where I was living in Chile and what it was like. Even though I told them I was living in a hostel, for some reason I think people weren't really sure what that meant and kind of pictured me living in a shack or a tent on the bench. Not the case, I did indeed have a solid roof over my head.

I videotaped this a while ago, I just didn't have a computer to myself or the time to put this together until recently. The first half is cribsesque and the second half is kind of designed as a thank you for my friends in Chile. Be forewarned, there is a lot of slow-mo instant replay . . . I went a little overboard trying to make it in the style of Cribs.

(Ya, I realize I spelled "lavar" wrong. I can't believe I did that but the file is too big to correct.)

The Little Andy sized book store

Little books for our little guy.

These books would go perfectly here . . . (If it is three times bigger)

Chamileadog

Actually all I did was figure out how to use the hue or grayness button on my camera or something like that.

Breaking news: Chile staying on the cutting edge of zombie apocalypse preparation

That is the face of joy you get stepping off the plane in Santiago, knowing that you couldn't be in any safer place in the world if the zombie apocalypse happens.

I could go on and on for days about how Chile is the world leader in zombie defenses and this is the place to be when the apocalypse happens, blah, blah, blah. That was before I knew that they actually anually practice the zombie apocalypse in order to better understand and document the tendencies of zombies as well as learn to combat them and even incorporate them into society. Footage from last year's simulation and new programs that are in place:



Zombie education- an important step into making them a productive part of society.


And a leader in zombie rights.


Even break down the zombie food pyramid. God help us if we had any mal-heath educated  zombies walking around.

Smoke cigarettes and you can't get boners

"I remember back when I used to be able to get boners. Then I started smoking . . ." Simple and effective marketing, no beating around the bush, none of that you are going to die in 50 years, you're harming others, blah, blah, blah, crap. If they used this in the US, guaranteed cigarettes are off the market in five years because all men will stop smoking (followed by all women because they lack the ability to think independently) and we have another baby boom, putting our economy back ahead of China welcoming in a new age of prosperity and growth.

PS. Still never smoked a cigarette, I should have a thumbs up.

PPS. Time to hit the gym, I'd say.

Katy Perry Would Be Proud

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times if you do anything in South America, you have to get to a soccer game, its unreal. This is from the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores from about a week ago (I seem to somehow be finding the longest videos out there to make my point these days, things start to heat up around the 2:00 mark). The Copa Libertadores is basically the Champions League of Latin America, where the best professional teams from each country play each other. In this game Penarol from Uruguay is playing Velez from Argentina. Only a third of the crowd died before the game began.

_____

Security: "Senor, do you have anything on you that I should know about that could be dangerous?"

Fan: "Uhhhh, nope, no I don't have anything."

Security: "Wait, what's that in your pants?"

(Fan unveils a couple cans of beer and a shit ton of fireworks)

Security: "You know alcohol is not allowed in the stadium don't you? Sorry, I'm going to have to confiscate that, but have fun burning the stadium down!"

_____

Best youtube comment from the video:

What, no piped-in rock muzak? No big screen telling people when to cheer? No people dressed up firing shirts into the stands? No manufactured atmosphere? Wow, you guys have a lot to learn about real stadium atmosphere! ;)


You're preaching to the choir my man.

Hidroaysen Part II: The videos and pics of the aftermath of the Hidroaysen decision a.k.a what made reading part one worthwhile

Hilarious, real hilarious. Can we get serious for a moment?

No matter where you stand on an issue like this, there's one thing that everyone can admit, nothing like a Friday night protest and a little tear gas to clear the system, wake you up, and start the night off right. Unless you are pregnant.

(In all the videos in this post keep an eye out for random activist stray dogs taking part in the protests. They know what's up.)

This video is probably the most complete one I found, its a little bit long but it does a good job of showing the progression of the protest and compressing about 3 hours into 12 minutes. 30,000 people showed up at Plaza Italia, one of the principal plazas/meeting places in Santiago and the plan was to go from there to the Presidential Palace, La Moneda. What's great about Santiago is that there is one big main road that runs east to west through the city and goes past all the important places. So the obvious plan was to take that street all the way to La Moneda, but about a quarter of the way there the police had formed a blockade so that the march couldn't get through.

(from the backside of the blockade)

From that point it's only a matter of time before things turn ugly. It only takes one rock or bottle thrown for what was a peaceful protest into chaos. The rock brings out the water cannons which don't look too bad. However, what you don't realize is that the water is just awful, dirty smelly and is laced with tear gas. From there comes the tear gas. In the above picture you'll see two vehicles. The big one has the two water cannons mounted on top and the smaller one, that is more like a jeep, has special chutes on the side that launch tear gas. Together, they make a pretty effective pair. It's like an NFL running back tandem. Knock them off balance with your downhill big bruiser running back and then hit them with the quick hitting lightning back and before you know it you are on your ass coughing up a lung and crying.

Please note: The extension on the kick of the tear gas canister above. Unreal. and in those skinny jeans.  You have to kick the tear gas canisters because they come out hot. I'm pretty sure if you tried to pick it up to throw it back you'd be fucked.

From that point, the goal is still to reach La Moneda and everyone still realizes that is where things are headed but it is in a much more fragmented form. You've still got tear gas being tossed about like it ain't no thing and there is a little bit of a running of the bulls effect where all of a sudden everyone in the street comes charging down it as the various police vehicles try to disrupt the efforts of the protest.

After that it turns into a long round-about walk to La Moneda which was probably one of the coolest parts. Up until this point, even with the police using the water and gas and one or two bottles had been thrown it remained a peaceful protest. For the most part, people realize that they have to go with a little MLK action, we shall overcome type deal and stay non-violent to get the point across. Things cool down for a bit. The police stop using gas and water because they accomplished their initial goal of unblocking the main streets. Now you are being funneled down smaller streets to arrive at La Moneda and the police actually are positioned at all the cross streets that could take you back up to the main drag.

What's awesome is in these moments the Chilean culture really comes to shine and it doesn't seem to be just a bunch of hippies out on a Friday night. We happened to be next to a group of dancers from the north of Chile. The north of Chile is pretty much all desert (driesest desert in the world) and there is a large indigenous population there. What's really cool is that people from the north are very spiritual in the sense that they have a strong connection with the land/earth/nature. For them, mother earth is what is most sacred, so that is why they come out to support their "brothers" in patagonia. Amidst the violence, the gas, and all the police dressed up like robocop, there is this beautiful display of culture.

Final Stage: La Moneda

The gathering at La Moneda also was peaceful, but after a while the gas and water was back out. I think from the perspective of the Carabineros, enough is enough. You've had your moment and made your point, it's getting late, we want to get out of here, people stuck in traffic want to get home, so this is where it ends. Having said that the pictures and videos that come out of it do not portray the carabineros in the best light. 

Most badass picture of all time? Can we safely say that Pat would love this picture?

(Also note how well preened the grass is in front of La Moneda. The Santiago public works department is unreal. I would hire them to do Fenway any day and twice for a double header.)

In Latin America, one of the core issues that always arises, no matter what the cause, is the issue of class. Rich vs. poor, government vs. the people and it reared its head here again. Outside of the initial protest against Hidroaysen some of the underlying themes that emerged were unnecessary use of force and that the people don't actually have a voice and that this project is another way for the rich to get richer and for the masses to stay the same.

"Shit, we've got another protester with the flag of Texas."

A few comments (Imagine me sitting by a fire in a robe with pipe in my mouth and a small dog, the type of dog you would like to kick, perhaps a shitzu, in my lap):

- Police:
To me, the police did a hell of a good job given their orders and the main goal of ending the protest. This isn't their first rodeo. As bad as the water and gas look it's only temporary. However, in retrospect, its one of those things that would probably have been best left to burn itself out. Let everyone do their thing and then go home. Instead, you had 30,000 people for this protest and then for the next one a week later 40,000. Clashes with police are inevitable in Chile. There is still a very strong sour taste because of the dictatorship and the brutality of that period. Because of that even now people hate the police. It can be truly amazing to hear someone talk about the police and just how awful they think they are and that they remain a tool of the elite.

Class:

- Like I began to mention above, a lot of the time down here it always comes down to class. Who is going to profit off of this? In this case a lot of Chileans feel that someone, whether it be President Pinera, a family member, or an associate is going to be lining their pockets with the money from Hidroaysen. Same old same old politics anywhere you are in the world. Here in Boston we have Sal DiMasi, who is on trial for benefiting from contracts that he awarded to an associate while he was the Massachusetts Speaker of the House.

Even the Chilean Espicopal Coference felt the need to put its two-sense in: "a decision based only in economics is ethically unacceptable and deplorable because it is goes against the general will of the people of Chile." 

Capitalism, capitalism, capitalism . . . In Chile for most people it isn't so clear cut and socialism is alive and well. For many capitalism is still looked at as the anti-christ and is not the answer for Chile.

Democracy:

- A feeling like Chileans weren't consulted in the process, that there was no democratic process in the Hidroaysen decision. I myself had never heard of Hidroaysen until the day Hidroaysen was passed and sadly I doubt the majority of the 30,000 protesters who took to the streets in Santiago and the 13,000 others in Valparaiso, and multitudes more across the country knew what Hidroaysen was before that either. I think this can be looked at a couple of different ways: 1) like I mentioned above, lack of democractic process due to behind closed doors deals 2) I could be completely wrong but to me it feels more like ignorance. This was an issue that was out of sight out of mind and not until something actually got passed by the elected officials of Chile did people pick their heads up and smell the coffee and get up in arms. from there, there was a large bandwagon effect. All of a sudden, everyone hears about this and it is a do or die cause. "What? They are going to put dams in Patagonia? Never! I love Patagonia!" It's okay to get passionate about the issue, but get yourself informed. Just don't go to the protest cause it's a Friday night and it is an opportunity to drink in the streets and get your ass tear gassed so you can write a blog about it like me.

____

It's too bad is that there will always be the anarchists, the kids who just come out looking for trouble and at the end of the day their actions can cloud the other aspects of the protest. The moments after the protest, getting back to a friend's apartment were the craziest because at that point the police are literally hunting down the individual small groups that are out to do nothing else but destroy. The police helicopters come out with the spotlights to identify where the different groups are and it become mayhem. Gridlock everywhere, the anarchists light whatever they can on fire, tear down sign posts, etc. and that is where it turns unfortunate and sketchy because tear gas just starts flying everywhere and you have old people just going to the store, people stuck in the traffic coming back from work on buses and nobody can breathe because the air is so thick with gas. At one point a couple kids dragged a dumpster into the middle of a busy intersection and lit it on fire.

But in the end you are left with some pretty powerful images and it doesn't reflect too great on the government and its response. The truly passionate people out there are the peaceful ones and through them come the most powerful images. It wasn't just college kids out there but families as well and using force to shut them up does not look too good.

If you are still reading this that is impressive. Below I put together a collection of some of the best videos from youtube of the protest, I embedded the first couple and the rest are links.

A pretty interesting struggle between a group of people and carabineros:

More footage of people getting doused at La Moneda. There is a pretty awesome casual tear gas bomb launch from a shotgun-like launcher from a Carabinero.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j34Wm4p6OGU
This one is probably the most awful. A group of regular carabineros (without riot gear) get cornered and are pretty brutally attacked. One gets sent to the hospital after getting hit over the head with a skateboard (30 second mark).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nTApMM28w&feature=related
Some pretty unclear sketchy footage of a Carabinero whaling on someone. Can't really see what exactly he is hitting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVRRrrZ66-o&feature=related
news report from TVN, not bad, has footage from Santiago and other cities in Chile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URGeH8qZPdI&feature=related
Up close footage of clash between Caribineros and protesters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vWoImUsVy8
Various protesters being detained by Caribineros, in slow motion with classical music. Basically makes it more dramtic than it really is.

Valpo protest 21 de mayo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS5EutB_sD4

Valpo woman's speech. Powerful stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_UAQfOP6wc

PS. If I took a more active role in these protests as a rabble rouser, do you know how much damage I would do? The thing about the protests down here is that everyone has shit arms. When you only have soccer to play, nobody can throw. Everyone is picking up rocks and bottles and I admire their resolve and efforts to disrupt the police, but lets be real, almost any little girl from the US who had an older brother could throw with more force and accuracy.

What do you even think you are going to accomplish with this throw? Do you not see it is a heavily armoured tank and you are throwing at the backside where there is nothing? Gotta disable the water cannons. Aim small, miss small. Though I will say, good looking follow through on his part. Prof Pic that shit, weon.

Double P.S. do you see much difference between the protest and a Chilean soccer game?