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 |
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.
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