Highschools and baby care

Today, sunday the 22th of November, a story about a girl was posted in the news. She got pregnant in 2002, while she was still in highschool, and the directive board of her school considered it so scandalous that they didn't took too much time to kick her out. Madeleine (that was her name) got in touch with a lawyer that took her case and started talkig to people, going every day to the Education Ministry, demanding that she was re-intergrated to her school. After a lot of fights she was finaly let back, and her teachers where obligated to recieve her delayed papers and to let her pass her course. Madeleine's case was so known all over our country that it became a statement for the rights of teenagers mothers, and from that year by law any school can expelle students for the only reason of being pregnant, and also that they have to create special, more flexible criterions for them to be able to pass their courses in the time they have.

The story also speaks about after that year, and because of the public treatment that Madeleine's case, a lot of schools in Santiago and some in other cities have incorporated baby care centers for the teenager mothers to be able to go to class with out having to let her babies at home or away from them. I think this is a very good move forward for all women, but specially for our country, to give evey one the chance to develop them selves besides their sex.

My Faculty Facilities

Currently, my faculty facilities are a lot better than they were when my generation entered to colledge. Today there are data proyectors in every class room, and there are two more computer labs so now is a lot eazier to find a free pc to wonk on. But, not everything is that great, we still have a very deficient library, we've always needed a study and reading room that is quiet and comfortable and eaven though last winter vacations a new "study room" was innagurated, when we saw it we realized that it was only our old casino, that they now keep open in the afternoons for students to go wonr there. Besides, our careers keep growing and geowing every year, and the class rooms are starting to be too short in number, some times if we need to plan an extra class or some other activity, all the class rooms are ocupated and that makes very difficult to have good iniciatives.

I thik the first steps to deal with this situation, and what I would do if it was in my power, it would be to potenciate colective spaces, where the students, the staff and the teachers could sit and read a book or work or whatever we all need. I would build more class rooms to make shure that if more classes are needed or other activities are being proyected, they have a place to develop.

Election Day

Well... I'm not registered to vote, eaven though I've asked my self a lot of times if this is the right desition, I just can't legitimate such a corrupt sistem like the one we have. I mean, I like politics, I think it's important to get involved in what in going on with our country, but I don't think voting is the best (and eaven less the only) way to do this.

I've noticed that electoral campaings have become dirtier and dirtier over the years; politicians don't eaven care to hide their lack of moral and ethic values any more, and all the drama that we see in the campaings are clearly a lack of respect with the people that still believes in them, it's like they think we're stupid!! I don't know what qualities a president should have, but I am sure that it's not right that people that have allready done a bad job, or that have private intesest that could be beneficiated with the position, should run fot it.

When I was a child I had the idea of becoming a diplomatic, I liked the idea of traveling around the world meeting people, but a little later I realized that that job is a lot more than just talking and smiling, that you have to compromise a lot of your own to do it, so it didn't seemed a good idea after all. But now, I've thaught a lot about working in the State, and the idea of the Ministry of Work or MIDEPLAN seduce me a lot, I think those are places where an anthropologist could make a diference in hoy things are done in our contry and contribute to the lifes of people. I think in Chile the problems that need an immediate solution are the quality and the way public education is handled, social houses, work conditions, the distribution of welth and the quality of public health sistem.

Prostitution: "just another job"?

The author of the article "No trafficking? Well, there's a hell of a lot of women suffering" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/25/catherine-bennett-prostitution-trafficking) writes a very acid critique about what some british achademics have said about looking the situation of inmigrant sex workers with an "objective eye". Their supposed serious emphiric investigations concluded that prostitution, for some of the women that they interviewed is just another job, and actually one that is better that others that could provide them eaven worse life conditions in terms of salaries and working hours. According with the author, I believe that those achademics where very irresponsable at reducing a very serious international problem that ends with the lifes of thouthands of women and girls all over the world every year, to the specific conditions that a group women have had the luck to find in london. The fact of dividing sex workers between "trafficked and not-trafficked" seemed to them enough to ensure that for a great propotion of those women "the job" can be a good opportunity to have a better quality of life and to improve the lifes of their families at home; ignoring the -to my judge- most important fact that is that prostitution has one of the greatest risk to be attacked or eaven murdered between all of the activities that a person can do in the world.

Criminal Laws

Ok... This topic is very, very hard to discuss, specially if you have to write an opinion in less than an hour and a half. Lets see... I don't really have a strong possition about capital law, on one hand there is the most popular opinion (the "ilustrated and civilized" one), that you commonly appeal to; the one that says that nobody has the right to decide if an other human being should live or die, that every one has the right to rehabilitate and that to sentence someone to deth is against the universal values or human rights.

But on the other hand, if you imagine that some day, somebody could take someone you love from you for any reason, or destroy the lifes of many people commiting hideus acts that can't be justified by anyone... the first argument starts to sound a little empty. I don't think that capital laws could reduce criminality here or any where alse: they haven't in the past and they won't do it now, but I wonder: should society spend resources that could go to health, education and social programs in mantaining people that have caused nothing more than damage and pain to others? But again, I'am thinking in extreme cases of murderers, violators and dictators; I don't think that capital law is a solution to anything, I just think that in very specific cases it could do less damage than a life sentence.

I think that if criminality rates are going up it's because of the way of life we are forced to live, where the mayority of people get excluded from the "good life" and then get punished for it, and if we want to stop that rates continue to rise we should think about how to eliminate this problem from it's roots, and not to think that prision is an answer to anything. I have to accept that I have never been a "victim of crime", not in a direct way... a couple of times my cellphone has being stoled, but I didn't realise so it wasn't traumatic. Maybe if that was different my opinion would be to...

What to do and where to go in Santiago

Any foreign or tourist that visits Santiago, can't miss the next five places or activities, if he or she wants to know the real good things that our city has to offer:

1. Eat a "sopaipilla" in a cart on the streat. This can be a little dangerous if you have a weak stomach, and specially if you are european or northamerican, but I can ashure you that is an experience that you won't regret: sopaipillas are round, kind of like bread doughs made of pumpkin, then fried. The carts offer a variety of sauces and dips to put on your sopaipilla, like "pebre" (onion, tomato, garlic and chile), mustard, ketchup and others.

2. Take a walk in the Forestal Park. In the middle of Santiago you will find a large park that goes by the Mapocho river, its great if you want to relax and spend a quiet afternoon. If you go on sundays you'll find a huge flea market where you can find from clothes to movies, food, music and handcrafts, and also you will see a lot of people just hanging arround talking, making music and dancing... it's a lot like a circus.

3. Get on a public bus. If you haven't heard of Transantiago, beware... You'll have to buy a bip card and charche it with money in the subway or in a "bip point", then go to the next bus stop arround 19:00 and get ready for the adventure, no mater where you go, jut remember the number of it. I won't say anything alse or I would ruin the sorprice, But trust me, you'll laugh about it later.

4. Go to the San Cristobal hill. It's near Plaza Italia, so you won't get lost looking for it, when you get there you can choose between walking up (it's a long way, so take comfortable shoes and clothes), or taking a taxi or the troley. Then, get down by "teleférico".

5. If you want to gou out at night, I have to recomend the Bellavista Neiborhood. There you will find a lot of different places to sit and have a drink, eat great food or eaven dance all night long. You can't miss it.

Transantiago: before and after

So, about Transantiago... I think that first I should clear up that I'm not from Santiago so I don't really have an opinion about the old system; I used to come a lot in vacations to visit my sister, but whenever we moved in the city we did it by subway, there were very few occations when we had to take buses and I don't remember any special at all about them except that they were a lot bigger than the ones in Antofagasta...

I came to live in Santiago in 2007; the same year that Transantiago started to function full time, and it was a chaos: no one knew what bus to take to go to work, to school or to the university, the frequency of the buses was totaly random and they were always full. The only good thing was that everybody was so lost that no one could know that I was from another city... I blended in just fine. I should probably say as well that I haven't suffered the worst of it, all the long lines of people waiting, and the "tuna can" trips that we could see on the news; I live in the center of the town so I'm always going against the traffic: when people are trying to get in the center I'm leaving it, and at the end of the day when everyone alse is tying to get out I'm going in the contrare direcction.

Any way, the system has improved a lot since 2007, the frequencies have become more regular and fast and a some of the routes that where missng in some places of the city now have being added. I think people in charge should worry about adding more routs and changing the busses for others, stronger ones that can go through the town with out literally falling apart.

How about Mexico?

When I was about nine years old my grandparents took me and my mom on a trip to Mexico. We where in Mexico City, Puebla, Tasco and Acapulco (that was my last favourite part: there was a lot of old people, it was unbelievable hot and wet and I got sick, so I didn't even went to the beach).

But the other towns where so beautiful that I've always wanted to go again, specialy the last two, they are small, quiet, very old cities with hundreds of years of history; their white houses whith red roofs and their brik streets would enyone fall in love with them, and as far as I remember people where absolutely nice and friendly. Besides going back to those places I would love to know the rest of the country, to visit the Azteka and Maya ruins and to learn about the actual culture.

I've also thought about going to study to the UNAM, mabe get a post degree in anthropology (I've heard that the school there is grat) ore something alse. UNAM is the biggest public university in Mexico, and given the size of that country that's a lot to say. Mabe it would be hard to live in such a big and crazy city, but I think that for a cuple of years it would be fine, and that experience would be amazing.

First Term

First term of 2009 was a very dynamic time, it was the first semester of my "real career" (the last two years had been a common cycle), so all of my classes where interesting and challenging for the first time (well, not actually all of them, but most, and that's a lot to say). We went on field work to Arica, for our Culturas Andinas course, to a little town named Codpa in the highlands. That was a great experience, 'cause we where alone there and we had to be able to get to know the people, get them to trust us and to help us with the information we needed to write our papers. An other course that I really liked was Economic Anthropology I, where I lernt some of the practical aplications of my discipline, and how it could be usefull for the lifes of the people I would be working with and not just for my self or the "scientific comunity".

On the other hand, I was elected academic delegate for my career. That was something that I didn't expect and also that I hadn't planed in terms of schedule, so everything got really tight and fast. Most of the weeks I arrived to the University at 8:30 AM and leave it at 8:00 or 9:00 PM, between classes and meetings.

Last semester was very demanding in terms of the number of courses I took and also of the activities I had to do. I finished it very very tired, but happy because I learned a lot of things, I worked in topics I liked a lot, and also participated in processes that are important for the future of my career.

SECOND SEMESTER: ENGLISH 4

My ideal job

Ok, so... I've said other times that I would like work directly with people, maybe in comunity development proyects, if its urban, rural or in an other country I don't care. I would like to understand first how is that they live and see the world, how they organize them selfs, and how is that organization can give them new posibilities of improving their way and the conditions of their life. I would like very much to see that I'm making a direct contribution to people's life with the tools and abilities that where given to me, but by passig them to others to be used, not by canching things and expecting that they follow what I say just because I went to college. I also know that this kinds of jobs are hard to get, I mean... who would really pay for that? Actually, there are some ONG's that provide this kind of opportunities, and I would love to be concidered. For this, I would have to specilize in social networks and associative anthropology, and also in economic and polithic anthropolgy, and to do a lot of research in this matter before I can think to sart interfering in real ways in people's life.

But if we are dreaming away, I would love to have a job thar allows me to travel a lot around Southamerica and the rest of the world, just for a cupple of years, before I start trying to make this world a little better. Maybe take some pictures for a magazine, or write some sories, or record some films of what I see ... yes, the classical dream job for an anthropologist, but hey... I've always been a fan of the classics.

My favorite subject

Well, is kind of hard to think about this we are at the end of the term and all we want to do is just finish with every thing the best that we can and run far far away. But I think that the best subject I had this term, and I have to say that unlike others I had a lot of good curses, is Economic Anthropology. This is a social-cultural curse taught by Andres Aedo, and it has a lot of great readings like Marz, Polangy, Godelier and others that study how different cultures and societies deal with how to produce and reproduct them selfs whith the resources that they have and the economic relationships that they can mantein with others. This is great because you can understanda lot of our actual society and the way thar it's organized, just by studying how others do it, in a process that is called "un-naturalization" of the economic laws that we have being told are universal and necessary.
This is the first part of the curse, and the second is about exactly the contrary: we study all of the economic theories that ruled the occidental world from the beggining of XXth century until now, and thar really makes you understand how our country has being built and also how many of the laws and dessitions that people say are only economical are trully polithical and the other way around.

The Future...

Ah, the future... I wonder if the teacher knows how annoying this kind of questions are, or maybe he's been talking to my mom and she told him to freak me out.
Let's see.... For the millionth time, I-DON'T-KNOW-WHERE-AM-I-GOING-TO-BE-IN-FIVE-YEARS!!!... And I like it that way.
But again, just so I don't mess up this post, I'm going to fall, only this time i'm actually making all of this stuff up, I warn you...
In five years I'm going to be out of college, maybe doing some kind of master degree in social anthropology. I have a good job, not a fancy one, but it pays decent and it's not absolutely horrible: I haven't sold out yet. It allows me to work directly with people, I'm doing some reseach and a lot of proyects of comunity development, so there I can keep some polithical work.
I live alone, I'm finaly totally independent. I rent a little apartment somewehere down town, but still hung out a lot in my sister's house, and when I'm not there I like to keep my apartment full with friends. I also travel a lot, I can save some money and dont' spend a lot, so every time I have in my hands I take off with one of my friends, and I'm doing some alone short trips too.
Well, thats all, I hope you enjoy.

The best in my area

This time, the post is about someone I believe to be "the best in my area". I don't really know who could diserve such a title, a lot of names come to my mind and at the same time none of them can full up the standars. Beside, I've never been much of the "fan tipe", even less when we are talking about a discipline, a job that can have a real effect over people's life or the way we think about our world; I think that when we lift someone to a level that is above the heads of the real people that struggle throwgh their life and beside that try to make the world a little better, they stop putting their hart in what they are doing, and become too comfortable with their abilities, even if they are extraordinare.
Any way, I'm going to give a name, just so I don't mess up this post. But I what to be clear about the fact that I hardly think of whom I'm going to talk about as the GREATEST anthropologist, or anything like it, and that I have a lot of critics about his work, but besides them I think that José Bengoa, a chilean anthropologist, philosopher and history scholar, has done a good job showing what was behind the official speeches about our aborygen people and their relationship with our State, and has participated in proyects to try to give them back the rights, lands and freedom that was taken from them.

My career

When I had to decide what to study, I wasn't shure at all of wich career was for me. In fact, I ended up picking Anthropology just because it was the humanist discipline with most posibilities for me to specialize in the future. But now, with two and a half years in it, I'm convinced that it was an excellent desition. In anthropology I found the theorical and methodologycal tools that will helpme to contribute to change society into a better place, by working directly with people.
This is what I want to do when I'm out of University, and I think that applaying branches of this discipline like Economyc or Polithical Anthropology to the day to day life of small groups of people we can really make a difference in the form that people (and of course our selfs as professionals) live and think about the way they live, for better.
To be a good anthropologist we have to be, in first place, very good writters, then we need to have good people habilities. But what I think is the most important is to have an open mind to understand all the ways of think, live and feel that we'll find when we start working.

the end of a GREAT trip

I didn't pick this photo because it has great color, light, composition, or all of those pretencious concepts people use just to say "hey!, that picture is PRETTY." I only wanted to show it because of what it represents: the end of one of the best summers of my life.
The image shows me and my two best friends of Santiago, at the Chilean Altiplano, coming back from La Paz to Iquique. We were imposibly tired, dirty and poorly feeded, but absolutly happy; the only regret we had was having to return.
The photo was taken by a chilean man who came in the bus with us, he had been traveling too, so we were talking and playing cards with a bolivian girl. After passing the frontier at Lago Chungará, the bus stoped in a diner in the middle of the desert, obviously we didn't have money to eat there, but we had some cookies and tea, so we sitted outside to watch that amazing sunset.

Surfing anthrpology

It's not easy to find a good internet site about social/cultural anthropology. There are some fine ones about anthropologists, and one every other blog that is fun to read without being absolutely crazy or simply a joke. But one of the pages I rescue is www.azapa.org/.
This page is actualy chilean, and some of the profesors and old sutents of our university write there, like Daniel González and Daniel Quiroz. Even though the aproach of azapa is a little too ethnographic and descriptive for my taste, I recognise that it has some really good texts by chilean antropologists and it also has a little online library where you can find very interesting texts from foreigner writers (anthropologists theme selfs or not) that we can relate with our discipline and that there are not very known for the common student.
I can´t say that I visite it a lot, but once in a while (once every other month) I like to pay a visit to see what's new, some times I take very nice surprices.

My favourite piece of technology

So, this week is about my favourite piece of technology.
After thinking about it for a while I realised that it has to be my computer, it's a HP notebook and I've had it for three years. It was a gift from my mom and dad for the crhistmas of 2006; I was never "the technologycal tipe"... never cared much about the newest celphones, or mp3 players. Really, I only care for things to be functional and easy to manipulate, but the pc was necesary 'cause I was moving to Santiago and it would have been very awkward to bring my old, heavy computer from Antofagasta with me.
In general I use my pc in home, I have it in my room and work on it in my bed, but some times I take it to the university or to my friend's houses, 'cause is easyer to emprove the use of time if I have all the information with me. I can honestly say that life would be much harder if I didn't had it, because everything I just sayd and also 'cause I keep all my music, photos, some movies and college documents in it. That's the reason I like it so much too.

Things I do while not-studyng

I can't say that this is the kind of activity that I enjoy doing on my free time, in fact,I kind of hate writing about me, my family, friends or the things I like or dislike where people I don't really know can see them... But being fear, this is not really my free time, this first post is homework and at this exact time I should be reading Habermas or working in my Ecionomyc Anthropology's paper, so I'm kind of thankfull for the distraction.

Anyways, the first post was suposed to be about my best friend, and there she is; in the photo. Her name is Pamela (I call her "negra") and lives in Antofagasta (where I'm from). We went to higschool toguether and we've been inseparable since then; we share a history charched with music, books, movies, laughs and tears (I don't really talk like this, but I'm running out of ideas... I said that I hate writing this things). Because I'm studyng away from home, I only see her on hollydays, but we try to make the most of the time we have; the photo is from last summer, on a beach called Punta Itata, where Pamela has a summer house.

I hope this was enough and wasn't really that borring and that I didn't complained too much,until next post.
Camila.