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.
lunes, 26 de octubre de 2009
lunes, 5 de octubre de 2009
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...
lunes, 28 de septiembre de 2009
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.
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.
lunes, 31 de agosto de 2009
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.
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.
lunes, 24 de agosto de 2009
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.
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.
lunes, 17 de agosto de 2009
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.
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.
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