Reflectification

I know I said that I’d be posting more frequently, but the truth is that things have been fairly slow lately. I’ve been looking for a job and in all likelihood should have something very soon. Other than that, I have to admit that I’ve been fairly lazy. Here’s what the view from my window looks like right now though.

Interestingly enough the whole country of Chile has somehow become significantly more interesting of late as to compensate for my recent regression into lameness. Last week there were some pretty intense riots due to the anniversary of the murder of some university students here in Santiago by Pinochet’s regime back in 1985. This day has been called ¨The Day of the Young Combatant” by protesters ever since and every year it is marked by large protests. At least this year there were a few riots and a fair amount of destruction in some areas.

From what I saw on the news it was pretty out of control and the amount of violence used by some of the protesters was certainly excessive, which is disappointing. That being said, governments in general have a tendency to to exaggerate the violence that is committed by protesters and and paint the entire group protesting as being violent when usually these acts are only committed by a minority of the people present, whom incidentally are always labeled as anarchists whether they are or aren’t.

A good example of exactly this sort of thing happened on that day when the police invaded the University of Chile (one of the most prestigious of Latin America) and confiscated what they said were bomb-making materials and machetes that they said were to be used against the police. This was all over the news for the entire day and from the video footage that they showed it was pretty clear to me that they just went into the chemistry lab and took some bottles of chemicals. Indeed, the university dean came out and said that this was indeed exactly what they were and that the machetes were used by an African dance troop. This still didn’t stop the media from endlessly showing this all day long. From my perspective it was clear that there was a serious attempt by the media and the government to villainize the protesters and create an atmosphere of fear among the ordinary people here.

Keep in mind that this is in a country with a left-of-center “socialist” government. It is this case though there is still a lot hanging over from the military government of Pinochet. It’s easy to forget sometimes that it wasn’t that long ago that Pinochet was still head of the military and Constitutional senator for life.

This is the military hospital here in Santiago where he died last December, managing to evade conviction for any crimes until his death. There were large protests when this happened as well, though a sizable crowd showed up outside this hospital to express their grief and support for the ex-dictator. I happened to be spending that entire day on a bus riding from the North of Chile to Santiago.

I would like to continue with this but am pressed for time. I should be reintroducing this topic in the future, however.

Here from left to right is Me, my roommates Chechi and Blanca, and Javier about to go eat some great food at a Colombian restaurant here in Santiago.

This is seaweed and some other stuff that is commonly eaten by vegetarians here. Oddly enough, I’ve managed to be here in Chile for two months as a vegetarian without trying any. I’m sure that will change at some point.

One of the many churches in the city.

This is Edificio Consorcio, which is near where my TEFL school was. I’m typically not a fan of all glass building but I really like the plants growing all over it.

This is Edificio Telefónica here in Santiago. It’s for the moment the second tallest tower here in Santiago and as you can see it looks like a giant cell phone. I don’t particularly like it, but it seems to be a matter of pride for many who live here. Probably it will be eclipsed by the following building once it’s completed.

Through this glass covered in graffiti you can see where they are building a skyscraper which will be the tallest building in South America when it’s competed. It’s going to be called the Costañera Center, I believe.

This is the Law School of the University of Chile. Above it you can see Cerro San Cristobal and the statue of the Virgin Mary at the top. There is a elevator that takes you up the side of the hill where of course there are some really amazing views. One of these days when we have good visibility I’ll go up there and take a bunch of photos for all of you.

This is a mural I really like on the Rio Mapocho. Santiago doesn’t have murals like Valparaíso does, but this one makes up for that a little.

A view down Avenida Bernardo O ´Higgins. The tower there is la Torre Entel.

Here is downtown Santiago. Note that this is what people call the downtown and is the historic center of the city but is not the downtown as we commonly think of it in the United States. The financial district with lots of towers actually extends for a couple of miles and the heart of it is quite a ways from here in Providencia and Las Condes.

Sorry that this was pretty brief but I’m in a bit of a hurry. I also wanted to include in the post some stuff on the Iraq war and the current involvement of many former Chilean soldiers there, but I’m really short on time and will have to bring it up later.

I’m really exited right now since I’ll be heading to the South in just a few hours. We’re going to be staying at a farm that I stopped at on my previous trip, which is beautiful to the point of being idyllic. I Promise to take a lot of pictures and post soon after returning. Hope everyone reading this has a good weekend.