Students' strike in defense of public education

In the last days the students of my faculty and other faculties from the university went into a strike in defnese of public tertiary education, which is seriously threatened by the new politics of financiation proposed by the ministry of education, in line withe the right-winged government spirit.


The situation is, more or less, this: actual direct financiation given to public universities by the government , wich reproduces the responsibility of financing education from the government to the people, is in this way to extintion because of a change from this direct fund to a “performance agreement” wich is a financing instrument in which all universities, public and private, compete for funds according to its performance (for example, infraestructure). So the gov disassociate of its responsability of securing public education, ina very simbolic and material way.

Students are demonstrating, with this strike, their will of mantain a public and state owned education, against the privatization that probably would occur in public universities in their struggle to accquire those “performance agreements” ( is well known that we are in disadvantage in terms of infrastructure compared to private universities). We, in the end, are defending the historic spirit of public education in this country instead of a market-regulated education.

I really agree with this strike, is the only way students can make an impact on public opinion in order to make people conscious of this conflict. Whilst more students are in this demonsttrations, more the people will know about this situation and take part on this. So, let’s the strike have its voice and let’s listen to the demands, because this is an issue of major importance for the future of the education of all of us.

Ashes and Snow

There is something I am sure about, and I can assure you that is true, it’s that all the animals we share with in this earth have the same capacity that we have to feel and communicate, within them and with us. This becomes absolutely clear when you see “Ashes and Snow”.
Ashes and Snow is many things at the same time, is a project, a movie, an exhibition, a book, a nomadic museum turning around the globe. I chose this exhibition for two reasons: i haven’t seen it, and you must know it. What I did see was the movie about it, a short documentary that is part of the exhibition.

I talked about animals and communication because that’s what the exhibition is about: the ilimited possibilities of humans and animals to share, and all the relationships we can establish with them. All that was transformed into immensely beautiful art expressions condensed in this “nomadic museum” as it’s called, that has visited some cities around the world, including Venice, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City and will soon be in Sao Paulo. This exhibition is the result of many years of travels and works made by Gregory Colbert, an artist and cinematographer, who was pushed by the desire of show what his experience told him about animals and humans together. The result of this is a movie, a book, many shortfilms and lots of photographies showing different kind of relations between humans and animals , especially with elephants.
I have not gone to the exhibition, but just the movie i saw was enough to say this is one of the most magnificent art expressions I’ve ever seen. I really really hope the nomadic museum comes to Chile some day and all of you can enjoy this admirable work made with love and poetry.
I leave you some images of this work for you tu see it and make your own opinion about it.

"In exploring the language and poetic sensibilities shared by all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that has no beginning or end, here or there, past or present"

(Gregory Colbert)

"Whales do not sing because they have an answer,

They sing because they have a song"

(Gregory Colbert)

"Ever since my house bourn down I see the moon more clearly"

(Gregory Colbert)

"We and them are the same"

Lost in Kiribati

Hi all, this is the first post i’ll make for my english class blog,


It’s meant to be about any interesting or exciting thing i would like to do and ‘ve never done before, and, wow, thousands of things come to my mind! Could it be jumping from a bridge? Or sailing across the oceans? Maybe go to the moon? Climb the Aconcagua? Dive in a coral reef full of sharks? Hmm... i really don’t know which of those choose, so, while i think about just One thing to write about, i’ll edit my blog. See you in some minutes...

...minutes later...

Well, here i am again, and i finally decided to write about one adventure i’ve been dreaming on for a while, it started when i saw a program about a group of very special islands, atolls to be precise, that are part of a tiny republic lost in the pacific ocean called Kiribati.

This group of atolls, called the “southern line” islands, are home to one of the most fascinating coral reefs in the world, not because of its size but for its diversity. In this program i saw, a group of scientists of many areas made an expedition in which they discovered the healthiest coral reef ever seen, in which the number of large predators as sharks were larger in number than the fishes they eat, but misteriously the food chain was really healthy, and abundance was manifested everywhere! The images underwater were just amazing. Also, in the islands, thereis a dense vegetation that represents the largest and most intact forests of its kind in the pacific polynesia, even when in one of the islands there were made atomic essays during a lot of years.

The point in all this, is that the exciting thing i would like to do is to go there, not only because i love to travel, also because i love nature. Imagine the long voyage to reach the islands, maybe weeks in the sea, then arrive there and camp just under the big trees, and then the final experience: dive under the sea seeing lots of coloured fishes, colorful coral formations, marine caves, turtles, and of course , many sharks. How difficult it would be to reach that place? Well..REALLY difficult, and also let’s add that i don’t know how to dive. But there’s also a space for dreaming no? And who knows...maybe in some time i’ll send you a postcard from Kiribati. And of course i think i’m good at doing this kind of things..i have the desire to do it, what else could you need? Hmm...money!

The important thing is to have a dream, and work to reach it. My first step in this: learn to dive!

See you in the next post.

P.S: I found this page about the islands, if you want to take a look: http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/explore/pristine-seas/southern-line-islands/

-one of the many atolls in the "southern line" -