Bicentenary full of inequalities

In the year of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, here in Latin-American we’re also celebrating something. Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and some others countries have their Bicentenary. But in this Bicentenary we’ve to look to our past and see how these 200 years are full of inequalities that we can’t be proud. Let’s talk about Chile.
In the first moment of ours independence we got lead for the criollos, aristocracy’s members that have their fortunes and their victories with the sweat and blood of the mestizos who where considerer like a service class. And who governed later? Of course, the criollos. Then these very same criollos “pacified” the Mapuche’s territory and, also, let the British capitals get in Chile, at the niter’s stations exploiting and controlling even the government. Throughout the XXº century, the aristocracy (with the new bourgeoisie) still dominates the popular majority.
In these days of Bicentenary we can still watch the inequalities in Chile. In the moment of the empanadas y anticuchos, miners of the north were trap because of the horrible conditions that they work. And even we can look at the stores in the malls, and see how the treatments that a lot of worker received are. Also some Mapuches were in a hunger strike because of a law that treats them like terrorists. At the same time, you can see a lot of rich people having long and relaxing vacations, even thought are happening lots of serious problems.
In my view, these facts show us how inequals are we. In these 200 years we can see how are we‘re treating ourselves. This idea of unificated nation that the Bicentenary tries to sell us, works just for a few percent of the populations that doesn’t have problems of discrimination, bad labour conditions, etc. We can’t be proud of a Chile that shows the inequalities like something normal, and that we have to hide.

Mass media opportunity

I would like to be wealthy, not because of the money itself but the things I could do with it. I think I’d be contradictory because I’d use that money to encourage the idea of “no money”.
Usually the wealthy people get rich abusing some other people. The powerful people get money in that way. If you have “a lot” of money means that other has “less” money. I’d try to break that vicious circle, exactly, using that money to make the people reflect about that problem.
I’d use the money to get a mass media and spread a “group against the money”. It would be very strange in a mass media. In those all the messages encourage you to spend money and get more and more.
The capitalism system that we are now treats us as consumers, and not like people. That means that all we see has a price and almost all you can get if you got money. But all this stuff is made because there is someone working and sweating for some boss, and getting badly paid. And there you have: poverty and unfair domination.
How do you get to the people today? Through mass media.
I think that would be a great step to something better and one of the few ways to use the money in something interesting.
That vicious circle is disgusting in these days that you have the possibility to get everywhere in the world, and it’s awful that the mass media doesn’t get that message today.

En el San Agustín

All my education was in San Agustín School, a very religious one, but fortunately the priests don’t do classes. They only celebrate the mass.
This is a private school, very expensive, where I got a scholarship; it’s very famous for giving a community education. More than the academic classes, what last the most are the moments you share with yours classmates.
In high school, the subjects Filosofía y Lenguaje were my favorite, because of the teachers. Both of them were great and understanding teachers that did the classes in a hard and funny way. Matemáticas and Historia were tremendous subjects; they made me think a lot, and later they were my new favorite subjects. In spite of this, the use of technology wasn’t pretty advanced (movies and things like that).
These good experiences made me realize that I needed to continue my studies in a career that complements all these areas. I’m a person with a lot of interests in very different areas of the knowledge, so Sociology it’s the right career.
To improve the education I’d maintain the focus in the community, Historia and Filosofía that are very important areas in human life and let you get closer the understanding of what you do. In that perspective I think that the person is very important in the education. These areas are like tools that let you go deep in the knowledge and give all the importance to yourself, your context and what you do with the other persons. It’s like we were focusing the education in the life itself.
To sum up, we can say that the human it’s the center in the education, so more that see the knowledge like something estrange, the education have to show and give the connection with ourselves.

Antidepressant reboxetine no better than a placebo, study finds today

The study comes from the German Institute of Quality and Efficiency in Health Care. They’ve discovered that a famous and highly recommended antidepressant in the UK isn’t more effective than a placebo, even it could have dangerous consequences to the human health.
Scientists of the British Medical Journal said that Pfizer (Edronax's producer, the reboxetine pill) had hidden kind of the 74% of the test of the medicament, and just show to the market the 36% left, only the positive’s results!
In the US this medicament got denied the license in 2001 and Robert Steinbrook, an American scientific, tries to explain the situation.

"Companies have financial interests in the outcome of the studies they sponsor; they own the data, and set the rules for access to the data. Unfortunately, they cannot be relied on to consistently provide dispassionate evaluations of their own drugs and medical devices."

Also he supposed that some Scientifics and doctors may have financial links with Pfizer and the companies who distribute it
This situation can be useful to a sociologist as an example of the bad intentional collusion of the big enterprises and gives it the enough information to doubt about what a scientist says. They’re not angelical y pure people.
Read more...

Well, I’m not a real film buff and I don’t have a specific movie who has stolen my heart either. But don’t you think that is because I don’t enjoy seeing movies, actually I’ve seen a lot of this, but no one that I can say “this is the one!” .
I usually remember the movies because the situations and the people that had accompanied me on those moments and the things I had done after or before them, although every film let me something.
One that I keep in mind very good is Inglourious Basterds, a film of Quentin Tarantino, that I saw this summer (I think). Not a great movie, in fact the main actor is awful (you know what I mean, is Brad Pitt) in spite of the play of Christoph Waltz and the script who lumbered in some parts of the film.
The movie tells two parallel stories: 1) Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) – a rude soldier- and a bunch of American Jewish soldiers who during the WW2 generate a special command in Europe with one only mission “kill Nazis” and 2) the life of Shoshana (Mélanie Laurent) who is a French Jewish girl persecuted by the Nazis. The stories get together when both planned two different plots to assesinate the same target in the same moment: the Nazi political cupola (Christoph Waltz is a SS general in charge of the security of them).
Of course is a total fiction movie and, as every Tarantino one, it’s full of blood and more blood. However the thing that I liked and, in my view, is the most important in the film is that includes so much popular images (like Hitler, the WW2, the Holocaust, the revenge, etc.) who got totally broken and cause you a shock in your mind and thoughts. Your think in the first place “How does Tarantino playing with so much history like if it was some kid toy?” You are in a difficult situation; you don’t see that often movies, books and that kind of stuff who break so much regularities.
My favorite part is at the end, when Hitler and the Nazis are killed, is a part where you can think and reflect about the real meaning of fiction and history. You start to realize how much importance you give to things that are represented in a movie and how do you take those emotional concepts and deal with those during your life.
To sum up we can say that Inglourious Basterds isn’t a regular movie, have some shocking images, a very deep message and a tremendous space in blank to reflect about yourself and your environment way beyond the blood and screams during the film. Those are the main reasons about my choice.
I may change the actors, some of them aren’t very good.

A failed coup d'etat

Yesterday, September 30°, in Ecuador some police officers upraised against the government because of a new law that makes more difficult and longer the inside promotion. They occupied the “Regimiento Quito”, the most important police station in front of the Carondelet’s Palace (seat of government and official residence of the president Correa). This surprising situation shocks this country in the middle of the world during the morning.
President Correa went to the epicenter of the chaos trying to talk to the police. Is there when he received the support and subordination of de National Army and a few minutes later the police used the tear gas against him and Correa is held by them in the Police Hospital.
In that moment the government started to talk about a coup d’état, the army went out to the streets trying to get the order back. The president, inside the hospital, declared exception’s state.
At night the soldiers went to the hospital to rescue the president in a violent operation, where a special force police died, but the president was successfully rescued.
This kind of news are terrible familiar in Latin America’s history, the latest in Honduras and all the others countries, included Chile of course, makes almost everybody in this continent involved against these unfair uprisings.
Here we noticed ours weak democracies and how we are in the hands of the ones with the guns. In Ecuador almost died a president and the all nation was in the side of a real coup d’état.
I really would like to hear that the all Latin-American people reject this kind of uprisings that go against all that these weak democracies had barely constructed. I hope that the Ecuadorians find a peacefully solution to this awful problem.

If you had already came...

If I met a foreign tourist, I'd invite him to know a few places in Santiago that I know and that I like. I don't like the typical places or the most famous very much, but I think you can't say that you have visited Santiago without visiting the center. Knowing its pollution, its people in a rush and its "completos" in the streets let you have an approach to a certain type of life, typical of the big cities.
I'd invite him to know east side of Santiago, putting emphasis on Lo Barnechea, a very assorted income family municipality, where you have the richest people in Chile right next to the poorest ones. There's also a place going up to the Andes with beautiful landscape and with great trees.
I'd go with him to the "Barrio Yungay" and trough the Matucana street visiting all the cultural places in there "Matucana 100", "Museo de la memoria", "La Quinta Normal", la "Biblioteca de Santiago", etc. There's a popular place that have a interesting history, let you know the old Santiago.
Well, then we would go to know the “metro” and the famous “transantiago”. Those have been very characteristic of Santiago in the last time.
To finish we would go to have some parties in Santiago's Night, but only if he pays because of the prices, the drinks and the tickets are very expensive! Well, if we were where we usually party, we wouldn’t pay too much, but I’m sure that he would be a serious tourist and he wouldn’t want to go there.
It's difficult to imagine another interesting place in Santiago!

Bonjour a tout le monde

I’d like to visit France. Well, a near reason is that my mother is living in there at this moment; she went there a few months ago and would be nice if I see her.
But the bigger reasons go beyond this. Almost all my family lived there, my sister was born there, but I’ve never put a foot on there. I had born here in Chile. I have uncles, cousins, friends and my grandmother living there. I’ve always wanted to go and know France, I heard a lot of it. If I have to choose, in this moment I’d like to go to France.
But if it was for studies I wouldn’t have any problem going any country, I thought that if I went to a place I would learn a lot. Every country has something to show and something to discover.
What I’ve heard about France is that is a very mixed country, you have very different cultures living in the same city, different ways of live that is difficult to find.
Well, if I went to France I’d visits all my family and friends there, I’d walk along the streets, go to pubs and look for a job. Having a good time and sick it with what I study will be great

first term finished

Well, my first term was very good, terrible faster. Was my first semester in university, I’d pass all my courses and I’d start to know more about sociology. I’d realized that I knew almost nothing about it, but now I’m handling with it.
A bad thing that happened was that I stopped to do sports. I usually played basketball, but when I get into the university rhythm I couldn’t keep with it. I’m fatter, but I don’t care very much.
About friends I’ve to recognize that was a estrange semester, I stopped seeing some friends because of the times, but I knew a lot of new people who studied with me and from others parts. A lot of changes occurred during the last months, included in my family, where my mother went to France for a work in May and stills there. There she has a good and establish job and she’s living with his brother who hadn’t see in a long time. My sister in her side finished his Art degree and started to work in the Catholic University has a teacher’s assistant and in a project of art intervention in the Villa Portales.
We can say that was a pretty moved term in all the ways but the sportive one.

Beri gud? VERY GOOD

I never had a blog before and never had to write that much in English. Mostly I refilled some incomplete texts or alternative questions during my English class in school. The times that I wrote in English were when I wrote to my aunt who lives in France.
I really enjoy learning languages so I tried to take advantage of this opportunity. Writing in a different language it's a challenge that let you increase your vocabulary and create a new kind of relationship with the online dictionary Word Reference.
I can't deny that some days was really tedious this constant work, furthermore I remember one day that I fell asleep in front of the screen. Nothing but tiredness of the sociology lectures that I have Tuesday morning.
But all that effort was worthy. The most of the words that I knew before blogging were learned by ear and when I started to write I realized that I didn't knew how to write those. So I started to use the named dictionary. That’s how now I feel more secure writing word like "awesome", "throughout time" and "judges".
I my view the main advantage of blogging in English class is that you can practice two stuff: the English itself and how to order your ideas independent of the language.
I think that if you start to worry more of the order of what your write, that the words that you use, it's the reflex of that you've learn something important, you've make a big step. And that's how it had work for me. I'm not saying that now I'm a British Knight or something similar. I've just noticed that now I can write with more confidence, and when I compare my English and my French (I'm learning too, but I've just started this year) I feel very pleased with my manage of this useful language.
To sum up I'd like to emphasize that writing in blogs during these English classes let me go in an area that I had never gave importance, but now I realized that if you want to learn a language you have to manage it in all aspects, and now I'll improve this one in the next semester and I hope that will allow me to have "more than intermediate" manage of English.

Under Construction

When I was in school I thought that I would be a teacher, but then I realized that maybe in sociology I could find a different way to approach to education in general.
After that I figured that sociology opens you a hug variety of areas to work with. Not only education, there was health, work, market and plain of others. What you like to do would be (in theory) in what you’ll work. Once realized that, I thought that would be better if I go deeper in others areas before choice one.
Thinking that is how I came in this university. On these days I had the possibility to make a social research and with my team decided to make it about education. Pretty good experience.
In my view, education is one of the most important things in the society, through it we transfer our knowledge, culture and the basic tools to manage in the society and life. Being part of it, studying or working on it I fell that I’ll be pleased.
I see myself teaching in a university, doing researches with a bunch of others sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, teachers, historicists, artists, and some others looking for build a better-complete education, from different angles and perspectives. That would be something awesome, hardly to do, but I believe in interdisciplinary and I think it’s applicable to education.
Or working in schools, doing policies and making advises looking for a education egalitarian for all.
But these are possibilities, I’m not sure about where I’ll work, I like some others areas too, that makes me difficult to keep one in a 100% of certainty. I hope that I’ll know more about others areas, and then decide.
Now I just hope that I’ll work like a sociologist, throughout time I’ll know more.

This is a GREAT picture, not because the quality or for who took it, I really don't remember who was, but in this case it's not important.
There I'm with two friends (I'm the one on the left) playing Jesus Christ Superstar for the "Alliances" of my school, I was rolling Caiaphas, in the center was Judas and next to him was Annas. Well I'm not going to explain all the play because the important it's what it represented.
Was taken last year, and it remember me all the hard work that we made to get up that play (wasn't picked by me), the longs rehearsals and what we shared with my school mates.
Was so funny right before it started, everybody was running around all nervous. Finally all was OK, I think it was great, we couldn't make it better, but the judges didn't think like that and we didn't win that activity. But what knows the judges the others ones were awful.
We didn't win the "Alliances" either... But I got a lot of memories and pictures too.

Location stereotypes

If we look around the faculty we'll see some characteristics different and some in common on the people who study here. And because of the few months that I've been in FACSo I can't point out a lot of stereotypes and I can't tell you about all that we saw last class(I don't really know about all of them).
Two that I've noticed, and the first ones to be shown since my first class, are the urbans and the rurals.
The urbans are all the people who lived in Santiago before the start of the academic year, they are the biggest in number and they usually emphasize the differences with the rurals.
The rurals are the ones who came from outside Santiago (it don't mind if they're from north or south, they're equal), they stand out of the urbans with them local phrases or even local accent and a kind of unknowledge of main streets of Santiago and subway. The urban at first time (this stereotypes dissapear with the pass of the years) involuntarily laugh with the special characteristics of the rural. These differences are totally normal once you start the degree, if the urbans went to a new city, they would be just like a rural guy.
I think that I'll, while I'll be adding up experiences and knowledge of FACSo stuff throughout time, be able to write more details about them.
These most be the first visible stereotypes in daily universitary life.

Listening to my little piece of technology

Because I've never live near my education establishment and since a lot of time I've to travel more than an hour on a bus or subway, I anxiously needed some kind of entertainment during the long trip.
I used to use a little radio with earphones but half of the trip I was undergrounded so the radio signal couldn't got caught. So it didn't cover all the function that was assigned to.
But that was until I received a mail from an uncle who lives in France where he told me that he wanted to gave me a present for this Christmas (last one). He made me the complex question "what would you like?" so I had to think deeply and then I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to change my old and big radio.
I answer him if he could give me a MP4 or something like that (anything but a heavy radio with earphones). Then he said "OK, wait until your grandmother travel to Chile and you'll see".
Well she brought me the long waited present. It was a 4 GB Sony MP4.
My life changed from that moment when I could listening to my music everywhere (on the subway, on a bus going out from Santiago, etc., watch videos, see pictures and even listening to the radio station in a high quality.
Now I go on the bus and the subway with more happiness, I even noticed that the trip is shorter and I can focus more in what I read on my way to Uni.
What more can I say... the battery last like 5 days and the MP4 fits everywhere I want to put it.
I love it!
And all thanks to my French uncle and his good intentions.
I think if you have to travel a lot, you'll understand the importance of this kind of hearing aid.

Waterfalls and Caipirinha!

Clear sea, hot beaches and my high school classmates, what a nice combination.

In 2008 January my class and I had our study trip in high school. We went to Brazil for 10 days and we were like 30 people. We worked trough all 2007 collecting money to pay the cost of the trip.
Of course we didn't collect enough money to pay everyone's ticket, so we shared out what we have with our classmates who had the biggest economic problems.
In Brazil we went to Camboriú, a seaside city with amazing beaches and a humid weather. We had parties every night and we knew there the famous "Caipirinha", obviously I didn't drink a drop. During the day we visited some historic and some entertainment places of the city.
After a few days we went to another fantastic place: Foz do Iguaçu. There we visited the rainforest (actually almost everywhere in that city is a tropical rainforest) and the Iguazú waterfalls (an amazing experience, just look at the picture and you'll nearly understand).
This falls was truly the best of the trip. You look at them and you start to fell a mix of respect, fear, love and a lot of other feelings. Something wonderful.
There we stayed for two more days and we get back to Santiago. I remember on that day I slept like 24 hours on a row. The trip let me really tired, but it was worthy.
One of the better trips that I've had.

U-Cursos???!!!

Well, it's my first year at the university and I really don't use a lot of websites for studying. But there's a website that I use, not specifically about sociology but it makes me easier the organization for all my subjects. This site is U-Cursos.
At the beggining I was very uncomfortable with the system, but it was because I didn't know how to use it very well.
If you didn't know U-Cursos was created by engineers of the University of Chile for making a database, calendar and a comunication system for the Beauchef Campus and the students in there. Later it was spread and extended to all the students of the University since the good results.
U-cursos have been growing troughout time. Now they have a calendar, a forums system, a space to be in touch with the teachers and classmates, another to share documents, to write a blog and even check your e-mail.
The problem that I see it's that not all the teachers here in "Sociales" use the system because they have their own website (Moodle). Actually it's been a bit annoying to change every time from one site to another.
Anyway I have to say that U-cursos have been a very useful website and I'm going to take the opportunity to recomend it.

What a earthquake!

Fortunately i was in my home. I just got sleep when I felt the starting tremor and I thought "Fuck! I hate to be awake like this", then this little quake became a "super" earthquake and I got up immediatly. When I got to the doorframe I saw my parents coming trough the kitchen door (they sleep in a room outside). I ran to get with them and we stayed at the doorframe of the kitchen. We saw our van move one side to another like a horrible dance. In the meanwhile my mother remembered my sister who was on the beach with some friends. She started to cry.
The earthquake stopped and I went to find my Mp4 looking for some radio station which were broadcasting at that moment. I listened to Radio Cooperativa and then I hear that the epicenter was to the south (my sister was to the north, so we were more calm for that).
My house resisted pretty good the earthquake, some stuff fell down, but nothing important. We talked to my sister a few hours later. Just in that moment we could fall sleep again.
After that we didn't have electricity for 5 days, during that I went to the houses of some friends to recharge my mobile phone and my Mp4.
When we recovered the electricity I saw at facebook that the FECh (Federation of Students of the University of Chile) was recruiting people to help the real victims of the earthquake, so I went there looking to do something helpful.
I went to Paine one day to recolect rubble and others days I traveled trough the streets of Santiago collecting money to send to the south.
On those days I realize that the poor Town Halls couldn't make anything useful, we saw them overloaded and trying to do something useful, but they couldn't cover all the damages. This made me notice that the poor Town Halls can't do pretty much by themselves. They needed (and need) a huge "hand" from the State to be useful.
This is a son of the inequality that we live everyday here in Chile.
What a earthquake!

meee

I'm Matías Flores and I'm studying Sociology. This is my first year at university and so far it's has been good.
I like to play basketball, eat a lot and sleep long hours.
I'm also learning french at university, but I'm going just as a lintener because they don't give me the chance to take for real, as a CFG (N).
Also I hope that this blog help me at my english.