Chilean pupils have been occupying their schools now for more than a week demanding free transit, free admission tests to the university, and a fundamental reform of the educational system. The latter is regulated by the LOCE, which was the last law enacted by the Pinochet government and seems to put profit over pupils. I have been really surprised how the high school students with an age of 15-17 years handle the current attention and pressure. They have put their demands on top of the national agenda with grass-roots decision making and smart behavior in relation to media and politics.
Today university students have joined them on a national day of strike. In Santiago this day was accompanied by a large-scale demonstration. I (now) think that such central marches tend to be kind of useless – yet i don’t blame the protestors for the violent and aggressive outcomes. Before we left i was told that the police has not allowed to walk in groups nor carry banners. Nevertheless i helped to carry for maybe ten minutes a bag full of food supplies for occupied schools that was collected by students of the engineering faculty of the university of chile.
On the Alameda – the largest street in Santiago – i have seen how the police has provoked demonstrators and i have seen protestors turn irrational, as well. If activists are letting themselves in on those street fights i think they are choosing the wrong path. Another world will not be created with stones, bottles, and molotov cocktails. I think it would be smarter if activists would be scattered all around the city and country – ironically, as the police demanded. Spatially distributed protests can still be connected via telephone and internet. Protest activities should not only be limited to marching down streets. Seminars and workshops open to general public could put the discourse on a real-life level. This would mean that even more people would not only see the filtered images on television but could get in contact with the movement for real.
In the last days it became obvious that the people are with the students and not with politicians that are busy laying the blame on each other. The movement should now substantiate their demands and use the terrain – not on the Alameda but in the heads of the Chileans – to present an alternative model of education based on equality and emancipation instead of profit and exploitation. Therefore i think it is unwise to turn the students movement into a great mayday gathering with all the destruction included. Media, state, and capital are just waiting for more broken glass to denounce the movement.
Seit einigen Tagen höre ich mir die Lieder von Víctor Jara an und nehme die Aufbruchstimmung von vor mehr als 30 Jahren auf, als er den Wahlkampf der Unidad Popular unterstützte und mithalf, dass Salvador Allende 1970 erster demokratisch gewählter Präsident der Welt kommunistischer Gesinnung wurde. Jaras Lieder sind politisch, romantisch und nach heutigen Maszstäben wohl minimalistisch. Am 11. September 1973 wurde Allende geputscht und Jara mit vielen anderen Menschen im Estadio Chile gefoltert und fünf Tage später getötet. Das Stadium wurde 2003 – 13 Jahre nach Ende der Diktatur Pinochets – nach ihm umbenannt. Nun wurde der mutmaszliche Möder aufgedeckt, der als Funktionär im Arbeitsministerium arbeitet/e. Während die Aufarbeitung der Diktatur in Chile nur schleppend und leise voranschreitet, ist die Bestürzung in manchen Teilen der Bevölkerung grosz, dass der Mörder Víctor Jaras unbeachtet sein Gehalt vom Staat erhält.
PS: Vielen Dank an Bubi der mich indirekt auf das Audio Player Plugin für Wordpress hingewiesen hat, welches mittels einem kleinen flashbasierten MP3-player dem werten Zuhörer eine elegante Möglichkeit gibt, in den Podcast reinzuhören.
Update vom 30. Mai
Die MP3-Datei war nicht vollständig hochgeladen, was dazu führte, dass ich mitten im Satz verstumme. Dieser Mangel ist nun behoben.
Hooray for growing your own veggies, fruits, and flowers while building community by doing it with your friends and neighbors. In North America there seems to be a whole movement of community gardening going on that is very interesting to watch and inspires to do it, too. My good compañero Stan based in South Dakota is engaged in it just like many others environmentally and politically conscious people.
Community gardening is not only about getting cheaper and better food. It gets you literally into touch with mother earth and teaches you about seasonal nutrition. Even though the Food Coop in Magdeburg is not necessarily – or maybe just not yet – a community garden I have learned a lot about food and think more conscious about food now. Here in Santiago i haven’t found a food or garden collective yet, but i haven’t looked investigated thoroughly yet.
I learnd via dh love life a charming green video podcast about the South Central Farmers a Los Angeles based community garden that is active for 14 years. Its contract is expiring and it is threatened to be bulldozered and replaced by a big box. I’m sending love and hope that they continue their work.
Trotz regemäszig hoher Ozon-/Smogwerte muss für eine Bewusstseinsänderung in Bezug auf das Auto auf die Straße gegangen oder eben geradelt werden. Rekapitulation einer kleinen Fahrraddemo in Santiago.
Aktuelles aus Presse und Fernsehen: Mapuches im Hungerstreik. Atenco, Mexiko. Schwerer Busunfall. Schulen besetzt. Erste Regierungserklärung Bachelets. Demonstration. Kälte.
Today i have purchased stamps to be prepared when the urge hits me to write some lines with pen on paper home or elsewhere. I have no problem with stamps featuring the International Women’s Day. Quite the opposite, actually. But how could i’ve known that the Chilean Ministry of Defense uses this opportunity to hail women in uniform. When i saw the stamps i asked whether they also had other stamps, but the friendly cashier of the Chilean Mail (”Correos”) declined. So if anybody receives a postcard with uniformed women on the stamps, please apologize.
Appropriation is not just limited to software. In a Simpsons episode appropriation for and of architecture is shown: first, the famous architect Frank Gehrig is turning rumpled paper into a concert hall. Second, unrespectful skateboarders “mis-use” its curves (via).
Considering appropriation of built architecture as turning the use of public space upside down, a vast basket of urban activities during the recent years and decades pops up: Parkour, Graffiti/Streetart, Culture Jamming, and Critical Mass – to name a few. A growing number of people seek to challenge the existing mode of living and moving in the city. They don’t do this just because it is fun, but also do this as an act of resistance.
Looking at the motorized and concreted Santiago many types appropriation can be seen. Last Sunday i was biking around in Santiago and encountered quite a big gathering of skateboarders in front of the Moneda. They were asking the president for skateboarding parks where they could show and improve their skills. Upcoming Saturday there will be a big bicyclists manifestation in Santiago with the motto Compartamos la ciudad (let’s share the city). And then their are very practical appropriations of land and buildings, e.g. the Casa OkupArte AKÍ.
Appropriation is everywhere. It is organically questioning from the bottom what is dictated from the above. It shapes democratically what should have been democratically in the first place. Furthermore it has the effect that it either makes the professionials – architects, politicians, designers, programmers, …. – angry or – which is even better – think.
Giancarlo De Carlo once said: “In reality architecture is too important to be left to architects.”
Chilean pupils have been occupying their schools now for more than a week demanding free transit, free admission tests to the university, and a fundamental reform of the educational system. The latter is regulated by the LOCE, which was the last law enacted by the Pinochet government and seems to put profit over pupils. I have been really surprised how the high school students with an age of 15-17 years handle the current attention and pressure. They have put their demands on top of the national agenda with grass-roots decision making and smart behavior in relation to media and politics.
Seit einigen Tagen höre ich mir die Lieder von Víctor Jara an und nehme die Aufbruchstimmung von vor mehr als 30 Jahren auf, als er den Wahlkampf der Unidad Popular unterstützte und mithalf, dass Salvador Allende 1970 erster demokratisch gewählter Präsident der Welt kommunistischer Gesinnung wurde. Jaras Lieder sind politisch, romantisch und nach heutigen Maszstäben wohl minimalistisch. Am 11. September 1973 wurde Allende geputscht und Jara mit vielen anderen Menschen im Estadio Chile gefoltert und fünf Tage später getötet. Das Stadium wurde 2003 – 13 Jahre nach Ende der Diktatur Pinochets – nach ihm umbenannt. Nun wurde der mutmaszliche Möder aufgedeckt, der als Funktionär im Arbeitsministerium arbeitet/e. Während die Aufarbeitung der Diktatur in Chile nur schleppend und leise voranschreitet, ist die Bestürzung in manchen Teilen der Bevölkerung grosz, dass der Mörder Víctor Jaras unbeachtet sein Gehalt vom Staat erhält.
