English language Challenges

For me it is very difficult to speak English. I think the methodology at university English is not very good because at the end of the course you are not an expert English speaker. However, the use of the blog is very useful because this way you can practice your English writing and at the same time helps you to read better in English

One aspect that is I need improve is my writing in English. My plan to improve this is to practice and practice, namely I keep trying to write in English because is the only way to improve my writing. Another aspect that should improve is read in English. I can hardly read English, is one of my great frustrations. It is one of my biggest problems in life and will remain an obstacle but improved. Also to improve my English in general I will do an English course this summer

Outside of classes in general English usage to read my university teaching materials because all readings are in English. So much use outside the English class.

First term: good and bad points

I learned many things in the last term. It was very hard because I had two difficult courses: Etnología Andina and Prehistoria del Norte Grande. I spent many hours studying and had a lot of stress. But after finishing those courses I felt like I knew better what it was to be an archaeologist.
It was also very important because I took two decisions concerning sports, which is an important subject in my life: i quitted Capoeira and the basketball team of my campus. It was a good decision, because it gave me time to think about what I wanted to do.
There were many challenges in my personal life, but they were not that bad at all. I think they helped me to know myself better.
The only thing I regret is that the student movement was not that active during that time. But I guess it will come back with much more energy next year!

A foreing country

My Future Job

I would work for lifeguards. WHAT’S INVOLVED?

The job of a lifeguard is to keep swimmers safe. This means providing general first aid, saving people from drowning, ensuring the safety of the pool area and its water (if you’re working in a swimming pool), and stopping any dangerous behaviour. You’ll be required to keep a close eye on everything that’s going on, and make judgements about anything you might consider hazardous or unsafe.

If you like to work with people then you’ll get to meet and greet hundreds by working as a lifeguard. The job can be flexible too, so you can work in the day while the kids are at school, or at nights or weekends to earn some extra cash on top of your full-time job. Also, there is a possibility of promotion, and career progression.

However, there will always be silly people making your job difficult, diving where they shouldn’t and breaking pool rules. You’ll have to deal with these people calmly and responsibly. You have to keep a watchful eye on what’s going on at all times, you can’t just quickly nip out to the shop. If someone’s in danger they’ll need your immediate assistance.

There are two types of lifeguard:

• A swimming pool lifeguard – who would be employed by a leisure centre, private club, local authority, hotel or holiday centre.
• A beach lifeguard – who would be employed by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

Unless you live right by the sea, you’re likely to be working in a swimming pool environment. Even if you do live right by the sea, there’s not much call for beach lifeguards in the winter months so it’s a good idea to get in with the local swimming pools anyway.

I am a strong swimmer and physically fit. Don’t even think of doing this if you can’t swim!

Mapuche student leader’s arrest a disgrace

Tuesday, 07 February 2012 18:06

Written by Brittany Peterson

Whether it was police carelessness or intentional, any human deserves better treatment.

José Ancalao, spokesperson for the Federation of Mapuche Students and member of CONFECH, suffered a broken nose when police arrested him in early January after trying to speak with the officers violently arresting a fellow Mapuche at a protest in Temuco. The protest, held on the fourth anniversary of the murder of Matías Catrileo, saw a total of 16 arrests, including Catrileo’s mother and sister.

"I only went toward [the police] when they detained Diego Saldivia Mankilef. I didn't even insult them when they started to hit me and say 'Talk now, Indian, you piece of shit,' and other allusions to my position as a student leader," said Ancalao.

If found guilty of public disruption at his trial on Feb. 14, he faces a possible 341-day prison sentence.

With this incident and the pending trial, the Chilean government is clearly confusing, perhaps intentionally, its self-preservation with pursuit of justice. When a government fears losing its power or influence, it kicks into survival mode to fight off any imminent threat. This is a basic form of self-preservation. As the Sebastián Piñera administration faces power threats inherent in many legitimate demands by the Mapuche and student movements, it employs the token undemocratic response of actively oppressing, in many forms, these movements and their leaders.

It is this threat to its power that moves a country’s police force to violently arrest young people. While Ancalao has recovered from the relatively minor injury, the most unsettling part is that the police brutality toward this young man came as no surprise for several reasons.

The Mapuche activists have regularly been targeted as terrorists under Chile’s Anti-terrorism Law N°18.314, often receiving unduly harsh punishments. While the law initially applied to a few cases of arson over the last decade, it is now being used to target important Mapuche leaders.

Additionally, the demonstration that took place on Jan. 4 was unauthorized. As we have witnessed in unauthorized demonstrations associated with the student movement, this means police can get away with arresting anyone who even slightly gets in their way. In an act of peaceful civil disobedience, a few protesters hung a banner from the roof of City Hall to demand justice for the 2008 murder of Catrileo by a Chilean police officer. The officer, Walter Ramírez, was granted impunity by the Supreme Court in December 2011. Although Ancalao, who was not actually on the roof, acknowledged attempting to peacefully intervene with police officers in the street outside of City Hall as the protesters were arrested, police apparently considered his effort to converse with them a crime.

Finally, Ancalao’s unwarranted arrest comes as little surprise when considering his important role in the student movement that swept across Chile in 2011. There appears to be little disagreement among government officials about the influence of Ancalao, his Mapuche and student peers, their well-researched and rational arguments, and their influence upon the majority of Chileans. This past year, the student movement effectively called into question key laws, political institutions, and the neoliberal economic model that has allowed Chile the social and economic stability that made it South America's first OECD nation in 2010.

Clearly, the government is concerned.

The same day as Ancalao’s arrest, Camila Vallejo tweeted, "Chile continues abusing its power to repress all social fighters. Strength, Ancalao."

The world is replete with examples of governments, both democratic and non-democratic, that have deployed a heavy-handed police force as a means to defend the government’s interests and its supporters. The countries of the Arab Spring plus Greece, England, the U.S., and others have seen this story play out again and again. Yet in democratic nations, it is the responsibility of the people to speak out and yell “shame!” to their representatives who use any tactic--be it aggressive or playing deaf--to repress a social movement.

I am not Chilean. I am a grateful immigrant trying to build a life and a career for myself here. The responsibility is yours, queridos Chilenos, to say “basta!” and to support those who support peace and justice.

While we hope for the best, if Ancalao is found guilty of public disorder on Feb. 14, I invite you to join me in calling la Moneda and peacefully taking to the streets to show our intolerance for such unjust actions.

By Brittany Peterson (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2011 – The Santiago Times

http://www.santiagotimes.cl/opinion/op-ed/23373-mapuche-student-leaders-arrest-a-disgrace

About Discrimination

Discrimination is commonly defined as any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Discrimination lies at the root of many of the world’s pressing human rights issues and no country is immune from it.
Direct discrimination is a little bit different: Direct discrimination is when a person treats, or proposes to treat, someone with a protected personal characteristic unfavourably because of that personal characteristic. Direct discrimination often happens because people make unfair assumptions about what people with certain personal characteristics can and cannot do.
People discriminate out of ignorance and Selfishness, because they don't think about how it would make other people feel to behave like that. In some cases, discrimination even makes discriminators fell better.

Changing discriminative behaviour is about providing for everyone's needs when planning care (such as wheelchair access, meals for vegetarians, information in other languages etc.). But the first thing to do to transforme discrimination into tolerance has a lot to do with the way people relate to some social problems: for example, many people discriminate peruvians in Santiago because they are said to 'take the jobs a chilean would make for more money'. In that and in many other cases, it´s about informing people the source of the problem - unemployment, in the example - is not in the discriminated people, but on a structural problem.

Here are some practical things each one of us can do.

- Help people who are treated badly because they are different.

- Tell people what it is like to have a disability.

- Make friends with people who are different.

- Try to understand people who are different.

 

HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

I think people don’t learn environmentally friendly practices. I think that, as well as values, people acquire these practices. You have to grow up with these knowledge of taking care of the environment: only like that you get concerned about the environment in your house, with your family, or your closest community. School helps at it only if it teaches you new techniques to help the environment such as different ways of recycling; but you don't become environmentally friendly there. Personally, I didn’t have the chance to learn these techniques at school but I got to learn them on the internet or TV programs. 
The problem about recycling, now that I have mentioned it, is that the recycling service is only available to a few people. Only rich parts of our city have the propper places where to easily deposit you garbage; in my commune there are almost no such things (and if there is one, there's no way to know where it is or how to get there), and my garden is not big enough to have a compost place. I also live to far away of the university, so I can´t walk or use the bycicle to get there.
So the thing, for me, is to be concious that being environmentally friendly has a lot to do with social segregation.

The reasons exposed above explain why I haven´t supported any eco-organisations. I don'd have money to give to them, and I don´t trust such big institutions.

I think there are many good projects that are developed in some places in my city that do not depend on the local government or NGOs. Once I find one, I'll certainly contribute to it.
People in Santiago should do the same.

Regards!