For the People & Chilenos who LOVE Chile.

thelokosaid:

Salvador Allende.

obstaclespecialist:

Paul Banks by Sally0Cinnamon on Flickr.

And if you still weren’t sure if you wanted to be the Chilean flag.

You are now convinced.

lindsayfendt:

Student Protest: A Lesson in Cultural Differences

Last month I covered a student protest for my internship with the Santiago Times.  The protest was for a number of reasons but primarily due to what the students deemed to be an inadequate response by the government in helping students affected by the earthquake along with a recent price hike in student metro fees.  

I followed the 3,000 or so protestors through the streets of Santiago for the entire day, did a few interviews, and took some photos.  It all seemed pretty standard until we got to the plaza where the final speeches took place.  A few student representatives got up and said a few words and then told everyone the protest was over and to go home.

I was on stage waiting to interview the head of the protest when a fight broke out down below.  Soon everyone was rioting and the guy I was supposed to interview got whisked away into a car.  I stayed with the protest and took the above photos.  While I was dodging water cannons, tear gas and angry policemen I kept thinking that this would be all over the news stations later, but I came to find out that this is a fairly normal occurence in Santiago.

According to some of the students I interviewed later and my host mom, there is a massive riot that ends in police tear gassing and arresting people EVERY TIME THERE IS A PROTEST.  While the rioting was still going on a man in a business suit passed me and asked what the protest was about, when I told him he just rolled his eyes and said, “oh those students” as if it was no big deal that there was tear gas everywhere.

Now I know that I haven’t been alive during a time of great social upheaval, but I still think that if something of this magnitude were to happen in the U.S. it would have been a huge deal.  It wasn’t even covered on the nightly news.

I would link to my article but the Santiago Times has recently closed off certain parts of the site to non-suscribers.  If you’re interested in Chilean news in English I highly recommend getting a subscription!

Very interesting!

Beautiful picture taken by a tourist in Chile named Amanda of the mountains and majestically colored sky!