Goodbye teacher!

(Published originally in I love Chile)

Few have noticed the announcement by the minister of education about alternatives to end the school year. Two of them are well known: to study elsewhere where the schools are not on strike or to be assimilated into other schools. Both have many practical shortcomings, but the third, which encourages students to take final exams as independent students, is revolutionary and can give a tremendous boost to home schooling in Chile.

The ministry of education started the website, Yo Estudio, with content for students to prepare for their final exams by themselves; this option has always existed, but has never been supported, directly or indirectly, by any government. This is the first time in our history that a government explicitly supports home study and independent examinations, not merely passively but actively by delivering online content for students to prepare for their exams.

Many will look askance at this initiative and will think that the future academic performance of those students will be less than those who go into the classroom; it remains to be seen, especially when comparing results with the municipal education. It could be a big surprise.

Chile pioneered many revolutionary ideas in the eighties: pension reform; flat taxes; new mining and water rights, and so on. This is the first really good idea to be implemented that I have seen in thirty years. I hope the protests of the municipal schools will continue indefinitely as it would lead to a massive number of students moving away from dependence on poor teachers and take over for themselves for the first time in their education. I think the massive support for homeschooling could make a Copernican shift in the Chilean educational system.

What about universities? Well, for many of the old professors all they do with their computer is read e-mail. They are unlikely to develop distance learning content, because they come to lectures with yellowed pieces of paper from the era in which they studied. But if there is a corporate policy from universities to support distance learning many courses could be saved. It seems clear to me that neither the rectors nor the professors from state universities would like the idea. They chose the path of least resistance and maximum gain many years ago, and there is nothing for them out of this.

When I went to study at the University of Tarapaca, in 1978, they had just removed a pedagogical experiment that proved disastrous in the teaching of engineering, called the "Keller Plan" or system of personalized instruction, where instruction is divided into modules with goals to achieve, similar to the current skills education.

In the Keller Plan students were not going to classes, but rather, received huge piles of notes and exercise guides to learn on their own with the help of assistant instructors. When students felt safe they asked to take the exam. Keller popularized his system with a book entitled “Goodbye Teacher!” Well, the title says it all.

The Keller Plan failed due to poor implementation: in the late seventies there were not even photocopiers and paper notes were mimeographed, while computers or internet were the stuff of science fiction. The professors had no experience in preparing the material properly, and "study notes" were mere copies of the textbook where, in engineering, are characterized by murky language that is difficult to understand without help from someone who knows.

And what of the students? As they were not obliged to attend classes, and they were asked when they felt ready to take exams, they simply spent their time at parties and drinking, never feeling ready to take any damn test. I do not remember having met a single mate who approved a course with the Keller Plan, during the only year the experiment was implemented.

Many might think that now the same thing will happen and set an example that shows the poor results so far of distance learning. I do not agree. First of all the technology that exists today to learn is light years ahead from that of those years. With the Internet we have at a click the world's most comprehensive libraries. The dream of the Library of Alexandria today is a reality. Any place with an Internet connection has more resources and content than the best library ever. Also the Internet is readily available, at least in most of Chile.

Preparing the courses is not a big deal now that the Internet is full of courses from the most prestigious universities in the world. The teacher now has only to find, choose, cut and paste. Prepare classes today is easier than ever before because not even the greatest sage has more knowledge than what is now available online.

And again the students: are they as devoted to parties and drinking as in my good-old-days? Perhaps at first, because they have been trained like monkeys in standard classrooms, forced to listen silently to their boring teachers from their early childhood, and never being asked to think on their own.

Also we have to realize that children today are already accustomed to learning on their own. Every day there are more kids in Chile learning to read and write in English if only to communicate and participate in forums or chat with their fellows in that language. I'm pretty sure that, at least in the learning of English, the prospect of getting to say goodbye to the teacher it is accomplished.

There are things that seem bad but over time can achieve good results. The student strike may be the beginning of the true solution to many of the problems with education in Chile, and perhaps the teachers, without realizing it, are digging their own graves. I hope so. We will have to wait to see what happens.

Ollanta In A Nutshell

Ollanta Humala took office as the President of Peru in the middle of a cloud of doubts felt not only by his country fellow citizens, but by the international community as well; less than two years ago, he was a hard-line leftist. Now, one of the most important questions is if he will become an ally of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and, if he does, how far will he align to Chavez’ internationalism. Some time ago, he declared that the only way he would visit the Chilean city of Arica –on the other side of the border between Peru and Chile, would be only if he were riding a tank, making a reference to his desire to invade and reclaim Arica, the city that Peru lost to Chile in the 1879 War.

In 2008, while I was visiting Mazuko -a remote town in the Peruvian Amazon- a group of Humala’s supporters showed up in town wearing clothes that looked a lot like military uniforms. They gathered in public places calling attention to their nationalistic vision and selling “The Ollanta”, a self promoting newspaper. Although attendance to their public meetings was minimal, they told me they had been travelling through small and isolated villages for years.

The family of Ollanta Humala is quite unique, even under Peru’s standards, where the bizarre is normal. His father, Isaac, leads an ethno-national movement, graphically represented by symbols disturbingly similar to those of the Nazis. His brother, Antauro, attempted two coup d´etats, and is now in jail for the death of a policeman during the last coup d’etat. Currently, the Supreme Court is studying an appeal to commute his 25 years sentence for house arrest.

The arrival of Humala to the presidency of Peru follows the traditional and famous unpredictability of that country, where “nothing is impossible”, as a famous Peruvian saying goes. An example of this unpredictability was his dramatic conversion from a left-nationalist into a moderate social democrat just a few months before the presidential election; this allowed him to become the president. All of this is known history; what is yet more important is to be able to predict Humala’s actions in order to anticipate what kind of president will he be, as well as the results for the Peruvian economy and its international relations.

Inside Peru, Humala faces strong pressure to raise taxes to big corporations, and to increase public spending. This pressure will add up creating an intricate problem-mesh that will become more dense and difficult to solve as it grows in size, in the long term. However, from a political perspective, the same circumstance may benefit him on a day-to-day basis because he was elected under the premise of distribute the wealth to the poor taking money from corporations, this is a mandatory obligation he has to fullfill. (Necesitas explicar el porque dices la ultima frase –en rojo- porque no se puede afirmar una generalidad, en un paper, sin explicar la razon).

Currenty, Peru is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and perhaps is better suited than most to withstand a time of crisis due its rich natural resources as gold, whose demand increases in time of crisis and coca crops who are fairly is independent on world economic situation. Even in worst situations as the late 80s terrorism crisis, informal economy in Peru has remained strong and healty. (lo mismo que mas arriba, necesitas citar numeros o algo que concrete tu idea, en forma breve).. But the Peruvian electorate is fickle and demanding, and to maintain his popularity, Humala will be obliged to approve policies that will curb down investment and impoverish the country’s treasury.

With Ollanta the formal economy probably will slow, but much of the wealth of Peru is informal, as the production of gold and cocaine, two products that can withstand any financial crash, which independence on large investors and immune to any government policies .

In My view, the Ollanta Humala is an ambitious, intelligent, adaptable and very realistic guy. I do not think he held rigid principles, nor a fanatic willing to perish himself for a cause. He has always behaved strategic driven by objectives instead principles, that is how he became President. Its main objective is power, and he will do everything necessary to maintain its domestic popularity to sustain his own power. That is why I guess he likely will maintain a distant relationship with Chavez, if it perceives too involved can hurt his political image. He will almost certainly buy weapons and equipment for the Peruvian Armed Forces, in large quantities, because Peru is rather weak nowadays. It is also almost certain that frictions and hostile statements occur frequently between Peruvian and Chilean officers, because that brings profit to any politician in Peru and Ollanta Peruvian will need lots of popularity. However as he is a realistic politician, the most likely is that all dissolves only in bitter statements, war or skirmish is virtually impossible in the region.

I think that great times are coming for Peru, mostly for the informal economy and probably the official figures for growth and foreign investment will slow down and things will worse for big corporations compared with the years past. Anyway in Peru, “everything is possible” as is one of the more difficult places to make predictions in the world.

Why Students and Teachers are Striking in Chile

(Published originally at http://brophyworld.com)

In 1981, Chile changed the educational system, big time. This structural reform was aimed at decentralization, more competition, ending entry barriers and cost efficiency. Teachers were no longer civil servants of the Ministry of Education. Municipal education bureaus were created for primary and secondary schools, which had to compete with private schools receiving the same government grants for each student served. It also opened the possibility of creating new private universities with few requirements and state universities had to compete with them under conditions of self-financing.

The system gave interesting results, but was far from perfect, because some of the designed institutions barely met the efficiency requirements that they were expected to achieve. The biggest failure was municipal education because municipalities have been chronically inefficient in managing primary and high schools. Every year they lost enrollment, compared with private subsidized schools that are also free. When a school looks dirty, dilapidated with broken glass, and on strike, it will most likely be administered by a municipality.

Nevertheless, the reform also brought great advantages over the old system centralized in the Ministry of Education. In 1981 there were 8 universities in Chile and only 2 out of 10 secondary school graduates could enter university. There are now 179 higher education institutions: 59 universities, 43 professional institutes and 77 technical training centers, and 5 out of 10 graduates now entering middle school to a university. The old dream of “college for all”, the revolutionary slogan in 1967, was fulfilled in the most unexpected way: the private way.

After the military rule, during the 18 years of center-left governments, Chile did not attempt to change the reforms introduced in 1981. On the contrary, the system of subsidies was strengthened, and although they closed the door to the creation of new private colleges, they maintained the principle of self-funded state universities that compete on equal terms with private ones.

As I recall, since the return to democracy in 1990, each year there have been two major strikes in Chile: the public employees and students are as predictable as rain in winter. Strikes are sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker, but it is rare to spend a year without two strikes. Behind the strikes of students is always the claim to re-nationalize education, which is in the corporate interest of the teachers who want to go back to being public servants. It also eliminates competition from private education that is killing them. Students are only the instruments, as they are always ready to go on strike for any reason as long as they miss classes. It is a well established Chilean tradition.

Full education coverage has succeeded with primary 99.7% enrollment and 87.7% secondary education enrollment. However, It has had the paradoxical effect that completing secondary education now is not valuable for finding a job. Several studies have shown that there is little advantage to having a high school diploma. In the future, as university education comes to the masses, it is likely that professional qualifications will also start to lose value.

The problem comes when politicians began to assert the theory that if education was a tool to improve income, making it general could achieve greater social equality. This concept of egalitarian education led to higher levels of demand, and now to have a professional degree does not distinguish someone for their expertise. Education as a tool for egalitarianism is a contradiction since it does not take into account that people educate to differentiate themselves from others, not to be equal to them.

In Chile today, almost all our young people have completed secondary education and this does not qualify them at all to earn a living. Almost half are admitted to college, and as the demands are relatively low, many leave with diplomas, but without special skills needed to make a living. They also have to pay or borrow for a quite expensive education because of waste in state universities or the race for the prestigious private schools. Having finally obtained a diploma, this doesn’t make any difference because everyone gets one, even stupid people. If we add all these conditions, plus the corporate interests of the teachers, who dream of going back to being public servants not having to compete with more efficient private teachers, explains why each year, with the same regularity as the rainfall, Chile has a student and teachers strike.

From Arica to Santiago overland

I just take a long long ride, driving from Arica, my town, to Santiago , 2050 Km. away down south.

Two and half days driving, two days in Santiago and then come back to Arica, It was crazy but I had made the same trip many times ago so It was not so hard to me. If you want to see some of our crazy geography and my adventures clic here to see the pics I made along my trip.

North of Chile is not a "nice" place, as a typical touristic expects. It is incredilbly dry, arid, wild and desolate. Humans fell dwarf in front of the huge nature. There are small mining tonws and many ghost towns along the way to Antofagasta, then miles and miles of "nada" just desert and desolation up Copiapó. Then landscape turns gradually green and thing are at a human scale again. There is a shocking contrast between the giant desierto and the civilized Zona Central

Kabloom!

Bombings on London's transport system filled news media around the world passing time after time the same images and similar comments. In practical terms, this huge media coverage just help to terror purposes. I bet that in London has died more than 40 peoople in a day due traffic accidents, if they would have paid the same media coverage, surely people would be much more carefully driving. But bombings sell, and serve to political purposes also.

So that is the way on the public opinion, feed by TV and pollitically correct comments, develop an irrational fear, starting from the most coward and most impresionable people. Terror aims to cowards, those that are easily shocked and impressed with the image of death or suffering and media coverage is special to spread fear and insecurity among those people.

The goal of terror actions is mostly psicological, even the biggest strikes are neglictible compared with any conventional military attack but it is aimed to spread the fear among the cowards. There is no need bravery to plant some bombs, explode them remotely and then run, it is an action made by and aimed to cowards, but I think that british people is not easily amedrented, propably the effect will be oposed than those the terrorist wished.

Anyway all we must die some day and, if I could choose I surely prefer to die in a blasting instead of a long, dirty and expemsive illnes. In my view is a nice way to die, maybe that is why the bombings do not impress nor scare me, nothing at all.

The trap of a confortable life

Time ago I met a guy which I met in the eigthies, when I was poor. He rented a bigger room than mine and worked as mailman, I remember him about my age, married with a big woman and his finances was far better than mine; paycheck assured every month with no problem to finance room and food, much more than I obtained with sporadic jobs (when I can get one).

Well, the fact is that he recognized me inmediatly, for me was hard to recognize him, he seemed a very old man with holes instead of front theets, he explained me that he was working as junior, cleaning and carrying cases in a shipment office. He was very impressed to see me driving my own car and I cannot convince him that I was not into drug traffiking, for him it was no other logical explanation for Mr. "zero pesos" that he met in the eigthies now had a car to drive, and a truck also.

This made me think how lucky -at least in fiancial terms- I was since those hard times, It is true that I live now with few money but my economic progress was amazing: years ago no one gave a cent for my future, my natural place in this word was -with luck- to be a mailman or a junior same as my friend, working hard like a trained monkey for a couple of bucks every month. Now I see all those people which I lived in the eighties and all of them are in the same misery as before.

I was thinking that if I would followed the commonsense to look for security today I woud be the same, or worse, than they. Thanks God I never considered look for security.

So, if some young people who is starting his own figth for existence is reading that I will give him this good advice for free: never look for a confortable life, this is the worst trap. If you like take it, if not leave it.

To live with style

I was reading the Steve Jobs speech to Stanford graduates, thinking that surely those words will be very popular in the future. Every certain time an impressive speech or piece of writing appears amazing people and remaining as inspiration for years to come.

This happened with Churchill speechs, the Macarthur farewell, Luther King, Lincoln and many others in the past. Now Steve Jobs with simple and clear words talked to graduates about his own story, his shinning times and cloudly times.

As most of motivational adress Jobs told a lot of obvious things, so obvious that we rarely are aware of them: the importance to do which we like most, to be able to stand up after the fall, how important may sometimes become some insignificat things as calligraph, and the onminous reality of our death.

But besides to be a good piece of text, which I liked most of the speech was the fact that Jobs itself cannot be considered as a winner in the traditional sense. He does a lot of bad moves and mistakes, under his first ruling Apple was close to bankrupt and most of his long term strategy finally was far from good.

Compared with Gates, Steve Jobs achievements are not so impressing, however he has always exited the imagination of people and has harvested consistently a lot enthusiatic followers. Steve Jobs is a happy guy with a great ability to transmit enthusiasm. He is a real champion despite the fact that Bill Gates has defeated him, same as Muhammad Ali was still the champion after Foreman made it bit the dust after broking his jaw.

So ¿what is my moral?, I think that the achievemnts are not the esential, any asshole with a little luck -or some skill- may obtain a big achievement, but to live with style and be consistent with your own beliefs is a very different matter. Not any asshole can do that, no way.

Politically incorrect

 I´m aware that may be not pollitically correct to say that, but what is the idea behind Creative Commons licences? Okay, I understand that people who earn their living writing may be afraid to be copied their valuable work, but It seems to me hilarious that blogs like mine and yours claim for a sort of "license". Maybe bestsellers like Tom Clancy or Isabel Allende may be interested to "protect" (and I doubt they can do it) their writings, there are extreme cases like J. P. Salinger, if you even write his name you are in danger to be sued, however every Salinger book that I had read, I had obtaines in the web, illegally, of course.

So what is the purpose to claim certain "rigths" on the trivialities that we write daily in blogs? I think that those ideas only strenght among common people the ideology from the big editorials and entertainment industry: that people has sort of natural rigths on every single thing that they can write, or sing or whatever.

But the Internet spirit has been always opposite, freedom to copy for masses, even being illegal. I said at first, may sound pollitically incorrect to endorse something ilegal, but is the reality. Slavery was also legal in the past and when we live under dictatorship here in Chile, we experienced many unfair or stupid laws, may we obbey blindly even stupid laws?.

The strongest support of any law is the punish: without trials and jails very few laws would survive and, as long as technology allow to broke laws with no practical consecuences, people will begin to disrespect them. Frankly speaking I had no guilt sentiment infracting copyrigth laws. So, acording with this idea I wrote my own:

"Not so Creative and Uncommon License

The contents of this weblog are not protected under any kind of licence, so please fell free to copy (just as I does) anything you wish. However in sake of basic good manners I kindly advise you to mention the source, if not you are exposed to receive the old curse from my gipsy ancestors, you surely will catch AIDS and may every tooth will fall apart from your mounth!"

Which I added to my blogs to unprotect them from any of my hipotetical copyrigths<

Karma NOW!

For those who love mechanics (like I do) surely will understand my feelings when I heard the big crunch in the rear axle of my truck followed by onminous sounds of iron pieces falling apart as long as I acelerated, the dices are trowed I say to myself, and continued driving up to my home with the axis noising as close to explode.

So, me and my neighbor who is a skilled mechanic openned the case to see what had happened, well: the morons who adapted a new rear axis left loose the nuts which support the assamblage so they crashed. "Cheap things cost a lot" states a popular saying, it is true. You can find very cheap labour here, but you must be very luky to find the rigth man. So I am almost one month with the truck broken and praising will not have the need to tow my trailer!

To move myself meantime I find a "new" (second hand really) rear axis I had to invoke the Gods of mechanics and repaired my old and stroked Mitsubishi Colt 81, which now runs nice except I have no papers for this car , hope no policeman stop me because I will have to give a lot of explanations.

Anyway, I love mechanic works so I will got some fun making the fixes, but anyway I wish the stupid mechanic which left loose the bolts loose their theets, one by one, same as my truck, I demand for karma now!

I feel the earth move under my feets

A strong 7.8 Richter earthquake shacked our city, the neighbor Iquique and several small towns lost in the middle of Desierto de Atacama, it was pretty deep (about 100 km.) so their effect was mild in both cities, however catastrofic in the villages near the epicentre, with 80 to 90 percent houses falled down.

I feel sad about Huara, a small village with clay houses where I used to stop frecuently when I traveled trough the desert between Arica and Iquique, I had developed a sort of romance with this tiny town since time ago, when my truck broked in the middle of nowere and I was oblied to spend a couple of days there while the fixing process was made (nedless to say, towing broken cars is the biggest buz in Huara: in the middle of desert you will barely bargain prices). Those days I discovered the way of life of people living in a tiny, sunny and bored town year after year, I made some friends there and -as I said before- I tried to stop there everytime I can. I cannot remember better siestas in my life other than I slepp in the cementery, near the town, in the most impressing silence.

Well, most of Huara has falled down, nothing to do except to remember how lovely it was. Anyway this quake is not the big one which we are waiting for since 1877, but it serves us to be prepared in a sort of excercise, when el grande comes we will be accustomed.

You liar, you! (mentiroso nomás)

Not long ago I was chatting with Tilman Mager my german friend, and he told me about his dissapointment with a guy which rarely honored their words: the guy said to Tilman "okay, see you then, tomorrow at 6 PM" and the next day nothing happens, "well, today at noon without fail" and again nothing. Tilman claimed how often people here in Arica say "A" and then do "B", he feel that as a disrespect, even an insult, which make loss time and money and difficult to make any kind of deal here.

Otherwise we are always a little shocked about the excesive literally from gringos, their lack of understanding on the understatement, which sometimes appears to us like a sort of rudeness, they seems unable to catch those ironic jokes, so popular between us, when we say the opposite that we meant.

I remembered many years ago when I used to work with Casio Computer and my japanese counteparts drove us mad with their flagrant "lies", when I finally was in Tokio and meet face to face to the japanesse executives I ask them directly "why you guys tell "yes" to all my askings and then you made the more convenience for yourself, doesn´t have you honor? ¿why do you speak so much about honor and loyalty and then shamelessy lie us?" and one of my japanese friends ask me "the problem my friend is that you, chileans are too uneducated; as long as you are my friend, when you ask me for something I never been so rude to say you "no", I always ask "yes" but this doesn´t mean "yes, I will do all your wishes", but "yes, I understand what you are asking me and I will take into account your point". At a first sigth this appeared insane and even rampant hipocresy to me, well, as time goes on this served me a lot to understand and negotiate with such people, it was simply their way to understand the courtesy.

Now many years has passed and I realize that we are similary liers and hypocrital to the eyes of gringos: we barely express our desagree openly, and many times prefer say "yes" and then simply do the most convenient for us as. Incredible but until I chat with Tilman I never realized before that we behave same like my japs friends.

Stray dogs (quiltros callejeros)

Stray dogs are everywere in Arica, same as in the most of latin american small to middle cities and tourists watch them with mixed feelings of pity, curiosity and fear. I simpathize with them, like most of people here wich feed and take some casual care on them. Unlike their well-feed-and-stressed home counterparts (domestic pets) they are free and independent like cats, go around with other colleages (union makes strong) and usually ingnore to people as people ignores them.

Some stray belong to specific places, in the beach where my trailer is parked, there are 3 strays, all of them mixed: one sort of siberyan (called "lobo"), other undefined mixed and the last is so weird that barely looks like a dog, has strange spots in their backs like a hyena. In the neighbor beach "El Laucho" used to live a stray whose passion was follow cars barking loudly to weels, first it loose one leg but never learn and up the last summer continues running and barking with their 3 legs, surely was cerashed because I have not see it since long time.

Other strays make strategic alliance with their human counterparts, beggers, wich sometimes are followed with an escort of 4 or 5 stray dogs, once again applies "union makes strong" and they share amicabily the fruits of public charity. From time to time public healt authorities start campaign of erradication trowing poisoned bait, obviously those campaigns are very unpopular and people wich work on this is usually received with stones in the poorest neigborhoods.

I feel sympatetic about strays and their love for freedom, they are oblied to develop sophisticated social skills to survive, the agressive or anthipatic ones tend to die young, and they seldom mess anybody, just want to live their life in peace, just like me.

Just someone to blame (alguien debe tener la culpa)

Here in Arica we are from the first row looking to the bolivian crisis. I see amazed the tons of rampant ignorance, demagogy and cheap rethoric used by politician and journalists to explain it. I think that one of the worst errors from the analysis is the racistic approach or their equivalent, the fight of classes approach.

The canonic explanation about Bolivia is that the country has an high percentage of quechua and aimara population, they are uneducated, easily cheated by populist leaders and -opposite to the "white" majority in the oriente they are living in starving during centuries, so, the riots and social unrest are just an expression of ancestral revindications which exploded since the Hugo Banzer rule.

This view is absolutly untrue; the quechua and aimara population tends to be underestimated due racist perjudices but they are in general extremely clever and hard workers, those cultures has a milenary background and extraordinary plasticity wich has allowed survived well and healty up to this modern times. Indeed in Bolivia those "coyas" (generic name to meant indians) are taking the economic power, specially in commerce and industry, since a long time, which provokes the long rivality with "cambas" (name of the wither people from orient provinces such as Santqa Cruz and Cochabamba). The big economic differences between La Paz and other altiplanic departments and the orientals as Santa Cruz and Cochabamba lies principally in the exceptional richness on natural resources of the oriente several orders of magnitude bigger than the famelic resources in the high plateau. However in the oriental provinces the big money is in hand of collas (indians) except for ancient aristocracies and new riches due drug traffic.

The traditional explanation is a fake told not only abroad, but also in the own Bolivia where the white upper classes are fiercing racists and full of anger against collas, and it is very useful also to cover the real reason of the actual crisis, which is pollitically incorrect to mention: the erradication of the coca crops during Banzers rule.

Bolivia is a big country with few people, about 8 million souls so any economic shock on some hundred of thousands people can be desvastating for the entire country. The former president Victor Paz Estenssoro, whose legacy of prosperity and stability lasted a record of over 15 years, which is a long time for bolivian standards, was rigth when not consent to the ask of USA goverment to eliminate the coca crops, he knows their people good enough to foreseen the social debacle which would follow this action. So, during those prosperity years the coca crops was absolutly legal and gives to farmers an estimate of US$ 600 million a year, free of taxes wich feed a long chain of industries and commerce not only in Bolivia but beyond, the free zone in Iquique (Chile) boomed based in those millions and also another millions bucks from Peru.

Not only the farmers but also a huge chain of people in many other activities made their living around the coca dollars; salesmen, transportists, importers, and industries of all kind was running with those money. I was in Bolivia several times in late 80s, when I run an import export in the free zone and the country was growing, prosperous and socially ordered. Never heard any claim against chileans or transnationals, people was busy earning his living and the country was steadily improving.

Just imagine if any of you folks was running during many years a profitable and legal crop in your farm, then, overnigth goverment declared that your cultive is illegal and fill your farm with poison wich makes impossible any other cultive in a soil wich per see only grows coca. ¿What all those people does?, ¿and their families and all the chain of people which used to earn their with related business?. At first they react with stupor, frozed, then they begun to leave their farms going to La Paz in search of a new starting. ¿Where they settle down? in El Alto which booming with hundred of thousands of people with nothing to do. Those people raise Evo Morales and Mamani to the power, those are decided to anything because they loose all, those are blocking roads and ask for "go out all the politicians"

It is not strange that those people was cheated by populist leaders, it is not the ignorance the reason they are mad against chileans, transnationals and they demand for gas expropiation despite this will surely bring more poverty. It is simply the stored anger for people who has lost their way of life overnigth, they uded to be prosperous and now they had nothing at all, they need someone to blame, that´s all.

Facts and fictions (verdades y mentiras)

Well, you will surely note that english is not my mother tongue and as long as I write this just to train my skills, you probably will find absurd sintax, words mispelled, and lot of things not easy to understand. My regrets in advance.

The place where I live (Arica, in the north border of Chile) is cheap, sunny all over the year and bored, I guess that there are similar places all over the world but I haven´t seen any yet and, in practrical terms, I consider it one of the best place in the world to live. I mention my hometown because It seem to me true that the town model the people ¿haven´t you ever seen a typical newyorker, so different from a guy from San Diego, a person from London different to other from Liverpool? people from Arica are also different from someone from -lets say- Santiago, we are lazy, slow, bon vivants and easy, certainly there are some few renegades, hard workers and so, but they usually don´t stand to live here for long and after a time they leave. So a sort of natural selection decants the laziness and the love for far niente in the city.

As long as I earn my life writing (not literature, sad to say, but investment projets; sort of bastard child of fiction) I spend main part of each day seated in front of my laptop, loosely surfing google (where I obtain 90% of my material for work) and writing trivia in some of my websites or in Usenet, which helps me to improve my redaction skills in spanish. This is of course the perfect excuse to disguise the lot of fun which I obtain doing almost nothing every day.

Well, well, well, I was able to write 3 complete parragraphs in english, not bad to be the first time, now I think I may take a rest, see you soon!