Adoption system in Chile

Watching the news a few weeks ago it caught my attention a very special reportage about an Italian couple that came to Chile to adopt, I’ll give you a little review of the story:

This couple arrived to Chile a couple of month ago because in Italy, the adoption system is extremely complicated and can take long to adopt, and they had some issues so the could not conceive (You should also know that he is Italian but she moved from Chile to Italy when they got married), so they decided to come here and adopt in a different way. Aside of this story there was a sex worker here in Chile who got pregnant with her 8th child, and as she could not afford raising the little girl, she decided to give her up, as she had done already with 6 other of her kids, instead of going through the conventional adoption system she decided to say that the kid was the Italian’s daughter, and so he should take her. The police found out and they are now facing a, in my opinion, extremely unfair trial, the girl was taken away from them for a couple of weeks and now they have her again to take care of. Yes, i admit it is true that they did not go the conventional way, but investigating I realized that the adoption system in Chile is extremely slow, the home for kids looking for parents are full and it is not because people don't want to adopt, it is because if you ask for a baby (they are the most requested because you can actually raise them) about 1 year old, you will probably get him/her, if you are lucky, by the age of 10, so .Is it really fair for this couple to be facing a trial for trying to give this little girl a safe home and life? Could you really blame them for trying to have a daughter when there is absolutely no law against what they did? what do you think? 

Free Education

Free education for all: It sounds nice! A slogan of struggle, probably very laudable... But. Is this really fair?

Let's think it on this way: A free education, by itself, isn´t really free. Someone, directly or indirectly must pay for it: The statement? Rich people? Each of us?

Let´s study this three posibilities:

1.The state funds: Chile is a country that has grown quite in the last years, but, is it able to fund a free education? The Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period (normally one year)and that is used as a measure of material well-being of a society, whereby, it is a good measure of comparison among countries. In 2010, Chile's GDP amounted to US$ 212.740.792.703. Some of the South American countries that has free education are: Argentina (GDP of US$ 368.736.062.144, considering that country has federal states), Brasil (GDP of US$ 2.087.889.553.822). Obviously, the GDP of those countries is higher than Chile's one. Now, to not enter into comparisons, How the treasury of Chile pay for free education?, By tax rises? Raising taxes, either to companies (First category) or to people (Global complementary, implies that who has to pay is the forgotten middle class, Why? We are go to see this on the second point. The State, by itself, isn't able to finance a free education for all, because, finally, it is going to transfer that cost, inversion, trouble or however you want to name it, to other by taxes. Is it fair? By a royalty to copper? That is to say, make foreign investment decrease because of a miner royalty for the education, so, this would imply that we running out of enough tecnology to exploit the copper. Is it the best solution? Considering that Chile, doesn't have enough tecnology capacity for the copper explotation, so the foreign investment is necesary. 2. Then, rich people: Is it fair let rich people finance the education? I mean, a tax rise to rich people. But, why someone who earns more money than the rest of the people has to pay their education? Now, if we rise the taxes to the companies, Who would ends paying for this?: Consumers. Companies, would rise their prices because they finally would seek for compensation. 3. And finally, every of us: As all we know, ordinary people can't pay the college. Rich people, probably can, but, the rest of the people, would can? Thinking on this three options, I think that a free education would can be fair only if it's not free for all. I believe strongly that free education must be for: 1) Who really needs it (poor people), funded by the State, discussing how to obtain resources, only for academic excellence people. 2)Middle class by bonuses (scholarships)and less hard credits, again, for academic excellence people; and 3) People who has money pay their education because they can do it.

What's really important in life, let's appreaciate good things

Aboriginal’s Dreamtime made me wonder, are we heading into a better world? Or are we leading to eventual destruction as aboriginals think? Are we valuating the right things?

My conclusion was that human being is getting everyday more selfish, money has become the most important thing in life, sometimes we estimate people according on how much money they have. Since we are born, we study to work, we work all our life to earn money, and that’s the only thing that seems to matter in life, MONEY, some people are capable to do anything in order to get more money, taking advantage of others, not caring their feelings or problems.

We have even destroyed the harmony, cycles and stations of our planet. For centuries human has overexploited the earth, digging gigantic holes in the earth or seafloor in order to get fuel for our cars, contaminating the air we breathe with factories, destroying other living things environment for our own benefit, only receiving and not giving anything back. Pretty selfish don’t you think?

Is it time for change? Is it time to re-evaluate what’s really important in life? Let’s live our lives the best way we can, let’s forgive, love, dance, laugh…  That’s why I want to share with you this great video about things that will make you appreciate life and reflect about how you’re living your life.

The sentence I liked the most of the video was “ENJOY THE POWER AND BEAUTY OF YOUR YOUTH, YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THE POWER AND BEAUTY OF YOUR YOUTH UNTIL IT FADES.”

“The man who has seriously begun to live on the inside, begins to live more simply on the outside.” Ernest Hemingway

“Men do not live together just because, but for large companies to undertake together.” José Ortega y Gasset

“Live within yourself and you wiil see how short is your wealth.” Aulo Persio

Never is too late

Never is too late
We've all heard about the global warming and "the end of the world". Those topics are pretty popular nowadays.
But, is that true? The world is really going to end soon?.
About the global warming, the temperature of the planet is rising considerably, that is a fact.


The truth is that we are the only creature on earth that destroys the natural balance. We are the cancer of the earth, and we have become in a threat to the planet and ourselves. We are destroying our home, our only home! and the worst part is that we are not even aware of that.
We have the ability to think, but that doesn't make us better. We just have to see the history of humankind: wars, deaths, abortion, hate, racism, terrorism, starvation, pollution, destruction, deforestation, arms, nuclear bombs; the animals are our little brothers and we don't treat them as they deserve, we kill each other, we are aborting, we forgot the importance and the meaning of life.
There's definitely something wrong with us.
The earth is dying, we are killing it!.
If this continues we will turn the planet into a hostile place to live.


But it's not too late too make a change! There are simple things that we can do to stop this.
For example, walk instead of using the car, recycle, save water and electricity, use alternative energy sources, plant a tree...
I know that I wrote Never is too late, but if we don't do something now, it might be.


I really like this video and I would like to share it with you, it's called Back to the start.

So what do you think? Could we get back to the start?.


We live in a beautiful, amazing and fascinating world, but we are too busy to see that.


                                                                                                      Jose Pinochet Garrido.

ABOUT RACISM ...

                                                         ABOUT RACISM

I was searching some videos about soccer on YouTube, when I found this video about racism in European soccer.

I got really surprised about it because many times we heard that the Europeans are evolved and stuff, but after seeing this video we can see that racism is steal present in our society.

We can’t generalize about all the Europeans and also we can’t say that racism is only present in Europe because is not.

This is only an example of discrimination, but in my opinion is really shocking that in XXI century some people steal have this way to think.

I think that is not a reason discriminate someone because of the color of their skin, to me is a crazy way to think because we are all humans with the same rights and obligation and if we want to live in peaceful world we most change this way to think.

To me is not a excuse do not respect someone only because is different I think that variety makes our world beautiful.

What do you think about this? Do you agree with makes difference with someone only because of the color of their skin?

BY MARIO ESPINOZA

why would I upload a boxing match here?

Today we had our first lesson about the civil rights movement in the USA, and for that purpose we were divided into smaller groups to read some chapters of a book and to talk about them during the class. In our group we got to read about some african-american athletes who indirectly proved that their race is not inferior than the white race through their sports performance. I'd like to talk you about the boxer Joe Louis, who was one of these sportsmen, in the attached video you can see his boxing match against the German boxer Max Schmeling in an era when the racial prejudices were really significative. This match was in 1938 and it was the second fight between these two contenders, in their first fight it was a defeat to Louis, but in this second fight he was the victor. I wanted to show you this video as I believe it proves that in sports, and in life, your own dedication and effort show more of who you really are than your race colour does.
Finally, I'd like to finish this post with a few questions: can you easily see who is the black guy and who is the white guy in this video? do they look that different? at least for me this was quite interesting, as even physically they don't look different at all in this kind of video.
I hope you enjoy this match, as much as I did.

By
Raúl Rodríguez

Rabbit Proof Fence The Movie

Rabbit Proof Fence The Movie

Clearly the movie we saw on Friday is one of the best movies I have seen in my life, emotional and realistic. those movies that give life lessons that are worth a thousand words, the message delivery is very emotional and is one of those movies that completely change the way we see things. This is one of those movies to which only you can make constructive criticism about the content.


By Cindy Toro Fuenzalida

Native Americans Wisdom-10 Indian Commandments

En las ultimas clases, hemos podido conocer algo mas sobre los pueblos aborígenes. A pesar que este video no es de Aborígenes Australianos, podemos darnos cuenta que muchos pueblos nativos tienen reglas similares de convivencia y creencias parecidas.
Hoy en día, a veces creemos ser mas "adelantados" por las casas que ocupamos , la forma en que comemos o el lenguaje que nos comunica. Pero sin duda, hemos dejado atrás "cosas" que nos permitían ser mejores y que estos pueblos practicaban. 
Tal vez, podemos encontrar un equilibrio en lo que llamamos civilización avanzada, esto es, seguir adelante en las cosas que creemos hemos conquistado, adquirido o descubierto, todo lo que hemos desarrollado. Pero sin dejar aquellas en que los antiguos habitantes nos superan. Como el respeto, la libertad en el buen sentido y la humildad de saber que somos parte del planeta y no los dueños.

Elizabeth is certainly one of the most famous English monarchs. Her life and reign have inspired many biographies, histories, and dramatic works. It's not only the history of one woman, the way she was perceived by her people and subsequent generations, but the history of literature, of art, of religion, and culture, for each generation writes its own history, and they write it according to their identifications of the world, their experiences and expectations.


The history of the reputation of Queen Elizabeth as a monarch and a woman, both during her life and after, consequently has the potential to yield a wealth of information about this mysterious, controversial historical figure, her age, and subsequent generations. 

To understand Elizabeth's popularity and success, it's maybe necessary to place her in cultural context. On reflection, it perhaps matters little if we in the 21th century consider Elizabeth to have been a successful monarch or not, but only the way she was viewed in her own lifetime, by her own people, who shared her cultural existence.

The Beatles: part of the small “c” culture or big “C” culture?

If we talk about The Beatles, surely the image of the four members of this musical group comes to our head and maybe will sound in our mind “Yesterday” or the melody of the harmonic of “Love me do”. But, The Beatles are just that?
For a lot of people, hear  the word “Beatles” goes beyond: it evokes the musical and stylistic legacy that made this group, it’s just look back and realize that The Beatles made music as important like religion or education.
Personally I think that The Beatles have marked a before and after in the music history and in general in the humanity history, because with their job they have changed the conservative vision of the world to a more liberal vision and have changed the way of thinking of society.
The Beatles, as a transcendental musical group through the world history, deserve be part of the big “C” culture, and the fact that drive this opinion, is the appreciation from the Queen Elizabeth II in 1965, when she said that The Beatles were part of members of the British Empire (MBI), recognition which it is granted only relevant people of the culture or to leading members of the English army
So, what do you think? The Beatles as part of the small “c” culture or part of the big “C” culture?

Entering to the USA through the back door.

Nowadays, the typical stage of illegal immigrations takes place at the border of the United States with Mexico, but the people who cross over the border are not only Mexicans, people from all different countries of Latin America seek for the chance to cross over to the USA for a better life quality or job opportunity.
The US government is in complete knowledge of this matter, in a way they encourage this because to them is an advantage to have people who will be willing to work for little money on those jobs that the American minorities did not want to take. It is a fact, the border line with Mexico is not enforced enough to stop people from crossing it over. To cover this up and to give the idea to US citizen that the government is taking care of stopping illegal immigration, they deport a certain amount of people a year.

As I said before, those people who have no chance to enter legally to the US and are tired of living in misery and poverty in their own country, seek for a new life, opportunities, health care, jobs and mostly a better education for their children.  These people are capable of doing everything to get to the US, such as Cubans and Dominicans cross the Caribbean Sea by small boats or, even in desperate cases, by swimming. There is a song called ‘’ Visa Para Un Sueño’’ by Juan Luis Guerra which truly represents the feeling of Dominicans when they try to get their visa to fly away and never come back to the island. Do you actually think that crossing borders illegally is the best way to run away from where you belong, no matter what reasons encourage you to do it?

Carolina Yubini.

Illegal Inmigrants


Recently our country has become a pole of attraction for illegal inmigrants,mostly from Peru and Bolivia but also from other countries like Ecuador,Paraguay and Haiti...countries in which they can not find job opportunities.That is why all have the same goals: basically to find better jobs opportunities in order to send money to their families or to find a better quality of life in our country.
As a society often we don't realise about the inmigrants' homesickness about their culture and famiy.We have to think that...for them is extremely hard to arrive a new country with a different culture...often alone without the backup of their families.
Most of them come to our country to do jobs that here...nobody wants to do or are low paid...That's why Chileans take advantage of inmigrants who do these jobs, for example maids...besides being discriminated by society just because they are from another country...Their salaries are even lower than the Chilean maids and also inmigrants often live in such poor conditions.


I think is a very brave decision leave your country in search of better opportunities for you and your family...even more when it's illegal and you are risking your life for this opportunity of improve your live...and also I think that Chilean society have to make a change in their behaviour with these people....So... What do you think about this interesting topic?


    
    By Daniela Chacana

Arranged Marriage...culture shock?

An arraged marriage in this day and age sounds like something that might happen in a remote third word village, but with the current rate of middle eastern immigrants, this is possible anywhere in the world, causing culture shocks, and in some countries it is illegal, because it may lead to what we consider child abuse.

I read about Samina Shah´s story (this is not her real name, as she is too scared to be identified). Her family moved to London before she was born. One day as she got dressed up for her fifth birthday party, she realized she was actually wearing her new dress for an Islamic wedding ceremony. She tells reporters “I was denied the right of childhood, play and innocence. When you are married at the age of five you no longer live like a normal child. I was deprived of my basic human rights. I know that such behavior is contrary to the teachings of Islam and must be therefore outlawed. There is no Islamic justification for forced marriage and doing it to a child of that age is not just wrong — it is criminal.”

Samina was born in a typical middle eastern family, inserted in a very close knit community, who kept their traditions from their village in Pakistan.

At he age of 37 she was able to leave her husband, she was so repressed she wasn´t even aloud to smile, because this was a sign of a loose women and flirting. Leaving her husband was a very brave thing to do, as it is unacceptable thing to do in Islamic culture. She tried to move back in with her parents, but they rejected her. She found her self living in the streets. Samina, desperate, entered a church where she knew the priest. “I was so disheartened I wanted to abandon everything I had been taught in childhood. I thought the best thing I could do was to convert. Maybe being a Christian would give me peace.” The priest told her Islam hasn't let her down, people have, so he contacted her with people from the Islam community that could help and understand her, they gave her a place to stay. She eventually rebuild her life and even made up with her family. “Islam safeguards women’s rights, and I am delighted that I found the Islam that God sent down — not the one that has been hijacked by the jackals who misrepresent its true teachings.”

There are a lot of cultures that still condone arranged marriages, but very few allow children to marry, as it is the case with Islam in general, but not particularly how it was practiced in the village her parents where from.Chile is slowly becoming a multicultural country, hosting several immigrant communities, but most of them keep to them selves and we don´t know much about them. Maybe they fear being judged.

Because of cases like Samina´s the UK government is attempting to pass a law that forbids and punishes to marry people against their will, since they can´t  prosecute for statutory rape if the minor or the family do not press charges. 

Many asian and middle eastern cultures struggle to keep their traditions in the western world. Are arranged marriages ok? Are we being judgmental and close minded, or is this a practice that we must attempt to stop? I don't think the answers is black or white, there are people that are quite happy to marry the person their family chooses, to them it´s an honor to do their parent´s will. Can east and west ever agree on this matter?

By Paulina Wall.

Documentary about Elizabeth's life

On Friday’s night I saw a very interesting documentary about Elizabeth’s life, it was especially focused in the reasons of why did she never marry. Obviously all of these reasons are speculations, but some of them seemed to be very good ones. However I think we’ll never know the absolute truth.

I’m not going to give you more details, because I want you to watch the documentary to get more specific information. So I post the link of the first part the documentary, you can watch it in Youtube… enjoy it :)

karla Gutiérrez Herrera.

Middle East war

     The Middle East war, a part has been developing for over 60 years without going back to the conflict remains from the times that God promised the land, the people of Israel. This topic always caught my attention because I've always been hearing and I wonder when will it end? When the violence ended?

    The conflict began when a large number of Jews decided to settle in Palestine (British possession) because of the wars that were in the world, with the hope of founding a Jewish state. The Arabs were hostile to the idea that a Jewish state was created in its territory. England was not ready to take on the problem, so he asked the UN to take charge. Decided to split half of Palestine.

    In 1948 he created the state of Israel.The situation was complicated by the Arabs who remained in the new Israeli state, after the Jewish terrorists killed the entire population of a Palestinian village, thousands of Arabs fled to Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria where they settled in camps refugees. After that, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan.

   The Arab states did not consider as a permanent ceasefire, it was only the first stage in the struggle to destroy Israel and liberate Palestina.The conflict has no end date yet . Worst of all, is as always the most vulnerable lose out as children, women and elderly civilians rather than combatants.

   Until there is willingness on both sides to give a cease-fire ... can never produce the much desired peace. I think when that happens will be the end of the world.

QUAKE RED ALERT

In the last month the group of brazilean researchers "Quake Red Alert" directed by Aroldo Maciel has been frequently named on TV and social networks, the interesting of the proyect "Quake Red Alert" after two years of researching they're able to detect future earthquakes based on data triangulation algorithms.
They've the precision of 80% for forecasting earthquakes, they forecast about 800 of 1000 earthquakes/tremors, they show us very good and precise results but the most of people don't trust in their forecastings because never before the forecasting of earthquakes and tremors has been posible, no recognized country or organization did it before, and most of recognized cientific says that is imposible.

The Quake Red Alert group says one thing in their last interview:
"Welcome to the future"

What do you think about the possibility of forecasting earthquakes?, Do you think this kind of popular information can influence the live of the people?

I think that's possible, and it's our responsability to trust in this.

You can find more information at http://quakeredalert.com/
                                                                                    Luis Camilo Salgado Reyes.

Timeline

Classmates, I've recently uploaded our timeline because we had technical problems, Montserrat thought she had uploaded the video, but for lack of knowledge of how the blog works, she didn't do it really.

"We decided to make a video and separate the important dates in centuries. We chose a few events per century, as major parts of our timeline we have selected the national and international wars and the election of presidents. showing images of each one, hope you enjoy it, thank you very much."

Montserrat Abalos

Catalina Olivari

Alexis Peñailillo

Luis Salgado

Dina Tapia

Krisstal Tapia

The human impact on this Earth

The human impact on this Earth

 Land, water, air. Our lives depend upon them. Since humans evolved, our population has grown rapidly. We have used and abused our Earth.

 Humans have had a serious impact on the land. We use it to grow crops to feed our growing population. We also use it to provide energy. Each year one person in North America uses resources equal to over 12 acres of land!

One of the largest impacts humans have had on the earth is the mining of mineral resources. Almost everything we use is made of metals and other land resources. We use copper to make wires that carry our electricity. We use sand and gravel to pave our roads. Many of our appliances are made of aluminum and other metals.

The extraction of all these resources takes a toll on the Earth. Large amounts of soil and rock need to be moved. The landscape is completely changed. Topsoil is lost. Ecosystems are disturbed.

Farming disrupts the natural ecosystems that exist on earth. Chemicals are used to kill pests such as insects and weeds. These chemicals can harm plants and animals that are good for the environment. When fields are plowed, topsoil is lost. It can take thousands of years for it to form again.

Pollution and destruction of natural habitat has also caused much extinction. It is like we invade their land, beg for shelter and then force the original occupants (animals) out.

 Man needs to stop and realize that earth is not a part of him but he is a part of this planet! Only then can we make a difference here, a good difference…

And what do you think? can you change your thinking and you form of act with your Earth?
                                                                                                   Barbara Escobar.

ANIMAL ABUSE

ANIMAL ABUSE

A couple days ago, I was reading the news on the internet.  I was really shock because I read about a case where a woman had 2 dogs tied in her house, without food and water for no reason. Because of the complains of her neighbors the police arrived to the house of this woman and saved those dogs of die. The most shocking about this is that, when the police asked to this woman why she had this 2 dogs tied and without food and water she answered without hesitation: “because I want those dogs dead”. To me is really surprising how a “rational” person can be so mean with a being who can feel pain and can’t defend himself.

In Chile we have some sanction for those how commit animal abuse, and also you can go to jail if you commit this kind of abuse, but at least in Chile , I’d never heard about someone who went to jail because of this.

The animal abuse is a problem not only in Chile, is something that we can hear that happens in different countries and cultures, like for example in Spain they have this cruel tradition of bullfights (corridas de toros), where a bullfighter (torero) kills a bull only because is a tradition.

In USA something really characteristic is the rodeo, just like in Chile, this is something legal and also considerate a tradition, where some people abuse of animals who can’t defend themselves.

So, as we can see, the animal abuse is not an isolate situation in Chile, we can see it in different cultures. In my opinion I think that we need a really efficient law that protect the animals of every kind of abuse, because I think that the animals deserve the same respect that a human being…what do you think about this? Do you agree with this kind of traditions? Do you think that is enough with the laws that already exist and protects the animals?

BY MARIO ESPINOZA

Femicide: A global harm

According to the UN one in three women worldwide has been hit, obliged to have sexual intercourses or has suffered some kind of abuse through her life. Moreover, the World Health Organization says that more women die due to domestic violence than from cancer.  

This social problem is a universal phenomenon that persists in all the nations of the world. In several countries, governments and civil society develop several campaigns to put the issue on the table, raise awareness and know how to act in a situation like this.

However, this problem rather than decrease has been increasing in an alarming way during the last years. That’s the reason why I put this topic in order to be discussed and to get your opinions about it and try to answer the following question: Why do you think that despite all the campaigns throughout the world femicide figures are increasing?

Héctor Vielma J.

The very low minimum salary in Chile

It's alarming to know that in Chile the minimum salary is 182,000 Chilean Pesos. It's hard to think that with that amount, some families have to
live, pay their rent, pay their children's education, food, and basic services like electricity, clean water, gas, etc.

To compare this with other countries, I know that in some that are more developed,
the minimum salary can be ten times bigger than in Chile, I can´t
believe it!
As I researched and found out , for example:
In England the minimum salary is around 1,200 euros, but consider
them only working 5 days a week, 40 hours a week. In Chile to obtain the
minimum wage, people must work shifts of 8 hours in the day, working 6
days a week, causing social problems like depression, unmotivated
people, parent-child estrangement, etc.


This is a frequent discussion, since the majority of Chileans believe
that this must change. In fact  it was the subject of May 1st, where
in the speech for the Workers' Day, someone from The Workers' United Center of Chile ( CUT - Central unitaria de trabajadores de Chile)
said : "We need a minimum wage ... we want to tell the government and
Parliament that the minimum wage this year should reach 250 thousand
pesos".


What do you think?  Do you think the difference is large between countries?
Do you think that the government should increase the minimum salary to 250 thousand pesos
to achieve a better quality of life for Chileans?

                                                                                                    Mariángel Ruedi