Education protest

Today, our country is revolutionizing with social movements because of a great discontent of population with the actual government management. The education is now the principal focus of popular dissatisfied and we can see in the news everyday how all population tries manifest with protest. Students have called for a national student strike to demand an end to privatization and profiteering in education, more scholarships, and increased public support for secondary schools and universities.

The current marches recall the deepest political crisis faced by the last government, under President Michelle Bachelet. Exactly five years ago, students went on strike in a series of actions known as the "penguin rebellion" and held marches with many participants to protest lack of investment in education, with most of the complaints centering on high-school education.

The students have both economic and academic demands. Students want increased public funding of universities, a year-round bus pass, full scholarships for lower- and middle-class students, and an increased role for the state in technical education, which is now handled by private institutes. Academically, they want to end the use of a standardized test as the sole method of admission to the best universities. They also want technical institutes to offer liberal arts classes and are demanding guaranteed academic freedom. In addition, they are demanding more accessibility for people with disabilities.

While most demonstrators are peaceful, several student protests have devolved into violence in recent weeks. The last march ended with police on horseback and in armored vehicles chasing demonstrators around central Santiago.

I participated in the last 2 marches and here I can feel the widespread discontent, nevertheless, all the students and people that go to these mobilizations expresses happily, with many performances and shows. My postgraduate program support the strike and participated together south campus in these mobilizations making paintings with our reflection about the problem. I think that students demands are important and that government must solve the education problem.

Photograph

This topic is one of the most interesting for my, last years. I buy my first camera when make the professional practice at Melinka (Aysen), and think that was the best think that I can do. The landscape was simply amazing, and with my memory, probably never remember at all. I think  that every time is a good moment to take a picture, when I don’t  carry my camera I try to use my cell phone to take a good picture. Thus, I love take pictures in travels and concerts, and I try to carry my camera all the time. The problem with concerts is that the camera can be broken with all the people, but if my favorite band plays, I forget that.

I have a good friend that is a professional photographer and seeing his work I learned more about this fascinating world. He work with a large staff and travel throughout Chile taking amazing pictures, personally I admire his work and enjoy when see his pictures. Nevertheless, now, most people can buy a digital camera and take a picture and this is a very good thing that current technology makes it possible.

The past week we have a photograph season with my music band while we record our demo. This was an amazing experience, because we never had this opportunity before. I think that this kind of things make life more attractive, since we can share this picture with our friends and relatives, and so somehow, we can enjoy and relive this special moments.

I recommend the photography because we can keep alive this moments that made us happy and sometimes these moments are necessary to sweeten life.

Antumapu

Antumapu, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful Universidad de Chile campus. I remember so good times at this campus, such as parties, sport competitions and concerts. Personally, think that are strong points that made Antumapu a very attractive campus for all students. One time, I play with my rock band in Antumapu and was one of the best experiences that I remember. Many people enjoy the music and sang with our songs.

Antumapu in general is a green place, with many trees and animals too. The students pass time walking thought big distances and enjoying the landscape. I think that the landscape is unique in this campus and for this reason is very good place to relax after a test or class with a big barbecue at the parks.

Other important point is that Antumapu is out of the city, therefore, I can travel quietly when need go to this campus. Actually, whit transantiago, are more available bus lines to arrive here, however, some lines don’t stop at Antumapu bus stop. About this point, I think that all bus most stop at all available bus stop, because sometimes, I miss important time waiting for one. 

I hope that central administration make important investment in all south campus, because it is necessary to have this kind of faculty in the University. Certainly is far campus, but the lovely landscape and the mist of this location is so important too.

Finally, I must say that post graduate facilities are very comfortable, in particular, the computer room and the rest room. Moreover, we can eat some cookies and drink coffee in the break time. However, a bad point is that the underground location of the class rooms makes the cellular signal weak and if an emergency, is impossible to know.

Ventanas problem.

I ear about this problem in the news, but seriously, I don’t remember listen this for many time, however, I know that historically the contamination is a very important topic in Chile. Related with the last events, the natural disaster that take place in “Ventana” (Valparaiso) is not an isolated event, moreover, the 1993 this place was declared a contaminated area, after that, a decontamination plan was established.

Ventana is a small place with low population (1300 aprox.), and many people still to be affected with this problem, and plant workers reported incremental cancer deaths probably for this cause. But here are share faults, because many industries are responsible of this contamination, even though, the principals are: Codelco-Ventanas and AES Gener thermoelectric. However, both carry out the Chilean regulation, but they exceed the Health World Organization (OMS), Norte American and European regulation. Another problem is that Chile doesn’t have hour regulation; in practice this mean that industries can eliminate mostly toxic substances in the night (when nothing can see them) obviously concentrated all the emanation in few hours at day.  

One important measure to solve this problem, is change the Chilean, because off today is too permissive with contamination levels. This measure can down emanation and probably solve the problem in short time, however, the country have to change all the political environment regulation if really want see an advance in this topic. I think that the way to prevent futures accidents is place contaminants plants out of villages or town, and protect always people and environment.

Japan nuclear crisis.

Japan is considered one of  the most important and technologically advanced country in the world, but the past 11 March, the earth remind us, that all human creations are capable of be destroyed for the nature force. A big earthquake destroys many cities and kills many people in this country, but the tsunami (a consequence of earthquake) has the most important and devastation effect for the population. The tsunami hit one nuclear plant near to seacoast, generating radiation leak because the power reactor was broken liberating a huge radiation. This radiation makes it an unsafe place, for this reason many people are leaving the risk zone and are moved to safety places. This calamity differ of Chernobyl because Japan nuclear crisis was an effect of nature forces, the plant was constructed correctly and with newest technology, however, Chernobyl plant suffer a problem during a simulated state created for plant workers. I think that Japan is working correctly and they will solved the radiation problem faster than Chernobyl, moreover, a reactor explosion take place in Chernobyl while in Japan plant only suffer a leak of radiation. However, if this radiation is not controlled or affect many people, the consequences for humanity can be observed for many years.

NCBI website

Today I write about a very helpful website, the name is NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information). The site link is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ and in here the researchers and students can access to a lot of scientific information like papers, abstract, books, etc. The site has many databases, all directed to different research areas and all of them can be accessed from the home page with a search engine tool and a site map. From a year ago I work at genomic lab, specifically in molecular pathology and genomic studies, and this website provides me many genetic and pathology related tools which make easier my researches. Commonly I use the nucleotide, protein and gene databases because my projects are related with this information, but sometimes, I use a feature called Pubmed to search related papers with many subjects that I need to learn, not only related with my area. I visited this site almost everyday for all I mentioned, this is the reason that makes it essential in my work, and the same reason for recommend it to all people related with scientific area, not only professionals, for students also.

My last movie

My last movie, mmmm, difficult to comment because I'm more a series fan, however, I remember a good movie that I saw the past holidays. The name is The Fourth Kind and it was about alien encounters. The film is a thriller that passes in Alaska, in a very small and remote region, where a psychologist record videotaping sessions with disturbed patients. This film was written from a real life case and during the entire movie the real psychologist is interviewed and the director shows real tapes recording too. I recommend it to anyone that really like this kind of movies because have a very good story but have very chilling images too.