Watching the Penguins

11th November 2006, Day 235

Santiago, Chile

I write this as a nervous and hungover shell of a man. A merry night out in Barrio Bellavista with Roberto, our friend and part-time tour guide, went a bit wrong when I slipped into the bad old ways and drank far too much Chilean lager. I don't remember whether the band we saw, Espia, were up to much, but I do remember talking a lot of nonsense to Roberto and his mate. Despite a comfortable week of cultural assimilation, today I nervously staggered around in the blinding light of the midday Santiago sun having forgotten all the vocabulary I'd learnt in the expensive Spanish classes we'd taken and reverting to apprehensive alien status. Indeed I felt feeble and rather crass. This is my chance to redeem myself.

We are, of course, now in South America. This has dragged me out of a package tourist ditch which I'd complicitly slid into in Australia and New Zealand. It doesn't feel like I'm halfway home any longer, these four months will be a challenge I've not hitherto experienced during these travels. Some of the stereotypical adjectives associated with Latin America (vibrant, colourful), are not especially appropriate for Santiago, which is widely regarded as one of the most European cities in atmosphere in the sub-continent. It is, however, a massive change from the last three months of familiarity and also a land where the majority of people do not speak English. Good lord!

Fortunately I have a muse (of the online variety) and consequently I have thought of something to write about. Instead of opening this post with a nice view of Santiago cupped by the Andes and the coastal mountains, I've challenged myself to do something less obvious. So here's Tweety Pie masked up and ready to go. As you may be aware Santiago amd Chile itself has recently been shaken from, what I would imagine, is it's usual orderly and efficient day to day business. During May student strikes, starting with direct action in April, reached a peak with minor riots breaking out. On 1st June President Michelle Bachelet announced some educational reforms which met many of the student's demands and the strikes were called off by student leaders. The pace of the introduction of the legislation is still causing problems, however. The dust has yet to settle on this predicament and the city walls bear plenty of evidence of unrest over the last six months.

I'll have to ask for a correct translation of this, but with the help of an internet translator, this stencil says something like, 'Neither vote nor annul, get on the street and protest! The rich continue to prosper'. This revolt captured the imagination and creativity of the students as well as cultivating a little rebellion for rebellions sake. We've seen this through the grafitti artwork around the city, student interest in political theory and systems, vandalism and a heavy police presence on the street. I don't think I've ever seen so many anarchy symbols in one place, for what that's worth.

There is a lengthy article on the strikes hosted on Wikipedia; events which have become known as 'the March of the Penguins' in reference to the student's uniforms.

James and I have seen a lot of the students ourselves whilst wandering around the city. Staring is a more accurate term than seeing, really. The girl's uniform is rather revealing around the top of the leg. This is not really appropriate behaviour for two men approaching 30. Regardless, the students are verging on the ubiquitous and I would imagine that combined they were a formidable force a few months ago.

Chile has a large proportion of young people, a quarter are 14 or under for instance. According to the Wikipedia article (I should really use another main reference):

'The country suffers from a rigid class stratification issue, with a poor majority of close to 60%, although extreme poverty rates declined in the 1990's and today accounts for close to 20%.'

The quality of state education is generally viewed as poor among Chileans. Add this to the central legislation around teaching introduced by the Pinochet regime (the Constitutional Teaching Law) which has not been altered much in over 15 years of democracy and you begin to identify some of the catalysts for this incident.

Whilst literacy rates in Chile are extremely high, the public perception that state education in Chile is poor is strong and increasing according to the articles I've read. Half of all those students who finish their high school education fail to gain access to higher education via an entrance exam, or can barely afford the test at all.
One columnist commented that the crux of the strike lay in the fact that while the private schools turned out the wealthy, the state schools churned out workers to preserve a long established class system.

The Organic Constitutional Law on Teaching (LOCE), which I mentioned above is criticised for:

'reducing the state's participation in education to a solely regulatory and protective role, whilst the true responsibility of education has been transferred to private and public corporations (public schools being managed by local governments — Municipalidades), thus reducing the participation that students, parents, teachers and non-academic employees had previously enjoyed in their schools.' Source: Wikipedia.

Revoking of the LOCE was the big ask of the students. In simple terms the direct action could be seen as a fight for simple educational change or representation in government decision making. Among the more progresive and radical elements it was undoubtedly seen as a fight against the government or indeed the beginnings of a class war.

The ultimate catalyst for this year's unrest was Michelle Bachelet's announcement towards the end of April that the university entrance test (PSU) fee would increase and free student bus travel would be restricted. General anger from state students boiled over. Outrage, intial demonstrations and school takeovers followed. In the subsequent weeks the Coordinating Assembly of Grade School Students (ACES) organised the strikes with the following demands:

- free bus fare
- waiving of the university admissions test fee
- the abolition of the Organic Constitutional Law on Teaching (LOCE) and an end to municipalization of subsidized education
- a reform to the Full-time School Day policy (JEC)

Considering that these were young school children it's not surprising that action was diverse and sometimes lacked clarity. Depending on your opinion some actions could even be labelled blockheaded at times (ostensibly unecessary violence and vandalism), but this youthful melting pot also spawned the vision I mentioned above. Indeed those protests which turned violent intially dampened public sympathy for the pupil's plight. The kids carried on with their tightly organised occupations and held discussions on political theory and civics inbetween their regular classes. I wonder how many became committed Communists or Anarchists during this time? Over the following days, the student's dedication and perseverence gradually won their actions tolerance and their aims respect among Chileans. The stubborn attitude towards the students demands by the government coupled with a focus on non-violent direct action eventually began to change this public perception, from what I can tell. Education minister Martin Zilic, for instance, proved particularly non-communicative and surly towards the students aims, breaking off negotiations and sending deputies to negotiate with student leaders in his place as the stand off worsened.

I spoke to two Chileans about the strikes. One a friend and university student and the other our Spanish teacher. They both generally supported the strikes. Indeed the strike called by the students and arranged for the 30th May was the largest in Chilean history, with the main Santiago-based Universities in support. The second strike on 5th June comprised teachers and many unions as well as the students. According to a poll 87% of Chilean's voiced support for the strikes, at their height. Diverse acts of rebellion ranged from occupations and marches to rallies and street fighting.

On the 30th May, the day of the largest strike, the greatest concentration of violent clashes took place. The force of that the caribeneros (uniformed police) employed to deal with violent students and rioting pockets was widely criticised as over the top and effectively incendiary:

[On the 30th May] 'Fighting extended throughout the night, with 725 people arrested and 26 injured. The actions of the police were strongly repelled by the public. Some of the strongest reactions came from the press and the President herself.' Source: Wikipedia.

As a result of the way the Carabineros tackled the riots, the general director of Carabineros dismissed ten officers including the Special Forces Prefect and his deputy.

The things which shock me about the uprising are two-fold. Firstly the organisation and scale of the mobilisation coupled with the age of those organising (average age 16) is a surprise. Mobile phones, text messaging and email were the tools they employed. There is a related article about how the children organised themselves here, which contains links to the various student's blog sites divided by school. It is notably creative, spontaneous and encouraging. There are some particularly striking photos here. The strike of the 30th of May comprised up to a million students! I find this quite staggering for a movement which was barely a month old by the time it successfully mobilised a generation of children.

Secondly they have, to some extent, won. After Bachelet's reforms, hastily announced on 1st June, subsequent delays in introducing legislation are almost over. According to my friend 'legislation has been passed regarding scholarships for the PSU(university entry exam), it is now free for the poorest half. The reduced bus fare for school kids now runs 24 hours.' Criminal charges against individual student leaders were dropped. My friend points out this may have been to prevent a student backlash. Some of these Assembly leaders were extremely young, such as María Jesús Sanhueza, an outspoken 16 year old Communist.

The long term goals for education, such as the abolition of LOCE, are still under discussion. There are still problems with the student leaders on Bachelet's panel who do not necessarily have the backing of the students that they previously held. The political awakening and ambition that has been aroused in these children may be satisified through negotiation and engagement with the government, but perhaps it won't.

Having spoken to university student and a teacher, there is a mixed opinion about the events in retrospect. My uni student friend said:

'It's great, this generation of kids are the first to be born since the return of democracy, so they don't have any of the prejudices generations like mine must have, they never knew a military goverment and that may have something to do with their active political participation. I can see my generation being much more apathic politically.'

My teacher was more sceptical, despite a general sympathy. He thought that completely free bus travel at all times was too much to ask, and that the students long term ambitions were naive. I suspected he strongly objected to any violent actions. He felt that they should be looking at repealing the PSU rather than the LOCE, which he saw as the key to changing the country's fortunes. He believed that repealing the LOCE was a solution to pre-dictatorship Chile, not today's society. According to him the current education system needed strong redirection in Chile to re-engage bored students, after the sound first four years of schooling. He felt everybody looked at the PSU success rates as the arbiter of Chile's fortunes, and that it was totally misleading. More emphasis needed to be placed on pre-graduation testing and vocational courses, as well as changing the current municipal curiculum priorities.

There is little doubt that the direct action of what ever form achieved something, even if the long term goals of the students are ultimately comprimised. What about the violent element, though? As someone who immensely dislikes violent action but does not reject violence outright as a defensive measure, I can't see how to justify it easily in this instance. No doubt it gained the students media attention and it also brought a quick direct response from the President, but continual NVDA would likely eventually have brought about the same negotiations. Without being present during the marches and rallies, I have no idea whether the students were provoked by the police or whether a fight was sought. Even then a provocation does not necessarily justify a violent response. It is true that the young people may have found it harder to contain their frustration than older individuals with more life experience. Certainly the police's response on the 30th May has been recognised even by the government as unacceptable. The campaign's successes seem to have been achieved by largely by NVDA. Perhaps I am wrong.

Focusing on the strike probably paints a skewed picture of Santiago, which is certainly not a city on a knife edge. It's generally very safe and has a pleasant atmosphere.

Roberto, a friend we met through an internet music forum we use, kindly came to pick us up from the airport and took us up the famous Cerro San Cristobel - a public park on a massive hill overlooking Santiago. Here's the token shot of Santiago I mentioned at the start of the post! This photo was taken that day. The crowd by the marquee were celebrating a special mass. It was a quaint introduction to a new continent.

This Sunday I decided to run from our hostel up the winding road to touch the Virgin Mary at the top of the San Cristobel, which is over 850m high. It was a bit tough after a few weeks without much exercise, and I crawled the last few steps to the sacred mother in exhaustion. Fortunately, and by coincidence, a kind bloke I'd met over breakfast was sat on the steps leading up to the monument and with a look of pity he offered me some fresh pineapple. After some small talk between gasps of air and half-chewed pineapple, I headed back down the hill again.

This is Pablo Neruda's dining room in Bellavista. I know very little about Latin American literature, apart from a couple of lectures and seminars at university on Borges. Indeed, I had only read any Gabriel Garcia Marquez a few weeks before we landed in Santiago. I was essentially unaware of Isabel Allende and her father. I'm a dumbass.

Whilst I work on finishing the Roberto Bolaño novel my Chilean friend leant me and get around to reading some Neruda myself, here's a bit about the man who is supposedly the person to inspire more people to read poetry than anyone since Shakespeare; he even read poetry to 70,000 people in the National Soccer Stadium in Santiago! He was highly political and a was forced to live as an exile by one government and a collaborator with another. The latter government was headed by the leftist Salvador Allende, Neruda's close friend, but it was brought down by Pinochet's military coup of 1973. Neruda was Communist Senator himself for a spell. His dubious respect for Stalin's dictatorship in Russia is also oft noted. If I am making him sound like an extreme South American version of Bono, I am describing him inadequately. Let me tell you about his house...

Neruda, as well as being a fantastic poet and intellectual, was a bit of a fruit-cake. As you can see he kept his cutlery in the television. Out of shot are a nice pair of condiment pots labelled 'Maruijana' and 'Morphine'. He was an obsessive collector of pretty much anything you can imagine, with a special place for the kitsch: horse memorabilia, toby-jugs, bottles, shoes, books, paintings etc. During the Pinochet coup, Neruda was already hospitalised with cancer and his subsequent fatal heart-attack is widely credited to the ousting of his friend Allende and his socialist project. During this time Neruda's homes in Santiago, La Isla Negra and Valparaiso were ransacked and the majority of their contents destroyed. Despite this the houses remain quirky and unique; a testament to a unique personality. This house in Santaigo 'La Chascona' , is built to resemble a ship, with each room representing a different nautical facet: bridge, galley and even a lighthouse. Strangely Neruda was obsessed with ships despite only sailing once and hating the whole voyage when he was a child. 'Why go to sea when you can recreate the feeling of sailing on land' he was once heard to say, whilst wafting a wine bottle around. What a nutter!