Global News Post: Chile

Chile's Patagonia on Top Destination List

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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHcuZMtzucMBJyN-iW81RsHzZalBV6fjMRvo5g4K0v3VPe1S3G2Cly15AQi7IHaajww9viU7lbhRbh19jZoR-_r8WHAMO5gYRiXX-eqXqTE30Vsvt3tkicxjn01kuMHTNFesE31M3OkvA/s1600/2012011119050033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHcuZMtzucMBJyN-iW81RsHzZalBV6fjMRvo5g4K0v3VPe1S3G2Cly15AQi7IHaajww9viU7lbhRbh19jZoR-_r8WHAMO5gYRiXX-eqXqTE30Vsvt3tkicxjn01kuMHTNFesE31M3OkvA/s640/2012011119050033.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">NNN- Chile has been included in the New York Times’ list of top travel destinations in 2012, with Chilean Patagonia in 8th place, and Chiloé in 37th place out of a total of 45. It is the natural beauty and the numerous UNESCO heritage sites, (such as the Torres del Paine National Park) combined with the recent investment in infrastructure on the island Other Latin American destinations included in the list were Cuba’s capital Havana, Puebla in Mexico, Paraty in Brazil, and Nosara in Costa Rica. However the list was mainly dominated by European destinations, with 14 entries between the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Finland</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Sweden</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Switzerland</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Poland</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Ukraine</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>. Photo courtesy of balasalgada.net- NNN<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Chile's Patagonia on Top Destination List

NNN- Chile has been included in the New York Times’ list of top travel destinations in 2012, with Chilean Patagonia in 8th place, and Chi...

Clinton Welcomes South China Sea Guidelines

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">By David Gollust from Bali, Indonesia<o:p></o:p></span></b>  <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday welcomed a draft agreement between China and ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, aimed at defusing tensions over disputed waters of the South China Sea. Clinton met her Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, on the sidelines of the ASEAN regional forum in Bali.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The draft agreement committing the rival claimants to a peaceful resolution of the South China Sea dispute is vaguely worded. But U.S. officials are expressing relief over the accord, which they say should ease tensions between China and several ASEAN member states including U.S. defense treaty ally, the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, beginning a round of consultations on the sidelines of the ASEAN forum, welcomed the agreement at a bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart, a meeting she said would also focus on the Korean nuclear issue.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"I want to commend China and ASEAN for working so closely together to include implementation guidelines for the declaration of conduct in the South China Sea, and of course we will discuss our mutual desire for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,” said Clinton.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">China has been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with four ASEAN members - the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam - along with Taiwan over the South China sea and its vital shipping lanes and potential energy resources.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Seated across the table from Clinton, Foreign Minister Yang said Beijing, which has made by far the largest claim in the region, wants to see a peaceful settlement.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“I do believe that the conclusion of the guidelines is of great significance, and it will go a long way to maintaining the peace and stability and good-neighborliness in this region. And this will also provide favorable conditions for the proper handling and the settlement of the disputes among the claimants,” Yang said.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The guidelines were also welcomed earlier by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, who said the accord - though preliminary - has already improved the political climate in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“We welcome this. It’s an important first step," said Campbell. "I think it has lowered tensions. It has improved atmospherics. But clearly it is just that, a first step. And we are going to need to see some follow-on interactions between China and ASEAN.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A senior State Department official who spoke to reporters welcomed reported diplomatic contacts on the margins of the ASEAN forum between North and South Korea. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The United States Thursday vigorously denied Japanese press reports of a possible U.S.-North Korean meeting here and the senior official said such a meeting was “unthinkable” in the absence of substantial progress in the troubled north-south Korean relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The senior official said Assistant Secretary Campbell met in Bali earlier this week with Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and laid out clear guidelines on what the new nominally-civilian Burmese government needs to do to improve relations with Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The official said the results of outreach by the Obama administration to the former military government were “quite disappointing” and said the new authorities need to take “decisively different” action if Burma is to end its political isolation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">He said Clinton, in a statement at the ASEAN forum Saturday, would lay out terms for better relations, including the release of Burmese political prisoners, dialogue between the new government and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, an end to military action against ethnic minorities, and a halt to any Burmese trade with North Korean banned by U.N. resolutions.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">He said despite some early “glimmers of possibility” from the new leadership, U.S. officials have not seen anything consequential and that “time is running out” for improved ties.VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div>

Clinton Welcomes South China Sea Guidelines

By David Gollust from Bali, Indonesia U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday welcomed a draft agreement between China and ASEAN,...

Chile: Students Take Over Schools Demanding Education Reform

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>By </strong></span><a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/07/20/chile-students-take-over-schools-demanding-education-reform/"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Silvia Viñas</strong></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>   </strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>For over a month, students in Chile have been in control of hundreds of schools throughout the country, turning their classrooms into temporary homes while they demand free and higher quality education. As Paul Kerney explains [1] in the blog Back in a Bit:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>The students are protesting against the free market system of education created by Pinochet, which has been responsible for rising costs, inequity, and poor quality of government education. Specifically, students are protesting against the introduction of a law which will increase the costs of university education, but they are also calling for a complete change in the system: they demand a change in the country’s constitution, which will change the government’s duty to provide a good free education. Some students go further, and take control of the school (called a ‘toma'), occupying it until their demands are met.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>[2]</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>A high school ("liceo") taken over by students in Santiago, Chile. Image by Flickr user Erwin Horment (CC BY-ND 2.0).</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Paul explains how students took over a school in Los Lagos [3], in the south of Chile:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>On Friday, the Mayor of Los Lagos, the headmaster, teachers, parents and friends arrived to find out that 30-60 students had taken control of the school. At 1.30 in the morning, in what must have been sub-freezing temperatures, they had jumped the fence, opened the locked doors, disabled the alarm, put up signs and chained the gates against the public.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>He went inside the school and goes on to describe what he saw, concluding:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Some students are there for the adventure, some because they wanted to do something about the state of education. In my school, I didn’t see students walking around with a copy of the constitution under their arms, but neither were they drinking and breaking windows, as happened in other locations. There was a real sense of excitement and purpose in the air — as one student said, “It’s good to feel everyone so united”. Amidst calls such as “I’m scared! The Inspector is outside”, “How do you work the heating here?” and “Come quickly! The noodles are burning!”, students were making a stand for their right to a quality education.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>In an article for El Ciudadano [4] [es] Cristóbal Cornejo also provides an inside look at a ‘toma'. Reporting from a high school in downtown Santiago, Liceo Amunátegui, Cristóbal describes the night of June 29, the day before over 400,000 people [5] throughout Chile marched for educational reform [6]:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>[7]</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Students hang chairs and desks from the schools' gates to show they are in a "toma". Image by Flickr user Erwin Horment (CC BY-ND 2.0).</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Una tarde lluviosa en Santiago. Cientos de colegios y universidades paralizadas o en toma a lo largo de Chile. Adentro de ellos, se combate el frío, el hambre y la humedad con los métodos que estén al alcance de la imaginación. Más allá de la comida y el abrigo está el calor de los compañeros que se unen en la lucha por un presente y un futuro que asegure que nadie que no tenga dinero se vea excluido de educarse, por ende, de crecer y liberarse, al menos relativamente.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>A rainy afternoon in Santiago. Hundreds of schools and universities paralyzed or taken over by students throughout Chile. Inside, students fight the cold, hunger and humidity with whatever means they can imagine. Beyond the food and shelter there is the warmth of the classmates that have come together to fight for a present and a future that ensures that no one who does not have money is excluded from gaining an education, and therefore from growing and breaking free, at least relatively.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>But outsiders are not the only ones reporting what transpires inside the student-controlled schools; students inside the ‘tomas' around the country are sharing their experiences online through videos and blogs.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Like youth from the Liceo Zapallar in Curicó [8] –in Chile's central valley, south of Santiago– who are blogging, sharing pictures and even live streaming [9] their ‘toma'. In the blog [10] [es], Diego Ortega explains that around 150 students took over the school peacefully on June 16. Currently, 25 to 35 students are inside the school representing their classmates, he explains.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>The following video was filmed in a Technical-Professional (vocational) school in Población Los Nogales, a marginalized community in Santiago. A student leader gives us a tour of the precarious conditions of his school:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>EnglishShare</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>CanalFech [11], the YouTube channel of the University of Chile's Student Federation, has posted videos of ‘tomas' from several schools in Santiago, like Liceo 7 de Ñuñoa [12], Liceo A-13 Confederación Suiza [13], and this video of the moment when University students took over the ‘casa central' (headquarters) of the University of Chile.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>On a lighter note, Colectivo FAUNA [14] (College of Architecture and Urbanism from the University of Chile) produced the following “Grease” parody to “invite everyone who is not moving to come and mobilize for education”:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>EnglishShare</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Students are not going anywhere for now. The Santiago Times [15] reports on Sunday July 17, 2011, that, “After more than nine hours of discussion, student representatives from the Confederación de Estudiantes de Chile (Confech) agreed to continue school ‘tomas', or student takeovers. They also vowed to bring a greater political dimension into their strike efforts and urged the government to stop trying to ‘criminalize' the movement.”</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"></span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Meanwhile, on Monday, July 18, President Sebastián Piñera announced changes in his Cabinet, replacing Minister of Education Joaquin Lavín [16] with former Justice Minister Felipe Bulnes. Whether a fresh face in the Ministry will persuade students to end their ‘tomas' is yet to be seen, but for now, students seem immovable in their cause for high quality, free education.</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Published under </strong></span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Creative Commons License.</strong></span></a></div></div>

Chile: Students Take Over Schools Demanding Education Reform

By Silvia Viñas For over a month, students in Chile have been in control of hundreds of schools throughout the country, turning their cl...