Día a día

Uncertainty has been the norm so far.

This Monday promises to be an interesting one with respect to the situation in the university. The administration of UACh has unilaterally set the 26th of September as the start date for the resumption of classes, starting with the exams that were never taken last semester. This decision comes in spite of the continued lack of accord between the government and the main student organization, the CONFECH. I'm not sure how this will play out (nobody is really). I've seen a lot of student meetings taking place in the past few days, and they staged another march yesterday, but it's a matter of waiting and seeing what comes on Monday.

Yesterday I spoke with a friend at Dartmouth who told me he had heard nothing of the student movement in Chile, from which I gather the situation is not garnering very much media attention abroad. Needless to say, it's big news here every day. So as not to confuse you needlessly, I'll try to give a basic rundown of the situation as I see it. I realize this could take a while, so I'm going to break it up into small chunks. (For those interested in a more in-depth explanation, I invite you to consult the Internet for more information.)

Chunk 1

The principal antecedent of the current movement was another student mobilization in 2006. This movement was called "the march of the penguins", so named because the students' uniforms made them look like penguins. The main objective of these protests was to achieve greater equality in education. Some specific demands were free/reduced student fares in public transportation, reduced/waived fees for taking the university entrance exam, and repealing the eleventh hour omnibus education bill that constituted the Pinochet government's parting gift to Chile. In answer to the protests, the center-left government promised a lot and delivered little. Many students today feel betrayed by their politicians for the lackluster response to the march of the penguins.

End of Chunk 1

For those interested in my personal day to day, I'm celebrating my first full week in Valdivia without rain. Also on the theme of uncertainty, I've had five (out of a possible 8) of my class sessions rescheduled or canceled this week. Being called for lunch. Blog can wait.