Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
[Freshman 10/10/2013- Sophomore 14/10/2013]
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Chile’s cannabis debate resurfaces amidst primary elections [Senior]
Campaign group ranks candidates’ positions on cannabis regulation, placing further scrutiny on contentious issue during primaries.
As Chileans head to polling stations Sunday to choose who will represent its two major political coalitions in the November presidential elections, some candidates have called for changes in drug laws.
The campaign group “No Más Presos Por Plantar,” or “No More Penalties for Planting” created a ranking of presidential and parliamentary candidates according to their positions on cannabis regulation. On the page,Vota Cannabis, presidential hopefuls José Antonio Gómez and Tomás Jocelyn Holt both scored “green leaves,” meaning they have openly called for a change to Chile’s drug policy, codified in a law referred to as “Ley 20,000.”
Mario Vergara, spokesman for Gómez’s Radical Social Democratic Party (PRSD), believes that the current law needs to be changed as it is full of inconsistencies and because drug policy to date failed.
“For example, consumption is legal but two friends can’t meet and consume, as this classifies as organised consumption,” Vergara told The Santiago Times. “The same happens with carrying, as the allowed amount to carry is not specified, only that it is an amount that can be consumed ‘in the near future,’ whenever that is.”
The group No Más Presos Por Plantar has condensed its petition, available in an executive summary, in five points, used to determine where the candidates stand on the issue. The demands include the classification of drugs on scientific bases, the elimination of a list of lawyers who defend drug cases, the establishment of authorized amounts and the decriminalization of “organised consumption.”
Iban de Rementeria from the Chilean Harm Reduction Network states that one of the consequences of current drug policy is that it criminalises an excessive number of people.
“Eighty-five-thousand people are arrested under the drug law each year whereas only 17,000 are arrested for burglary, which is the crime the police gets most complaints about,” de Rementeria told The Santiago Times. “Clearly, resources could be put to a better use.”
Although Chile’s mainstream politicians are adopting more conservative stances on the topic of drug policy reform, citizens and civil society organisations are leading the debate to bring about change.
For Eduardo Vergara, director of think tank Asuntos del Sur, the drug debate is still taboo in Chile and public figures shy away from it for fear of damaging their reputation. Last year, conservative politicians called for the revival of a constitutional reform bill that would punish politicians for illegal drug use. The bill, first approved in the Senate in September 2004, would bar politicians from holding public office if they use illegal drugs.
However, Vergara argues that Chile is also the ideal country to provide leadership in Latin America on the issue.
“Chile, because it is not contaminated by the thousands of deaths and massacres associated with the war on drugs, and because it presents more stable levels of democracy and economy, has the opportunity to lead the debate and show the example,” Vergara told The Santiago Times.
Vergara believes the situation is changing at a fast pace now, and said a few years ago this debate was not on electoral agendas at all. Today, former and incumbent presidents across Latin America are pushing for reform in a wave that will be, according to Vergara, “unstoppable.”
“Something unprecedented is happening,” Vergara B. said, “Politicians, congressmen, students, academics and so on, have realized the extremely negative effects drug laws have in Chile.”
“There’s plenty of evidence worldwide,” Vergara added. “The harmful effects of marijuana are much less serious compared to other legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol.”
Although the issue is being touched upon by a growing number of politicians, most of the candidates for this year’s presidential election have been given a “yellow leaf.” The symbol means they have either agreed with some, but not all of the five points. A “red leaf” is assigned if the candidate has declared themselves against decriminalization of cannabis.
Candidates who have scored a “yellow leaf” include Alfred Sfeir Younis, Marcel Claude, Franco Parisi,Marco Enríquez-Ominami and Andrés Velasco Brañes.
Pablo Longueira, Andrés Allamand, Claudio Orrego Larrain and Michelle Bachelet have all scored red leaves for their conservative positions on the issue.
Roxana Miranda scored a “grey leaf” indicating no reference was available.
Bachelet said in May 2013 she would consider revising the current drug policy as well as the classification of marijuana as a hard drug, which has been in effect since she signed a decree while serving as president in 2008.
Deadline: July 31st, Wednesday
The legislative battle over Chile’s energy needs [Junior]
A key legislative bill faces a fight from environmentalists and legislators, raising larger questions of how best to solve the energy crisis in Chile.
A coalition of lawmakers and environmentalists is challenging a key legislative bill currently being fast-tracked through Congress. The measure is designed to support President Sebastián Piñera’s energy reform strategy, but critics charge it could also restrict rights of indigenous groups and landowners to pave the way for mega dam projects in the Aysén Region.
The “electric concessions bill,” which Piñera’s administration says is necessary to reduce bureaucracy around granting energy concessions — including the right to build lines or power facilities — has already passed the Chamber of Deputies and will go to the floor for a discussion of its amendments on Tuesday.
Many lament the extensive bureaucracy in Chile and say that this law will help facilitate additional, needed energy projects that the expanding mining industry will soon require.
“In the current system, developers face a lot of bureaucracy for projects that have already been approved by the Environmental Impact Assessment,” said Ivan Couso, the former coordinator of the National Energy Efficiency Program in Chile.
“I think any measure to improve the efficiency of the procedures is important,” he told The Santiago Times.
Constitutional issues
But environmentalists publicly oppose the law and call for its rejection. A coalition of 22 organizations in the Aysén Region, united under the Citizens Coalition for the Aysén Reserve, says it tramples the rights of indigenous groups, among others.
There are several major issues with the bill’s amendments: indigenous groups would be consulted only after concession rights are granted; rather than before; electric companies would not be required to seek out alternative routes if concession lines are planned through protected areas; only residents living directly next to planned concession lines would be allowed to oppose concessions lines and local police forces could be legally allowed to protect the concessions.
The first point is one of the most contentious, as it is seen as a violation of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) convention 169, which was written to give indigenous groups greater protections over their lands and which Chile has signed and ratified.
A coalition of 14 senators, which includes Aysén Region Sen. Antonio Horvath, finds the controversial amendments troubling, but hopes to strike them from the bill, rather than dismiss the entire law.
“These amendments are violating the rights that are in the constitution,” said Horvath, a member of the center-right National Renewal (RN) party.
“If the bill passes the second phase of discussion in the Senate, then we will appeal to the constitutional tribunal to dismiss these amendments,” he told The Santiago Times, referring to the court that decides constitutional issues.
Controversy over mega dams
The electric concessions bill is also designed to be one of the first legislative measures to support Piñera’s grand energy reform plans for the country: a public, electric highway which aims to connect the power grid in the north (SING) with the grid in the south (SIC), subsequently uniting 99.2 percent of the country’s energy under one system.
A separate “electric highway” bill is also in the Senate right now, and critics contend that the pair of bills together is a legislative strategy designed to clear the path for megadam projects in the Aysén Region like HidroAysén.
“Support for such huge investments is embodied in a number of inconsistencies that attack the most basic civil rights,” said a public statement by the Citizens Coalition of Aysén. “For example: the rights of indigenous peoples, protected areas, rights of stakeholders, among others, that will pave the way for these projects.”
Major dam projects have faced widespread controversy in Chile mainly because of the large reservoirs that big dam projects require will flood natural resources and cause irrevocable damage. Public approval for the HidroAysén dam remains low, while the project remains stalled in a special regulatory committee.
Presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet said last week at the final Concertación debate that HidroAysén was not a viable option. But a HidroAysén executive, which is owned by energy giants Colbun and Endesa, disputed her statement.
“It’s easy to say no to a project, the point is what is your proposal and so far I haven’t seen any put forth by the candidates,” said Daniel Fernandez, the project’s executive vice president, Monday.
Chile’s energy needs
Indeed, the question of how to solve Chile’s growing demand for energy hangs in the air.
The country faces numerous obstacles to produce sufficient electricity for its mining industry, which is predicted to double in the next eight years. Chile already relies heavily on energy imports with currently about one-third of its power supply from hydroelectric dams. The rail-thin nation stretches across diverse climates: from an arid desert in the north to provinces in the south that see measurable quantities of rain and snowfall each year.
Some stakeholders feel that the public electric highway is one policy solution that can ease the problems. Electric transmission companies like Transelec argue that the reforms under Piñera’s proposal will allow speed up the process for new concessions, which will increase competition, create less congestion and ultimately make the power network more robust and safer.
The intention of the energy highway should be to shuttle non-conventional renewable energy sources that are more readily in the north — like wind and solar — to the south, says Couso. But instead, the government is putting greater emphasis on moving energy from hydroelectric dams in the south to the north.
“The best incentive for such clean energy in Chile is the price, but this suspiciously remains high although there are hundreds of international players wishing to enter the Chilean market, due to three companies,” that have a strong hold on the market, he said, referring to Endesa, Colbún and AES Gener.
Chileans pay among the highest rates for energy prices in the Southern Cone and above average among the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While rich in copper, the country produces very little fossil fuels and is dependent on energy imports. Though the Andean nation stands among the top potential producers of tidal and solar energy, development has been slow.
While increasing competition is essential to driving down the price of energy in the country, it remains unclear what actual effect these laws may have on the energy market.
Necessary reform
Despite the dissension over these legislative bills and how best to meet these demands, what is clear is that Chile’s energy sector is in need of reform.
A relic of Pinochet’s dictatorship, the 1982 Electricity Act transformed the system from a vertically integrated, nationalized utility system to one that remains completely privatized today. Integration was dismantled and the current system is composed of generation, transmission and distribution sectors.
Due to the equally controversial water code of 1981, Endesa, also the majority stakeholder of the HidroAysén dam, controls 80 percent of non-consumptive water rights in Chile.
The consolidation of utilities among a few large companies makes penetrating the market and encouraging competition difficult. One change that is planned as part of Piñera’s energy reform plan is that the state would control the ability to grant concession rights.
While many have long called for the energy sector to be once again nationalized, saying that these companies have too much power, some question the motivation of the government in this plan of reform.
“For the first time, since the dictatorship, the right-wing government is willing to somehow violate the dogma that the whole electrical sector has to be 100 percent private. It’s very curious,” Juan Pablo Orrego, president of the NGO Ecosistemas, told The Santiago Times.
Orrego argues that the government wants greater control in the energy market in order to ensure big dam projects move forward, saying if they control easements, they can sell them to whichever company they choose.
Piñera, though, is a supporter of the HidroAysén dam project.
“The government is trying to eliminate the new obstacles that civil society is starting to put forward against the abuse of the electrical sector,” said Orrego, adding that the public is increasingly becoming more politically active.
“There is a new Chile that is starting to defend its rights in a different way,” he said.
Deadline: July 31st, Wednesday
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Mars rover makes a pit stop in Chile’s Atacama Desert [Freshman]
NASA-funded rover is on a two-week-trial run in the Atacama, searching for microbial life in both the desert’s and the red planet’s soil.
Move over Curiosity, NASA has a new rover headed to Mars. Nicknamed Zoe, the rover is in Chile’s own Atacama Desert for a trial run before potentially undertaking its investigations on the red planet.
Referred to as “the Earth’s harshest climate” by the Zoe Project’s lead scientist, Nathalie Cabrol, the Atacama is a 600 mile stretch of land located off the Pacific coast of Chile. Made up of nothing but sand, rock, salt lakes and lava, it is the ideal place to run Mars-related simulations.
For this particular test, researchers from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will see if Zoe can find signs of life in the Atacaman soil. Zoe, unlike her older brothers currently on Mars, Opportunity and Curiosity, is specifically designed to look for microbial life underneath Mars’ surface.
“Scientifically this study helps us understand how life survives in extreme environments with implications to both Earth and Mars,” David Wettergreen, professor at CMU Robotics Institute told space.com.
The two week trial, which began June 17, is not the first time Zoe has visited the Atacama. Her first test was back in 2005. From that run scientists concluded the rover needed some improvements. “Zoe 2.0” is now equipped with a one-meter drill and a soil analysis program called the Mars Microbeam Raman Spectrometer. It is also considered more independent than previous models.
“Zoe is more autonomous than previous rovers,” Wettergreen explained. “This rover is able to operate for days finding its way from one goal to the next and automatically detecting features of interest that it should examine along the way.”
With these modifications, Zoe was deemed able to begin the mission. During the two weeks, the rover will methodically scan 20-30 miles of the desert. It will follow pre-written instructions about where to go and what kind of samples to scan. After analysis it will take drill samples twice a day.
If everything goes according to plan NASA will send a rover, possibly Zoe, to Mars in 2020.
Check in next week to see The Santiago Times’ exclusive interview with Nathalie Cabrol about Zoe’s performance and other scientific projects in Chile.
Deadline: July 31st, Wednesday
Art exhibition denouncing Chilean dictatorship premieres in Santiago [Sophomore]
More than 100 international works portraying suffering at hands of government repression on display in Chilean capital.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Sep. 11 coup d'etat which deposed Marxist President Salvador Allende and instituted what would become a 17-year military dictatorship under Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Museo de la Solidaridad de Salvador Allende is honoring the milestone with a new exhibit entitled “Imaginarios de la Resistencia (Collective Consciousness of Resistance)” containing more than 100 works denouncing the dictatorship.
As part of a collaborative art project which “symbolically restores the wounds created by the democratic breakdown and repression,” all the works refer to people’s ability to overcome pain and trauma.
Despite its focus on the dictatorship in Chile, the exhibit is a multicultural affair with paintings from Spanish, Mexican, Finish, English, Polish and Chilean artists, among others.
The exhibition is divided into five sections, each of which characterize one aspect of the dictatorship.
The five divisions include violence against the human body, the role of the CIA and Chilean press in fomenting the coup, the flag as an abstract representation of the state, the victimizer becoming a beast and resistance against the dictatorship.
Marisa de Martini, the museum’s communications director, said that the exhibit is relevant to not only Chileans who lived under the dictatorship but also “for anyone who knows what it’s like to live in a dictatorship and feel its repercussions.”
“It’s symbolism that can adapt to almost any other circumstance,” said de Martini. “Any dictatorship, any war can likely have this same representation, it’s universal.”
The exhibition opened on June 26, marking the anniversary of Allende’s birth, and will run until Sept. 1.
Domingo Feria, a new artisan market in Santiago [8th Grade]
A new market has opened in Santiago's Barrio Italia, a pretty barrio within Barrio Providencia.
Domingo Feria brings simple, varied artisan products to the neighborhood, most of which have been designed and produced in Chile.
With stalls set around two large warehouse-style rooms, the products vary from food to textiles and cosmetics.
Laura Adrubau, who was born in Barcelona but now lives and works in Chile, has a stall selling sausages and chorizo. She works for artisan producers, a family run meat-making company, based in Ñuñoa and established in 1945.
A few stalls down is a mouth-watering display of homemade chocolates, including alfajores and bonbons.
"I make them all by hand," chocolatiere Señora Irlanda told chile.travel. "We have a large variety of chocolates, and I also take special requests."
Alongside the chocolates, a stall selling homemade marmalade and jam, as well as honey and olive oil.
Then, moving from sweet to savory, there's a bakery based in Barrio Recoleta which brings its produce to the market each Sunday. This is a bakery with a social conscience; in fact, it was set up by the Centro de Desarrollo Social y Promocion de las Personas Juan Manuel de la Puente, a group that works to help disabled people enter the workplace.
There are 23 employees working at the bakery, a mixture of men and women, all of whom have overcome physical disadvantages to produce tarts, pies, biscuits, empanadas and bread. Not only does this bakery sell delicious produce, but it allows its employees to be independent and self-sufficient, something that otherwise might not be possible.
From food to cosmetics, sitting in the center of the room is natural make-up stall, which sells beautifully wrapped pots of face cream hand-produced in Puerto Varas.
With a climbing frame for children, a coffee stand for adults, and a large range of artisan stalls, Feria Domingo has all the ingredients for a good Sunday outing. What is more, each week brings a different type of entertainment - from singers and musicians to audiovisual displays, there's plenty going on to keep you amused.
A great new addition to the area, it seems certain this weekly market will further strengthen the identity of Barrio Italia, a charming neighborhood known for its boutiques and coffee shops set in courtyards off the main avenue.
Deadline: July 31st, Wednesday
Metal: Chile’s favorite music genre? [7th Grade]
Why the Metro, micros and Santiago’s streets are filled with long hair, leather and Black Sabbath shirts.
Metal, aside from being “a solid material that is typically hard, shiny, malleable, fusible and ductile, with good electrical and thermal conductivity,” is also a type of music, and one that is very popular in Chile. Metal music can range anywhere from simple music with heavy distortion, to incredibly technical and lyrical music — also heavily distorted — akin to classical music.
Created in the 1960’s and 70’s in the United States and Europe, metal music quickly branched off into sub-genres, spanning from thrash-metal to glam-metal, metalcore to death metal, even drone-metal and doom-metal.
In addition to the relatively abrasive style of music, the word metal is also used colloquially as an adjective, in phrases such as “that’s so metal.” The best example of this is Tony Iommi, guitarist for “Black Sabbath”, who, after losing the tips of two of his fingers in an accident at the factory where he was employed, had them replaced with metal finger tips with which he plays guitar. That, indeed, is so metal.
So why is metal so popular in Chile? Why are there so many long-haired people garbed in all black with the words “Metallica,” “Iron Maiden” or “Black Sabbath” on their shirts?
“It has something to do with our past,” says Ignacio Orellana, founder of ChileanMetal.net and original member of New York-based band Pirosaint. “Back in 1987... there was so much control by the police and everything, I think we are always retaining those things we couldn’t have for free.”
Many Chileans are introduced to metal music by their family members at a young age. Two such Chileans, Pablo Bentacour Flores and Nicolás Sánchez-Carvajal, became acquainted with metal music when their elder cousins introduced them to English heavy-metal band Iron Maiden.
“When metal came to Chile, the dictatorship censured it a lot,” says Flores. “The Chilean metal bands formed in the 1980s were completely underground. The style of music is strong and fast, and the mosh pit was a place where the tensions of the 80s could be released. Metal has always served as an escape from the repressive authorities.”
Moshing, the pseudo “dance” of metal music, involves a circle of people pushing and slamming into each other to the sounds of metal music.
According to Sánchez-Carvajal, “many of the most influential bands of the genre come very rarely, some not at all. I think metal is loved here because it was a style of music never heard before in the country, and because metal concerts liberate the individual from their daily routine.”
But, according to Orellana, that’s not the only reason metal music is big in Chile.
“Now [we] have another phenomenon: [those who] believe that 'old' means 'good' and 'new' means 'bad.' All the copycats are now trying to live a life that happened so many years ago, that a few people like myself got to live: going to concerts, being stopped by the police because of your long hair, spending the night at the police station. Now all the newbies have the internet and all the things we never had, plus the police can’t touch them. That is why I believe people today wear those black t-shirts so freely — nobody is judging.”
The most popular metal bands in Chile are, curiously enough, not Chilean. In fact, according to Orellana, aside from the bands Criminal and Dorso, most people here don’t know metal bands with members from their own country.
According to Orellana, there are many Chilean bands that can compete on a worldwide level from a songwriting/production standpoint. But the bands lack “the most important thing of all:” commitment from fans.
Due to the heavily distorted sound, shouted vocals and occasionally disturbing subject matter/band names — Cannibal Corpse, for example — metalheads and metal music as a whole frequently get a bad wrap. Many people think of metal music and its fans as satanic, amoral and just downright weird.
Although this may be true with bands such as Anal Cunt, most metalheads are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Even in the case of Anal Cunt, the incredibly insensitive and downright preposterous lyrics are written ironically, as can be clearly seen in the songs “Ha, Ha Your Wife Left You,” “Hitler was a Sensitive Man” and “The Guy who Shot His Kid up with AIDS is Awesome.”
This misconception about metalheads stems from the origin of metal music, Orellana said.
“[We were] fellas that were always doing the wrong things,” says Orellana. “We were just long haired guys that made noise and got drunk...or at least that was what they thought about us.”
“The thought that metalheads are bad people is an opinion based purely on unfounded prejudice,” says Flores. “The best example of this is the mosh pit. At first glance, mosh pits seem violent, but if you look closer you will find that every time somebody falls, hands appear to lift them back up. To me, that’s fellowship.”
“Most metalheads despise music we consider commercial or empty,” says Sánchez-Carvajal. “There are metalheads who are complete imbeciles, who want to fight everything they come across, but from those I know, they’re generally good people.”
“We can’t deny that there are groups of metalheads who practice satanism. In Norway they’ve burned churches, in Chile they’ve called [the spirits of] people and animals,” says Flores. “To me that is more representative of a mental disorder than a love for music.”
Despite noisy and relatively drunken beginnings, metal music can be as “complex and intriguing as classical music,” requiring metal musicians to be incredibly talented to perform it. Nowadays you can find many metal musicians who also play in orchestras, such as singer/guitar player of ‘Kintral”, Juan Quinteros S.
Musicologist Robert Walser stated in an article written for the ever-informative Grove Music Dictionary that many metal guitarists utilize “chord progressions and virtuosic practices from 18th century European models, especially Bach, Wagner and Vivaldi.” Among the guitarists mentioned by Walser were Eddie Van Halen of “Van Halen” and Marty Friedman of “Megadeth.”
“Heavy metal takes away my stress,” adds Flores. “Sitting down with some friends, having some beers and talking about life while listening to some metal — that’s as relaxing as it gets.”
By Charlie Actor (charlie@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2013 - The Santiago Times
Deadline: July 31st, Wednesday
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