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A verb is in the subjunctive mood when it expresses a condition which is doubtful or not factual. It is most often found in a clause beginning with the word if.It is also found in clauses following a verb that expresses a doubt, a wish, regret, request, demand, or proposal.
These are verbs typically followed by clauses that take the subjunctive:
In English there is no difference between the subjunctive and normal, or indicative, form of the verb except for the present tense third person singular and for the verb to be.
The subjunctive for the present tense third person singular drops the -s or -es so that it looks and sounds like the present tense for everything else.
RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
El subjuntivo en inglés no lleva ‘s’ en la tercera persona singular. Se usa a veces en las oraciones con ‘that’ en un estilo formal para expresar que algo es importante o deseable. Por ejemplo con las siguientes palabras :- suggest; recommend; ask; insist; vital; esencial; important; advice. We recommend that every applicant apply for the job in person. It is essencial that each passenger pass through a security check. My wife and I felt it was vital that Johnny go to a good school: En las frases negativas, ‘do’ no se usa. It was suggested that the government not raise taxes at the end of the year. El verbo ‘to be’ tiene formas especiales para el subjunctivo (I be; you be; we be, they be etc.) The Prime Minister insisted that he be photographed with the President.
PAST PERFECT
Pasado Perfecto (Past Perfect Tense)
El Pasado Perfecto en el idioma inglés es un tiempo verbal que se utiliza para referirnos a una acción que tuvo lugar en un momento anterior a otra acción, aunque ambas hayan sucedido en el pasado estableciendo un orden entre ellas, por ejemplo:
The film had finished when she arrived at the cinema.
La película había terminado cuando ella llegó al cine.
(Primera acción: la película había terminado
Segunda acción: ella llegó al cine)Sarah had prepared dinner when her husband got home.
Sarah había preparado la cena cuando su esposo llegó a casa.
(Primera acción: Sarah había preparado la cena
Segunda acción: su esposo llegó a casa)
Para poder construir la forma afirmativa del Pasado Perfecto debemos utilizar como auxiliar el verbo TO HAVE en Pasado Simple y acompañado por el verbo principal en su Pasado Participio (ya sean verbos regulares o verbos irregulares):
I had bought a new car.
Yo había comprado un nuevo auto.
You had cleaned the house.
Tú habías limpiado la casa.
He had brought the gifts.
Él había traído los regalos.
She had lost the credit card.
Ella había perdido la tarjeta de crédito.
Para formar una interrogación deberemos colocar el auxiliar al comienzo de la oración, luego el sujeto y posteriormente el verbo principal también en Pasado Participio:
Had I bought a new car?
Había comprado yo un nuevo auto?
Had you cleaned the house?
Habías limpiado tú la casa?
Had he brought the gifts?
Había traído él los regalos?
Had she lost the credit card?
Había perdido ella la tarjeta de crédito?
Por su parte, la forma negativa se construye poniendo la negación NOT entre el auxiliar y el verbo principal, por ejemplo:
I had not bought a new dress.
Yo no había comprado un nuevo vestido.
You had not cleaned the house.
Tú no habías limpiado la casa.
He had not brought the gifts.
Él no había traído los regalos.
She had not lost the credit card.
Ella no había perdido la tarjeta de crédito.
También puede utilizarse la forma contraída de la negación colocando HADN’T en vez de HAD NOT.
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
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 PPT - Resume / CV Download
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
