I am learning that Chileans really love to protest, at least the young people do. I hear it is drive by the fact that they (or their parents) grew up under a dictator and now they have free speech and they are going to use it in whatever way they can. And hey, as long as they stay peaceful I say more power to them. I don't really get it but it actually works more than you would think it would.


Remember those dam protests a few months back? Well, the work on the dams was postponed because of protests. I think that is pretty impressive. I guess then Chilean government is one that responds to the voice of the people (or at least the people yelling on the streets) so that is kinda cool.


So the newest protest hitting the streets and making the news is about education. Please do not quote me on any of this because I have asked many people about this many times and I only have a gist of what is going on. It has something to do with the cost of education and the students are not happy about it. They quit going to school a few weeks ago and will not return until they get what they want. This means all students in public schools, high school and college, are on strike. That's right. They stopped going, took over their buildings and are in a waiting game with the governement. The gov promised $4 billion to help releave some of the costs but that was not good enough. I hear another offer will be made this week. Hopefully they agree to it.


I have been told a number of time many of the details of what they want but I just do not understand the educational system here enough to really get it. To me, a university should cost money because that helps the education be higher quality but maybe their universities do not offer much financial aid or something like that. I really just don't know so I am not picking a side but what I do think is sad is the state of the campuses. As you can see from the pictures of the Univ. of Concepcion, they really have taken over and totally messed up their beautiful campus. And even though the students are on strike they are all over the campus, shouting things, and hanging out in their department buildings (the English students invited us to come join them and we could all practice English and Spanish together, nice thought but I don't plan on joining in protest thank you very much).


It is all very fascinating to me and I am very interested to hear the outcome and see if they ever go back to school.