An investigation by the newly founded Chilean investigative journalism and government transparency organization ArchivosChile has discovered documents showing that ret. Gen. Augusto Pinochet was authorized to receive loans of $292 million from the Chilean state from 1977 to 1981. Published on the ArchivosChile website and the Chilean newspaper La Nacion, the article lends credence to suspicions raised years ago upon the discovery of secret U.S. bank accounts that Gen. Pinochet benefited financially from his position as dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1989.

John Dinges, an American journalist and author of two investigative books on Chile, is leading the initiative to explore Law 20.285, known as the Public Information Access Law or Transparency Law, which is similar to the Freedom of Information Act in the United States. ArchivosChile is based upon the model set by the National Security Archives, which uses FOIA laws extensively to obtain and archive historical documents produced by the US Government.

Dinges is the father of the author of this blog.

With these documents, he is seeking to find documents indicating whether money was loaned to Pinochet, and if any of this money was returned to the Chilean state. He is requesting documents from Chile’s Central Bank.

“We are trying to force them to give us that information,” said Dinges in a phone interview. “There is supposed to be an accounting for how that money is spent, and that is what we are going after.”

Loaned hundreds of millions in the 80s unclear if Pinochet returned money

I’ve long been of the opinion that eggs are the perfect food. Of course, I’m not alone in this. It’s a documented fact that a single egg, dense in protein and other nutrients, provides a happy little package of daily requirements of vitamins and minerals including vitamin B, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene, and vitamin E. Scrambled, poached, soft boiled, fried and sunny, boiled and salted-these are just a few of my favorite ways to eat the perfect food. But wait, it gets better; it gets, specifically, it gets farm fresh. And this is the variety we are always treated to at my Macho’s family property in Lago Ranco, Chile. Here the caretakers, Cristina and Aurturo, raise chickens and turkeys free range on the property. Farm fresh and free range eggs have half the cholesterol of the mass produced variety. Their shells are typically brown or blue and their yolks bright yellow to orange; the taste, buttery and magical. Because of this breakfasts at Lago Ranco are exquisite: farm fresh scrambled eggs with fresh baked pan amasado, small white-flour based rolls which, Cristina bakes each morning in her giant wood stove. It doesn’t get much simpler; and trust me, it doesn’t get much more delicious.

Breakfast on the terrace at Lago Ranco: farm fresh scrambled eggs and Christina's amazing pan amasado

A traditional cueca where the dancers are dressed as gausos-Chilean cownboys. The opposite of the cuecas bravas or choras but still pretty cool

We met our good friend Nony last night for an event at the arena he runs: Cumbres Guachacas-a popular Chilean style party that’s touring the country. Guachaca is Chilean slang. Wikitionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/guachaca) defines it as “rascal” but its also used to describe the average guy-like ordinario or tipico-who is perhaps a bit of a rascal. The Cumbers Guachacas celebrate the real Chileanos or in the words of one poster event poster: “somos the envase de cultura…we’re the carriers of the culture” 4,000 people, a whole lot of pisco, cool cumbers and cuecas. Cueca is the Chilean national dance where both partners twirl around each other while waving handkerchiefs. Children all learn and practice it at school and around September 18th, the Chilean national day celebration; they’re paraded out to town squares like ours in Puerto Varas in the best traditional regalia. In these occasions it’s a very cute, quaint expression. This, however, was not what I saw on Saturday night. What I saw Saturday was real, raw and sometimes even sexy. The cueca, when danced by hip, young Chileanos, rivals the tengo for cool factor. It has everything Chileno: the fun, flirting, pride, defiance. After Saturday I can truly say: Viva la cueca!

Check out a more modern adaptation of the cueca here (the English subtitles will give you an idea of its cheekiness): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDeYHVzKW7Q

On Tuesday, minutes after Obama dodged a question about US culpability for the 1973 coup in Chile, the Chilean press pool asks for a photo opportunity with Obama after his press conference and meeting with President Bachelet. They ask him for a photo, he stammers, seemingly in disbelief.  They then proceed to walk outside, almost forget about their own President Bachelet, the Chilean Obama, according to one of great little video by Fox news White House reporter and blogger Anna Siegfriedt.

The assorted prensurri clamored to be around Obama, and say something, anything, like, for example, “You know she is the Chilean Obama,” said one, who I believe is Constanza Santa Maria, from Canal 13 (immediately left of Obama, with short brown hair.”

The comment by the Chilean reporter set off a wave of Twitter comparisons in self-deprecating, and highly revealing irony, and a blog post by Miguel Paz.

“En Estados Unidos se acostumbra que el Presidente se retrate con los periodistas. En Chile, no tanto. En Estados Unidos los periodistas acostumbran a hacerle preguntas difíciles al Presidente. En Chile, no. Esperemos que esta foto sirva de precedente en ambos aspectos,” said Paz in a Gchat today.

SQP is the Chilean E! The Soup Hospital de Talca is the chilean “Hostel” La Torre Entel is the chilean Statue of Liberty

Comparisons ranged from the historical:

Combate Naval de Iquique is the chilean Pearl Harbor

to the culinary:

Randomfull: Sopaipa is the chilean pretzel.

The mystery of who killed famed Communist singer-songwriter Victor Jara seems to be almost resolved, or at least says the compiled judicial testimonies released in Chilean court today and an elaborate recounting of his last minutes by Jacmel Cuevas, writing for Ciper Chile, an investigative journalism site. For the first time a group of officers surrounding his death has been identified. Also, the details of Jara’s last minutes are detailed as is the story of how his body was found dumped outside a cemetery, spirited away and anonymously buried by loved ones. 

It places into doubt previous testimony blaming the death of Jara on Edward Dimter Bianchi.

On September 17th, after four days of imprisonment and multiple sessions of torture in a basement room in Estadio Chile, with a swollen face and fingers fractured by the butt of a rifle, Jara was shot by a low-ranking officer on a round of Russian roulette, with the barrel of the revolver resting against the temple. Jara’s body fell to the floor on its side, convulsing, said José Alfonso Paredes Márquez, an 18-year-old military conscript on guard duty who witnessed the above events and testified to Judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes recently.

Jara’s body was then shot again 43 times by the conscripts there, including by the person who is making this testimony. There were 44 bullet wounds in his body, according to the autopsy.

The ranking officer, Nelson Edgardo Haase Mazzei sat behind an interrogation desk and observed. This is according to the singular testimony of Paredes Marquez, who began his obligatory military service in five months earlier.

Paredes Marquez is currently 55-years-old, lives in the Central Coast region of Chile, and works building houses.

Haase, in testimony, denied that he was present in the Estadio Chile. Testimony of officers and soldiers, compiled by the judicial case and the investigation by CIPER, contradict Haase and place him in Estadio Chile during the time of Jara’s death. The name of the man who first pulled the trigger is not in the Ciper account.

Yesterday, Paredes Marquez was arrested by the Chilean judge. Last year, César Manríquez Bravo, the commander of the Estadio Chile prisoner complex, was arrested for being the responsible officer at the time.

On April 23, 2007, Haase, who owns a company that makes wooden crates for shipping wine, participated in a charity golf tournament in a team made up of other retired military officials. They are pictured below.

Guillermo Garin, Juan Lucar, Richard Quaas, Nelson Haase (not pictured in order)

In a telephone interview with La Nación newspaper Haase declares that he doesn’t like soccer and has never stepped foot in Estadio Chile (now re-named Estadio Victor Jara.) Haase said he was in an undisclosed location in the south of Chile at the time.

En una conversación telefónica con La Nación, Haase desmiente siquiera haber pisado el Estadio Chile.

-Algunos conscriptos lo mencionan a usted como quien dio la orden de asesinar a Víctor Jara en el Estadio Chile.

-Yo nunca estuve en el Estadio Chile y no conozco a ese caballero (Víctor Jara).

-Pero usted sí fue oficial del Ejército.

- Sí, estuve en el Ejército.

-¿Y estuvo en Tejas Verdes?

-Yo he estado en muchas partes.

-¿Y en el Estadio Chile?

-Yo nunca he estado ahí. No lo conozco. Ni siquiera me gusta el fútbol.

-No me refiero al estadio como recinto deportivo, sino de prisioneros.

-Nunca estuve ahí.

-¿Por qué cree que estos conscriptos lo señalan a usted?

-No tengo idea de lo que me habla.

-¿Dónde estaba usted el 15 de septiembre de 1973?

-En el sur.

-¿En qué parte del sur?

-Eso a usted no le importa.

-Seguramente será citado a declarar

-Mire, no sé por qué estoy hablando esto con usted, pero responderé a quien corresponda si es una llamada oficial.

Yesterday, La Nación asked Paredes Marquez a question in the hallways of the Chilean courts, did Haase give the orders. Paredes Marquez nodded his head.

“Si estando en el pelotón que ultimó a Víctor Jara, Nelson Haase Mazzei era quien daba las órdenes, José Paredes Márquez, albañil y obrero de la construcción, asintió con su cabeza afirmativamente.

Haase continued his military career as a confidant of Manuel Contreras, head of the DINA, and was the commanding officer of the clandestine detention center of the “Cuartel Bilbao,” according to CIPER.

Names of officers and soldiers mentioned in article 

comandante (r) César Manríquez Bravo

Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda

Marcelo Moren Brito

capitán David González Toro

capitán Germán Montero Valenzuela

conscripto José Alfonso Paredes Márquez

Nelson Edgardo Haase Mazzei

Rodrigo Rodríguez Fuschloger

Arturo Viveros

teniente Pedro Barrientos

conscripto Francisco Quiroz Quiroz

More Chilean criminals in international news. The party is starting to be over for all these holdovers from the privilege and arrogance of the Chilean military dictatorship. Although in the wonderfully lucrative and innocent business called arms sales thrives in democratic Chile as well and is detailed in the recent article by Miguel Paz for El Mostrador, here.

The Chilean, Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, was a long time associate of the international arms dealer Monzer Al-Kassar who today was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for participating in a plan to sell arms to undercover Drug Enforcement Agents that were to be used to “kill americans in Colombia,” according to the press release.

Al-Kassar was sentenced to 30 years and ordered to forfeit all of his assets. His mansion in Marbella, Spain, el Palacio Mifadil, is currently up for sale for 17.5 million Euros.

Kassar and Moreno were found guilty after a three-week trial culminating on November 20, 2008 of  “(1) conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals; (2) conspiracy to murder U.S. officers; (3) conspiracy to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles; (4) conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the “FARC”), a designated foreign terrorist organization; and (5) money laundering,” according to the release.

“As part of an undercover DEA sting operation, between February 2006 and June 2007, AL KASSAR and MORENO GODOY agreed to sell to the FARC more than 12,000 weapons — including thousands of machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and surface-to-air missile systems, or “SAMs” — along with 2 million rounds of ammunition.”

Moreno, 60, was caught in Bucharest a couple years ago, but had been living in Spain, where he was working for Al-Kassar as a personal assistant for many years, according to court documents and Chilean press reports.

He left Chile “clandestinely” in 1987, according to a short report in El Mercurio newspaper, after accumulating debts related to a money exchange business. Separated from his wife and far from his family his daughter commented to the press, “that it has been a long time since we have heard from him.”

Moreno Ocampo was an agent or assistant to the Chilean intelligence services, the CNI, during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, according to a report in La Nacion newspaper in 2007.

“Moreno, según un ex oficial de la Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) que conversó con LND, fue uno de sus hombres de confianza que trabajó con él en Chile en los años ochenta,” according to the article.

He was introduced to Al-Kassar by a friend of the CNI and of Al-Kassar, Edgardo Bathich Villaroel, in the late 1980s, according to the news report in La Nacion which used a former agent of the CNI as a source.

Bathich is of Syrian origin who met Al-Kassar in the early 80s in visits to their mutual town of origin, according to news reports, and are related by the marriage between distant family members.

Through Bathich is also a web of connections that links the son of deceased dictator of Chile Augusto Pinochet, the brother of a leading right wing politician, the son of the general of the Air Force, and a cousin of Jesus Ochoa Velasquez of the Medellin Cartel, and others to a car parts business, Focus Motors, which was accused of being a front company for a massive cocaine trafficking and money laundering business from 1986 to 1991. Much of this, as well as Al-Kassar’s participation, is detailed in the book Linea Delgada Blanca, or the Thin White Line, by Rodrigo de Castro and extensive articles in La Nacion and by Juan Gasparini. They were ordered to pay 170 million peso fine and serve 200 days in prison for tax evasion and fraud charges.

In 1992 Bathich was caught with a fake passport as a he traveled through a Spanish airport along with Al-Kassar. It was reported that similarly manufactured fake passports were used by the family members of Pinochet to hide their international travel.

Bathich was let go, but Al-Kassar was taken to be processed accused as a financier and arms supplier of a terrorist operation which hijacked the Achille Lauro luxury liner in 1985.

Al-Kassar has also been accused of aiding in the attempted assassination of an Israeli spy, and supply the Somali and Bosnian civil wars with Ak-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, according to an extensive report in the Village Voice in 2007. But until now he has always beat the charges. According to an interview by Aram Roston of NBC news in 2006,

” Kassar told me he became an arms dealer back in the 1970s, when the government of Communist Yemen, a Soviet client state, gave him a diplomatic passport. He shrugged, as if it was all no big deal.  “I’m not here now to remember, of course,” he said. “I’ve worked more that 20 years in the arms business. I have never seen a gun. Believe or not. You go to the ministry, on the catalog, they give us the code or the name: ‘We want ak47’ and we go and sign the ministry.”

Bathich had fled Chile in late 1992 and sought refuge in Al-Kassar’s home, the Mifadil Palace, a 16 bedroom  over 3200 square meters and on a property of 10,000 square meters, guarded by three mastiffs.

The connections between Bathich and the intimate circles of the Pinochet dictatorship are extensive. Bathich even flew a helicopter in a detention operation run by the CNI to capture of leftist militant accused of kidnapping in the late 1980s.

So what’s the point? One, that the web of deep connections between bad guys around the world is legitimate, Two, that the Chileans, products of the military dictatorship of Pinochet were in the thick of it, and Three, that now these guys are going down, like never before.

Do you know the movie The Transporter (I, II and III)? A movie that revolves around an ex-Special Forces guy, his martial arts skills, incredible cars and his ability to drive them, but most importantly his business of transporting things, like money, bodies, human-trafficking objects, drugs, flowers, children…well, anything, without asking questions.

Well, he has an official name, according to Bank Secrecy Act of the United States, a ‘Common Carrier.” It’s not sexy, but when you consider the possibilities of their job descriptions you may get a sense.

According to:

31 CFR B Chapter 1, Part 103—FINANCIAL RECORDKEEPING AND REPORTING OF CURRENCY AND FOREIGN TRANSACTIONS

(g) Common carrier. Any person engaged in the business of transporting individuals or goods for a fee who holds himself out as ready to engage in such transportation for hire and who undertakes to do so indiscriminately for all persons who are prepared to pay the fee for the particular service offered.

I’ll detail for you two cases of “Common Carriers,” Mazza Alaluf and a Colombian in a white shirt and a gold chain that flew in to Calama to fly out a suitcase of recorded tapes of the 11th episode of the Amazing Race, Amazing Race All-Stars.

After the intense whirlwind of the Amazing Race passing through Calama airport and San Pedro de Atacama, there was a problem. The recorded tapes from the multiple fixed cameras, the specialty cameras mounted in the cabins of front-loaders, the eight camera’s following each team member, and the aerial footage from the Cessna; every single recorded moment since they had arrived two days earlier in Chile at four o’clock in the morning, since they had flown to Calama and raced careening through the hard desert, to the garage where 25-foot-high Caterpillar dump trucks and their massive tires dwarfed a dwarf and everyone else, to the largest open-pit mine in the world, into the eroded passages through Valle de la Luna, and finally to the illusive tranquility of San Pedro de Atacama, would be lost if it were not for this Colombian transporter.

He carried a small bag and a medium-sized black suitcase that he handled loosely and lightly as if it were empty as he walked through the customs area that a few days earlier desperate contestants had run through in a dash for their first challenge.

He wore a white shirt and had a gold chain.  He had dark skin and was from Colombia. He didn’t speak much and his movements were deliberate and slow.

Me and another producer took him to our hotel room, where the tapes would be handed over.

His flight out of Calama was at 1:30, two hours after his arrival to the northern part of a country that touches the end of the world.

An entire episode of the Emmy-award winning show, primetime on CBS on Sunday nights, the product of two-and-a-half-months advance preparation, countless cups of coffee and sleepless nights and exasperating fights, not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars and the professional reputation of the producers and the creators, Burt (friend of Jerry Bruckheimer), his wife, and Screetch, would be lost if the transporter did not do his job and safely board the flight with his now-filled suitcase, fly to Santiago, where another flight would take him to Los Angeles to deliver his cargo.

There is a long country named Chile. It ranges North-South more than East-West, over desert, plains, forests, mountains and ice. Many kinds of people fit within its limits, which is explained at the end.

There is also an Islamist group from Somalia called Shabab al-Mujahideen. They do battle with their government to take control and govern according to a radical vision of Islam.

They want to do this in Chile too, according to a news transcript of the channel Al-Jazeera on December 20th.

Reporter: “This is the city of Marka, which is located 90 km from Mogadishu. This is one of the few places controlled by the Shabab Al-Mujahideen, who filled a political vacuum, while they continue to fight in Mogadishu. Shabab Al-Mujahideen controls large parts of the center of Somalia, and they are growing stronger day by day.”

Ibrahim Al-Maqdasi: “We want to inform Bush and our rivals about our real intentions. We will establish Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa, and from Japan to Russia. Beware, we are coming.”

Where in Chile would they begin? I don’t know, maybe Santiago. Maybe they think that they could start with the immigrant groups whose mother countries practice Islam, like Palestine, and try and mimick Che Guevara-like attempts at revolution in Bolivia. A recent photo album email was circulated by the Chilean Victor Abujatum (which came from Karen Garib Bravo) documenting dead and alive children in the war in Gaza.

But that is nothing to really pay attention to when there is entertainment like the Dakar Rally to pay attention to, a thousands of miles race which from its traditional racing grounds in Northern Africa because of terrorist threats was shifted to the mountains and shrubs of Chile and Argentina.

Unfortunately the race stayed in the north after coming from Buenos Aires, to Neuquen, to Mendoza, to Valparaiso, and then up to La Serena and Copiapo, before departing for Argentina for the trip back. Chaleco Lopez is your Chilean to follow in this matter.

Alas, there are other, worthwhile, adventures to follow, like the self-supporting kayaking trip around a portion of Antarctica by Cristian Donoso, a friend, lawyer and explorer from Santiago, who has sprung is expedition career after a 2007 win of the Rolex Award for Excellence which gave him funding and prestige to launch his audacious tests of endurance and planning.

From the ruins of the HMS Wager (1741), just south of the Golfo de Penas, and ancient kayak portage trails of the Kaweshkar people, he has now set off to the Antarctic Peninsula where he will kayak 550 miles without assistance or resupply. Track Cristian’s progress here. From his website:

This trip will be the longest unsupported sea kayaking expedition realized in Antarctica.

First month

During the first month, the expeditionaries will circumnavigate the Anvers and Brabant Islands, first seen in February 1820 by the United States citizen Nathaniel Palmer, on the voyage where he discovered Antarctica. During this first 300 nautical miles stage, we will do a meticulous survey of the North coast of the Anvers Island, barely explored due to its countless rocks, small islands and shallow waters exposed to the open sea, which makes it a dangerous place to incursion in larger vessels. We will also explore the cliffy nooks of Brabant Island, and we will visit the bases, Lockroy, England; Palmer, U.S.A; and Islas Melchior, Argentina.

Second month

On the second month we will explore the Danco coast fjords, as deep as the ice floes allow it, navigating nearly 200 nautical miles between the Chilean base, Gabriel Gonzalez and the Argentinean Primavera base. From that coast – which’s name remembers the unfortunate Lieutenant Danco, from the Gerlache expedition- We will cross to Trinidad Island circumnavigating and exploring its coast until we reach the Mikkelsen Bay, where we will be picked up at the end of February by the Antarctic Dream, to return to the American continent.

During this first month he met up with Jon Bowermaster, a world-class kayaker and explorer who once lived in the south of Chile, the way south.  Bowermaster is on his own Antarctic kayak expedition. You can find more out about the way south in this blog by a woman struggling to find her reasons to persist in the cold, wet and often desolate environs of Patagonia.

Bowermaster told me at one point that his primary interest in exploration these days is seeing:

“what the map of the world looks like early in the 21st century” and drawing attention to rarely reached corners of the earth for those who can’t get there.

“There is plenty of room for adventure for adventure’s sake, and I think we have all done that, but I think it is becoming less and less relevant,” he said. “I mean, how many more times do we need to know about someone climbing a tall mountain? I think it’s a great accomplishment, but it really doesn’t speak to the greater picture.”

What is that greater picture, one might ask?

I can only send you to Henry Miller, the banned author famous for his 1934 Paris-based novel Tropic of Cancer. From his perch drinking coffee or Pernoud on Montparnasse, guzzling wine “like rubies”, or as a cut-rate and sometime drunk copy-editor musing about Matisse and his sculptures that could be found up womens skirts, he railed against the illusions of societal grandeur and the distortions created by  apparent modernity. He craved the animal way, raw and hungry. That might be a lesson for Chile, a country caught between the animal way and the modern way, the fruit stall or the hipermercado, schoolyard blowjobs or an attempted banning of contraception, anarchy or Opus Dei, bicycles or cars, the flowers of the valley or the conquest of the summits.

What was it that Henry Miller called himself? “The Greatest Patagonian alive.” In a nod to the extinct indigenous groups covered in furs who buried their meat in the ground and for warmth kept never-ending fires on the Tierra del Fuego at the end of the earth, and the end of Chile.

(… thanks to The Idler)

In The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945), written after a road-trip across America, Miller continues his assault on modernity: “This world which is in the making fills me with dread… It is a world suited for monomaniacs obsessed with the idea of progress – but a false progress, a progress which stinks. It is a world cluttered with useless objects which men and women, in order to be exploited and degraded, are taught to regard as useful. The dreamer whose dreams are non-utilitarian has no place in this world. Whatever does not lend itself to being bought and sold, whether in the realm of things, ideas, principles, dreams, or hopes, is debarred. In this world the poet is anathema, the thinker a fool, the artist an escapist, the man of vision a criminal.” Consciously in retreat from what he saw as a cancerous civilisation, Miller began to call himself ‘the Patagonian,’ that is to say, a primitive man to whom the taboos and fetishes of modern society seem ridiculous: “We need their paper boxes, their buttons, their synthetic furs, their rubber goods, their hosiery, their plastic this and that. We need the banker, his genius for taking our money and making himself rich. The insurance man, his policies, and his talk of security, of dividends – we need him too. Do we? I don’t see that we need any of these vultures.

Oh, and how long and wide is this country? 2,700 miles (4,300 km) apart at its longest and 217 miles (349 km) at its widest and 9.6 miles (15.5 km) at its narrowest.

Heroic dog tries to save his buddy who has been hit by a fast-moving car in the fast-lane of an six-lane highway. The incident occurred March 23rd 2008, but the video was recently released, according to highway officials. A wave of attention around the world has been attracted by this most “human” of reactions.

Welcome to a dogs life in Chile, the Beat life.

There are thousands of them in Santiago and throughout the country.

Roaming in packs through the city, they have a history of attacking young children and old ladies. They are also sweet and loyal, but it still is not suggested you touch them. They can be mangy, scabied, scarred and limping, not to mention funny-looking. Survival of the fittest indeed. With no leash to speak of, no caretakers, they adopt the characteristics of a pack of orphaned kids, or a bored gang afterschool.

Remember the movie Kids?

They guard their territory, and have rampant sex with large and small, and get stuck, they scavenge what they can, strike up useful friendships sympathetic people, and will sometimes follow you home.

You can identify the leaders, the bitches, the new arrivals and the lame and weak one’s who despite their physical attributes have garnered the loyalty of the bigger dogs, and thus protection.

One identifies bizarre combinations, dachsunds and terriers, big head, small legs, and occassionally purebreds.

They are to some extent adored and given nicknames and protection, as they permeate Chilean society.

One blogger, Carmen Figueroa Cox, writing for the conservative, and “pure-bred” El Mercurio website, has even suggested that “quiltros” be Chile’s country image to reflect Chile’s actual mestizo state, and debunk the absurd pursuit of purity, and thus exclusivity and exceptionalism in Chilean blood lines.

To Aperrar is a verb meaning “to dog it.” It is the closest thing to Beat, as used in On the Road, exhausted to the point of exaltation.

But how did the quiltros get here.

Well, I’d just say it is partially the irresponsibility of  a country with fucked up views of virility and sex, even dog sex. Or at least this is what one person told me.  Male dogs are not castrated because it is inhumane, said one dog owner in a conversation. These male dogs are also allowed to roam the streets at night, only to come home to scraps.

Pet “owners” take minimal care of them and seem to adopt them willfully, but take little care.

Often times it is a question of money. Spaying and neutering cost much money that is often better spent elsewhere.

The Humane Society would still be something that Chileans would associate with victims of torture under the Pinochet regime, not dogs.

In lieu of social norms and any sort of policy to deal with the issue, there are occasional roundups and mass slaughter of street dogs, or quiltros.

In one case the dogs who had staked a claim to the Plaza de la Constitucion, or the Plaza in front of the Presidential Palace, survived a roundup of three years ago. Why? They had the protection of the Presidential guard, literally.

The dogs often have the sympathy of the people, who give them nicknames, like Jonas and Mero, in this fictional account of the above video.

But for those who don’t have this protection, there is mass slaughter (euthenasia), which most recently occurred at the Sociedad Protectora de Animales where the bodies of 30 cat and dogs were found on site. It is alleged that weekly 50 dog carcasses are removed from the site.

See The Clinic for more:

resulting in this:

By coincidence, but with pleasure, I write today that Robert Bolano was a poet who was an author who wrote about poetry but never published it in his books and his book, a debateable magnus opus but certainly intended to be such is for the second year running one of the NY Times top ten books of the year and he chose to name his child Lautaro, who was a Mapuche leader mythologized in Chile like maybe Bolano will be in America and they are united by Nicanor Parra, who wrote that one of the most important four poets of Chile ( there were only two and neither was from Chile ) was from Spain, Alonso de Ercilla, who wrote that epic and descriptive poem about Lautaro, who fended off the Spaniards and gave rise to the myth of the Mapuches who currently in the Chilean countryside, arinconados, they find refuge from police acting upon Lagos-era laws allowing injudicious actions against those too easily classified as terrorists, as well as their own sense of shame for their lack of a normal last name, by the standards of the colonizers who now all have second homes on La Playa.

But what do the Mapuche have (for us)? They have Merquen. They have what we, the huinkas, can consume. Oh, how appropriate. Merquen, per the Miami Herald.

“Merkén is a ground mixture of dried, smoked ají cacho de cabra, a Chilean pepper that looks a bit like the Mexican guajillo, and seasonings that include cumin, coriander seeds and salt. One of my favorite Latin ingredients, this paprika-like blend adds heat, intense smoky flavor, saltiness and subtle aroma to everything from soups and braises to table salsas.”

So yes, stilllifeinbuenosaires, THIS, is a gourmet product from Chile besides wine, in the spirit of the people as the ultimate gourmands, genius and delicacy arising from necessity and availability. Like paprikash in Hungary or the multiple ways Mexican use tortillas and eggs and tomato and chile, the Mapuche have used the toasted chile and spice that all our mothers in the United States, or even in Santiago, ask for from the Chilean countryside when it is available.

See the Miami Herald for their guide to this, new “Chilean treasure,” and its history.

I quote from the end of the article:

“When I use artisanal merkén from the Araucanía, the Mapuche heartland, I am not only keeping the spirit of the ruka and its smoky hearth alive, but also the collective will of a tenacious people who have won the right to live on and leave their mark.”

So, stilllifeinbuenosaires, your question. What else is there that is gourmet in Chile besides wine? It depends upon the packaging, but I would argue that everything that is raw is gourmet. See this NY Times article.

But truthfully, I think that officially wine is the only gourmet item that Chileans have to offer. Why? Because just recently did the local industry decide to propose an appelation system for the regions where their wine is produced.

OH, I can smell the terroir in the morning air!

ps. On this day in Chilean history, Cnn Chile is launched.

ProChile, the country’s office for promotion, has leased a corner of SoHo for a new store named Puro Chile. Apparently it will be about more than fruit, one of the raw elements that makes Chile wonderful, but also, “gourmet Chilean products, distribute tourism pamphlets, and maintain a wine store in the back of the shop.” Wow. exciting.

It is news for me, far from the AIDS/HIV fiasco in which thousands (maybe two) of Chilean’s diagnosed with AIDS/HIV were not informed of their status and thus not prescribed life-extending anti-retroviral drugs, or the release of a secret video  in which a high general states at a cocktail party that,”in these difficult times with our neighbors…any Chilean who enters the country will leave in a coffin. And if we run out of coffins, then we will use plastic bags…”

It is to be seen if Chile can finally, for once in its tortured life, present itself as one in a time in its history where a pluralistic, democratic society is beginning to have meaning.

A country tourism office leases a 1,000 square foot corner for $100 a square foot in one of the hippest neighborhoods in New York City. That is a sign of changing economy, they say. That corner spot, should go to a bank, says Crain’s.

Even a bank is hipper than Chile in Soho.

Chile has a strange, incoherent history with the promotion of itself. Maybe it is because it’s base level of division and insecurity.

A proud country with proud countrymen, it is a fragmented society. I speak not only of Pinochet, but of the feudal and colonial history.

I am not sure that the Basque immigrants lauded by some as the reason for Chile’s current economic success would applaud the Mapuche indian warriors Lautaro (Lef-Traru, in their language Mapundungun, or Speedy Crested Caracara, a falcon-like bird of prey) or Colo-Colo. These were main leaders of the last stand of the Mapuche people who in the late 1500’s rebuffed the Spanish colonialists under Pedro de Valdivia.

Now Colo-Colo is the name of football team that was famously sponsored by Augusto Pinochet, a middle-class military officer who was not part of the landed ruling class.

The immigrants (Basque’s and other Spaniards) and orphans (Bernardo O´Higgins was the bastard child of an Irish-born, Spanish military leader  who would lead the drive for independence from the Spanish in the early 1800’s) would form the first landed elite. Later, British and German’s primarily would form the other immigrant group.

The Indians became marginalized and modern Chile began to grow based on the latifundista system, separated between the patrones and the peones in the fertile valley’s throughout Central Chile.

Wealth and culture were generated in rural areas, and society as we know it was reinforced. Then things moved to Santiago. The Mapuche’s tried to blend in, erasing their last names and shedding their past. The elite secured their hold on finance and society.

What was unique and commonly appreciated by all Chileans is a tough one.

I’m not sure that the sopaipillas or jote would be celebrated by the patrones. Violeta Parra (radical), Gabriela Mistral (lesbian), or Pablo Neruda (Communist) would be cast-off as well.

And then there was Pinochet, who made it all worse.

A divided Chile was solidified and cultural icons became politicized. Chile began to talk poorly of its own country.

Upper class would be disdainful of anything but their class, while those underneath would be enconsced in their lack of opportunity and racism and classism rampant through society.

Would the Chilean go the mountains to appreciate nature, No. Would they celebrate the beach, yes, but calling it cold and rough. Often times a visitor will find the first question posed to be “Why did you come here?” Chileans will often refer to their own country as  ”the ass of the world,” or, “el poto del mundo.”

They say there is no culture here.

Well, the Swedish melodic death metal band The Haunted, doesn’t think so.

According to the lead singer’s blog post about their Friday concert in Santiago, where they played at Rock y Guitarras in Nuñoa,

“I’m exhausted, it’s a couple of hours after the show we just played in Santiago de Chile. How did the show go? It was insane. Really…

“I am so fucking grateful my heart is about to burst. The shows we’ve been playing so far this year have by far been the most intense ever since we started the band back in ‘96/’97. It’s as if the bullshit macho crap that was there for a while at shows we played is gone. It’s unbelievable and so relieving. It’s as if people are finally getting the whole fucking point to this music. To go fucking nuts. To just fucking lose it and let all the tarblack fucking ugliness out and be fucking done with it; TOGETHER. An hour and a half of sheer undiluted fucking release. I surrender to this completely.”

Oh, and the old Chilean tourism logo and jingle, a product of an expensive research campaign that didn’t seem to have asked anybody whether they actually liked the final product:

“Chile: All Ways Surprising”

huh?

Lots of news this weekend.

Most newsworthy is the article in The Washington Post by Colum Lynch reviewing Heraldo Munoz’s forthcoming book. He was the senior Chilean diplomat, now Chilean U.N. representative, who carried out Ricardo Lagos’ anti-Iraq War missive, and in the process got pressured to hell by President Bush and his minions.

An insider’s take on the spearhead of the U.N. opposition to the Bush war titled, “A Solitary War: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons.”

“‘In the aftermath of the invasion, allies loyal to the United States were rejected, mocked and even punished’ for their refusal to back a U.N. resolution authorizing military action against Saddam Hussein’s government, Munoz writes.

But the tough talk dissipated as the war situation worsened, and President Bush came to reach out to many of the same allies that he had spurned. Munoz’s account suggests that the U.S. strategy backfired in Latin America, damaging the administration’s standing in a region that has long been dubious of U.S. military intervention.”

Secondly, Wayne Bernhardson, formerly the Lonely Planet travel guidebook writer for the Southern Cone who now has his own guidebook, Moon, now has a blog about South America. He knows a lot, and it will be interesting to see what he really thinks about Chile on his travels. He has just crossed the border, inexplicably (hehe) missing Parque Andino Juncal, and went Los Andes, where he compared the landscape to California.

Lastly, according to the Guardian Observer James Bond will use Chile to look like Bolivia in flick Quantum of Solace, which is set to open in October. Secrets out and the Chileans must be indignant.

Imagine that, good production environment, professional production staff…blissful for production, but wait, there is a catch. These extras, and the locations, are meant to be Bolivia, not Chile.

Maybe they will have to acknowledge that, well, dark, side of their heritage. That Aymaran indian side.

According to the story only short and dark people are being cast for a multiple day, and multiple million dollar shoot. It’s also another instance of why its ok to laugh at the Chilean film and television production scene and Chile in general. They get punk’d because its so easy to punk Chileans. Their identity is a sham and it will take snafus like this one to get people to rethink their indigenous and Chilean roots that have for so long been squashed and scrubbed in their mind’s eye. That’s my cheap shot for the week.

Picking up on the what-its-like-to-live-and-survive-in-Chile-as-a-foreigner conversation over at Don Güill’s Chile blog C.hileno this is an incredible opportunity to feature the excellent short “docu-fiction” by up and coming documentary filmmaker and editor Anthony Rauld about life and love in Chile. Anthony’s newest documentary, created by Lauren Rosenfeld, is about life and water and a big gold mine called Pascua Lama in the Atacama Desert, “Watershed.”

Part II can be found on YouTube here.

Monocle magazine in its recent issue 8, Volume 1, declares that the architectural debate over the future of the burnt down Diego Portales building, a legacy to when gray architecture brought together Allende (who had it designed and built) and Pinochet (who placed the governing Junta’s offices within it). The gray days of fascism meet the gray facade of socialism. It’s a cute mention, but short. Im thinking they reacted to the letter to the editor posted by the architect of the phenomenally ugly building which ruined the Lastarria neighborhood, in El Mercurio late August. A copy of the discussion in El Mercurio about the debate over the future of the building can be found at the blog Plataforma Urbana here.

Los Detectives Salvajes by Roberto Bolano, and translated by Natasha Wimmer, has been named one of the ten best books of the year by the NY Times. NYC (James Wood) , in a review, is all over Bolano’s junk, as is the guy who commented to me about the cool yellow and black hardcover underneath my arm as I got on the train. On the day of its publication the article was the most emailed article of the NY Times website. Im reading it right now. Its cerebral, and he likes poets. Go Arturo. The book is a “clever autobiograhy” that seems to be about visceral realists roaming Mexico City, Paris, Barcelona, having sex and doing some mild drugs…and reading/writing/talking poetry. Was also in top five of WashPost..a fact which El Mercurio was so sharp as to pick up, despite that the relevance of a WashPost book review for fiction is significantly less than that of NYT. Dumbasses.

Speaking of the WashPost, Don Guill, writer of the Chile blog C.hileno, published a short article in the Spider (you know, like Google technology) blog section this past weekend. This time Sebastian Pinera, principal share owner of airline LanChile (which recently put in an order for like 30 or so Boeing’s, for $1.5 billion over 5 years) is serious about running for President of Chile. So serious that he even got himself a Facebook profile. Oh, digital life. What is next, a Second Life avatar? Not far fetched I’d argue. So, which do I highlight, the Washpost article, or Will’s blog entry?

I was in Penn Station killing time going from the ebony skin mags to other things and found ANOTHER story on Nomads of the Seas I think it was GQ, late in doing a story about the luxury fly-fishing operation in Patagonia. Read about the concept, heli-fishing, in Portfolio (April 2007) The service offers helicopter transport to remote lakes and streams in the Chilean Patagonia, as well as Jet Boat and Zodiac motoring. My draft blog entry was written and never finished like six months ago, when the specialty magazines (luxury/fishing) wrote about it and I checked out the spelling error plagued and khaki/ olive green themed website by Leo Prieto. The fancy, custom boat, for the fancy custom (or self-made?) clients cost $22 million dollars. The original crew are ex-military folks (are they ever ex-military?) including a former bodyguard for Pinochet. I think he is a different generation and was not a part of the real nasty stuff, just the regular nasty stuff.

The WashPost did another blog post, about call girl Maria Carolina , who donated a days worth of labor (about USD$5000)…all 27 hours of sex, to the Teleton, a famous charity telethon for disabled kids which mobilizes all of Chile around Mario Kreutzberger (famous host of Sabado Gigante and now producer of a movie called Testigos de Silencio about his Jewish heritage (google Elissa Strauss shortly)).

“I’ve already auctioned off the 27 hours of love,” Maria Carolina told Reuters on Wednesday, saying she had raised about $4,000. “One of my clients already paid. It seemed like a good deed to him.

It is normally a family affair. Check out the comments on the WashPost blog.

What they do in the Chilean press, instead of writing about the erratic leadership style and disapproval of Bachelet (November 34.2% approval, 44.2% disapproval), is publish first-person narratives about an author’s first time with a dildo, in this case, Sally Sea (diámetro: progresivo hasta 4 cm. en la base), provided to her by a gringa named Japi Jane the sex shop Sexy in the City in Santiago. Thank God for America.

Oh, and in the real basement of this commentary is news that El Mercurio has teamed up with el Instituto Chile-Norteamericano for translation services for an english language wire service contribution. What is most revealing is that once translated from Spanish to English, you realize the extents to how lame-culo El Mercurio is of its subject-friends, or the opposite for its enemies), like for example in business. Or maybe this is just the nature of the translators..who knows. Maybe I’m being unfair.

The way, way basement…always the best stuff, is that Stuart Copeland, drummer for The Police, made a sexist comment about the two female president’s of South America, Cristina Kirchner, recently elected Presi of Argentina, and our Michelle Bachelet of Chile, recently featured as a banner on the Columbia University Website.

The joke had to do with beer goggles…yikes…two beers for President Kirchner and four beers for President Bachelet. Sounds like a drunk comment from the dressing room. (remember that Sting song about the disappeared ones…he actually goes way back (to the ’80s) with Chile and human rights)

And if you got this far, I might as well as put in some real news, that Bachelet, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Lula of Brazil will have a meeting…It was to be this upcoming Tuesday, but apparently has been postponed by Lula for internal reasons, according to La Nacion (of Chile). This is truly an interesting meeting, basically because Chavez isn’t invited. I hope it happens. Also, follow the Wall Street Journal coverage of Chavez and Latin America…those writers are fucking crazy, I think. It also comes on the cusp of the voting for the Asamblea Constituyente, and the visit to the US by a bunch of representatives…wait..a visit the OAS and the UN by four conservative state representatives (crucial for voting) asking for intervention, and according to Evo Morales statements, help in rescuing their homeboy, ex-president Sanchez de Losada from a genocide charges in court. See this La Nacion article

Shit is going down in Bolivia…Hey look, Global Voices to the rescue, in a country where there is coverage by bloggers. READ THIS RUN DOWN OF BLOGS IN BOLIVIA DESCRIBING LA GRAN CAGADA QUE ESTA PASANDO ALLI.

I reduce (like in cooking) one editorial comment by WSJ this past week, on A20 of the Dec. 3rd edition, by Mary Anastasia O’Grady, titled…”

If a Democracy Falls in the Andes…

” But further south in Bolivia, where Chavez ally President Evo Morales has been trying to consolidate power in a similar fashion, democracy took an even more direct hit last week.

…Earlier this year on Bolivian radio, Mr. Morales said that he was taking Fidel Castro’s advice to avoid an armed uprising and instead “make transformations, democratic revolutions, what Chavez is doing.”

…So last week his government moved to resolve the problem by employing the military, the national police and paramilitaries to physically block elected members of the opposition from entering the constituent assembly in Sucre and the national legislature in La Paz — so that it could push through its centralizing agenda.”

…These events didn’t get much international attention, but they signal that the government has decided to accelerate its accumulation of power in La Paz through the use of force. It is said that Mr. Morales’s vice president, Alvaro Garcia Linera, is heading up this project and this doesn’t bode well for democracy. The upper-middle-class Marxist of European extraction from Cochabamba has a record of leading “armed struggle” in indigenous communities that goes back decades. All indications are that the tiger has not lost his taste for brute force.”

…mention of Ahmadinejad visit to La Paz.

“…Thirty years later Bolivia’s potential to destabilize remains.”

…The U.S. ought to also be concerned about the tinder-box issue of poverty. Mr. Morales has used this misery — and his indigenous background — to rally support for his socialism….a retrograde experiment.”

…This then is the “democracy” of Mr. Morales and Mr. Garcia Linera. It’s hardly surprising. Their power came about illegitimately, with dynamite and road blocks that brought down two elected governments. In the short run, Bolivians may have no recourse. But a good first step from the international community would be a recognition that the democracy has been struck down, even if no one heard it fall.”

Chilean Cinema has come to America…kind of.

A respectable showing of films made in Chile is at the Quad-Cinema on 13th St, in a neighborhood where Bar Six is, where I met the guy who imports Los Amantes mezcal (like tequila, except smoky, more hallucinogenic and if poor quality, a worse hangover).

It is here, one block from the lefty New School, where selections from the whole gamut of Chilean filmography will be displayed from the 9th to the 14th. Most of the contemporary films are from around 2005, when it seemed like Chilean film had woken up from years of forcefully induced sleep and was prepared to open its eyes and speak again. We are still waiting for what else it has to say. Chileans at the New School for a loose conference with Bize, Lelio and Wood talked about their films in the film festival. Bize and other Chileans there, including Jeronimo Rodriguez, a Chilean film critic at NY 1, gave me the indication that there is, in fact, a new and upcoming crop of youngsters with much to say. It may be a simplistic indicator…but just go to YouTube and check out Chilean 15 year olders on film.

Films from past include the recently retouched version of the film by Miguel Littin, El Chacal de Nahueltoro, to Patricio Guzman, who I love to hate because its just so simple, with La Memoria Obstinada, and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Fando y Lis, his first feature film. Also, Silvio Caiozzi, who I know nothing about.

Contemporary offerings include portrayals of the under-thirty, Post-Pinochet, film-making world by Matias Bize with En La Cama (originally shown in 2006 at the MOMA) and Sebastian Lelio (Campos) Sagrada Familia.

La Sagrada Familia was written up by the New York Times with lukewarm but positive results, and the Village Voice with destructive results. Both of these folks and their generational counterparts, which include Alicia Scherson of Play (who is doing a take on a Roberto Bolano story), were fawned over by the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema back at the Valdivia Film Festival of 2005, when they all were screened publicly. Bize just one a couple awards at Valdivia for his new film Lo Bueno de Llorar.

Also, see Padre Nuestro, by Rodrigo Sepulveda, which I know nothing about, but was selected by the Chilean film industry to be the official selection to the Oscar foreign language film category.

Also the documentary by Maria Elena Wood, La Hija del General, which tracks Chile’s first female president from a year out of the election. It’s like a film write-around, like Guy Talese’s profile of Frank Sinatra! For the first four months of filming the director was denied all but public access to her subject.

The history of the family, the director has said, is like the history of Chile of the past forty years. A valuable portrait by the journalist sister of Andres Wood, the director of the film, Machuca.

Prolific, sardonic, witty, now less reactionary and increasingly, experienced, Mr. Sherman’s blog is mysteriously called Chileno. Hailing from the West Coast, this lad settled in Chile for just under two years and has made a life of himself here. Now his blog has been nominated for the Best Latino, Caribbean or South American blog of the 2007 Weblog Awards. I say vote for C.hileno.

Part of his life is his blog. Part of his blog is his life. This is good for his readers, a mix of international travelers (both dumb and informed), expats (spammers and non-spammers alike), lurkers, other generation folks with a past connection to Chile and increasingly, Chileans. This is both a resource site and an opinion site. Its a place to try and get a feeling for what the hell is going on in Chile. Lots of good use of photo and video. Seriously.

His sharp and fired-up commentary will take you to an understanding of Chile far beyond whatever you could glean from the tired rehash regularly found at The Santiago Times or always found with expat bloggers who try to sell real-estate (not like Kylie, who is recently married.)

But, tread lightly on the spider’s web. C.hileno loves his readers for their light and their dark, their opinion and their misinformation. Chile is a paradise of misinformation and half-baked thinking and Chileno sees the low-hanging fruit.

Words are his life-force and Will loves a good argument.

He pounces mercilessly upon the legions of jack-asses unwitting enough to realize that Will’s combined powers of the pen and the mind have both greater endurance and logical coherency than most. He is an educated, literate and a skeptical gringo in a hate/love relationship with Chile. He is a far cry from a knee-jerk liberal romanticist whose understanding of Chile is based on human rights protests in the 1980’s, a love of arpillera’s and Salvador Allende. Or, alternatively, those who like to read in the classroom about democracy in transition, human rights protests in the 1980’s, a love of arpillera’s and Salvador Allende. His literacy and now-life experiences are reflecting a more complex understanding of Chile.

He does have a deep sense of social justice despite having occasional trust issues with the service industry. C.hileno touches regularly upon the great inequalities and injustices in Chilean society. He backs them up with information and statistics and occasional interviews with players (which he should do more often.) that you would probably be too lazy to find yourself. And when he is too lazy to find it, then he’ll ask you to help.

Sherman is also a very good writer, so even if you find his content reactionary, frivolous, uninformed, naive or spammy, its still very entertaining.

Take for example his recent post and commentary on the school-yard blowjob video later posted on Youtube, Wena Naty. Where else would you get a discussion on the Gini coefficient spinning off of a Wena Naty post?

In my closest flirtation with spam in my life, Vote for C.hileno in the 2007 Weblog Awards, for the best of the nominated blogs in Latin America.

Although, I mean it, and I write what I mean.

As a small child vacationing in Vina del Mar, Chile, bus rides were the highlight, especially when surrounded by strange people speaking in a language you couldn’t understand. And then imagine you are only 4 ft tall hanging onto the horizontal steel bar as the bus driver accelerates for green lights, whips around corners and maxes out their hydraulic brakes with quick exasperating releases of pressure for a possible passenger or a particularly daring car cutting in front, the feeling is like that of one on a rollercoaster, or a moving version of the monkey bars (except in this case you just chicken fight with the shrunken old lady whose head is unfortunately at the level of your sneakered feet).

One swings from left to right, front and back, until your arms can’t hold on anymore.

Similar experiences were to be had on the yellow micros of Santiago, which hurtled at incredulous speeds in amazingly poorly maintained buses down Providencia towards Santiago centro. Their shocks were worn out making the bus sway and lean with even subtle steering adjustments. One futily looked out the windows, only to encounter scratches insignias and cracks. Although one time the window was clean as I hurtled around a roundabout, or circle, looking out the

window to a girl doing the same thing from a bus running parallel around the curves. Our eye contact and smile at 40 miles an hour, in synchronous and vulnerable passage on those buses, made me think I was in love. Other times a time buses broke down, warning passengers of their engines impending demise by emitting that foul smell uniquely associated with the heat generated by unlubricated metal rubbing together.

Glaring fluorescent lights cast contrast (creating intimate spaces) upon dingy interiors and tired workers, drunk revelers from Avda. Suecia, young wealthy girls venturing from hillside homes to the flats of the dangerous and daring party neighborhood of Barrio Brasil or the club Blondie, flaites, recently released (escaped?) poet-bards from the looney bin (la Perrera I think) in Cajon del Maipo and a friendly manicurist from Maipu with diva-like jet black bangs who gets off at my stop.

Josh Cohen, the director of Microfilia, take viewers on similar turns in his docu-fiction of life on the yellow micro-buses, or Micros, of Santiago. Only someone as consistently desquiciado, absurd and observant as this 11 year resident of Santiago could do a film that does justice to the extremes of the former Chilean bus system, premiering at the Santiago International Film Festival Wednesday, 22:25 pm, Thursday August 16th, at 6:20 pm, at the Showcase Parque Arauco and Saturday, August 18th at 10:35 pm. He is also a cameraman by trade and so the sensation of hurtling buses through the darkness is aptly captured. But don’t believe me. You can also believe the La Nacion article of Santiago, which previously included this film as one of the top ten reasons to go to the Sanfic festival.

A product of Washington DC public schools and a politically-minded family, Josh came to Chile in 1996 inspired by Rodrigo Rojas, the 18 year old photographer and child of exile from Wilson High School who was burnt alive by Chilean police when he was covering a protest in 1986.

“The american Nehoc Davis suffered a true shock upon arriving to Santiago de Chile in 1996 to see the yellow “micros” barrelling through Santiago streets at unbelievable speeds. He knew immediately that he would make a film that reflected this craziness, which was confirmed when he got on a bus driven by a 15 year old girl. Initially developed with the now-deceased screenwriter Jaime Capo, this film is a mix of documentary and fiction, filmed with a minimal budget in 2003, when Transantiago had not yet revolutionized the public transportation system in the Chilean capital. This work documents a night in the life of Isabel, the 15 year daughter and niece of bus drivers who learned to drive when she was eight years old. While she is driving a curious range of nighttime passengers travel with her, as on any night in Santiago, as she battles the regular attacks of the “Correcaminos,” the most dangerous driver in Santiago. Its Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth meets Third World Globalization.”

Also, lets not forget about the excellent performance by actor Julio Briceno, star of various famously funny commercials in Chile, like the following:

And Chileans go crazy…well some of them. This is a clash of generations, of conceptions of democracy, of class and of course monopoly and emerging markets.

On first glance, the agreement, signed on May 9th, 2007, provides an official platform of voluntary cooperation between Microsoft Chile and the Chilean government to provide software licenses (in perpetuity), knowledge and training to areas of Chilean civil society ranging from internet tracking technology for cybercrime detectives to Municipal Governments to Small and Medium Businesses.

It is interestingly enough the first time of seeing this sort of critical discussion, organization, anger, resentment and anti-imperialistic-like attitude from the normally “receptive” (sedated) Chilean public. But, it is not the first time that public policy, or decisions with potential impact on many, has been created and implemented by a few and behind the closed doors of the elitist democracy of Chile in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Transantiago, the country’s highway concessions and the Celulosa Arauco (President’s Lagos and Frei, respectively) express approval come to mind. The surprise is that it comes with populist Socialist president Michelle Bachelet who has shown sensitivity to citizen demands.

It was apparently signed with no previous consultation with the public and outed in Congress by documents acquired in June by Senator Alejandro Navarro, a controversial and increasingly celebrated (Las Tejas, August 30th) Senador “Discolo” who has had his finger on citizen’s issues, from former Chilean soldiers trapped in indentured servitude by military contractors in Iraq to environmental abuses to technology issues. But, he is also known for directly plagiarizing a Wikipedia entry on nanotechnology for a legal brief submitted to the Chilean Congress.

The implications of the agreement are being debated now in the Chilean blogosfera and in Chilean print. I wonder what “gobierno ciudadano” means now for the President Michelle Bachelet and the minister who signed the agreement, her Minister of Economy, Alejandro Ferreiro. Here is their press release trying to calm the waters of malinformation. Microsoft has actually had interviews with bloggers to clear things up, which has added greatly to the discussion.

I quote from El FrancoTirador’s, interview, a blog whose comment lists on these posts frequently have hundreds of comments.

3.2) ¿De quién fue la idea originalmente? (Whose idea was this originally?)

“Del Gobierno, que ya tenía planes de avanzar en la creación de una “identidad digital”, afirma Martín. “It was the Government’s, who had already been planning the creation of a “digital identity,” affirmed Martín Karich, chief of public relations for Microsoft Chile.

3.3) ¿Qué gana Microsoft ofreciendo este servicio? (What does Microsoft gain by offering this service?)

“Aunque a veces me trae problemas decirlo, lo que hacemos es expandir el mercado. Se crean más usuarios”, asinceró José Antonio Barriga. “Although on occasion it brings me problems upon saying it, what we do with this is expand the market. It creates more users,” stated Jose Antonio Barriga, National Director of Technology (Microsoft)

According to a read of the 9 page agreement, and official M’soft statements almost 3 months after the official signing, the decision to go with Microsoft does not obligate the Chilean government to go with Microsoft, but facilitates and encourages its usage. The Chilean government structure becomes the host for Microsoft and its various products and creates govt and industry (Msoft) collaborations. For example, there are 8 points in the agreement in which the Chilean government is to provide financing for tech initiatives co-sponsored with Msoft.

Bloggers in Chile have decried the decision as being made my 40 year olds who did not grow up with technology and thus do not understand the real implications of this Microsoft decision. El FrancoTirador (The Sniper, or Sharpshooter) put it like this, “How to explain to your folks that the agreement with Microsoft is bad for Chile” Others simply point to a total lack of open discussion or debate on the issue.

While it seems that this is a valid opportunity to make a big jump in improving software and gaining technological literacy across broad various sectors of society, I wonder if the Chilean government actually held intelligent deliberation on this topic. They are reported to have a open source policies in the works before this agreement.

But, did they seriously consider the legions of municipal and national governments big and small around the world which are evaluating and mostly “migrating” to open-source software, from Haryana, India to the national government of Brazil (go Lula!) to the United States Department of Transportation, which decided in March 2007 to “place a moratorium on all in-house computer upgrades to Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system, as well as Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007,” according to internal documents secured by the tech online magazine Information Week?

El Diablo en Los Detalles cites a published opinion from the Que Pasa magazine in a more comprehensive discussion:

El Dr. Osorio insiste en que el acuerdo no implica que el Estado este obligado a usar productos Microsoft. Este punto hay que concederlo, porque nadie le está poniendo una pistola en la cabeza a nadie. Por supuesto (y esto el autor debe saberlo bien), el asunto es más sutil: si una pequeña municipalidad tiene que elegir una solución para un portal en la red, y el Gobierno esta promocionando un producto de Microsoft: ¿Esta seriamente el Dr. Osorio sugiriendo que la dicha Municipalidad no usará esa solución?. Lo mismo aplica a otros puntos del acuerdo.

The El Mercurio internet site and corresponding blog has an interesting discussion here.

Truth Happens, a tech blog of the open-source software house Redhat is monitoring the issue in English.

Movimiento Liberacion Digital is an organization angrily set up to monitor this agreement:

El Movimiento de Liberación Digital es un proyecto chileno, sin fines de lucro, que surge como respuesta a la incómoda sorpresa que significó descubrir el acuerdo firmado por el Ministerio de Economía de Chile junto a Microsoft Corporation el 9 de Mayo de 2007. Una iniciativa conjunta de un masivo grupo de internautas, que se sostiene en base a un esquema de trabajo colaborativo y voluntario, y que responde a la urgente necesidad de alertar, de informar, y denunciar aquellas decisiones que ponen en riesgo el desarrollo tecnológico de nuestro país…

…Nuestra misión es ser partícipes del proceso de toma de decisiones en materia de tecnología de Chile.

Global Voices Online has made their customary summary of some of the internet reactions, and has interesting commentary by Chileans.

Here is a brief look at the agreement:
El interés de Microsoft Corporation y Microsoft Chile, manifestado permanentemente a través de sus personeros, en el sentido de contribuir al desarrollo económico local a través de diversos programas sociales y herramientas tecnológicas que se ponen al servicio de la ciudadanía.

El Incremento de eficiencia que tienen las alianzas publico privadas como motor de generación de mejores oportunidades y alternativas en la búsqueda de soluciones tecnologías concretas a problemas en materias de inclusión digital, educación, Seguridad informática, Seguridad personal en la red y demás que se abordan en el presente acuerdo.

En consideración a lo anterior el Ministerio de Economía, por una parte y Microsoft Chile y Microsoft Corporation, por la Otra, han convenido el siguiente acuerdo de colaboración

For example:

c) Municipio Digital

c.1.- Microsoft se compromete a entregar el uso no exclusivo del código fuente de su solución de desarrollo de portales municipales y los aceleradores para la personalización de los mismos, para que los gobiernos locales puedan desarrollar portales que les permitan relacionarse con la Comunidad.

c.4.­ Microsoft conjuntamente con socios comerciales de desarrollo de aplicaciones, se compromete a desarrollar una serie de aplicaciones para modernizar tecnológicamente a los municipios, que incluyan aplicaciones financieros-contables, dirección de obras, tránsito, recaudaciones, salud y educación, Microsoft se compromete a contar con al menos dos soluciones y socios comerciales, de forma de tener alternativas de proveedores.

They cite The School of the Future, as an innovative example.

Duncan MacVicar, posted one of many great commentary on the El Mercurio site. My emphasis.

Respondiendo al comentario de Miguel Carrasco A.

Su comentario solo coloca una arrogante serie de siglas de cursillo rápido de e-business para ejecutivos, sin dar fundamento alguno, intentando insinuar que quienes se oponen a este acuerdo son solo gente ignorante.

Solo quisiera recordarle algunas cosas:

- No subestime a nuestros jóvenes. Muchos de los que han alzado la voz son pioneros en la cultura digital, y por ende, saben como decisiones como esta afectarán el desarrollo tecnológico local, que debe ser abierto y dominado por las pymes.
- Microsoft no es la única compañia que es capaz de ofrecer plataformas de e-goverment. Noruega lo hace con software libre, Alemania también. En realidad, Brazil, toda Europa y Asia. (http://news.com.com/2100-1001-272299.html )
- Microsoft no merece ningún trato especial para obtener 15 millones de clientes sin licitación alguna. Esto fue un compadreo.

Y ya sabemos lo que viene contra el software libre: terror y desinformación, utilizando temas como la propiedad intelectual, impuestos, etc, para convencer a la gente que no entiende. En vez de generar tecnología local y fomentar la creatividad e investigación.

La decisión es una verguenza. Y la campaña desinformativa de la ACTI (que por coincidencia tiene en su directorio al Gerente de Microsoft) lo es aún más.

Posteado por:
Duncan Mac-Vicar P. (Julio 24, 2007 02:59 PM)

Commentary by Miguel Carrasco A.

A aquellos que están en contra de este acuerdo….saben algo de:
TIC’s..???
Sociedad de la Información..??
e-bussines…??
e-government..??
antes de dar una opinión sin fundamentos…..favor informarse un poco más….!!!

Posteado por:
Miguel Carrasco A (Julio 24, 2007 02:24 PM)

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte is dead now.

The notorious dictator ruled for 18 years from 1973 to 1989. Now the international news media has swept in from around the world to cover the massive heart attack suffered by Chilean retired general and Dictator Augusto Pinochet this past Sunday. It was a huge event in Putin’s Russia, where Pinochet had been idolized for putting in place an economic turnaround (see page 5). CNN had a red alert header across its web site, said one supporter, one of thousands outside the Escuela Militar in the upper-middle class neighborhood of Las Condes. Another said that El Pais of Spain was doing a biased spread on the life and times and that the Miami Herald had put it on the front page. El Mercurio had the Times of London link to complement their coverage and all the faithful were broadcast around the world supporting the person whom they believe saved Chile from Marxism, Civil War and economic ruin. Pinochet’s mourners lined up for hours to see his body, demonstrate their faith and defend his legacy.

Pinochet was the figurehead of the military coup which violently destroyed the longest running democracy in Latin America. It all beganon the 11th of September, 1973, stayed in power for 18 years. In the process he cleaved families, personal identities as well as a national identity. The numbers are numbers, “only” 3000 killed in an “efficient” extermination of the “escoria” propagated by Castro and Salvador Allende. 30,000 people, according to last years official government Valech Report, were tortured.

I was in the desert north of Chile when he first experienced the throes of death, a week before his actual death. I started asking questions.

Everyone has an experience. Some people talk about it directly, and frankly, like Juan Carlos, a twice daily shuttle driver between the mining town of Calama and the increasingly tourist resort of San Pedro. He tells of when he found himself drinking with an older family friend a while back and noted his stubby fingertips. They had been separated by many years and so he asked what happened, what was his story? All his nails had been lifted with the insertion of bamboo stakes in torture brought by Pinochet and DINA henchmen. Another driver listening on the edge of the conversation interjects, and says that around Calama rumour goes that the bones of the “detenido desaparecidos” detained and disappeared, are underneath the inches thick concrete and asphalt tarmac of the Airport.

3 hours away, in the desert oasis of San Pedro, Fabiola Lopez has dreadlocks, is openly lesbian and her 5 year old daughter builds (mud) sand castles in the dusty street in front of the 15 bikes to rent for the Germans, French and American tourists. She talks about Pinochet and she talks about her Catholic Church upbringing, stories that her refrigerators were always full during the tightest times during Allende and impunity. She went to the school with the sons of Pinochet’s brother she says, growing up body surfing the waves of the Chilean Central Pacific Coast. They liked cocaine, flaunted their last name and were let off the hook by local police upon infraction of the law.

“The death of Pinochet will mark the end of an era.” Karen is a friend of Fabiola’s and a short, powerful and dark massage therapist from San Pedro (who “has seen seen more famous asses than you would believe.” Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, along with other Hollywood big hitters, have passed through). “It will mark the end of the patriarchy.” Her landlady hid mine unionists from Calama in her home, like in the Underground Railroad, except in vain. Police ferreted them out quickly in the small town.

Operación Retiro Televisores, or Operation Remove Televisions, in which members of the Pinochet police services dug up the bones of executed political prisoners to dump them in the ocean from helicopter, or otherwise hide their whereabouts has a memorial in the desert. Juan Carlos can see it each way on his shuttle drive, 70 yards away from the road in the remarkably barren desert, a tall cross rising above an encircling fence.

The sign on the side of the road says “Memorial.”

The craziest thing is that the Chilean brown, or the less white, idolizes the white of the public sphere, whereas there is a lot more, I think, “brown power” as it were, in other countries where the indigenous population maintained its identity. I wonder where the dark-skinned  Gabriel “Gato” Gaspar, former Defense Minister, stands on this issue. I wonder how Benito Juarez, a dark-skinned indigenous president of Mexico came to power and stayed there for five terms from 1858 to 1872

Chileans aspire to be white, because white is supposedly better and “richer.” Im not sure where people got this idea.

Is cuico status secretly aspired to? Not completely, because they are shunned by the not-cuicos, declares the 25 year old visiting “domestic worker” (in Chile an accountant, baker and pastry maker, taxi-cab driver) from La Granja at my house, in the middle-quality private and technical universities along Avda. Republica, for the esforzada yet not privileged students from neighborhoods like La Granja, and privileged yet lazy students. Maybe that is because they get shunned first.

I was talking to the Chilean half of a couple doing an epic film on Chilean hiphop, “4 Ramas, 4 Armas”. He is from a población originally and in the course of their interviews for the film he got to know young kids from the poblaciones around Santiago. He was one of them 20 years ago, he told me.

Yet, now, he says, their values are skewed towards consumerism, posturing and image, aspiring to the advertised images of success in Chilean society, that of Falabella, Ripley, etc…consumer items. Sorry, no brown people found there.

The población and its inhabitants, he said, has lost its values. There used to be dirt roads, no shoes and poverty, but also a community of people in solidarity. There were craftsmen, and almacenes and huertas and cerrajeros. On the 40th year of the establishment of the original “poblacion callampa,” Herminda de la Victoria  what has happened to the values of the people who founded it?

This is the”woodcutter,” from the poblacion of Huechuraba, about thirty minutes from the center of Santiago, a man who was in jail at thirty and now at 42 leads a clean life.

While there are no gangs where he lives, there are groups and some individuals who are called “domesticos”; or those who rob from the people in their own neighborhood.

Robbing from people who go out day after day, in his case in the rain, to saw wood, collect cardboard or tin cans, work as maids, or garbage collectors.

He has robbed from people in the past (I guess not the poor), he says, but if one of those “domesticos”; were to come in his house, he’d kill them.

Now, maybe, gangbangers. Will crack (a new drug to Chile, and here which is making dangerous, yet at the moment, slight inroads into poblacion) wars and homicide soon follow?

Where is the real poblacion which used to represent Chile during the heady days of the late-sixties and early seventies, and then in the protests to Pinochet in the mid-80’s? Where are the homegrown experts from poblacion on public health or transportation which famously confronted a “Comunista del Salon” of Allende’s government with a plan better and more comprehensive than that of the government. (somebody…(anybody) help me…as i can’t remember the exact details of this televised encounter)

Is credit the devil, or capitalism, or the people themselves? Who knows? Do these people talk about their experiences in the “blogosphere?” Is the toma of Penalolen the only example we have a living, breathing and advancing poblacion?

A 27 year old Chilean mountain climber died alongside three others from New Zealand, France and Britain, during a storm at around 4500 meters on the famous French mountain of Mont-Blanc. Their decisions to ascend during the storm with inadequate equipment were cited by the regional police force as the principal reasons for their freezing death.

While of course there were other nationalities involved in the tragic accident, I have been in situations with experienced Chilean mountain-climbers who have made poor, rushed decisions with poor or inadequate equipment for the conditions. See this photo set of the experience of Volcan Llullaillaco.

It is a leap to generalize, yet my principal experience mountain-climbing with Chileans on Volcan Llullaillaco, in the North of Chile, in addition to observations based on the attitudes, preparation and gear and stories of others trying to climb el Cerro Juncal, in the Central Andes of Chile, leads me to conclude that a serious effort (if it is not already happening) should be made to properly educate the growing population of young Chileans taking an interest in the mountains.

A list of resources about mountaineering can be found on my resources and links page.

If not, more avoidable accidents will happen involving Chileans in Chile, or abroad.

The following is an AFP report

“PARIS – Four climbers died of cold and exhaustion after losing their way on snow-capped Mont Blanc in the French Alps, police said Tuesday.

The bodies — women from New Zealand, France and Chile, and a man from Britain — were found at 13,120 feet, police said.

“The group had no tent and failed to dig a hole to protect themselves from 120 km/h winds and falling snow,” said Olivier Kim of the regional police force.

The victims’ identities were not immediately released.

Another group of climbers was rescued Monday near the summit of the 15,771-foot Mont Blanc, the highest peak in western Europe, after digging a shelter in the snow.”

The link to the article in the Chilean mountaineering forum Tricuspide is here.

An article in Terra.cl:

SANTIAGO, julio 24.- Esta tarde se confirmó finalmente la identidad de la estudiante y andinista chilena que integraba un grupo de cuatro jóvenes que fallecieron en el Mont Blanc, en Francia, cuando intentaba alcanzar la cumbre en medio de un fuerte mal tiempo. Mariana Huerta Tellez, de 27 años, cursaba desde hace un año estudios de doctorado en la Universidad de Grenoble, en Francia, luego de egresar como licenciada en Física en la Universidad de Chile, adonde ingresó el año 1998. Ex alumna del Liceo Manuel de Salas, la malograda deportista residía con su familia en la comuna de Nuñoa, y su padre era también físico. De acuerdo a cercanos, se hizo conocida en el ambiente del deporte universitario por su buen carácter, sus conocimientos en la práctica del andinismo y su disposición a enseñar. Es por ello que la noticia de su muerte caló en ese círculo que fue el primero en recoger las informaciones a través de la página nacional tricúspide.com, sitio especializado desarrollado por montañistas chilenos. En el foro que acompañaba la nota, un usuario identificado como BLadiMir ratificó la vinculación de Mariana con la universidad, definiéndola como “una gran amiga”, y agregando que su deceso ya fue confirmado por su familia. “Gran amiga y compañera, su vida era estar colgada de una cuerda en un cerro… buscando hielos en todos lados. Enseñando, y siempre entregando un montón de su alegría”, señalaba, agregando que fue ella quien “inspiró a mí y a mi novia a seguir los pasos del montañismo”. ”La noticia llega con dolor a muchos amigos que ella tiene acá en chile… sus cumpleaños son siempre los más numerosos”, agregó. ”Una mujer sencilla con alma de niña. La vamos a echar mucho de menos”, finalizaba. En efecto, la información publicada por el mismo sitio señalaba que los padres de la joven ya iban en viaja a Francia para coordinar y acompañar el regreso de sus restos a Chile. En el mismo sitio, otro usuario identificado como Mauro Vásquez afirmaba haberla conocido en la Universidad de Chile, y recordaba su paso por la Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, en Beauchef 850, destacando que “ponía pasión en todo lo que hacia, comprometiéndose a concho con lo que se proponía”. NO LLEVABAN IMPLEMENTOS ADECUADOS Mariana Huerta fue encontrada muerta cerca del mediodía en el macizo francés junto a otra estudiante francesa, un británico y un neocelandés, todos estudiantes de Grenoble. Según las autoridades locales, las causas de muerte serían hipotermia y agotamiento, tras una fatídica expedición organizada aparentemente sin saber de las malas condiciones del tiempo que se avecinaban. De hecho, Mariana había estado al menos en una ocasión anterior en el Mont Blanc, y tenía experiencia suficiente para enfrentar esa cumbre de 4.808 metros. Según lo informado, el grupo partió a las 3 de la mañana hora local desde el refugio de Durier, ignorando el pronóstico de violentas ráfagas de nieve y viento de 120 kilómetros por hora y temperaturas de 15 grados bajo cero. “Ellos se focalizaron en esta ascensión mítica ignorando los informes de Météo France, (y) deberían haber regresado. Esto fue simplemente terquedad e idiotez. Es su responsabilidad total”, precisó el capitán del pelotón de Gendarmería de Alta Montaña de Chamonix.

Un guardia francés del refugio de Goûter los había avistado cerca del mediodía del lunes en la estrecha arista de Bionnassay, la más afectada por el mal tiempo, por lo que dio aviso a Gendarmería.

De acuerdo a las mismas fuentes, hacia las 15 horas de ayer los propios jóvenes habían pedido auxilio, conscientes de lo delicado de su situación, pero no pudieron indicar su localización ni reaccionar adecuadamente al mal tiempo.

El coronel Olivier Kim, comandante del grupo de montaña de Haute-Savoie afirmó que los malogrados andinistas no tenían carpa, llevaban vestimenta inadecuada y tampoco lograron cavar una trinchera para protegerse del viento.

CUERPOS SERÁN RESCATADOS MAÑANA

Las malas condiciones meteorológicas permitieron recuperar los cuerpos recién este martes a las 15:20 horas, a 4.130 metros de altura, gracias al trabajo de una patrulla terrestre de la Gendarmería francesa.

Sin embargo, lograron bajar sólo uno de los cuerpos en helicóptero aprovechando una corta ventana de buen tiempo.

El resto deberían ser transportados a primera hora del miércoles, cuando se espera otra ventana.

Los rescatistas franceses señalaron además que una segunda cordada que participaba del ascenso, y que estaba compuesta por dos españoles y dos checos, logró protegerse construyendo un refugio pese a estar a mayor altura, cerca de 4.304 metros en el sector conocido como del Domo de Goûter.

En ese lugar fueron rescatados los checos, mientras que los españoles, más equipados, prefirieron permanecer en la montaña.

“El beso, amor sublime,” Yael Rosenblut, 2007, 5:27 minutes
Video-art. I also wondered what it meant when I was trying to figure out who Yael Rosenblut was, and what she did, although she defined herself to me as a video-artist and curator (I still had difficulties grasping the concept). I gleaned that she was well-connected, resourceful, ambitious and hard-working but still didn’t know how one could dedicate oneself to art, why she was travelling to Buenos Aires, New York and Miami and where she was entering or designing expositions.

In her description from the Romance website, she has “a carrera incipiente pero fructífera, la artista visual Yael Rosenblut ha ido posicionando una estética muy propia en la escena nacional. Su trabajo es un híbrido entre las artes visuales y el cine, lo que le permite asumir una posición equidistante, un mirar desde afuera, aportando una gran cuota de ironía, especialmente en su análisis del mundo artístico.” I would assume she wrote this description, which is probably best.

A confluence of productions and people brought me to see the light, or see the videos.
Romance, a recent curated exhibition by Yael is at the Galeria Animal until the 21st of July. The Galeria Animal has been described as being a cuico art-gallery by some, which I think is a simplistic description for a well-positioned and actually less conservative gallery located on the high-brow, expensive Alonso de Cordova, Vitacura. But for its anecdotal worth, their website designers, Funky, play polo on private beachside fields, which is definitely NOT a cuico pasttime.

I would get confused with the idea of video-art because Yael sometimes filmed her projects, which implies usage of film, generally 16mm, and not video.

Thankfully, Wikipedia has a personally acceptable definition…, “Video art is named after the video tape, which was most commonly used in the form’s early years, but before that artists had already been working on film, and with changes in technology Hard Disk, CD-ROM, DVD, and solid state are superseding the video tape as the carrier. Despite obvious parallels and relationships, video art is not film.

One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema.”

“Lucia,” Cristobal León, Joaquin Cociña, Niles Atallah, 2007

So, I began to understand further when my friend Niles Atallah (who I have written about previously here) created the stop-motion “video-art” piece along with Cristobal León and Joaquin Cociña which was put in the Romance exhibit in Animal. Fear, writing on the wall, charcoal, light, dark, canaries, lobos, a little girl and broken flower (pots), as well as creepy narration.

Click here to load the small version and here for the large of the excellent video from the Diluvio Lab website.

While video art is surely new to me, it is debatedly becoming more recognized within Chile, especially by institutions, like the government. I can’t say if this is a a result of the greater government representation of culture in the form of a ministry of culture and the more “people-sensitive” or “soft” governance of the administration of President Michelle Bachelet.

One example of this is the 8th Biennial of Video and New Media 2007: Ciudades, Ciudadanías, Ciudadanos(as), run by Valentina Montero and taking place in October in Santiago. Subsisting for the last seven editions, since 1993, on the finicky Fondart mechanism, for the first time they have received institutional support, a significant grant, from the Consejo Nacional Audiovisual for festivals. “Finalmente nos aceptaron porque saben que no hay otra instancia para dar cabida a estas experiencias más experimentales,” she says. This funding effectively recognizes the distinct nature of this art form from the “theatrical cinema” showcased by the audiovisual industry in Film Festival’s in Valdivia and Viña, which have previously gobbled up funding. It will also lead to a bigger and better exhibition.

It will be held in the Matucana 464 location of the Museum of Contemporary Art in October, neighbors with the other cool museum on Matucana, Matucana 100. (The whole area reminds me a bit of the Smithsonian museums in downtown DC, big stone and marble buildings, ionic columns, green grassy expanses…lots of future.) Submissions are still being accepted until September 1st for the prize “Concurso Latinoamericano a la Creacion y Autoria en Video y Artes Digitales “Juan Downey.” Open to individuals originating from Latin America, residing in or out of the continent. Contact Valentina Montero at concurso@bienaldevideo.cl for more information.

I quote from the pamphlet of the exhibition:

“What aspect will have these cities? Which are the challenges and architectonic and city-planning transformations that this growth implies? How is distributed the relation between the increasing homogenization of the “urban thing” in a global context (malls, cinemas, supermarkets, museums, airports), with the idiosincrathic character, historical and culturally located of each city in individual (urban memory, nomenclature, cultural symbolic capital)? Which is the character of the experience that the large city offers to its inhabitants?

The city is also a complex network of cultural and political interrelations. Between the more and more universal social monitoring mechanisms, control, displacement and internal fragmentation of the cities, What class of subjects produces these large cities? What type of identities promotes or represses? What class of citizens welcomes or rejects, integrates or secretes?”

Other notable efforts in Chilean video-art are Troyano. While the following has nothing to do with Video art, it is really cool and informative project. Cybersyn. See Fernando Flores, Stafford Beers and Salvador Allende and (George Orwell).

I don’t know if this art either, yet I do believe it took a lot of skill and thought to execute. “Pindar” by Mateo Zlatar aka Offending Command, a Chilean living in NYC, whose is a electronic music producer and dj on Radio Isla Negra.

Or watch the better quality, bigger screen version of Pindar on google video

Santiago is plagued by building developers like Senerman, Paz/Fromovich, and multiple others, who are in the final phases of a construction boom in Santiago centro. Within the last month the city actually had the sense to freeze further permits for high-rise construction in the historical center of the city. The downtown, specifically between Rosas to the North, the Norte-Sur to the West, and Agustinas to the South,  is filled with bland 25 story apartment buildings, yet the roads still suck, there are few services (although grocery retailers like Ekono are looking to be the urban market of choice by revamping their look and squeezing into neighborhoods of future high density,) and as we have seen, the metro is already packed.

While in general I am a fan of population density, sharing space with neighbors, elevator interactions, packed sidewalks and all the corresponding commerce, this density does not seem to be planned.

Instead it seems like an extension of the preexisting business mentality in Chile, Make your money and run. The buildings have no architectural shine, except for one, of concrete pillars and glass, near Compañia with San Martin, and seem to prioritize low-cost building design, techniques and materials, not to mention the 28-40 square meters of space of the apartmentes themselves. The pilot apartments have specially made small beds and furnishings that give the visual impression of more space.

I have walked the corridors, taken the elevators, eaten from the counters in “American” kitchens and looked outside of the windows of one of these apartments. It was a frightful experience. It was claustrophobic and dark, with plastic wood-like flooring, thin walls. Just like in población, or a cheap motel, you hear your neighbors having sex.

Ostensibly signs of financial and personal independence the woman who I knew who purchased these apartments were succesful journalists or lawyers in the government and bought them with their own money. But as you rise the elevator, or duck your head while walking through the narrower than normal hallway with lowered ceilings, there is dread which trails close behind the displayed pride of your host. And that dread is confirmed upon entering apartments where the living space allows you a good two steps before hitting furniture, like a sofa. To the left is the kitchen, with a work space of probably a couple feet in either direction. The bedroom is almost entirely occupied by the double bed. Its cramped and embarrassing position is the only one that is possible. In one case of shunning a woman who lived in one of these apartments I was personally embarrassed for my “cesgo” or blindness and tracked her down unsuccesfully. But frankly, it means a lot to me how people choose to live, and if they can’t see how much of a scam these apartments are to me, then it is an indicator of their personal qualities.

These apartments are illusions, because the real sign of good living, as it were, according to me, is space and quality. Neither are in evidence in these apartments.

But, I think that quickly, these first time apartment owners, who in many cases have purchased these properties, “en verde,” or before construction is completed, will vacate or sell as the true qualities of these constructions are revealed. Or, as they say in Spanish, “mostrarán su hilacha,” as what happened in a new building in Providencia where the dry wall ceiling crashed down upon a child’s bed. The baby was not present at the time of the incident. They will then seek out better quality and more space, hopefully renovating the historical neighborhoods and their dilapidated century old housing which once housed Santiago’s elite.

Then, rental values for these sub-par apartments will go down, attracting another “type” of rentor, with less income and less capacity to infuse cash, life and economic development into the neighborhood. This idea was confirmed in a chance conversation with a young Chilean architect  I am on shaky ground with that last statement, but I foresee a change to the original demographic desired by developers which will result in a devaluation of apartment values in this area.

This article in the New York Times about the rapid expansion of the Brazilian housing market is technical, yet may provide an understanding of how the future market in Chilean housing finance and property values proceed. But, as is the case in Chile, quality of new housing is not an issue immediately addressed. Money is made hand over fist.

Surfing in Chile is reaching new heights, for gringos, and Chileans. Check out the World Championship T…(WCT Rip Curl Search Arica, Chile) which is taking place off of a wave off the coast ex-isla Alacran, of the northern Chilean city of Arica. It is called El Gringo and this year it is the site of a world championship which has no specific relevance to me except its international renown. Yet surfing in Chile could be a big deal if one were to take the time and invest the money to explore.

“You first have to understand the set-up of El Gringo, the contest wave for this year’s Rip Curl Search event in the northernmost corner of the coastal-ist country in the world. El Gringo is a full slab set-up, a right and left ledger slamming down on a jagged rock reef. Entry and exit is via a narrow, dog-leg keyhole, with surging tides and sets that, on occasion, actually unload into the slot. There’s spiny sea-urchins on the jagged rocks. Razor sharp mussels. And a territorial pack of seals. So when you’re caught on the inside, you’re left crab-walking the jagged guts and praying the sets stop pouring in. Which, in Chile, they don’t. And if you haven’t got a board to assist your outward scramble, you’re pretty much bummed.” according to Surfing Magazine.

That means this:

Imagine the waves not highlighted by sponsored competition which occur semi-anonymously along the thousand mile long coast of Chile. A recent visit by an experienced southern Californian to surf in Chile led him to Punta de Lobos, where he hooked up with Brazilians driving until their gas money ran out. They trekked up north, near Copiapo I believe, where according to testimony of his sister, it was the best surfing of his life…Why you may ask, because there was no one there. The wistful search of the human race in times of cheap air travel and wealth and too many well-trodden paths to pleasure, for some. Does a tree make a sound, or wave have an impact, if no-one is there to hear or see it? Does it matter?

Maybe it goes like this…because the gringos are closer to worldwide sponsors who can finance people to dedicate themselves to a sport like surfing, there are more gringos…and less Chileans, but in the process more Chileans… because Chile and their surfers become highlights on television, international approval and therefore local claps. Bravo.

That said, people like Diego Medina or Ramon Navarro, who is a tow-in surfer of humongous waves, and magazines like Marejada, a homegrown reflection of a surfing family living on a remote, difficult to access beach with a love for surfing, top-notch photography and glossy quality that helps to make it big, and Chilean.

That said, because it is Chile in the 2000’s, a growing clash between personal interests, cultural growth and the way things used to be done, that is prioritize industry, development and growth in a roughshod fashion, we have monikers like “KKlemu” (Cacalemu) for the coastal town Pichilemu, one of the birthplaces of Chilean surfing. To accomodate increasing populations and modernize their sewage systems…the solution was to run a long pipe into the bay…right where Pichilemu’s wave are, to eliminate the town’s waste. The organization and battle in Pichilemu is emblematic of a nascent organizational capacity around specific citizen interests in confrontation with antiquated and out-of-touch corporations trying to do business as usual. Ess-Bio, the sewage company, as an example, offered a sponsorship to the surfer Diego Medina, which apparently roundly rejected.

Although there is an irony here, that Proplaya, the save the waves citizen organization, was co-founded by a foreigner.

Cristian Merello is also good.

As are the kids of Puertecillo, many of whom camp out on the beach for months at a time.

And this beautiful video of the well-known Punta de Lobos, by a Brazilian.

Chile big wave

Real big wave surfing