The limitations of the national security

When we talk about our privacy, many people tend to think –or like to think- that we live in an occidental world where free expression is secured and legitimized, but the thing is that’s not true. Few weeks ago, a young man called Edward Snowden, ex-agent of CIA –the most powerful agency of intelligence of the world-, had to find a place to hide and tell the world that the US have been collecting confidential information for years from the European Union by spying. He alerts all of us about the danger of the social networks when we provide information about ourselves, our location, our interests, etc. Privacy doesn’t exist. We are living in a paranoid world that is constantly looking for people who represent a threat to what has been called “national security”. By now, he is a menace for security of US, so he has to escape and hide, just like Julian Assange, creator of the polemic Wikileaks website, because in their intention of promote the importance of free thinking, they became figures that, until now, have been subject of controversy, mainly because powerful institutions that pursue them have transmitted through the media the need to catch them for endangering peace and security of worldwide. Could it be in fact that they fear that people get information? And that question brings a second one: What are they hiding so jealousy?

I think when a nation proclaims policies and laws, they must think about common wellbeing. It seems to be that’s not happening. Proclaim an alleged national security means that there are enemies out there and we have to be careful. But the enemy, in fact, doesn’t exist and there are many examples about this (Al Qaeda’s case is one of them). Snowden and Assange aren’t enemies of common people; they are enemies of the status quo, the system that those who occupy the seats of power have been concerned to legitimize from generation to generation.

Noam Chomsky makes this clear and he shows us how the media have contributed to legitimize the status quo from the beginning, using extremely basic mechanisms.

I put some video links below.

I hope you can comment this J

Have a nice weekend!

Snowden’s Interview in Hong Kong (2013): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuV6eFg3l04

Julian Assange in TED (2010): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXeRZHEr2T8

Noam Chomsky talks about mass media and control: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do8iu85yeik

10 strategies of manipulation by media: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQywx80gQp4

The ups and downs of indecision

I graduated from school in 2003. Ten years ago. Wow! When I say it, sounds like long time ago, but when I think about it, I feel that ten years are nothing (well, Gardel realized that 20 years are nothing, so I’m probably right).

When I finished school, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a teacher, so I did the PSU and I could go to the university I wanted: UMCE, as known as “Pedagógico”, among other nicknames. I began in 2004. After varied and interesting practical experiences in different educational institutions, I definitely left university. My main reason to do that was my deeply frustration and disappointment about teaching.  Teachers are intellectually mutilated and aggressively censored when they don’t want to fit to programs provided by the government, in their eagerness to train young women and men with reflexive and critical attitude about social reality.

Later, I started working in Movistar, where I remained for the next six years. I decided to go back to university in 2011, so I took some courses in pre-university, in order to prepare my retaking of PSU. At that moment, I was determined to study Psychology, mainly because I liked the area when I was studying Pedagogy. In a certain way, I think I still have the hope of being a contribution to the transformation of society, for the wellbeing of all its members.

The psychologists can create good instances of social interventions. In my case, I believe in a Psychology that may have a scientific development, because pure science, in its most basic intention, is the cradle of knowledge production. Obviously, scientific practice has been victim of distortions and it has been misused in different moments of human history. But this can also be modified if we take charge of what we are studying and we use it to let the people know how they are victims of social control. I think that an important challenge of our discipline today is to disseminate the information obtained from researches in a proper and massive way, not leave it in labs.

Once more, sorry for the extended post.

Have a great week! J

The importance of taking charge of our own reality

Today is time for us to turn off the T.V., the radio, the smartphones, the noise of all the mass media, because all of those devices are full of lies. They’re trying to make us ignorant, unconscious and alienated persons. This is an emergency call for all of us, for our minds. We’re in a world that teaches us all about individuality and nothing about community. Self-management and democratization of environments like workplaces, educational institutions, neighborhood councils, etc. are still light years away if we can’t generate instances that allow us to move forward and create a community that has its basis in the people who are part of it, and not delegate responsibility of its administration to authorities who don’t know that reality.

Every day, when I start my activities, I try to remember one of my main goals in life: I want to improve people’s well-being. My political action to achieve that is fight for a fairer, more equitable, friendlier and healthier society and I materialize that through participation in different instances of struggle, such as protest, denunciation and actions that are relate with direct demands to the State in matters which I consider part of social rights, like education, health, dwelling, decent work, etc.

In the current strike, I hope we can get the tools that allows us to have a clear and organized position to confront our current department’s administration, so that we can build together, with the other states (teachers and employees), a career oriented to social service and away from trade practices.

Obviously, this strike will affect us. We will not have the time we expect to have to study once we return to regular classes. Probably, this will affect our marks, but we can be self-taught and we can advance our study, using the programs that our teachers gave us to planning the subject.

By now, that’s all :)

You can put your comments below.

Have a nice week!

Correction

Original blog post with writing correction keys

About Santiago

Unlike some people, I like Santiago city. I like above all(WO) Ñuñoa, Providencia and Santiago´s center. I like these areas because in Ñuñoa and Providencia(WO) there are a lot of beautiful parks and the streets are surrounded of big trees, and sidewalks are wide and well lighting(WE). The parks in this area are my favorites, above all(WO) Sculpture´s Park in Providencia.

In Santiago´s center(WO) there are a lot of historical places like Londres 38, that was a torture center in dictatorial period of Chile, or the house of government, etc. Also(WO) there are a lot of bars, restaurants, different kind of shops, etc.  

Well, there are horrible things too, like inequality, smog, traffic issues and other social problems like drug trafficking(WW), poverty, etc. 

Inequality is the social problem that I hate most in(WW) Santiago. We can say that Santiago is a city of ghettos, because the areas in the city are so demarcate(WE) by social status and money ___(λ). In Santiago(WO) there are areas for lower class, middle class, and hight(WW) class.(P) But this situation only shows the kind of society (that) we are. I think it is not a problem of the city, is a problem of our society.

I think those are the things that we have to change of our city, but first we have to change society.

"Reassembly" of previous text

Unlike some people, I like Santiago city. I especially like Ñuñoa, Providencia and Santiago´s center. I like these areas because there are a lot of beautiful parks in Ñuñoa and Providencia, the streets are surrounded by big trees, and sidewalks are wide and well-lit. The parks in this area are my favorites, Sculpture´s Park in Providencia above all.

There are a lot of historical places in Santiago´s center, like Londres 38 -a torture center in dictatorial period of Chile-, or the house of government, etc. There are also a lot of bars, restaurants, different kind of shops, etc.  

Well, there are horrible things too, like inequality, smog, traffic issues and other social problems like drug traffic, poverty, etc. 

Inequality is the social problem that I hate most about Santiago. We can say that Santiago is a city of ghettos, because the areas in the city are sharply demarcated by social status and money of the people who live in them. There are areas in Santiago for lower class, middle class, and high class, but this situation only shows the kind of society we are. I think it is not a problem of the city, is a problem of our society.

I think those are the things that we have to change of our city, but first we have to change society.

Sir Ken Robinson and the continuity of the main trouble in worldwide education

This Monday we had the opportunity of listening Sir Ken Robinson and his ideas about the occidental educational system. He’s a man who has dedicated his entire professional life to study the educational system from inside and, obviously, he have peculiar perspectives about it.

I think the most interesting argument that he introduce is the way how education progressively kills the development of the talents in the children. The skills that are not related with the logical-mathematical intelligence are gradually underestimated and it seem like the educational system sees it like a menace. Talents related with art go to a secondary place and, in the best of cases, are seen as mere hobbies, so the children don’t have the chance to develop them in a professional way. In my opinion, this is the reason of the existence of bitter and frustrated adults and we can see them around every day, unhappy with their jobs and their choices of life.

I see my little baby girl sleeping right now and I think that I don’t want a bitter future for her. And then I think that she’s in the actual educational system already, growing in a context that transmit her the importance of the professional success related to the material or monetary success, killing any kind of interest in another area of human development, like arts or culture. How can parents struggle with this system? How can I teach her that success must be related with her own interests, independently of the monetary reward that it may have? It’s a difficult fight, but it’s possible, promoting her talents every day, showing her that life is not just about consume or have money, but it's about being happy with our choices of life, whatever they are.

Well, I hope you have thought about these topics, because every one of us is responsible of our future, building a healthy and fair society.

You can write your comments below :)

Have a great week!

Panic disorder

Last week I had to do something I don’t like to do at all: present a topic in public. An important part of my problem with presentations in front of other people is related with my undeniable tendency to dispersion and the other part is the worst: my panic disorder. 

Basically, panic disorder is part of the spectrum of anxiety disorder, characterized by recurring grave panic attacks. These attacks are series of intense episodes of extreme anxiety that can wax and wane for period of hours and intensity. The common symptoms related with these attacks are almost the same of heart attacks: tachycardia, perspiration, dizziness, dyspnea, trembling, etc. During panic attack, the person feels an uncontrollable fear, which may be related to fear of losing control and going crazy or fear of dying. All these symptoms are commonly accompanied by thoughts of impending doom.

This disorder can include significant behavioral changes related with concern about having other attacks in any place or any circumstance. It can be a potentially disabling disorder, but at present can be controlled and successfully treated.

As I said before, I chose this topic because I’m one of those who suffer panic disorder and it’s important to me show you what their scope are, how this disorder affects people´s life and how devastating it can be under certain circumstances. I suffer panic disorder since seven years ago and I have crossed ups and downs with very critical periods until now. A I mentioned last week, I feel fine today, but I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, because this disorder is very unpredictable.

Every time when I present in front of an audience, I feel stressed and nervous. Sometimes I talk very quickly, and in other occasions I just ramble around the topic I’m speaking. I think I must work hard every day to overcome these obstacles.

Well, sorry for the extended post.

See you! :) 

Santiago alienated

Santiago of Chile is a grey city. Every morning, when I go to the University, I see the angry, unfriendly and bitter people’s faces and that deeply shocks me. How did we get this? How can we change it? I believe it’s a work of all of us make this city a better place every day. Actions like greet people smiling are very healthy for our society, because I think that we don’t share much with others, we are so individualistic that we don’t care very much about the people who is in our side when we don’t know them. We can change this fact just changing our attitude, choosing a positive and kind perspective of the world.

What I like the most from Santiago is the variety of places that we can visit. Have an historic tour, an entertaining tour, or a culinary tour is very pleasant and you have too many possibilities in the city and surrounding. Probably, Santiago is the noisiest place that I ever lived, but you can retire to other beautiful places to get some peace, like Buddhist temples located in Providencia or beautiful parks like the Quinta Normal, Japanese Park of Hill San Cristóbal, Sculptures Park, etc. I think that some visitors want to discover this syncretism of Santiago in every way.

This city is an example of the alienated life that we are carrying, but we have the opportunity of change this every day, having forged a reconnection with ourselves and the people around us.

Free your mind

I think talking about dreams it’s very difficult, because it’s not easy to choose just a few of them and, furthermore, I’m very unpredictable, so my decisions change all the time.But let’s talk about present: nowadays, I have think about go away from the city and live in countryside. This dream appeared in my last outing in the south (I went to Los Angeles when I was on vacation) and it’s an aim I really want to fulfill, not just for my well-being, but for my baby girl too. The absence of noises, the starry sky and the pure air are examples of things I want to incorporate to my daily life.


Country is a place where you can live in regular calmness, enjoying your relationship with nature in every way, establishing brand new perspectives about the society and world in general, and making your life better and healthier. When you have interior peace, you can transmit it to the other people. I’m not talking about a solitaire life; I mean that we will prepare to build a better society in cooperation with others only when we develop tolerance and respect. My opinion is that we could achieve that level of community when we are in peace with ourselves. In my case, I’ll do that in a place that comforts me.


By now, that’s all.


Remember: dreams are the engine of our life.


Post you comments, suggestions and complaints below :)


See you! 

The music of memories

About three days ago, an incident makes me remember a song. One of my best friends went out with a girl that he “maybe” likes (in his own words) and I joked about that situation for a while with him (sincerely, I’m still doing it :P). We laughed a lot and then I recalled this song of Jarabe de Palo called Agua, and I used it to joke with the occasion.

I knew this song in 1998 (more or less), when I was in school, because my friends heard their music. Jarabe de Palo is a Spanish group of rock and pop, and they have many famous songs. Maybe their best known song is one called Depende. They mix many rhythms and their beats are relaxing. I enjoy listening to them when I’m studying.

This song, Agua, talks about a person who falls in love with his friend and simulates a letter written to her or him. The lyric is metaphorical, and configures an allegory of a man who is thirsty and he can’t drink the water, even when it is in front of him, because it is forbidden. The video is very beautiful and calming, Jarabe de Palo likes to use contrast in their video clips and that gives a particular seal to their performance.

I think that my music preferences are very eclectic and although I prefer rock music (especially heavy metal), I enjoy calming music that mixes various styles.

Well, I put the video of the song below. Enjoy it! 

Being mother and not die trying

Did I tell you I’m married? Yes, I am, since five years ago. It sounds crazy, but I was 22 years old when I decided to do it, after another 5 years of engagement.

When I was 24 years old, I gave birth to a little and beautiful baby girl: my Helena. Actually, she’s 3 years old and it’s really amazing to see how she’s growing up day after day. She’s very smart, sweet and gorgeous. What I like the most is her social skills, how she get along with other people, without shyness. She’s really, really adorable.

The work of being mother it’s absolutely not easy, especially when we don’t have time enough to be there every moment the children need us. But there’s one thing we can do all the time: give love. With love, the children grow up secure and determined, and in moments when they feel overwhelmed, they can know they have people who love them unconditionally.

Well, after that thought, I’ll continue showing a photo of my Helena to you.

I took this picture in our home some days ago (maybe one week or more), at bed time. She’s in jams (pajamas), with her favorite shirt. I guess all the photos of my daughter are special to me, but I like this one because of her beautiful, shiny and long hair. When I see this picture I feel she seems to be older… Just an impression, of course! :P

You can put your comments below!

Have a nice day J

Why do I like Twitter?

All the social websites are very interesting, I think there’s no doubt about it. You can write what you’re thinking and doing every time, but I guess there’s not a single website like Twitter and that’s because a very simple reason: Twitter is the most directly and transparently social web.

I mean, you can write what you think about any kind of topic and everyone can read it, can debate with you or spread your comments to their followers. Further, in my case, I enjoy writing what I think about politicians and let them know it, even if they –in fact- don’t read it. There’s a sensation of symmetric relationship with them that we don’t have in another websites.

I spend very much time twitting, I know it, but there’s something about the general social webs I think too: they’re dangerous. I’m not a paranoid person, nevertheless, I think that our information is unsecure if we aren’t careful with it. That’s why I recommend you to get your personal data (like e-mails, phone numbers, address) out of the eyes of strangers, because we don’t know who can be in the other side of the net.

Take care, guys. Watch out when you’re surfing on the Internet.

You can post your comments below :) 


Good luck!

@oecister

Who am I?

It's 4:10 p.m. and I'm feeling so tired... 

The philosophical question that I put like title is totally intentional. I mean, sometimes we have to stop and see who we are in this right moment…

Anyway, I want to tell you some things about me today.

My name is Orielle, I'm 27 years old... And, obviously that's not a regular age to be at second year of University, but there are many unnecesary explanations to that, so I will not write about this point in this post.

I'm married since 2008 with a very kind and sweet man and I have a beautiful baby girl. She's 3 years old already and her name is Helena (yes, her name was token from the famous story about the princess of Troy, at length telling by Homero).

I like literature very much. I can stay reading by hours, even days... Nevertheless, I actually have not much time to this hobby, so I'm trying to enjoy different kind of things, like another readings related to my career or another activities.

Well, that’s it. By now, you can post your comments below :)