Blogspots in classroom activities

The blogspots are a very useful tool. It's hard to find any disadvantage, maybe one could be that it's not a tool that works for every classroom activity (I can't imagine practising my Statistics knowledge on a blog, for example). Another disadvantage it's not just about the blogs, it's about Internet: it's not yet a tool for everyone.

But the blogs are very useful to practise the correct use of a language (like our English classes), in a way more free and funny that just answering tests or writing papers. Also, it developes other qualities, like creativity, imagination, and writing skills in general. So, concluding, I think that the blogs are a good tool, and they must be used in more activities.

A film review: "Sangre eterna"

Carmilla, a journalism student, meets a group of friends that play a role-game called "Eternal Blood" ("Sangre eterna"). She gets interested in this hobby by "M", a young man she met in a philosophy conference. "M" gets Carmilla into the role game, but in a strange party at an abandoned house, the group meet "Dahmer", an unusual young guy who makes rituals about vampirism and step by step he begins to influence his friends. "M" realizes that the situation is unusual and that some of them are actually being transformed into vampires. In the investigation of the origin of these myths, "M" finds the way to revert the group's process

"Sangre Eterna" is a chilean movie. But it's also one of the most awful movies that I've never seen. Carmilla (Blanca Lewin) was promoted as the main character, as we can see in the sign above. But it's just in the first 20 minutes; the real main character is "M", and the actor who plays this role (Juan Pablo Ogalde) is terrible! He doesn't have any emotion! Just like a lot of actors in this movie, and that's really annoying on a movie. Also, the special effects are ridiculous, it's imposible to feel the struggle of the situation. I believe that a chilean movie could be as good as any movie from other countries, so I don't forgive this thing just because it's a chilean film.

Kalopides

http://kalopides.blogspot.com

For now, there are three posts on this blog. The last one is quite serious (a little review of "A russian doll" from Alfredo Bioy Casares), so it's not very important for now. But the other two posts are so freak!

The first one is called "Critic to the dialectical materialism and the frogs" (curiously, it's in Spanish). It doesn't have any sense, but it's interesting for his style, a little annoying, I must say (practically all the phrases begin with "And..."). It's a little story splashed with phrases from Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci.

The second one is called "Saddam and I in Gaminides". It's a sci-fi story, about the main character and Saddam Hussein going to Gaminides (a little satelite in the orbit of Jupiter), the dangerous adventure in the road and then in the satelite (splashed with thoughts about Irak), where they were looking for unexpected regularities that they could call "life". After four hours, they sat in a crater, and then Saddam looked at the main character with a threatening face, and then... it finish! Promising that the story will continue.

It's recommended for the people who like to read freak things. And also for the ones who want to know what did Saddam to the main character!

"December 19th, 1971"

It's an amazing story from the Argentinian writer Roberto Fontanarrosa, recently dead.

Canallas Leprosos

Context:
In his birth town, Rosario, there are two rival soccer teams, Rosario Central and Newell's Old Boys. Their fans, "canallas" and "leprosos", hate the other ones. In 1971 both teams went to the Final of the Argentinian tournament and Rosario Central (Fontanarrosa's favorite team) won 1-0.

Story (summary):
The story begins like this: "Yes, I know that we were such a fools about the thing that we made with the old Casale", and the tale (it's in first person) is a way to justify that. What did the character and his friends (Central's fans) do?

In the previous week to the match, they were desperated. If they lose the match, the shame will be so terrible for them, and their children, and the children of their children. So, they were thinking about the possible "cabbalas" for the "classical match".

In that situation, they remembered the old Casale, the father of the "bighead" Casale, an old friend that had left Rosario two years ago. That man told them once that he had never seen Central losing with Newell's on his entire life, never. He was a very commited Central's fan, but sometimes he couldn't go to the stadium in a couple of classical matches (because he was sick, in a business travel, an other reasons). But always, when he was on the stadium in a match with Newell's, Central was the winner.

So, they had to be sure that the old Casale was going to watch the match on the stadium. But there was a problem: they hadn't seen that man from two years ago. And when they went to talk with him, the old Casale told them something terrible: one year ago, he had a heart-attack, and the doctor prohibited him practically everything that could shake him emotionally... like going to the stadium.

The friends were desperated. That was a sign that Central was going to lose. So, they made a decision: the day of the match they were going to kidnap the old man. The situation is very funny, but, as a summary, when the old Casale noticed that he had no other chance, he was happy: he was singing with the friends for the streets to the stadium, happy and nervous for the match.

Finally, Central won the Final in an incredibly tough match. And just by the final of the match, the old Casale died.

Why I like it:
Told like this it sounds terrible. But the way of telling it is amazing, how Fontanarrosa shows the terrible desperation of the group, and the importance of the match... the reader ends the story feeling that it was OK!. In fact, that's the conclusion of the main character: "Why could he wanted to keep living like this? 2 or 3 years? humilliated by his wife and his daughter? It's better like this: he died happy, very happy, with the joy of punishing the "lepras" for the rest of the Centuries! That's how a "canalla" must die! If I could choose how I'm going to die, I'll choose this one. I'll choose this one."

And that's the power of a writer to make that the reader feels identified by the characters and his situations.

The Dependence Theory (Presentation summary)

The Dependence Theory was a response to the situation of socioeconomic crisis in Latin America in the 20th Century. Initially it was only and economic theory, when the idea of the "center-periphery" duality was raised (at the 40's). It says that the global economy's design was made in a difficult way to the "under-developed" countries, because the important decisions are made in the "developed" ones (center) and they have the mission of the industrial production, while the under-developed nations have a peripheral function in the economy as a simple suppliers of raw materials to the central countries. The strongest sociological contribution was made in 60's: they said that the blame is not just of the global economy, it's also from the latinamerican elites. The solution was a stronger role from the State in the economy...

FEN: An oasis in the desert.

The Faculty of Economy and Business (FEN) of the University of Chile is an amazing place. It's like an oasis in a great desert of poverty and decadence. When I visited that Faculty for the first time, I was inmediately impressed by the hall: a beautiful and clean hall with brilliant and white floor tiles, and hanging from the ceiling there was an electronic screen with information like the next classes and his classrooms. It was like an airport! Well, I really was strucked about things likes his library (very huge, and every book you ask is there), his computation room (big and with a lot of computers), even his gardens (with one the most greener grasses that I've never seen in my whole life)!

That visit was the last year, by the time of the governing election of the University. And there was a sign with Victor Perez's slogan: "Is your Faculty OK?" If I was a student of FEN for a day, maybe I would answer: "Of course it is!" (or maybe not, perhaps there are problems that I couldn't see: It can't be so perfect!). When I compare FEN with, for example, my Faculty (Social Sciences) and his decadence, I can't believe that this two places belong to the same institution. What's happening with this University?

My favorite website

http://www.la-redo.net/

That's my favorite website. It's an argentinean blog about soccer, from Argentina and other parts of the world: there are a lot of mentions about Chile, like a post about the "Puerto Ordazo" in the last American Cup (http://www.la-redo.net/?p=5760) or the designation of Marcelo Bielsa for the National Management of our soccer team (http://www.la-redo.net/?p=5912).

The big thing about that is that they write about soccer in a different way that the traditional "mass media": sometimes there are serious posts, but in general they are filled with a very funny sarcasm. For example, about the "Puerto Ordazo" they concluded that: "if they made all this disorder for an insignificant thing like qualificating in 3rd position of their group, I don't want to imagine what they're going to do if tonight they eliminate the verdeamarelha [Brazil]". Or, in another example, they talk about Mauricio Pinilla as "the less fulfilled promise of the chilean soccer"

Like every blog, it's open to comments from the visitors. But in difference with the most blogs I know, there are always like 100 or 200 comments by post (there is one that have more than 10000!) And the role of the visitors is very important, they (actually, we) gave life to the website. There are a lot of sarcastic and funny comments, like in the post about the "Puerto Ordazo" ("What are they going to do if they're Champions of the Cup? They'll have sex with the half of Venezuela!")

I'd like that we have a similar website here in Chile.

"Ethical wage": A political council

Yesterday, the President Michelle Bachelet announced the members designed for his "Advisory Commission for the Social Fairness". There are a lot of industrialists and economists, and practically there isn't any "social actor". The reason for doing this is because it's a "technical council".

In politics, there are two reasons for doing things: showing a position, or hiding it. This is a council for hiding, keeping, stoping. "Social actors" is not always the same that "popular actors", that's right, but if technics are technics, it's just in that point that there shouldn't exist any advisory council (for example, it's ridiculous being on a debate about the possible interpretations of 2+2=4). An advisory council is not a technical space, it's a political one. And there's a lot of positions excluded of that political debate, not just the worker union leaders (like, for example, the president of the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT) ), also everyone who made possible that in Chile we're all discussing about "ethical wage", like the Priest Alejandro Goic or the workers from CODELCO.

We don't have to forget that we're discussing about "ethical wage" because of the protest of CODELCO workers. Also, we don't have to forget that the Government did everything it could for destroying that strike, like buying leaders or talking about a "vandalic protest" in general when the vandalic acts weren't a constant thing: they were a few. In spite of that, they could make that everyone in Chile is debating about the laboral conditions in our country. And what did the President do? She invited Lily Pérez to the council, surely a great "expert" in technical and labor issues, don't?

So, when they talk about a "technical council" is because they're hiding the real condition of that council: there is a political debate. And also with that they're hiding that there are important and representative positions that are excluded.