Sleepless

Write shorter and more often instead, that’s what my papá says, and I guess it is a good idea. But there has been a lot of studying these last two weeks, little sleep and well that´s why I have been so distant.

Tonight is a big night, an important game of baseball is taking place. Baseball is the biggest sport in Venezuela. It came to the country in the great era of the second colonialisation, that is when all the big American companies invaded the country. Now, I guess some people find some kind of delight in the game, since it is such a fuss about it, but really…what in god’s name can that be? I will not change my mind no matter what, if there is something I believe in this world it is the inherent stupidity of baseball. You might think that I am exaggerating this whole baseball thing, and you might want me to stop going on about it. But then I just want to make you aware of what happened last time I for one second let go of my convictions…
Cape Town, South Africa, it was the summer of 06. I was deceived into all of a sudden think it would be a good idea to go to a game of rugby. 70 000 spectators, South Africa met…another country, the S. African team consisted of only white men with bodies like bathtubs and necks like bulls. The game lasted forever since they kept interrupting it by jumping on each other and throw themselves in a huge pile when ever they got the chance. It was terrible. So, ok… baseball is popular here, I have made my point.

So the students are marching, for independent universities and against the reform, well at least the majority of the students are. Then there are those who march in favour of the reform as well but they seem to be few. At least that is how it is put.
On the 2 of december the popular referendum will take place and the people of Venezuela will have a say, yes or no to the reform. There is no way to accept just a few of the proposed articles in the reform (which now are up in about 70 aricles in total), it is either the whole thing or nothing, which would be continue with the current constitution.
On thursday there will be another student march and one of their demands is that the date for the public referndum is prosponed to the 3rd of februray, 2008. I have no class that day because the teacher thinks the students should be able to join the march if they want. So I think I will go down and have a look! I will bring my camera and pretend that I am a correspondant from Sweden, man, I have always wanted to do that...
"...bombs are flying over our heads, the law has seized to exist, it is extremely dangerous to leave your house, people are desperate... this is Lina Hällström, Bääg-dääd, Ajrräk"

And I have met my first feminist in Venezuela! Yo-hoo! It is a friend of my friend whom I got to know in Ecuador 4 years ago, since we worked with the same organisation. We met this sunday for a coffee and she just happened to be very involved with all different kinds of feminist activities. She works with a government body which tries to make all other ministries aware of the law (which has some very interesting parts on women's rights and equality) but also doing various projects in the barrios, organising women there.

Ok, to finish it off I add some photos from my trip to Barinas last weekend. I went with a friend who has family there. I ate very good grandmothers food, saw lots of cows, slept in hammocks and bathed in rivers.
This photo is from a small village up in the mountains, can't bahve more than 500 inhabitants.





The photo to the right is from the one and only and obligatory Plaza Bolívar. I would like that Möllan was more pink, it could have been nice!










As I commented in the beginning, studying is one of the predominant things going on in my life for the moment and since I like efficiency (well, for the moment I don't really have a choice if I am supposed to make it through the semester), so what to do when someone (Petra) is cutting your hair... there is just one answere!

I'll get back soon and hopefully have some first hand reports from the march!

oh such confusion...

This is just getting worse and worse. Yesterday I had a personal breakdown on behalf of Venezuela. It just seems impossible to get any kind of objective analysis of what is going on in this country. Quite a few things have happened during the last weeks and it is certainly necessary to stay updated the whole time with the latest political turns to follow the discussions and be able to get a grip of the situation. Every day I listen to endless interviews on the radio with politicians, attorneys, journalists, government-employees, doctors, ministers and so on. As it is all over the world, people from different political camps always sound so sure about their own point of view and take every oppertunity to spread their propaganda rather than meet the critique presented and really try to answer the arguments. I get so tired. Really.

I have had some quite appalling talks with people very active in the student movement, fighting for a free and independent university and educational system, but also part of the opposition in general. The stories about how people demonstrating against the government and Chavez have been treated is hardly what one would expect to take place in a society bragging to be a socialist one. People being put in prison without trial and tortured, and this just for speaking their mind about the prevailing system. Huge discussion sessions being organised for and with the public about the reform of the constitution, but not letting students entering because they are openly against Chavez.

And then again, there is almost always some explanation to everything, why things happen, but people are often very quick in making their judgements without considering this explanation. Then, the explanation doesn't neccessarily justify certain behaviours, but to be able to move forward one has to keep an open mind. But... then again, who has the right to impose a way of thinking upon others? I just got here, I haven't been through everything that people living here have experienced, nor will I stay here long enough to be affected by the social changes coming up.

My breakdown the other day was a result of severe ideological confusion. Or actually I would rather call it practical dissapointment...according to what I have been told so far about Chavez and the whole Bolivarian revolution it does seem more and more like a power concentrating, people conforming project, in a socialist disguise. There have been a few of those throughout history and my god, basta ya! But, well, I have said it before and I'll say it again, it all depends on from where one gets the information. A few weeks ago I really realised how extremely priviliged the people at my university are, they are all part of the middle, upper middle, or over class and they don't really represent the majority of the Venezoelan population. So, one could argument that their disliking of social changes don't make the changes less needed or justified. But one could also argue (like my teacher in "Cambios en el mundo - Reacción en Venezuela") that the general Chavez-dislike within the universities is more an effect of higher education and a greater perception of the political turns. What to say, what to think…

One of the hottest topics right now is the addition of article 337 to the reform. The National Assembly has proposed another 25 articles in the 1999 Constitution (that is the one prevailing) to be reformed. Article 337 deals with the government’s rights to put the constitution on hold for as long as it is considered neccessary, as long as it exists a threat to the state. The article can be compared with the US’s ”state of emergency”. For example it allows the police to arrest people without any prior suspicion of crime, the right to information, right to an attorney, and so on.

This article, amongst others, has been quite heavily criticized even by Chavez-supporting parties: the social democratic party (PODEMOS), PCV and Patria Para Todos. They also claim that some parts of the reform will signify a change of the fundamental structure of the constitution. For such a thing to be carried through there has to be a much more extensive process (submitted in the constitutional assembly for example), but these are steps that have been completely ignored.

Well, to be continued...

I will just add one photo today. It is from my excursion with my Marine ecology class last week end, it sure is hard work out here...
The wreck that you can see was a ship that sank during the World War II, I went snorkling around and under it, very very nice!

So for now, I have nothing more to add. I guess I walk around with a general feeling of blurryness and I have a really hard time to straighten it all out. But this weekend I will be going away to los llanos, 6 hours out of Caracas. It will surely be something different and maybe I will be refilled with more positive feelings about all of this...

So long!

Running for life

This post will mainly be photos of my everyday life here. Sorry to those of you who are dying of urge to be updated about the latest political turns in the country. But you never know though, it is highly probable that a few comments slip through.

ok, I do know that you are all very eager to hear how the running competition went... Ok, before I go through it minute by minute I just have to show a few photos of the old center of Caracas. Today it is a poor barrio, with houses badly taken care of and worn out empty public buildings, etc. I went there on a hip hop festival with a friend and it was a very nice experience. I really liked the atmosphere, the houses and what people were doing there. Most of the poeple in the barrios are in favor av Chavez, these are the places where his specially constructed proyects are supposed to be implemented. And walking around a few blocks I was pointed out a few of the initiatives to reconstruct houses (e.g a music school, a social center) and put in place activities for the people living there. The graffitti painters are supposedly a few of the best ones in Caracas. They were indeed impressing!
Listening to the hiphop groups later on that evening was very nice, but man, I hardly understood anything. The slang was quite dominating, but with a translater by my side I got to know that many songs were about the dislikeness of the police, the prejudices about the barrio and politics. There was one female rapper, yeih!

I had to leave early that evening since I was getting up 5 am the following morning to be ready to run 10 km with 8000 others at 7.30 am. Me and Oriol, a spanish intercambio, and a few of the others from the running team at the university were participating. All participants were sponsored with a t-shirt and a hat! I picked up my and Oriol's bags the day before and I was overwhelmed when I saw that I, in addition to the hat and the t-shirt that Oriol got, also had been given a razor. Since I am a girl and would be running in shorts and possibly even in an armless top, I of course would be needing it! Yee, thanks!
Ok, so I had decided to meet Oriol at a certain place at 6 am, but since I was worried things might go wrong (well, you just never know) I thought I'd better bring the cellphone, in case we wouldn't find eachother. To be able to get down to the competition site I needed bus money and of course I had to bring my keys. Well, quite soon after meeting up with Oriol (which went without any problem) I realised that these belongings of mine could turn in to a slight inconvenience. Where to put the fricklisch things when running... Well, it was time to really challenge those dormant braincells of mine. Quickly I tore apart some toilet paper that I also had with me (once again you never know!) and wrapped it around my keys and three coins (the change from the bus ticket, worth about 70 öre), the other piece of paper I put around my cellphone. The key-coin-package I put in my sock, by the ankle and the cellphone I couldn't decide if I should hold in my hand or put in the other sock, but since it is quite big I finally decided to hold in my hand. Well, thanks to those hardworking braincells of mine I was kind of open to the possibility that the keys wouldn't stay on the exact same place in the sock as I put them. During 10 km and what... a few thousand steps, you just can't be sure that anything you put in a sock will stay there. But to avoid unpleasent surprises I ran back and forth quite a few times, jumped up and down and did ALL I could to simulate the rollercoster ride that awaited the keys, to see what happened, but not the slightest movement. It was like I had glue on my ankle and then wrapped 10 meters of silver tejp around it all. Convinced of the safe arrangement I felt prepared to do the race of my life.
I tried to elbow my way through the mass of sweaty and hairy men, to get a better starting position (it was a hot tips given my trainer), then the national anthem, and then finally the starting signal.
Ok, the first meters: tripping ant-steps, not really possible to give all in this moment
The following 10 meters: trying to concentrate on where to put my feet so it wasn't above someone else.
On the 11th meter: the god damn keys (the ones glued to my ankle and wrapped with silver tejp) are suddenly alive and decide to go for a little trip, down south. Oh no, was my first thought, and followed by, this can be a problem. And what can I say, unluckily for me they obviously felt very comfortable at a position where they kind of ate my flesh, little by little. The following 9 km and 989 meters my concentration was unproportionally directed at that little spot on the foot, maybe you can see it on this illustrative photo...
Well, apart from this minor mishap I can't say that I am very satisfied with the race. I got very tired after 7 km and had to play the most outrageous mindgames just to trick the body to move forward.
Entering the finishing stretch I didn't have much left to give, but there was a bunch of girls standing on the side watching and cheering me on, so I found some nonexisting energy and took it all out... expecting to reach the finishing line within a few meters. But what I thought was a normal and a the only suitable type of cheer (you know the cheer which means: ok you have done an excellent job and there are only at most 2o meters left) turned out to have been a seductive and lying cheer, which actually meant: this is not the finishing stretch at all, it is more than 500 meters to go, and if you take it all out now you will be crawling over the finishing line.
Once I realised that I felt a little vindictive and considered for a few seconds if I should turn around, run back to them and inform them about their misunderstandning concerning the cheering and the devastating effects it can have. But I didn't, instead the anger gave me the last pieces of energy I needed to make it over the finishing line. And I can tell you people, it was all worth it, they gave everyone a bag of fruit, and in there I found apples. They gave them away! Of course I went back 4 times and took a new bag, oh, it was a truly happy moment!

I am sorry, after having written so much about this very important race I got really tired, and I think I have to stop here. Only one thing... the week after the race the trainer at the university took me aside and spoke to me in serious words:
Lina, next race (!! what, another one?!?!) is in november, and I want you to do 38 min. Can you promise me that?
Hm... well, I don't think I will be able to do no 38 minutes (lina answering)
Ok, I am sure you can do it, but you have to train hard!
well, I will train like I normally do.(lina thinking)
Ok, 25 min, light jogging in the morning before school
ha... sounds a little bit over kill, I have never liked running in the morning but 25 min should be managable (still lina thinking)
And then you come here in the afternoon and run with us
Wholy cow, not in this lifetime that I will be training twice a day to make some stupid time (lina tinking)
Well I cant promise anything but I will do my best. (lina saying, and this is the ultimate evidence of my slight... well I guess one could define it as difficulties of saying no...)

The photo is arranged, the race didn't take place in my garden, and it sure wasn't any grass anywhere near.

That will be all for this night. I have done other things than running, but that is another story!

So long!