Vampires invade our world
After a much anticipated release, the second movie of the Twilight saga, “New Moon” premiered this week world wide, causing chaos between fans in many countries.
Last year a movie inspired in a novel by Stephenie Meyer called “Twilight” premiered in United States; no one expected the great success that it was going to have among the audience.
More than 70 million dollars for only a week in the charts, Twilight started rising up, as well as the actors in the film, such as Robert Pattinson who plays the role of a perfect blood sucking vampire, Kristen Steward, who plays the part of the girl who fells in love with the vampire and finally, Taylor Lautner, a sixteen year old kid, who plays a sexy werewolf.
The life for these three have change very drastically, thanks to the Twilight Franchise, before vampires and werewolves invade our screen, Robert Pattinson was fighting Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter saga and Kristen Steward was escaping from burglars in the Panic Room towards Jodie Foster.
In these days, they are far away from those memories; the movie, the posters and all the propaganda have made them one of the most popular actors in the entire world, making girls in special, faint when they see their favorite artists.
Beside the mania for the fantastic threesome, the vampire topic has started to become a more usual subject in a daily basic conversation. New series in TV have appeared such as “Vampire Diaries” from the Warner Channel, and a more national example for Chile, the new serie called “Conde Vrolok” that stated just now, is as well in the league of these cold and perfect creatures.
The phenomenon has been so big, than people with a more extreme point of view, have even change their appearance in order to look more like a vampire, using red eye contact lenses or changing their teeth with some new fangs.
Vampire madness grew bigger during this last year, as fans waited for the release of the second installment of the saga, called “New Moon” in which the same characters are faced into more trouble and new romances with some new actors such as the worldwide famous Dakota Fanning, which plays the role of a ice cold vampire.
The expectations for “New Moon” where very high, and the movie did the part, having a great acceptance in the public worldwide. It is expected to be as twice as successful as the first film.
Now we can only wait to see the rest of the franchise of four films, one called Eclipse and the last one called “Breaking Dawn” which is expected to hit theaters in two or three years.
A new air for Chile
Chile is now faced towards a new presidencial election, after the mandate of Ms. Michelle Bachellet for four years, since 2005.
The four candidates are in the middle of their battle to win the eleccions. On one hand there is Jorge Arrate, a lawyer, economist and ex secretary of state, which is presenting himself by the Juntos Podemos coalition, he is called the “darhorse” candidate by the public, because the uturo doesn’t lok very promesign for him in this elecctions, and his chances to win are very slim in comparison with some of the other candidates.
Marcos Enrique Ominami is another candidate, film maker, philosopher, and son of a famous Chilean politician, Miguel Enríquez; he is seen as the “Dissident Socialist Congressman”, with only 36 years old, he has captivated the young audience with his facilities in expressing himself and his oratory in speech.
Eduardo Frei, another candidate is a more known character, he was President of Chile from 1994 to 2000. Now, he is currently Senator for Los Ríos and was President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. He is the candidate for ruling Concertación coalition for the 2009 presidential election. Doubts are made if he is capable of winning the elections towards Sebastian Piñera, the last and the most powerful candidate until now.
As said before, the last candidate is Sebastian Piñera, an economist, investor and a member of the center-right National Renewal (RN) party, a constituent of the Alliance for Chile coalition, and a former Senator. In 2005, he ran in the Chilean presidential election, losing to Michelle Bachelet in a runoff. Now he is running again with a mayor approval toward the public, having a 36.4% of the public votes.
He is the candidate with more approval towards Eduardo Frei, with a 28,6%, Marcos Enriquez Ominami with 19,3% and Arrate with 4,7%. The first election is December 13th and the second round is January 17th.
Powder: a montain adventure exprience center
All her life Camila Vera Falabella has been related to snow. Her parents, fans of snow, took her up the mountain every weekend in the winter, so since she was a little girls snow has been part of her life.
The idea of “Powder” came after her experience at Snowshoe mountain in West Virginia three summers ago, where she went for three months by an student exchange, she liked it so much that she continued this experience year by year, so by the end of summer, when she came back to Chile, the ideas on her mind where very clear.
Camila and Francisco Vera, came up with the idea of creating a company for young students and independent young entrepreneurs. Taking them to the mountains in our country and teaching them various activities, such as skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, etc.
Each weekend a large group of young students and entrepreneurs reunite at the “Cantagallo” and from there, they get a ride to Farellones, where they are received by different instructors in different areas on the mountain, such as mountain experts, business advisors and trained psychologists.
All day long, the students are set to face different activities and experiences, in which they have to learn different skills, such as team work, decision making, leadership, etc.
Catalina Grez, a young student who experience the Powder activities says “It was awesome, I had a lot of fun, I learned new skills that I didn’t even know they exited in me, I would definitely repeat the experience”.
The purpose of the activities are that people can relate with different aspects of the experience such s leadership, or team work and learn from them, people who go to do this activities learn beyond the snowboard or beyond the sky, the importance of this is to learn new aspects of yourself, and also, learn new aspects of the people who work with you day by day.
Now, Camila and Francisco are very happy with the results, each weekend a group of approximately 20 people go up to the mountain and do the different activities, the critics have been very positive and they hope to continue with this business.
The next step is to expand the experience to summer activities in the same place as in winter so it just won’t be a seasonal company and in that way, profit from summer activities too, such as trekking, bicycle rides, fly-fishing, horse riding, etc.
Hopefully we will hear mor about this company and about the achieves that they are gaining.
Easter Island’s mysteries
Have you ever dreamt about exotic beaches, palm trees everywhere, and a view of the ocean everywhere, and thought that is was only just a dream? Well, don’t worry because Easter Island can offer you that and more.
Easter Island was discovered in April 5th (That’s where its name comes from, the Easter holidays), in 1722 by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen. Now, it belongs to Chile and is a 5 hour flight from its capital, Santiago.
By only 700 dollars you can enjoy various and unique adventures in this exclusive and exotic island in the Pacific Ocean.
As soon as you arrive at the Mataveri Airport the islanders receive you with flower necklaces as a gift for your visit. Then you can choose different places where to stay, there’s the Anakena hotel which is right beside the sea with an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. Also you can stay in little houses next to the beaches or you can settle down in tents on the caves in specific places.
Having a place to stay ready, the activities begin immediately. You can go fishing early in the morning experiencing the tradition of the islanders. Then you can go and visit the many volcanoes that surround the island, such as the Rano Raraku or the Rano Kau.
You can also go to the most popular beaches such as Anakena or Orongo and enjoy a relaxing time on the white sand and the warm blue water sipping a typical pineapple juice.
The Moais are the greatest attraction in the island, their mystery is still unknown to the world, so beyond everything you can see or experience, these statues are everywhere in the island, in every volcano, in every beach, so you can observe every details of these amazing figures and in some way try to discover the mystery that they brought within.
Easter Island is a destination to everyone, families, young couples, or students. There are so many things you can do that you never get enough of the magic that the island brings to every tourist.
It’s an unforgettable journey, and as people leave the island a feeling of sadness start blossoming. But don’t worry, the island will always be waiting for your return.
How climate change is changing our country
During the last couple of years, our world has been shifting and alternating. Countries have dried out, seas have changed, birds have disappeared, all of this because a phenomenon called global warming.
A feature of this global warming is climate change, which is one of the main causes that our world is dying, and Chile is not an exception from it.
Our country is the ninth most vulnerable country to be affected by climate change. Although Chile is a low emitter of carbon emissions, climate change affect us in many different ways.
In Antarctica, glacial are melting faster day by day which affects animals that live there, such as penguins, polar bears, seals, walrus etc. Scientists are very worried about this situation, as Claudio Bunster explains us.
“I have been to the Antarctica every year by 15 years, so I have been a witness of climate change and how this has affected our country, if you take a picture of a glacial ten years ago, is a whole different picture, it is really sad to see it”
Beside, the Antarctica, our whole country, specially the south of Chile, have suffered the consequences of shifting rainfalls, and unexpected rain in a determined time of the year, thousand of people have been affected by this, having to leave their homes, and after the rain, they have to face the consequences which is to loose everything you have, your home, your belongings, everything.
While the south is full of rain, in the north the story is completely different; the Atacama Desert is expanding at an amazing rate, worrying habitant in the region, because plants and animals are dying, and that is their main source of income.
Also, the famously known “El Niño Current” is changing our county; its frequency is much higher than in other years and it will affect us on many different aspects such as, food production, water supply, the tourism industry, social-economical development.
Chileans are hopeful about this situation, and expect that it will decrease with the measures the government has taken. “I think very positive about the future, its true, now we are in trouble, but our country can do many thing to prevent it, so im hoping than in only a couple of years thing will change” Camila Vera, a student at Universidad del Desarrollo Says.
Texting blamed in crash that kills 3 Teens
The irresponsibility of Sarah Brown (19) cost the life of three young girls who were coming back from a party in Talagante early this morning. Reports say that the driver was texting while driving, which cause her car to rundown a sign in the road and trespass the sidewalk crashing with a tree.
Over 300 people die each year in Chile for texting while driving. The Government is alarmed by the high figures that they are receiving day by day and by the irresponsibility of drivers.
Sarah Brown was only one of them; she and three friends went to a party this Saturday night outside of Santiago, in their way back, they where all talking about the amazing night they had, talking on their cellular phones with other friends and texting. The problem was that Sarah was texting too.
As she explained to the police “Everything happened so fast, in one second I looked away to see my cellular phone and as I closed my eyes we where stuck on a huge tree beside the road”.
She was the only one that was using her seatbelt, which was the reason why she was the only one who survived. The other three friends indentified as Carmen López (18) Camila Mora (18) and Valentina Palma (17) died instantly as they hit the tree.
Police reports say, “The three of them where already dead when we arrived, one of the got trapped in the car and the other two went through the glass outside the car, the driver was also trapped but fireman could managed to take her out on time”.
Families where immediately informed about the car crash and funerals are going to take place in Iglesia Los Dominicos this Sunday afternoon.
Investigation is being made to determine the cause of the accident, sources in the fire department tell us “By the way the driver act and by the way everything is displayed in scene, we think it is another case of texting while driving”.
This show us how citizens, teenagers specially, are irresponsible while they drive, government are taking measures to avoid and reduce this figures every year, new campaigns are being made and they hope to get good results, as Alejandra Herrera, head of the government campaign “Don’t text and drive” explains us.
“We just started with the campaign, but we have the hopes that this will work and this way, we will avoid many deaths every year”.
IM A REBEL
What is being a rebel? Some people say that their the ones who go against the sistem, some people say that they are the ones that dress in black clothers and listen to dark rock music. But in general, there are many different opinion on who is a rebel or on how to be a rebel.
Rebels are again society, they fight every cause that society is up to, saying that they are agains it by several insignficant reasons. But what they dont really know, is that they are livign in the same society that they hate, and they are living the same things that they say they hate.
So, they most certainly cannot live against this consumer society that we face now a days. Because although they say they are against everytyhing thats its joined with consumption, they are consumers anyways, for exmple.
Pokemos and flaites say that thy are agains the norml society, but thyey spend a great amount of money buying all the necesary things to dress themselves in a proper wayk, so they can call themselves Emo’s or Pokemons. For example, “Flaites” have to dress in brandes clothes, like sweatshirts or jeans and speacialy sneeckers like nike or diesel.
Pokemones for example spend their money on jewelery, like bit bright earings and colourfull neclases and bracelets, which they give a total new meaning.
So if they say thy are agains society, and if they are rebels and they hate what society is, why do they do the normal things that everyone that is “normal” do?
They are not really as reberls a they are, because they are consumers and they show for theyr own gt not to a mayor purpose, just for dressing better and o express themselves in a way, that they think, will stay in the memories of the chilean public.
Society changes people, consumers are increasing day by day, “normal “people, as the rebels would say, but they are indeed part of this shopoholic society, incerted in it. They shop and buy thing, just as everyone else, but they just do not talk about it. Because it is definetly a contradiction to what they stand for.
By conclusion we may say, that rebels are just as everyone else, just with a touch of drama incerted to their lives, because in general, they are just the same as us, and im not saying that im a rebel.
New ads for chilean public
Dear Editor,
Yesterday I saw a new ad in the british tabloids that show a car crash as raw as possible, demonstraiting to the public the danger of text while driving. In my opinion this is a campang that we should follow here in Chile.
Now a days the statistics of car crashes are getting higher and higher. Mainly by the irresponsability of drivers that drink while driving and that text while driving. This ad should be copied by our chilean government, because it shows the uncensored images of what happen in a car crash. Besides, the feelings that produce to the viewers are many.
First, you feel guilt, because the video is a common situation where you are talking to your friends, and suddenly something horrible happen, the point is that it could happen to anyone, but you never think that it would hppen to you. So that is why we have to sensitize the chilean public to be more responsible while driving by showing them videos or ads, or new campaigns that will shock them.
Besides, the video is shocking, and it produces a unpleasent feeling when you finish watching it, it relly makes you think about all the times that you have been texting while driving. hat is whi, I think that new campaigns must be made in orden to avoid what the video show, to avoid mor deaths on the chilean public and to avoid the irresponsabilitie of drivers.
But appart from text messaging, there are other problems for drivers in Chile: Alcohol. Which is the main cause of car accidents in our country. Small ads have been made to stop drivers from drinking, but they have not been efficient enough. The ads show messages that tell you in different ways that you should not drink while driving, but they do not transmit a fear to the public, and thats what the public need.
Chilean citizens needs more raw images of people having accidents and about the consecuences that they have to suffer for being under the influence while driving. New ads should be a shock to viewers, so they can remeber the video always, and so they can transmit the video to people ho have not seen the video yet.
I think this kind of advertisments, in my opinion, are the most eficient and the best to show to great amount of public. It affects the viewers and it shock them, so the ads get planeted on their memories. Thats why I think, thatb chile shlould start a new ad campaign an follow Britains ideas od eficient ads.
A Tropical Adventure
A paradise on earth, thats what many people call it. There are no cars, no noise, only the nature and the beautiful blue sea between you and your destination. There are a lot of activities you can choose from, starting with a fishing trip in a canoe to an exciting swim with sharks.
Tahiti is an unknown location for a lot of people, you couldn’t posible imagine how many things you can do. Villagers welcome you as soon as you arrive, bringing you flowers and shells as if they have known you forever. The enviroment is humid and very hot, everyone is in their swiming suits ready to get to the beach.
“We spend most of our free time on th beach, we get all toghether and play fun games until it is dark, then we go back home and chill out” says a tahitian worker. People here are very different from the continental people, as they called them. ”Citizens from New York or London are all so stressed out, but here we are all happy an relax living the day by day of our lives”
The activities for tourists start very early in the morning, as the sun is rising up. The canoes with their drivers are at the shore waiting for people to arrive, in half an hour, there are all full. The trip starts with a stop at the pearl factory, which are in the middle of the ocean surrounded by huge nets carying different kind of shells. The view is astonishing, tourists are brought down the boat and in the small wooden factory so that they can get a view to the real tahitian pearls, and maybe but one or two.
The next stop is on a small island called Huahine, where there is a huge feast prepared for tourists, you can eat everything you like, from raw fish, to crabs and even coconuts just fallen down from the trees. After the feast is finished, the islanders prepare a performance, where they show the native dances of the island.
As the day is getting to its end, the canoes return to their original positions and welcome tourist back to Papeete, the city center of Tahiti. When tourists are asked, what do they think about Tahiti, the only answer we received, was that it was a paradise on earth.
Andres Velasco’s optimistic vision for the future
With a smile on his face and a positive look to the future, Andres Velasco opens up about the main topics of the chilean economy.
One year ago, the future of the world’s economy was totally black, but now a days is a complete different thing for chile’s minister of finance. Although he is aware of the complicated state in which the world is at, he think that the economy is slowly recovering, showing better numbers day by day.
“An economy that has had an accelerated downfall for months is now stabilized and flat” Said the minister explaining the good numbers that the chilean economy had.
But beside the good news, he also calls the economists to explore the different ways of benefits to improve even more the numbers, for example the agreements of free trade between countries.
“We can use the trades in a much better way, because there are not only trades to sell goods (…) Chile has de potencial to export services, specialy in the region, he highlighted.
Finally he explained, that we can not let our guard down in the matter of protecting our country through the crisis, staying always with our eyes open and alert.
*This was an excersice for English Writing Class
