Loose ends.

I HAVE 8 HOURS LEFT IN CONCEPCIÓN. This is really bittersweet. I wasn't ready to leave two weeks ago...now I am. I'm really excited to be home for Christmas, my 9.5 days at home are almost completely full with plans to get together with friends and family, and I can't wait to see everyone at Middlebury...but I don't want to leave. Especially today, I've been trying to notice everything, trying to do everything I have or haven't done this semester...and of course, I made sure to absorb as much Vitamin D as possible before my journey to the tundra. Ooh, talk about shock.


The other day I decided to reflect a little about my experience here. I've been forced to "reflect" all semester, as the Midd program requires us to write in a journal (which is then corrected for grammar, ha). I've enjoyed that. So I decided to write a more thoughtful blog entry than usual, not just detailing the events of my life in Chile.


One thing I've noticed, and which I may have referenced before, is that I feel so CONSERVATIVE here, from a political standpoint (although I don't consider myself particularly conservative when I'm in the US). Before arriving, I had heard that people from other countries say that the two political parties in the US are right-wing and more-right-wing...and I understand why. The first round of the Chilean presidential elections was last Sunday, and one of the candidates was from the Communist Party. I had a conversation specifically about this with some students in my rural sociology class, and found myself trying to explain US politics (of which I know VERY little) and ideology (individual liberty/freedom is the most important/valued thing...maybe?), and when we got on the topic of communism, I realized that usually the US viewpoint of communism associates it with dictatorships, at least in what I've seen, which is much more negative than the Chilean viewpoint, which just sees communism as another form of government, in which the government has more control over social decision-making. It doesn't sound so scary when there's not a dictator involved (at least not to the Chileans...). Anyway. Another application-- In my internship at the Consultorio (public health clinic), I got to understand the public health system in Chile pretty well. This was really interesting for me, as there isn't the divide between "public" and "private" in healthcare in the US. One thing I noticed is that there is a lot of talk about rights in the public system. Those are important. Especially after a military dictatorship. One conversation that I had with a nurse, though, really got to me. We were talking about the day-after pill. Specifically, I was asking if it was sold (legally) in Chile (abortion is illegal here). He explained that it is sold legally, but that it isn't accessible to everyone, because although anyone can get a prescription from their doctor (public or private), the pill can only be obtained at an external pharmacy, where it needs to be bought. Users of the public health system can't get it at the pharmacies in the consultorios--they need to go elsewhere and purchase it. From this nurse's point of view, this setup basically shows that poor people don't have the right to the day-after pill, but that people with money do. What?!? (that was my reaction.) I guess it makes sense, ish. It depends how you look at the situation. As I see it, any user of the public healthcare system can go in to get prescriptions for birth control and condoms...and can get them at the consultorio's pharmacy. Therefore, why is it necessary to also be able to access the day-after pill? People should be personally responsible, right? They had the option of prevention...if they didn't use it, why should the government be bound by the people's "rights" to provide a backup? Of course, there are complications of this situation as well, like when people are raped, or the birth control method malfunctions, but in general, I just thought his viewpoint was strange, as he declared that people's rights were being violated through this setup. Trying to see it from his standpoint, it makes sense. If the pill is seen as a medical necessity, the patients who can't pay are going to lack a medical necessity, to which they are entitled. We differ on the point of necessity.


Another part of my LONG conversation with classmates last week involved talking about the healthcare setup in the US. This was interesting. A couple of people mentioned how they had heard that US citizens needed to go to Cuba to get medical attention when they had medical issues because of the effects of 9/11 (ex: NYC residents whose lungs had been affected by debris in the air)(note: I could not confirm or disaffirm the validity of this, as I had NEVER heard this beforehand...). Others mentioned Obama, as a figure of healthcare reform. After they completely bashed the system in the US, I asked them what they thought of the Chilean system. They said it was "a joke". A lot of people use the private system when they're young, working, and relatively healthy. Therefore, the healthcare taxes that they pay (7%) go to the private sector. Then, when they're old, not making money, and have more health problems, the private system is too expensive, so they switch to the public system, which they may have never paid into. This creates an issue where the public system is burdened with caring for these people, on top of the other users of the system,whose 7% is probably smaller than the 7% that the private-system patients pay, because the public-private divide is marked by socioeconomic standing, in most cases. This all doesn't have much of an impact on my ideas about health reform in the US, because what's being proposed, to my knowledge, is not a dual system of attention like the setup in Chile, but it just seemed funny to me that all of these sociology students want their government to control more of their resources when they think that they're not used efficiently...

Also, it's been fun here seeing how people view the US. Some, like a few sociology classmates, get all heated about the US's involvement in Chilean politics, especially in the pre-dictatorship period and in the education that the University of Chicago gave to a bunch of young Chilean economists, who then, armed with the ideas of Milton Freidman, helped to turn Chile into a very neoliberal place. Others, who are more idealistic about the US, have asked me if there is poverty there, if there are crimes, etc. When I explain the college application process, people tell me, "Oh, just like in Legally Blonde!" (and some think we don't need to pay for said college. oh my, are they wrong there). They see the American humor of Homer Simpson and the fairytale endings and massive homes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I'm obviously generalizing here, and it's been better getting to know people on a personal level than note the stereotypical ways that Chileans think about the US. It's easier to talk about stereotypes, though. Also, although a lot of people don't like the way the US works (capitalism, international intervention, etc), they recognize that it offers them opportunities, particularly for higher education. I have met so many students here who are planning or hoping to study for a doctorate in the US...the Chilean government helps with scholarships to some.

One thing that people need to go get those doctorates, though, is that they need to speak, write, read, and understand English. I've been meeting up with a professor all semester to just converse in English so she can practice--she's got one of those scholarships, and wants to be able to use it! In working with her, seeing how the English teaching in schools can be badly orchestrated, and talking to people about how they want to learn English, I've come to the resolution that maybe I'll come back to teach English. Having a native English-speaking teacher is quite rare here, but can make a big difference in learning the language. I don't know how to teach English, but that could be remedied, right?

Anyway, enough reflecting and rambling. Sorry about that. Now I need to go, to finish my final essay for Juan, and sleep!

Love and excitement,
Tiernan