Six weeks and four days to go - Smog, More Strikes and Incan Gods.

So. Lots to report on.

Firstly, winter has arrived; however, this doesn't mean snowy streets and snowmen with inappropriately placed carrots but instead disgusting levels of air-contamination trapped in the city by the cooler air which, as any science teacher will tell you, is less disposed to rising and taking the filth with it. Normally this is assuaged (big-word high-five!) somewhat by winter-rains washing the air clean but this year Kon* is angry (or not paying attention) and it hasn't rained since Kon knows when.

Kon-man

Pre-emergency level has been declared for the last couple of weeks which means that children aren't allowed to do Physical Education at school because breathing too heavily might turn them into Dickens style urchins coughing up black lumps into a dirty tissue.

A very long snorkel please

Talking of school, there hasn't been much of it lately, nor University neither because everyone's on strike. I've mentioned the strikes before, they're kind of a tradition. That said, normally they'd have resolved themselves by now and we'd be back in class making up for lost time. This year the strikes have become quite hardcore: sporadic and passionate. Not quite at the level of the impressive 2011 protests which saw running battles day and night between students and police and eventually caused the academic year to be cancelled completely, but serious all the same.

Video recorded from my balcony. 2011.

The main problem is that Chile is The Neo-Liberal paradise. State control has long been sold off to the highest bidder and schools are now independently run much as any other business is. As we all know, businesses exist first and foremost to make money; that means reducing costs (low salaries, little investment) and increasing profits (high tuition fees). Teachers are pissed off with the low salaries, students are pissed off with the high tuition fees and everyone is pissed off with the lack of investment. You don't need much of an education to see that A+B+C = Strike!

Let the lesson be that education is not a good to be bought and sold (Who voted 'Cameron?').

OK. That'll do for now. I'll be back soon with details of my cat's scabby ears.

*Godchecker.com. YOUR GUIDE TO THE GODS
Discover almost 4,000 gods, goddesses and spirits from around the world - Genius.