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| About Me |
Name: Milenka
Home: Santiago, Chile
About Me: I'm just a regular student, with the usual troubles, just trying to get good grades in her english class!
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martes, 26 de mayo de 2009 |
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| Oops, Task 4 reloaded. |
I misunderstood our last task, so I'm doing it again, after reading my classmates blogs I finally understood what I need to do.
I choose Lautaro's blog, called Pale Traces.
I think he really likes dark colors, since he's a really big metal fan, like black and red. But these colors make his blog look a little bit scary, or makes you feel depressed when you go read his blog entries.
That's why I like that he uses a lot of pictures to add more colour.
I really like his blog about his favorite painting, "Son of Men" by Rene Magritte, because I think It's a lot like my favorite painting "La Carta" by Pedro Lira, because we can't see the face of this really elegant man, we don't know what's he's hiding behind that green apple. I think he's hiding something really big, like a conspiracy, because he looks like an important business man. Or maybe, he's just a representation of powerful men in the world, that don't show they're real intentions. Like that old chilean saying "Se ven caras pero no corazones" (We see faces but we don't see hearts).
As Lautaro, I think the picture It's a little bit scary, but not that much, It's funny too because it's a parody of power and real intentions.
I didn't like when he said that I made him choose a different painting, I was just saying my opinion about it, so It's not my fault haha.
Also, I think his blog about his favorite website was kind of boring because I don't really like metal music at all, and the web page doesn't even exist anymore. But I really like to download music for free on the internet, so I agree with him, because you can get the latest music albums very fast, before than in a record store. |
posted by Milenka @ 18:51  |
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martes, 19 de mayo de 2009 |
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| La Carta by Pedro Lira |
I saw this picture for the first time when I was really young, I was around 4 or 5 years old. When I lived in Concepción my parents usually made picnics in the parks of the Universidad de Concepción on the weekends, only if it was a sunny day, because in the south it rains a lot.
In the University there's a small museum of pictures or Pinacoteca, that's open even in the weekends.
So, after we had lunch in the park, we went to the Pinacoteca to see the pictures. There's a room full of pictures by Chilean artists, and there it was La Carta by Pedro Lira.
It's a really old picture, painted in the XIX century, and it shows and aristrocratic woman that is away from the viewer perspective, so you can't see her face. She's holding a letter behind her, trying to hide it from someone that's opening her door. We can't read the letter, because it's too blurry, and we can't see who's entering the room, so everything it's mysterious.
I really like this picture because the woman is faceless, we can't see if she's crying, or scared, or even smiling playfully. I like to think that she has a secret that's she's trying to hide, and she's really scared, because the person that it's opening the door it's going to find out about it. Maybe she has a secret lover, and her father doesn't know, and by seeing the clothes that she is wearing, she belongs to a time where single women coudn't have unofficial boyfriends, they had boyfriends imposed by their parents. So it's a very romantic picture.
I love that pictures allow people to interprete what they're seeing, people can make their own stories.
Pedro Lira was one of the founders of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Santiago, and was the first Chilean artist to paint a retrait from another perspective, from the back of the person.
This artist was really revolutionary in Chilean painting, because he could tell a whole storie, show thousands of emotions without showing the face of the person he was painting. This established that artists don't have to paint faces to send a message.
If you want to see this picture, you need to go to the Museo de Bellas Artes, where the original painting is, and it's free on sundays! I go once in a while to see the new exhibitions and the old paintings like La Carta, that even after many years, I still like, and everytime I see it I find new beautifuls details.
Or you can travel to Concepción to see a copy of it, and you can enjoy a really nice walk around the parks and hills of the Universidad de Concepción, one of the most beautiful university campuses in Chile.Etiquetas: arte |
| posted by Milenka @ 11:39 |
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martes, 12 de mayo de 2009 |
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| Change in estate tax suggested to pay for health care in the USA |
Since Barack Obama won the elections in America, the whole world has been expecting big changes.
One of the most waited changes is in the health area. United States might be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but american citizens have one of the worst health systems, affecting mainly the poor people.
That's why president Obama has started a new reform in health, by expending more money in the current system. Money that comes from taxes.
But this money it's not comming from all americans, or from every state, it's comming from the wealthiest states and from the 28% of citizens that are in the first two tax brackets.
This way Obama is filling the gap in the budget, to finally help the poorest states, like Alaska, New Orleans or the middle-west of America.
But things are not easy for Obama, because his own political party, the democrats, are arguing about this, because part of this reform considers taking a percent from the budget that goes into charities, and this organizations are very helpful, because they satisfy necessities that the government can't satisfy.
Also, the reforms considers a percent from gifts that some organizations or countries give to public servants, like diplomats or members of the congress, or even the president. Obama expects to raise from this about USD$24 billions over the next 10 years.
In total, this change in estate tax it's going to raise USD$266.7 billions. This money it's going to help a lot of people that right now are out of the MEDICARE system of health, and can't pay for a doctor or even medicines. The ones that benefit the most from this are the elderly people.
But Obama faces a lot of criticism from the republican party, because he's being acussed of trying to impose a new government system, based in welfare state and close to socialist reforms. We need to remember that president Bush tried his best to avoid this kinds of reforms, mainly because of his liberal and conservative type of government.
But Obama has a big support from the people, even after his election, and that's why he can change things without the danger of losing his job. And the acussations from the republicans are nothing but empty words.
This news are important for a Public Administration student because we can learn that public servants can really change big estructures, like in this case, a health system in the most developed country in the world. We can learn that big and controversial changes can be made, like changing the tax estructure, a really sensitive issue in Chile.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/us/politics/12healthtax.html?ref=politicsEtiquetas: economy, taxes, USA government |
| posted by Milenka @ 11:47 |
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martes, 5 de mayo de 2009 |
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| Thesartorialist.com |
Since I was a little girl, I've always been interested in fashion. Even if I don't wear fashionable clothes, I really enjoy watching the new trends of fashion over the years.
That's why I visit almost everyday http://www.thesartorialist.com/, a site that i found surfing on the internet.
This web page contains pictures from all over the world, pictures of people wearing excentric clothes, made by their own, by famous designers, or bought in thrift stores.
I like that the web page shows that you don't have to be rich or famous to dress nice, and that you don't need to be the most beautiful person in the world. Fashion it's about confidence in yourself, confidence in what you're wearing and being happy about it.
Fashion it's not set by the famous designers, people set the new trends. That's why fashion changes from time to time, because people choose what to wear and what not to wear.
I also like that Scott Schuman, the owner of the website, always felt a gap between what he was selling and what was people really wearing. So, over the years, he took his camera and took pictures of really trendy people in the streets, of all ages, from children to seniors.
Designers seemed to be disconnected from reality, so these pictures showed that people don't exactly follow the rules of fashion that the houses of design set.
In reality people don't wear over the top designs, full of feathers or sequins. People like to be comfortable, they like to use wearable clothes, but they must look nice. I mean, clothes should follow a fashion trend at the same time.
With time, the site got famous, and Scott Schuman couldn't travel all over the world to take new pictures, so he recruited a group of young photographers to do the job with him. That's why, now, The Sartorialist covers the big fashion hotspots in cities like Paris, New York, Tokio and Rome. But, this independent photographers also travel to small cities in small countries chasing for new styles.
I really enjoy the photo comments, because people can debate about what's new, and what's coming in the following years. And the page visitors always argue about what's in and what's out, and this debates can get really funny when people take fashion too seriously.
Since The Sartorialist started, there's been a huge increase in fashion and photography blogs. Even in Chile, where http://www.vistelacalle.com/ it's very famous right now. This site shows fashion trends of young common people in the streets of Santiago.Etiquetas: fashion |
| posted by Milenka @ 12:08 |
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