Sunday, June 02, 2019

Santiago - Valparaíso high speed train and to Pudahuel airport (2019 Public Account)



The announcements in transports

During the Public Account in the National Congress, the President of the Republic Sebastián Piñera, detailed several infrastructure projects. One of the emblematics, the idea of ​​"declaring of public interest" the proposal to create a high-speed train service from Santiago to Valparaíso and San Antonio.

"Announce today that the Ministry of Public Works has declared of public interest the projects to build the much desired passenger and freight trains, which will connect the city of Santiago with the ports of Valparaíso and San Antonio and preparing us to call an international tender", said the President.

The construction would be the first high-speed train in South America, which would be available to around 7 million people. 

Although today there is a layout for railways in the Central Zone, one option is the construction of a new one, which would cross the Valley of Maria Pinto and Casablanca through three tunnels, linking Santiago with Valparaiso in a trip that is estimated to last 45 minutes approximately. At least that is the project of Tren Valparaíso Santiago (TVS), a company that has proposed to carry out the work. In this idea, the tour includes four stations: one in Valparaíso (Baron sector), another in Viña del Mar (downtown), Casablanca and finally in Maipú (Vespucio-Pajaritos).


The new project presented by AGUNSA



The new railway option would start in Mapocho station, would go through Til Til, Olmué and Limache to finish its journey in Viña del Mar and Valparaíso.

The new project was presented by a consortium of companies formed by the Spanish Talgo, AGUNSA and FCC.


Train to the airport, Line 10 and possibility of subway in regions

Another of the points that the President addressed in his speech was the connectivity problem that currently affects the Santiago airport, due to the lack of public transportation to the airport and to which it intends to provide a prompt solution. Well, although in recent years different ways of fixing this problem have been proposed, such as the extension of line 7 of the underground to the airport -a project that different experts have ruled out due to the large investment that would have to be made- or the implementation of more buses.




Piñera revealed that the option chosen by the Executive would be the creation of a train to the Pudahuel airport. On the same occasion, the President took the opportunity to inform that some Metro Lines will be extended and again showed his intention to create Line 10, which had been announced in January this year by the Head of State.

"We are promoting a profound modernization of our public transport system, which includes the duplication of the Metro network in the Metropolitan Region, going from 150 to almost 300 km, through the recently inaugurated Line 3, the new Lines 7, 8, 9 and 10, and the extensions of Lines 2 to San Bernardo, 3 to Quilicura, 4 to Bajos de Mena, 6 to Isidora Goyenechea and the train to the airport", commented the President. Additionally, the President revealed that "we have also begun studies to analyze the feasibility of building underground in other cities, starting in Concepción".

Source: EMOL

Sunday, May 19, 2019

The History of Rock - The 60's



Enjoy reading while listening to this playlist with the songs and 
artists mentioned in the article: CSA - History of Rock - 60's


While the rock declined in its country of origin, on the other side of the Atlantic, in England, mainly in the port cities (because it had easier access to the songs that came from the American continent), there was growing interest in rock and roll.

Billy Fury

Billy Fury was the first English rock artist to have an impact in the United States, still based on the commercial concepts of the original rock, with songs on demand. In the city of Liverpool, a cultural movement that took the name of a local music magazine, Mersey Beat, was taking shape. Among the local bands the Beatles already stood out.







In opposition to the youthful and innocent rock of the 50's, artists more concerned with passing important messages through music began to emerge in the United States. Based on folk music and playing in bars, artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez emerged, who in a very short time would change the face of rock.


Joan Baez & Bob Dylan


The intellectual movement called Beatnik was of great importance in the formation of this new style. The Beat was characterized by the valorization of individuality, free will, experimentation and change, in contradiction to the maintenance of the old values ​​considered important by the bourgeoisie.


In 1963 Bob Dylan was already a star of relative impact and his intelligent lyrics caught the attention of the public and critics, unprecedented until then in pop music. In April he made his first big show in New York, and had a performance on Ed Sullivan's television show cancelled due to the "revolutionary" content of his lyrics. Rapidly folk music and mainly Bob Dylan would be taxed by communists and degenerates, which obviously attracted the attention of the young audience and increased the appeal of the new style.



The Beach Boys


From the rock to the old style perhaps the only great novelty at the beginning of the decade of the 60's were The Beach Boys, band of beginning directed basically to the community of surfists but that ended up having an unexpected repercussion with the hit "Surfin 'Usa" (a cheeky plagiarism" Sweet Little Sixteen "by Chuck Berry, for whom they would be prosecuted that same year). Other artists with surf themes, such as Jan & Dean, would appear on its trail.




In England, hired by George Martin of EMI, after having been despised by the label Decca, in 1963 the Beatles were already an unprecedented success using the formula of bringing the easy appeal of captivating songs to great presence, good humor and some cynicism in interviews, which caught the attention of the press. It was strange also for the time that the own members of the band were responsible for great part of their compositions. 


Rolling Stones

With a cover of "Come On" (music by Chuck Berry) he also debuted in England, still without much impact, the band Rolling Stones.

Herman's Hermits

The news did not take so long to spread to other countries. Bob Dylan and other folk artists from the United States finally penetrated the English market while at the same time the Beatles conquered America. Interestingly, in April 1964 Bob Dylan was number one in England with the music "The Times They Are A Changin" while the Beatles occupied the top five positions in the US charts (with "Can't Buy Me Love" in first place) . There was no friction or dispute between the opposing musical styles, the lyrics and the political stance of Bob Dylan were always openly praised by the Beatles.


The Kinks

The Rolling Stones became a great worldwide success with their trip to the United States shortly after the Beatles (the irreverent attitude of the Stones, with their frequent scandals, was the perfect antithesis to the education and good looks of the Beatles, conquering the most rebellious part of the public). Other English bands like Herman's Hermits, The Kinks and The Animals also emerged.

The Animals

As of 1965, with the band Yardbirds (of so short career as influential, that had among its members to Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck) and The Who, the rock began to gain an unpublished aggressiveness, with guitars more distorted and more amplification.


                         The Yardbirds

The Who

In 1966, with the single "Substitute" The Who finally brought hard rock for the first time to the top of the charts, while Eric Clapton formed the power trio Cream. In the United States the novelties were less aggressive: the definitive fusion between the folk and the rock of the band The Byrds and Simon & Garfunkel and the vocal harmonies of the band The Mammas and The Pappas.

Cream

The Byrds

The drugs were no longer consumed to eliminate fatigue, but to seek pleasure and altered states of perception. The music of the time was strongly influenced by drugs like LSD. The new type of music was called psychedelic.



Simon & Garfunkel


The Mammas and the Pappas

On the LSD effect the Beatles recorded what was possibly the most revolutionary album in the history of rock, "Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band", in 1967. For the first time a rock band definitively broke with the extremely commercial format of hit music, releasing a work in which each song was only part of the whole. After spending more than 700 hours and six months of recording, it was an instigating album from its cover (a collage of personalities admired by the Beatles) to the last groove of the album (a cycle without end).





For many Sgt. Peppers is considered the birth of progressive rock (which does not follow any predefined concept, based on experimentation and originality). The band became one of the most successful bands of the decade and most successful in the history of pop music.


Jimi Hendrix

Discovered and taken to England by the ancient Animals, Jimi Hendrix would be another great revelation of 1967. With his second single, Purple Haze (the first was Hey Joe, a year earlier) Hendrix caught the attention not only of the Public, but of stars as Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, creating a new sound and definitely expanding the role and resources of the electric guitar in rock.


Grateful Dead


Jefferson Airplane

Based on the aggression to the establishment and freedom (sexual and experimentation) inherited from beat thinking, the United States appeared in the hippie movement, concentrated mainly in San Francisco, and having as exponents bands as Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane (clearly influenced by drugs ) and The Doors (with their first single, Light My Fire) and artists derived from folk music like Janis Joplin.


The Doors

It is the time of the flowers in the hair (hence the term flower power), the long hair and alternative communities. The three-pointed symbol related to the slogan "peace and love" was taken from the military signage that meant "cease bombing". Nothing more appropriate in the Vietnam war era. 




The great event of the year 1967 would be the Monterey Pop Festival that brought together in California Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Animals, Simon and Garfunkel, Buffalo Springfield, among others.



In 1968 with the end of the band Yardbirds, Jimmy Page formed the New Yardbirds soon renamed as Led Zeppelin, at the same time that Cream achieved a deserved success. Another hard rock band, Steppenwolf, with the song "Born To Be Wild", coined the term 'heavy metal' for the first time. The sound of Led Zeppelin was unprecedented, and although very based on the blues, more aggressive than any previous song. Virtuous instruments, solos and indefinite time improvisations began to stand out. Hard rock began its heyday at the same time that the classics like the Beatles and Pink Floyd, went through increasing problems of coexistence (although the Beatles still had their career ahead for almost two years, Pink Floyd underwent a great change with the exit of Syd Barret).



Led Zeppelin

Steppenwolf

Pink Floyd

1969 was the year of the great festivals. The death of a fan during a Rolling Stones show during a free presentation at the Altamond, California, festival was the negative frame of the year. But even this bad impression would not be able to stifle the realization of what was possibly the biggest music event of all time, between August 15th and 17th, at Woodstock, interpreted by many as the framework of the beginning of a new era of peace and love, with presentations among others by Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and The Who.


Joe Cocker

Woodstock Festival

In the Newport Jazz Festival, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, John Mayall, Ten Years After, Jeff Beck, James Brown, Johnny Winter, among others. With bands of virtuoso musicians such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jethro Tull and Deep Purple, and Frank Zappa's super-experimental Mothers of Invention, associated with the increasingly elaborate works of old bands like The Beatles and The Who (which had launched the rock opera Tommy, definitely elevating rock to the category of art) the characteristic simplicity of early rock had disappeared.


Jethro Tull

John Mayall

Ten Years After

Jeff Beck

* You might also be interested in: The History of Rock - The 50's


James Brown

Johnny Winter

Mothers of Invention

* You might also be interested in: The History of Rock - The Beginnings




Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Venezuela: Military support Juan Guaido and release Leopoldo Lopez

Juan Guaidó launched the "final phase of Freedom Operation" surrounded by soldiers and the Venezuelans defy the repression of the regime.

The president in charge of Venezuela, accompanied by the opposition leader Leopoldo López, gave a message to the country. "We are going to the street. National Armed Force continue the deployment until we consolidate the end of the usurpation, which is already irreversible," he said.

The Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo López, released today by related military, was sentenced in September 2015 to almost 14 years in prison for crimes related to an opposition march convened on February 12th, 2014 and which resulted in three deaths.




He remained for more than three years in the military prison of Ramo Verde and since mid-2017 he was under house arrest.

Today, April 30th, López is released by opposition forces and transferred to the La Carlota military base in Caracas.

Brief summary of the facts

06:00 hrs: The interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, affirmed on Twitter that he began the final phase of Operation Libertad "with the main units of the Armed Forces" and summoned the people of Venezuela to the La Carlota air base.




07:20 hrs: The American senator Marco Rubio stated on twitter: "The Maduro regime called for armed groups to take the streets, which is a clear sign that they have lost faith in the military."


11:00 hrs: Juan Guaidó once again expressed on Twitter: "The streets of Venezuela are still filled with people and more people!" All the Venezuelans who are taking to the streets, Brothers, we are making history, the cessation of the usurpation is irreversible. #TodaVenezuelaALaCalle ".

11:04 hrs: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro left a message on Twitter: "Brazil stands in solidarity with the long-suffering Venezuelan people enslaved by a dictator supported by the PT, the PSOL and ideological allies." We support the freedom of this sister nation to finally live a true democracy. "

11:55 hrs: Chilean Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero informed that today at 15:30 hrs there will be a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Lima Group by teleconference to analyze the situation in Venezuela.




12:15 hrs: Juan Guaidó spoke again on Twitter: "We have talked with our allies in the international community and we have their strong support for this irreversible process of change in our country, Operation Libertad began and we will resist until we achieve a free Venezuela #TodaVenezuelaALaCalle ".

"The dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro has done a giant, immeasurable damage to the life of Venezuela and also to the quality of life of Venezuelans and I am convinced that this dictatorship sooner rather than later must end," said Chilean President Sebastian Piñera.


Source: 
Infobae
Emol


Sunday, April 28, 2019

Que es el TPP-11 ?



El TPP-11 (Trans-Pacific Partnership) es el tratado plurilateral más grande de la región Asia Pacífico, y está formado por 11 países con un mercado de 498 millones de personas equivalentes al 12% del PIB global. Su objetivo es profundizar los lazos comerciales mediante el fomento y la liberalización del flujo de bienes, servicios e inversiones.





El TPP-11 (CCTPP - Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) o Tratado Integral y Progresista de Asociación Transpacífico se inicia el año 2010 y ha requerido muchas negociaciones hasta el año 2015, el cual se firma en Febrero del año 2016. El año 2017 Estados Unidos decide retirarse del tratado y Chile convoca y lidera el proceso para buscar alternativas que permitan seguir adelante con un TPP sin EE.UU. Finalmente se firma el nuevo acuerdo en Marzo del año 2018.





Luego del retiro de Estados Unidos (del TPP-12) los 11 países restantes (Brunei, Chile, Nueva Zelandia, Singapur, Australia, Perú, Malasia, Vietnam, México, Canada y Japón) deciden continuar con este tratado por considerarlo positivo y beneficioso para sus economías y porque era necesario dar una señal de integración y libre comercio contra las medidas proteccionistas de algunos países.




Este tratado se inserta en la política comercial del país que se mantiene durante los últimos 30 años mediante la apertura de nuestra economía al mundo. 




Poner en vigencia este acuerdo reforzaría los buenos resultados que han generado los 26 tratados comerciales que mantenemos con diversas economías del mundo, por lo que en la práctica su implementación no debiera significar grandes cambios o efectos negativos.





Uno de los mitos que actualmente existen es en relación a la industria farmacéutica por lo que es necesario aclarar que no hay ninguna disposición en el TPP que pueda alterar el acceso o tener un impacto en el precio de los medicamentos en nuestro país.




También es necesario destacar que en este acuerdo se ha buscado salvaguardar los intereses de Chile contemplando avanzar en normas de genero, medioambientales y de PYMES.




Este acuerdo es importante para Chile porque a través de todos los Gobiernos de Chile, que han participado en la negociación del Tratado desde el año 2010 a la fecha (Sebastian Piñera y Michelle Bachelet), hemos compartido nuestra convicción por una política exterior de estadocon visión de futuro, que resguarda y protege los intereses del país.
  



Por qué es importante para Chile la aprobación del TPP11 ?




Fuente: 
DIRECON Gobierno de Chile
Senado de Chile
Apuntes del autor