From climate change to the lack of interdisciplinarity in academic and policy spaces — a natural scientist explores the unseen reasons behind the social unrest in Chile
A child, not more than eleven years old, is seen unarmed and panicked in the above photograph. At least four police officers, in an attempt to bring order, have surrounded and contained him forcefully. In fact, both public and private spaces have been deeply disturbed in Chile since 18 October this year, when an unprecedented social movement sprouted in the country.
The announcement of a further increase (the second of the year and the fifth since 2016) in the price of the metro ticket of 30 Chilean Pesos (~3 Rupees) was received with discontent. School and university students decided to denounce the situation by entering into the subway without paying. Standing in the main entrance of several metro stations of Santiago, the youth tried to raise awareness inviting every user to follow them hoping to expand the contestation. The malaise increased with the awkward and disconnected responses from the Chilean government and escalated to violence in response to repression by the police.
The excerpt above is from the essay titled 'A Story of Disconnections' in Inter-Actions, Vol 2 Qtr 3. Read in detail here.