Parrots and social crisis.
Wednesday, 04/28/04 - 9:22 pm.

I have two stories. Very important stories to tell.

The first one is on a personal level. I was outside the UCA this morning, getting some photocopies, when I heard a very familiar sound. I looked around in the street, and I saw two parrots in a minimal cage.

I hate myself for being so shy. I could've asked the woman (she sells accesories like bracelets and such outside the campus) how much they cost. But I didn't. I feel so sorry for them, that feeling is eating my insides.

But there's hope. I sent my friend Victoria to ask the woman (see, I'm shy yet resourceful) if she was selling them. Victoria came back and says to me: $100, she says. Because "they belong to a friend who lent them to me". Shyeah, like I care....she's nuts.

Anybody who keeps two parrots in a minimal cage is nuts. Anyway, I will approach to her tomorrow and I will tell her to sell them to me for $4 each. Or $5. That's all I can offer, and it's as much as you'll be offered. Besides, they're used, and they look sick. I have it all planned, and the only thing I need is for her to have the parrots in her barrow tomorrow. The money comes from my savings for the Aerosmith album Honkin' On Bobo. It hasn't been released here, anyway.

What, are you going to put them in a bigger cage?. No, love. As soon as she gives me the cage, I will run to the forest of the campus, where all the parrots fly to at sunset (it's their home, because all forests in the city have been cut down to build malls *sobs*), and I will open the cage.

And as the saying goes, to be continued...

The second story is beyond myself. I actually have no direct relation to this event, but it's affecting and it's scaring me and it's giving me hope.

Once upon a time, there was a third world country run by the oligarchy. Elections were celebrated and were won by a rightist, whose academical preparation went no further than high school, for he never attended college. The rightists are well known for their repressive system that comes since this unhappy thirld world country stopped being part of Spain in 1821.

Anyway, one of the many problems of this country was the health system. The medicines that were sold (and that very few could afford) were expired, and the neoliberalist system of the rightists demanded that all hospitals were privatized.

Long story short, this morning, 20 people took over the cathedral, because the government was firing all doctors and nurses and workers of the hospital, BECAUSE they are protesting against privatization. For the sake of the people, yo.

So the people from the labor union took over cathedral, pacifically, but the leaders were brutally captured by the "police".

Protests went on with the day, people gathered around supporting the cause, people were injured, buses were burned down. Just like civil war times. You know what the problem is? No one can say anything against The System, because this is what happens.

They (the media, the right wing) call them terrorists. Jesus Christ, nobody pays attention to the starving ones, who are losing their jobs to transnational bussiness, and when they do, they call them terrorists and arrest them, beating them up in the process.

You'd get a kick out of the images, I'm sure. I myself I'm horrified. Specially for the ones in the cathedral. Maybe the wonderful main priest of this country will say "yeah, go in there and kill them". After all, he supports war in Iraq. After all, he's wealthy and is sitting next to the president at all elegant lunchs. After all, he doesn't give a fuck about anything.

There's so much to tell, but I have so much to study for tomorrow's midterm. I'll finish the stories tomorrow. Or better said, those stories might finish themselves tomorrow. Or might not. For better of for worse, you never know.

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