Blog Review: Across the Great Divide
This is a review of Lauren's blog, Across the Great Divide
While I bitch about poverty in Chile and talk vaguely about a Chilean revolution, or anti-revolution, it's nice to see actually doing something about it. Lauren is a Voluntario de la Esperanza, (did she start it?) this non-profit VEGlobal that just got a Google grant and looks like it's addressing Chilean poverty, I like how that page explicitly points out the irony of Chile's "rising star" status and "overlooked" poverty.
The tone of Lauren's blog is very bloggy, like Alojamiento Chile, and similarly it looks like she's actually doing something semi-interesting with her life. Except with Lauren, I have a much clearer idea what the hell that is. Her stories are longer, and more there's consistency to them. A recent post about the poor Children in Chile she works with verges on emotive, as she highlights the need for dignity: the immaterial things that poor kids need are what rich children need as well.
Being kinduva film purist, I'm not really stoked that she's submitting those young ones to imported Hollywood crap like Snow White and Ratatouille. I would submit that the rascals could handle a little more culture. I would take them to a movie theater like Cine Arte Normandie, perhaps some Pasolini would do them good. There's a reason I don't work with children.
Lauren gets two thumbs up for a nicely written blog and for acknowledging that Chile has a poverty problem.
What do you think about Lauren's blog? Oh yeah? Well, if that's the way you feel, then write a review in the comments below!
And check out more reviews of Chile blogs and write your own.
While I bitch about poverty in Chile and talk vaguely about a Chilean revolution, or anti-revolution, it's nice to see actually doing something about it. Lauren is a Voluntario de la Esperanza, (did she start it?) this non-profit VEGlobal that just got a Google grant and looks like it's addressing Chilean poverty, I like how that page explicitly points out the irony of Chile's "rising star" status and "overlooked" poverty.
The tone of Lauren's blog is very bloggy, like Alojamiento Chile, and similarly it looks like she's actually doing something semi-interesting with her life. Except with Lauren, I have a much clearer idea what the hell that is. Her stories are longer, and more there's consistency to them. A recent post about the poor Children in Chile she works with verges on emotive, as she highlights the need for dignity: the immaterial things that poor kids need are what rich children need as well.
Being kinduva film purist, I'm not really stoked that she's submitting those young ones to imported Hollywood crap like Snow White and Ratatouille. I would submit that the rascals could handle a little more culture. I would take them to a movie theater like Cine Arte Normandie, perhaps some Pasolini would do them good. There's a reason I don't work with children.
Lauren gets two thumbs up for a nicely written blog and for acknowledging that Chile has a poverty problem.
What do you think about Lauren's blog? Oh yeah? Well, if that's the way you feel, then write a review in the comments below!
And check out more reviews of Chile blogs and write your own.
posted by Chileno @ 12:36 PM
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2 Comments:
Web 2.0 baby, bring in on!!!!
Not writing about travel is a breath of fresh air and indicates that Lauren is not just another self-serving expatriate click-whore with a propensity for listing experiences and food consumed or attractions visited in columns.
Put another way, it seems like her posts are genuine expressions of trials and tribulations, experiences, misadventures, and insights that are not based on the this-is-my-second-trip-to-Chile- after-a-study-abroad perspective, an I-am-still-wide-eyed-but-now-slightly-more-grown-up-and-thus-slightly-more articulate take on life on Chile, but...
She seems to talk from the perspective of someone actually immersed here and thus experiencing Chile from Within (hehe), a blend of personal relationships and direct experience which gives her intimate clues to the quirky and bizarre Chilean world that, for example, Argentinian's convincingly make fun of and American's can come to scorn in moments of anxiety.
She writes in English and illuminates in Chilenismo, forcing readers to read for understanding, not consumption. It might transport your mind to the image of poor kids hiding behind movie promotion cut-outs in their first visit to the movie theater (and exposure to Michael Jackson's video, Thriller).
That said, I have no idea what Across the Great Divide means, or for that matter, "Chilelle," and for good measure, "no damn cat, no damn cradle."
I guess that doesn't really matter, though, does it?
Well I'm glad that someone finally wondered what all that stuff means. When I say that my readership went up, it's way up, and as I re-read some things, I wonder if I ever thought about whether people understood at all.
"Across the Great Divide" is a song by The Band. The chorus is "Across the great divide, just grab your hat and take that ride." That's what I felt like I needed to do at the time in my life when I left New York for Chile. Either here in Chile, or at home in New York I tend to feel like I'm seeing people through some sort of barrier.
The other quote is Vonnegut, and I had half-forgotten in was up there.
Thanks for the kind words, and I look forward to putting both of your blogs on my reading list.
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