Power to the People
I feel like this week could be summed up with "ahhh, for once, not another problem for Latin America!" This week's reading was very refreshing: there was no political turmoil or big wars to talk about, but an attempt to establish trust between the government and its people.
I don't often think about how lucky I am to have a government that I trust, even if I'm not one hundred percent satisfied. I can trust that my government, on all three levels, will never put me through the same things as Latin American leaders have done in previous weeks. I really appreciate this week's material for not being so violent.
I loved the part about the radios! Radios were a big thing in my house growing up (though not as big as here) and they were always tuned to cfox. I still have a clock radio as well, rather than using my phone as my alarm, just because I like waking up to music or talk-shows or what have you. My grandma always talks about radios when she was young, too, and how they would all gather around the radio to listen to "the shade" like families gather around tvs for their shows. I love the idea of radios bringing people together, getting accessible information out to the world, being the beginning of a modern world.
I love the idea of radios growing culture and spreading different forms of music and I love the idea of the people really controlling this aspect of their culture. Try as they might to use radio for propaganda, the government was laughed off. It feels just very broad, like a collective of people finally getting a foot up over the government that they have been fighting for so long.
I wonder, would Latin America have the same social advancements if the radio did not exist?
I don't often think about how lucky I am to have a government that I trust, even if I'm not one hundred percent satisfied. I can trust that my government, on all three levels, will never put me through the same things as Latin American leaders have done in previous weeks. I really appreciate this week's material for not being so violent.
I loved the part about the radios! Radios were a big thing in my house growing up (though not as big as here) and they were always tuned to cfox. I still have a clock radio as well, rather than using my phone as my alarm, just because I like waking up to music or talk-shows or what have you. My grandma always talks about radios when she was young, too, and how they would all gather around the radio to listen to "the shade" like families gather around tvs for their shows. I love the idea of radios bringing people together, getting accessible information out to the world, being the beginning of a modern world.
I love the idea of radios growing culture and spreading different forms of music and I love the idea of the people really controlling this aspect of their culture. Try as they might to use radio for propaganda, the government was laughed off. It feels just very broad, like a collective of people finally getting a foot up over the government that they have been fighting for so long.
I wonder, would Latin America have the same social advancements if the radio did not exist?
I enjoyed reading about how the radio influenced Latin American democracy too - I at least didn't think it had such a powerful role in giving all sectors of the population a voice. To answer your question, I think this giving of voice and power is what made it possible for people to speak their mind and fight for their rights, so my guess is progress would have been much slower without the introduction of the radio in Latin American society.
ReplyDeleteI have never really thought about radio in this way before either. It truly has the power to democratize information and bring people together. You talk about trusting your government, which government do you talk about? Canada?
ReplyDeleteAlthough there was no crises in this week's readings, I would say populism can be a source of conflict. Especially thinking of how populism has led Venezuela into its current crisis. Although populism does not end in populism it is not always the best form of government as it does not necessarily imply trust
ReplyDeleteHaha! I told myself the exact same thing: finally something positive to read about in the history of Latin America! That was until I went to class and found out that actually populism isn't the best political approach! So much for a week without crises in the history of Latin America I guess...
ReplyDelete