at the latin american studies' class we talked about guatemala. apart from invention of the maya, their trajes, tourism and civil war, about the search for the authentic defined as the "really real" in the beauty contest where the winner is the one native maya woman who speeks ancient tongue which nobody understands (lengua), who can dance son, the traditional maya dance, and who has the original traje, the traditional dress of maya guatemalans. they also say rather political speeches in spanish... about the oppression of the indigenous by the ladinos, about the right to land etc. it seems that being against the system, being oppressed, being dissatisfied with the government and having the revolutionary potential becomes part of the "authentic maya" image. revolution is popular. and they do not speek about any particular cases so the authorities have nothing to worry about. only the general tendency to be rebellious. but neither this content of their speeches nor beauty is actually important in this contest of the mayan queen. it's authenticity. the jury is comprised of an athropologist, two linguists and some other politician. and the winner recieves a spanish dictionary as the main prize. one more article was about the murders in recent years... augmenting in guatemala, as well as brazil and peru and mexico. in guatemala more than a thousand women have been killed this year... found raped and beheaded and with the bodies totally distorted. and nobody investigates these crimes. however, there are no statistics as to how many of them are the maya and how many ladinos and foreigners... still, probably the most are maya. i talked to my guatemalan friend at the turkish feast yesterday and he said that it's not that dangerous anymore... "if you go to the tourist areas", he added.



i also found out that in one of the university's newspapers there is a section about crime at brandeis. what do the police do. here is the report from the last week:

Police Log
Posted: 9/12/06
Medical Emergency

Sept. 4-A student in North Quad was reportedly intoxicated, but he refused care.

Sept. 5-A caller in North Quad reported a female in the bathroom vomiting and feeling dizzy.

Sept. 8-A caller reported an individual with a knee injury on the athletic fields. The male patient was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by ambulance.

Sept. 9-An ambulance responded to a report of an intoxicated female in North Quad.

Sept. 9-A caller on the athletic fields reported an individual with a shoulder injury. An ambulance transported the individual to Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Sept. 9-A caller in Gosman reported an individual had received a head injury playing tennis. BEMCo treated the patient with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 9-A caller in the Village reported she had a sharp pain in her stomach. BEMCo responded and treated her with a signed refusal for further care.

Sept. 10-A caller from North Quad said he had too much to drink and was throwing up in the bathroom. BEMCo and Residence Life were notified, and the individual was transported by ambulance to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care.

Sept. 10-A caller from the Foster Mods reported an 18-year-old female was feeling faint. The individual was transported to Newton-Wellesley Hospital by ambulance for further care. Residence Life was notified.

Sept. 10-A report was received of an intoxicated male in North Quad. He was transported by ambulance to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Residence Life was notified.

Sept. 10-A female with a cut on her knee was transported to the Waltham Urgent Care Center.

Larceny-Theft

Sept. 7-University Police received a report of a past larceny on Charles River Road, which had already been reported by Waltham Police.

Burglary

Sept. 5-University Police received a report that an iPod was stolen from a lab in Bassine.

Disturbance

Sept. 4-University Police responded to a report of loud music in Ziv Quad. The music was shut-down.

Sept. 5-University Police received a report of loud music from the Charles River Apartments.

Sept. 5-A caller reported loud music and yelling in the Charles River Apartments. The residents complied when asked to quiet down.

Sept. 8-University Police responded to a complaint of loud music in Ziv Quad. The individuals quieted-down when asked.

Sept. 9-There was a report of intoxicated individuals screaming and yelling in Castle Quad. They were dispersed.

Sept. 9-A caller reported loud music coming from Rosenthal Quad. University Police didn't find the noise.

Sept. 9-A caller reported an individual playing the drums outside a building in the Charles River Apartments. University Police advised the individual to go inside.

Sept. 9-A caller reported loud noise in the Charles River Apartments. University Police found the noise was coming from an unregistered party. Residence Life was notified.

Traffic

Sept. 8-A vehicle was stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way road by the Castle.

Sept. 10-A motor vehicle crashed through the fence in front of Gosman. Numerous vehicles in the front of G-Lot were struck. Waltham Police, Waltham Fire and AMR responded. One individual was taken to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital. The vehicle that struck the fence was towed, along with another one, by Pilgrim Auto.

Trespassing

Sept. 7-Trespass letters were issued to individuals living on campus between Edgewater Drive and the Charles River Apartments. Waltham Police assisted in the scene.

Miscellaneous

Sept. 3-There was a report of two suspicious white males with baseball caps in Ziv Quad. University Police discovered they were both actually pizza delivery men from the Prospect Street Café.

Sept. 6-A caller reported smoke by a bike rack in front of Gosman. University Police found it was actually steam.

ordinary university life. too many parties. and two many car accidents recently. yesterday when we were walking to campus with eva and justinas who came to visit me after the "work and travel usa", there was a serious accident down the south steet.