Changes

First of all, I have to begin by saying that I am an optimist but I am a critical one. What I mean to say is that I am not one of those people that thinks that their country is rubbish and that everything is just hopeless. In general terms, I like my country, but I don't have an exacerbated, irrational patriotic sentiment either. Chile is OK but it could be much better.

I could talk about drastic changes to education, working conditions, housing; just to name a few, but I really want to focus on concrete things today that could make my life, and that of others, a little more pleasant.

The first thing that I would like to see happen is for people to be fined if they let their dogs defecate on the streets without cleaning it up. If you have a dog, it’s not right to let it out for a ‘walk’ so it can defecate all over the place. That’s just plain irresponsible and nasty! If you want your dog to use the streets and parks as a toilet, then pick it up!

The second thing that I’d like to see is really simple, I’d like to see more people saying hello to their neighbors and to people doing different services. Some years ago, it was common in Chile for neighbors to sit outside their houses and talk in the evenings, especially in the Summer time. Nowadays no one knows their neighbors and sometimes you say hello to people and they don’t greet you back. It’s a simple gesture but it says: “Hey, I am aware of your presence, you matter.”

The third thing relates indirectly to the first, as I sometimes feel that people can sometimes be a bit irresponsible in the way they treat their pets. I’ve seen children pulling their dog’s and cat’s tails, grabbing them as if they were a bag of potatoes…The point is, I feel that sometimes parents don’t teach their kids to respect animal life and they treat their pets like things. I think it might be nice if playschools had a dog as a pet to teach children how to take care of animals, respect them and love them.

As I said, these are not super profound ideas, but they are just simple things that could contribute to a better cohabitation between humans and also between humans and animals.