Just Call Me Coach

One of my responsibilities at Liceo de Niñas was to prepare our school's team for the English debate tournament, the first round of which was the last Friday of September, I believe. There were only three other teams competing against us; even so, my team did not do well. We ended the day in third place after an uninspired performance defending television's influence on children. My students were nervous, and admittedly I hadn't done the best job preparing them because I was struggling with the expectations and also having some trouble communicating with my coteacher. I had repeatedly asked her to help me, and she kept promising help and then abandoning me, only to show up at our last meeting and prettymuch rile everyone up, abruptly leaving me with a huge mess. We got into several arguments, and I was dreading the debate, an attitude that my students picked up on. What frustrated me the most is that my students did not want to participate, and when I decided to pull them out of the tournament, my coteacher told me that if we pulled out, the school could not participate in the English Opens Doors program. I told her that didn't sound right, but she insisted, so we struggled on. I later found out she lied to me in order to manipulate me into preparing the kids because she wanted to glory of participating in the tournament because it made her look good, but she did not want any part of actually helping me prepare. Luckily, a few weeks after we had a huge blowout about the problems we had been having, she got into some trouble and ended up taking the last two months of my volunteer experience off, which was a huge blessing.

However, after the first round of debates, I knew what to expect, and I actually had a lot of fun preparing for the second round with my students. We had a great topic; we were arguing that Chile spends too much money on the military. I thoroughly enjoyed researching this topic and writing the speeches for my kids, an experience that reinforced my desires to go back to school and study policy. My kids did an amazing job, and we ended up getting second place for the day. Also, my "closer," Jenny, ended up being awarded the Best Female Debater prize! She is a cute, funny student who is kind of a mess, in the most darling way. I enjoyed coaching her!

Here are a bunch of my students that came to support our debate team, the actual team, me, and my fellow gringos who were the judges for the tournament.
After we performed so well at the second round and I realized I was really proud of my students, I took them out to a restaurant to celebrate. You could tell it was a really special experience for them. I let them order whatever they wanted, knowing that they didn't get a lot of opportunities to go out to eat. We had a lot of fun giggling at the restaurant. Somewhere around this time, I realized I really liked working at an all-girls school. The dynamic between me and my students, without the distraction of boys, was really positive and productive.

My debate team at the restaurant: Daniela, Camila, Nyie, Jenny, Javi.
Jenny and Javi goofing around.
Dani, Camila and Nyie being cute and awkward!
I am going to post the text of our speech on the Chilean military, because it was really interesting to me. The history of the military in Chile is fascinating because of the role it played in the Pinochet dictatorship and the initial coup against Salvador Allende. At first, I was worried about how I was going to get teenage girls to care about the topic, but they ended up being really excited about participating in the debate. I also gave them a speech about how proud I was of them that would have brought tears to your eyes. Debates ended up being one of the highlights of my volunteer experience!

Debate 1: This House believes that Chile spends too much money on the military.

First position:

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your attention today. My name is _____________________ and I am a student at Liceo de Ninas Marta Brunet. Today, my teammates and I will show that Chile spends too much money on the military. We believe that there is no need for Chile’s extravagant defense spending. In actuality, Chile’s defense spending is a threat to regional stability. We also believe that Chile’s military spending exposes the weakness of the civilian government to control the armed forces. Finally, we believe that the money currently allocated to defense spending would be better spent on social programs that address the extreme disparity between the poor and the wealthy in our country.

Chile’s defense budget is secured by a law that allocates ten percent of the copper revenue of Coldelco, the state owned copper corporation, to the military. Due to the skyrocketing price of copper over the last five years, Chile has an excess of funds and has spent about two point eight billion dollars on weapons since two thousand. Recent purchases include ten F sixteen fighter planes, two submaries, eight frigates, one hundred eighteen tanks, one hundred humvee jeeps, and eighteen other warplanes. After the new tanks arrive, Chile will have an estimated 300 tanks, according to the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio.

In the past, Chile required a strong and capable military because of tense border relations. However, the resolution of border conflicts and Chile’s superior economic performance have stabilized its relationship with neighboring countries, and the mission of Chile’s military is now focused on peacekeeping. Chile’s last armed conflict, the War of the Pacific, was more than one hundred twenty years ago. Therefore, there is no need for Chile to spend a higher percentage of GDP on defense, at three point six percent, than any other Latin American state. It is already the strongest and most well-armed country in South America, and therefore, it is wasteful to continue making expensive purchases to bolster an already supreme force. Thank you.

Second position:

Hello, my name is _____________________.

The government has defended its wild purchases by suggesting that it is merely replacing out of date equipment, and proponents of military spending have suggested that a strong and well-supplied military is central in maintaining regional stability and protecting Chile from the threats of its neighbors. However, Chile’s purchases are doing more harm than good to regional stability. Peru, Bolivia and Argentina, already distrustful of Chile’s actions due to past skirmishes, are justifiably alarmed by Chile’s defense spending. Peru’s Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde has acknowledged that Peru is concerned about Chile buying sophisticated U.S. F-16 warplanes, stating “the purchase of this fleet affects the region’s strategic and military balance.” Chile has provoked a reional arms race. Neighbors are devoting the bulk of their resources to militarization, when a far more productive action would be to invest in internal development.

The unnecessary purchases also expose the impotence of the government to control the armed services, a fact that has dangerous implications for a democratic country. The Bachelet administration is clearly unable to hold the military accountable, and past efforts to decrease the ten percent copper allocation to five percent were met with heavy opposition from the military. Therefore, unable and unwilling to confront the military over its spending, the administration would rather appease its appetite for armament. As a result, the military is becoming more aggressive and demanding, according to a 2007 report by Council On Hemispheric Affairs Research Fellow Alex Sanchez. How safe and protected can we really feel with an armed services acting as a separate entity outside of government control? Thank you.

Third position:

Hello, my name is ________________________.

We have shown that Chile’s military spending is extravagant and unnecessary. Now, I would like to make suggestions for how the funds created by the copper boom can be put to better, more productive use. There are other options for allocation of the copper wealth. With ten percent of its revenue funding the military, Codelco is deprived of funds that could fully expand its production and efficiency. Why doesn't Chile slash pointless military spending and instead train Chileans to process & implement copper before shipping it overseas, and thus add value to the local economy? Another often overlooked group is Chilean troops themselves. The armed forces seem to have wealth to waste on tanks and planes, but they should be investing their surplus in better nutrition and equipement for rank-and-file troops, if the country is so devoted to military spending.

Ultimately, the goal of government spending should be to improve the lives of its citizens. It is difficult to see how an overstocked arsenal of planes, tanks, ships, and other weaponry helps the everyday Chilean. According to UN Development Program and World Bank figures, Chile continues to rank among the world’s worst economically unequal countries. The disparity in wealth between our country’s rich and poor ranks Chile among the bottom 12 countries that data is available for, in the company of far less developed or stable countries in Sub Saharan Africa and South America. And, as the recent protests over educational funding have revealed, the state of the educational system in Chile is in dire need of attention and funding. In the widespread protests of 2006, one protest sign read, “prices for copper go through the roof, education falls through the floor.” The budget surplus is wasted on unnecessary armament and could be better spent funding schools and increasing educational opportunities for developing human capital. This would do much more to stabilize and protect Chile from threats than a giant fleet of technology facing down imaginary threats. With Bachelet’s proposed social reforms in danger of being underfunded, we can think of no better resolution than reallocating the defense budget to social programs. While security is important, we must have virtuous institutions like education and social services that are worthy of protection, and these institutions are in dire need of reform and funds.

Good morning, my name is _________________________.

As we have shown you here today, Chile spends far too much on its military, and allocates a disproportionate amount of its budget to armament. Although some perceive regional threats, there is in actuality no need for the military buildup Chile has engaged in. An absence of war and increased regional and economic prosperity have eliminted the need for dramatic armament. Chile runs the risk of destabilizing the region if it does not reign in its extravagant and needless spending. At the same time, there are much more worthy and needy programs that could put the wealth created by the copper industry to better use. If Chile is serious about improving the lives of its citizens, as suggested by the Bachelet Adminstration’s ambitious social programs, it should be equally ambitious in reallocating funds to promote peace and prosperity, not armament and intimidation.

Despite what military commanders may believe and state publicly, Chile faces no external military threat. It is true that its neighbors are less than friendly, but this fact is mostly due to the unjustified arms buildup. Chile’s military purchases in fact have little to do with replacing out-of-date equipment, and have more to do with bolstering the egos of the military high command and intimidating neighbors and possibly the Chilean government itself. And while it is true that the military service provides important opportunities to Chile’s citizens, including educational advancement and the possibility to create new economic opportunities for families, the money allocated to actual soldiers compared to the money allocated to armament is pathetically unjust. If the military is truly devoted to “peacekeeping missions,” perhaps it should look internally and regionally and allocate its resources to keeping peace. This would mean releasing its excessive funds for important social programs and turning its back on the arms race it generated. While it may seem inconceivable for Chile’s military to release its funding, it is a noble and necessary action that will strengthen our democracy. Thank you.