Christian Christensen – US Violence Breeds a Language of the Grotesque

Another week, another series of school and university shootings in the US, and another chance to hear phrases such as “active shooter” and “campus lockdown” repeated over and over by police, school administrators and journalists. These phrases – chilling in their clinicalness – are not only stark examples of the militarization of the language of everyday life, but also reminders of how the language …

Expat Files – 09.13.15

-Did you know that 95% of Latins drive with no car insurance coverage at all? That’s a fact even though most all Latin countries have mandatory insurance laws. How is that possible? How do they continuously get away with it?

-Did you know that in most Latin countries, if you go to a driving school to learn how to drive properly, the school will guarantee you a driver’s license upon completion? Here’s the crazy part: most schools will give you the “on the road” part of the driver’s test right on the premises… not in an actual car but in a simulator! Crazier yet, over half of Latin drivers either have no idea how to parallel park or are too afraid to even try it. So instead they circle and circle, block after block, waiting for an easier space to open up. That’s what happens when your license is approved by a simulator.

-What happens if you get in trouble with the law while in Latin America? Specifically, what can happen if you get in a car accident or hit a pedestrian?

-Another “boots on the ground” gringo tale of woe. This time we hear from a gringo personally involved in a hit and run accident. (He was the driver and the one who ran!)