day of the combatant

Today is a big student-police clash day as kids take to the streets, just because they do every year on this day. There's usually something specific that they vaguely want to protest, but the day is actually marked on the calendar. Scheduled riots? I mean, this seemed interesting and strange in September but now it just seems stupid. This year's issue is Transantiago, the 5-week-old overhaul of the mass transit system here, that has been at times chaotic and disastrous. I personally haven't really had much of a problem adjusting to it, but I'm privileged and don't have to commute a long way every day. Transantiago is a good thing--it will reduce pollution and traffic jams in the city eventually--but at the moment it's not really all the way effective. The government still has to figure out which are the most important routes, how to get more buses on the streets in the right places at the right time, and how to relieve the crushing pressure on the metro at peak hours (several people have died from heart attacks brought on by lack of air in packed trains). But once they get all that figured out, it'll be great. People here, however, are really attached to the old system and so have little patience for the new one. So today, like clockwork, 16-year-old kids with rags around their faces are climbing trees and throwing rocks at cars. What a dumb tradition.