Von Portugal nahm der Sperling dann eine afrikanische Linien-Schwalbe und flog mit ihr, ohne aufzutanken, bis nach Feuerland Mitte. Der Flug war zwar etwas windig, aber er kam an – dort traf er dann Nicolás R. Bórquez.
Introduction (from Nicolás)
The Chilean Pirates were founded in 2007 by Enrique Herrera Noya, based on the Swedish Pirate Party founded in 2006. At the moment is yet to be approved by the national Electoral Service (SERVEL). If you need more further information, you can visit his website.
Sperling: Hello, how are you? And what are you doing in „real life“?
Nicolás: Hi :), I’m here on my house, breathing and hoping that all my human organs are working just fine, haha. In this very moment, AFK (Away From Keyboard) I am reading some stuff that I left in the mozilla firefox bookmark because of my busy life (yeah right, haha).
No no, speaking of truth, 2016 was a very stressful year for all of who try to do something about the political reality on this country. Well, we as chilean people can say „oh, yes, political institutions works“, but, some of us believe that the institutions can work BETTER, and in a very different way: In the way that people have the power. In the last 20 years, after Pinochet’s dictatorial regime, concern citizens and political movements fought without a pause for a radical democracy, and get back to the people what belongs to the people: The political system, his lifes, and a better society, a society based on the rights of all of us. So, when you want all of this, you have to do ciertain sacrifice.
Yes, you can fight, but you have to do what the system tells you to do, otherwise, you can’t find „sucess“, and for that success I am telling you, I am speaking of the economic sucess. Again, yes, you can fight, but for do that you have to study too, or have a job too, or, I don’t know… if you are not from a rich family or something like that, you can’t based your entire life on the social-political fight. You know what I mean? and well, this is the world we are living in, or I am just wrong? I believe not.
Sperling: Please tell me, what is your job in the Chilean Pirates and when/how do you get it?
Nicolás: Well, that’s very funny. I been watching the chilean pirate activity, and activism, for years on the internet. I like to write, you know?, speacially on the satirical way, and a couple of months ago I just do the step and found I very kind place with the chilean pirates on a very revolutionary project that we are working on. In a few words, some of us (because our organization has a horizontal and free structure) want to give to all the chilean people the possibility of being more than just a spectator on this „soap opera“ called „chilean democracy“, we want the people inside the political discussion, working on the decisions that impact, in one way or another, the entire citizenship. How can all of us can be on that? Well, in many ways, but, we want to give them a way through technology. Imagine something like a citizen panoptic, perhaps not literally haha, but that it’s just to give you a panoramical view of the thing.
You wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, and sit on whatever you sit to take breakfast, or if you just go to your job or university it doesn’t matter, but you are always on your smartphone, or the computer, right? well, in one hand your coffee, in the other you smartphone, see Twitter, Facebook, I don’t know, and then you think „What it’s going on in the township?“, just to put an example, and you access to an app where you can see all that is happen in the political institutions, or in the congress, or in your township, or I don’t know, there’s a hole in the street near your house, take a photo and send that to the township and sugest a solution. That it’s what we want. Something like the D-Cent system on Europe. We as Pirates want a new society, where all the people are a important part of the solution. Politics today are very full of garbage, with bad and corrupt politicians, solutions from the most powerful people here want, and the dignity of our people is not the first priority.
Well, back on the question, this project need a very important thing: A platform where the people can begin to trust in themselves, where they can see that all of us has an opinion, no matter where you can from, or where you studied, or if you went to college, etc. And I founded, thanks and with the Chilean Pirates, a media website called La4TaMuralla (www.la4tamuralla.cl), in english „TheFourthWall“. You know, the art concept, this wall that separates actors from spectators, and in one minute, the actors realize that theres people out there. Well, we want the same idea, but with the people. You are just an actor on this very big movie, your life is just an scene from it. We live in the matrix, but we don’t know that, but, when you realize that, nice things happen.
Sperling: How many pirates are on board, can you tell me something about your members?
Nicolás: Well, that’s one of the beauty things of being Pirate: In our pirate ship everyone is invited to be on board. We are convinced that technogracy are dying, and the new technology are contributing to the evolution of humans, not just on scientific research or investigation and so on, i’m talking about the subjectivity of every human being.
We want all quick and now, we want to know everywhing, and the revolution that internet produced in our daily lives has a lot of responsibility. Today if you are rich, working class, a little boy, „mentally ill“, old, and so on, have an opinion. Everyone want to be part of the political agenda, part of the subject. And we as Pirates understand that. You can be a Pirate wherever you live, whatever you are.
Right now in this movement on Chile we are students, artists, doctors, hackers, young people, etc. And, if you want to be one of us, you just need one thing: Understand that every single person on this world can be part of the solution. A lot of people out there are pirates, but they don’t know that already.
If you feel what I feel, just follow the rabbit ;), we need to hacked democracy./
Sperling: Which channels you use in social media or the internet for contact with non-pirates, (how) do you reach the people outside (social media, internet)?
Nicolás: We are on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Redere.org, and in the main website of the Chilean Pirate Party.I always say: „Pirates are everywhere“ because you can be speaking with one of us and you don’t know it. In this very moment we support and help people or citizen organization with our tools, experience and goodwill.
For example: some of us are in other political parties (because at the moment The Chilean Pirate Party is not a legal Party) working and defending the democracy inside of it. We organize and secure social movements like LGTBI movements, Ecological movements, etc. On internet we work with cyber-political movements as Anonymous, or support the internet activisms on the social media.
Well, away from keyboard we are just us doing political base work, and as proud pirates we don’t have any issue to say „I’m a Pirate“, because our worldwide history support us, and we will be big and stronge in the future. We are the future of the politics, of the democracy, and that’s our „resume“ to say the people: Hey, i’m a pirate, do you want to fight for a better world? ok, we can fight together.
Sperling: The Chilean Political system is not well known in Germany, are there paralles to more known like the UK, the USA or French? Is there a chance for small partys to get involved in the system?
Nicolás: Our political system is very, curious. We have a political constitution writen during a facist dictatorship -rightwing profile, obiously- and it seems to defend some things that are linked to a free market and Individual freedoms stuff, but, in reality, the constitution serves only a small rich and powerfull group.
Why? because, ok, by our constitution you are free to be whatever you want, but, how can you whatever you want if you don’t have the mediums or the oportunities to achieve what you want? For example: In Chile if you are poor, or you have a less „capital culture“ because you born in a poor family, you can’t be a huge millionaire. We have a horrible educational system, a very bad pension system, bad health system, and so on, but the point is, that they (politicians, many of them on the „rightwing side of the force“) tell everyone „Hey, before 1973, we were on a very awfull leftwing dictatorship with no individual freedom, and now thanks to our god and saviour, oh, the great General Pinochet who rescue us from the marxist cancer, you can be free to choose, you can be a rich son of a -you know, haha- and no one can’t stop you“. Hey, go and fuck yourself in the ass, we supposed to have a political constitution like on the USA, with individual freedoms, in a country with a neo-liberal economy, and this „holy“ piece of paper Doesn’t ensure the minimum rights for citizens to achieve those „privileges“ of which they speak. So, what the hell is this?
In my opinion, a political system based In the rights of the upper class of society. Today the fight of every citizen movement, or leftwing political organization, is to achieve that minimun rights: A good educational system, a laboral system based on the workers rights, a health system with everyone can have a good treatment and atention, and so on. Today in this country, if you are not a rich person who can access private services, forget about a good life. That’s why we need a better system based on social rights. Well, you can imagine that if the constitution is for rich people, the „political life“ for small groups is very difficult. Today the only way to change something on the system is be a part of it, because our constitution is based on that, and the great problem with that is if you are not from a political party with a huge power, this expressed for example in some seats on the congress, or in big words, having the power by the goverment, you, well, can do certain things, but not big enough.
I think, today the fight for a social right system goes in many forms. Creating political movements, being part of activism groups, helping workers to unionize, etc. And if you are a small party, without political support networks, or being part of a kind of coalition of parties that can obtain presence in the congress, or in a government, well, the thing is very difficult. On the past weeks has growed up a little agreement between new small parties called „Frente Amplio“ with electoral goals to reach the government in 2017, but Pirates wasn’t invited. Why? haha, you asked them. Well, some of the possibilities are that they just want the power, and we as Pirates want a new society where the people can be strong for themselves, and between that can talk about goverment. There is one thing between the electoral achievements and social achievements that each organization wants. I believe that you can’t run if you can’t walk, well, they wan’t to fly and the people of this country, the citizends, at this moment know how to get off the ground to start walking, haha. Well, this is politics, you know.
We could help on various issues, but they have not contacted us, and they do not seem to want our help either. It does not mean that we do not support them, but it does not mean that we are going to „marry“ them. The power is a very, very, dangerous thing, and if you want to run a country, you need good support through the conscious citizens, and that my friend, you don’t have it if people do not know about his rights, if they aren’t accustomed to fighting for them, and they don’t totally empathize with the popular cause. That’s we need here, empowered people, people who vote for who represent them, active citizens who are concerned about their rights and they know what they want… and, hey, I don’t see that here, and if you don’t believe me, just search on google about the numbers of abstention in the past elections, and that’s not the whole things, I know, but it is one of the many antecedents that you can have.
Sperling: Can you tell me which positions are the „central ideas“ of the Chilean Pirates? How do you communicate them to your voters?
Nicolás: We want empowered citizends who can see the power and say: „Hey, that’s not what we want, we are going to organize, from below, and we are going to fight for what we want“.
We want a social rights society where everyone is equal, and for that, we need a better system based on collaborative work. The dream of the goverment people.
The right of every person to have his life for himself, that’s privacy, and a very important point in the Pirates fight. Our privacy belongs to us, and the only „person“ who can intervene in it are the authorities, only in the cases that are required.
About transparency we say loud and clear: We the people give to the authorities the responsability to administer what belongs to us, so, EVERYTHING YOU DO, EVERYTHING YOU SPEND, EVERYTHING YOU DISCUSS ABOUT WHAT BELONG TO US MUST BE TRANSPARENTED IN HIS ENTIRETY.
On the internet, and AFK, the tools, Ideas, Culture, knowledge, feelings, belongs to the people who can upload, download or work with it. If you share whatever you want, that’s not a crime. Times change, people change, the world has change, and the industry of the media, or cinema, music, scientific knowledge, and so on, must be change. We based this on the open source movement. You know, on linux every code app are in public domain to everyone who wants to cooperate on the development of it. We want that for everything. We want to see the code of the goverment for work with it. We want to share that code, we want to discuss about that. We want a new society where the define how things are done. Do you remember when music started to sharing over the internet and out of it? The big companies used the laws for their beneficts. December 8, 2010. A fire in a Chilean jail left 81 dead. One of those was Bastián Arriagada and he was there for selling music on the street. He died because of sharing music. Do you think that it’s fair? we think not. For years „music piracy“ was a very important topic on the big industries agenda, and then, wow! appeard Spotify. That was magic? no. That was a human with an idea, based on the other peoples actions and manners. Big industries must evolve, goverments must evolve too.
We want diversity in many ways: sexual and gender, cultural, in oppinions and points of view, and so one. Why do you want barriers when you can learn so much without them? And with that we want respect. Without respect, well, go build a time machine and travel to the times of the inquisition, haha.
We as Pirates are convinced that the human progress needs a „green touch“. We need to develop our industry, our lives, our political agendas with a focus on respect and care for the environment. We need new models for the economy. We believe that the swarm economy is the next step. Why? because the industrial economy is dead, entrepreneurship is the new lifestyle for who want to work and live at his best, and the voluntary work increasing, because we know that the world does not go as we would like, and we are spending more time as volunteers. Who have big industries today? rich people. They satisfy the labor demands? No. Today you have to work on two or more things to live, well, we are like little bees working for us, but, we can work for us and for the others, that’s why we need a new economic system based on that, based on the demands of the great swarm. Hey, do you know how well it has made to mankind the creation of Wikipedia, Firefox or Linux? That’s the new system, colaborative and in community, that’s what we need! And, for that, we need a good legislation. Today for example, in Chile, we let foreign companies come to exploit our people, to extract our raw materials and natural resources. That’s not good. Or, our legislation works just for the people who can pay for it. We need a strong justice system, we need to protect our people and we need to fight as humans against social and economic inequality, because if we have a society based on equal rights, if everyone have what they deserves, if the goverment, the state, works efficiently helping society in its entirety, helping those in need, and giving conscious citizens the help they need to make this a better society, my friend, call this an utopia, but this utopia But this utopia would haven’t „delinquency“ – which in the end comes from the lower classes, and is because of the bad distribution of capital- Why would you steal someone if you have what you need? well, if someone wants to steal to another, the law have to works, but for all, likewise.
Sperling: What is your newest political achievement/s?
Nicolás: In the past municipal elections our first chilean pirate, Enrique Herrera Noya, was very near to be municipal councilor on Placilla de Peñuelas, Valparaíso. Well, I know that it’s just an electoral achievement, but it can be study in many ways. For example, in a important election as the municipal elections, people who are better known in their territories for working side by side with the community have more chance to win. Ok, and if you have a very big electoral machinery with handled behind by large sums of money.We was the first thing, and we are very proud of it.
Other thing that we are doing at the moment is helping an actor, Alex Rivera, who is fighting against a big tv channel because they stole a work created and registered in the DIBAM by him, which speaks of a terrible crime of intellectual property. We are working on the website I was talking to you, La4TaMuralla, platform which will be very influential in public opinion very soon, for people causes, and well, that’s the newest, we are working to reach other goals, but that is something that will be known at the time. This 2017 will give us more and more good things to be proud in the future :).
Sperling: Thank you for your time, we hope we hear about you in the comming years!
Nicolás: Haha, thank you so very much for the oportunity. Who knows? maybe I will become the next president of this country, or I will be part of the resistance against the tirany of the New World Order (?), haha.
And for those who read this, I hope you had fun. Anything you need, wherever you are, can contact me, for example, on twitter: @mecaNicosaurio. If we do not help each other, will we wait for the powerful ones to help us? Be good, be rebel, be an outsider, a huge motherfucker against the liberals and fascists.
Redaktionsmitglied Sperling
Redakteur seit 2011, Kernteam der Redaktion seit 2013. De facto "Leitung" ab 2016, irgendwann auch offiziell Chefredakteur - bis 2023. Schreibt und Podcastet nur wenn ihm die Laune danach steht, zahlt aktuell die Infrastruktur der Flaschenpost, muss aber zum Glück nicht haften 🙂
