When Women Lead

In February there was Asmaa Mahfouz:

The people came.  The people protested.  The people shunned guns and violence.  Mubarek left.

Note: Ms. Mahfouz was recently picked up by the current military government authorities.  The public outcry was so loud and intense that she was quickly released.

A couple of months ago:

Did you catch that before Pinochet, the government paid for 90% of education and now it's down to 10%?  

Camila Vallejo is elected leader of the University of Chile's Student Union.  A communist.  As reported by Jonathan Franklin in Chile's Commander Camila, The Student Who Can Shut Down a City , she has said:

"We do not want to improve the actual system; we want a profound change – to stop seeing education as a consumer good, to see education as a right where the state provides a guarantee.

"Why do we need education? To make profits. To make a business? Or to develop the country and have social integration and development? Those are the issues in dispute."

High school and university students haven't been to class since the protests started.  An official in the Ministry of Culture, Tatiana Acuña, was fired for suggesting that assassinating Vallejo would end the protests.  On the order of Chile's Supreme Court, Vallejo now has in Chile police protection.  

President Sebastian Pinera's approval rating is down to 26%.  (That's down in GWB territory.)

And the people are beginning to join the protests:

Wednesday saw the start of a two-day nationwide shutdown, as transport workers and other public-sector employees joined the burgeoning student movement in protest.

Patience.  Non-violence.  And doesn't hurt that Camila Vallejo is beautiful.