Is the world ending?

Chile has gone a little bit insane. Is the world really coming to an end?
I had the most bizarre day yesterday. There was another student education protest and this time they changed the route so that they walked right past my house and congregated in the park. I went home early simply because of the number of people congregating making it difficult to get anywhere, and the possibility of trouble later... The march was something to see - 100,000 people filing past my house on Espinoza singing and playing music and chanting for 3hrs.... All very peaceful. Then about an hour after the last person passed the trouble started. We were able to watch from our terrace as a large group of delinquents systematically broke down poles, raided rubbish bins, and commandeered advertising and almost anything that would burn to make a barricade in the middle of 10 de Julio and set it on fire. We could also see the police congregating a block away just waiting and watching. All the kids were picking up stones and branches ready for a fight. Then a police van came racing through from behind the barricade and the students, at which point the students all let their rock missiles fly to come hailing down on the van, quite frightening. The van didn't stop, but went racing down as far as the police, pulled a U-turn and came racing back into the crowd. A sort of decoy I guess to try and get the projectiles launched before sending in the cops on foot, who came running in behind the van. I still saw at least 4 cops get severely hit by stones, one in the head which laid him out on the ground. The protesters didn't hang around but more or less took flight, and then the tear gas van arrived and doused the whole scenario (including us as we were making a hasty exit inside) with gas, though it really only served to make the cops cry as the protesters were already gone and barricading some other nearby street.
And we didn't even have the worst of it. They burnt a car in a neighbouring street, and when one of the residents of a high-rise building dropped water on some of the trouble-makers they responded by sending stones through the windows followed by burning objects. Luckily that was a couple of blocks away from us (though Zeli admitted to me that perhaps her yelling at the kids to stop pulling down the traffic signs wasn't the smartest move and I may have been right to tell her to shut up!)
One of my teachers rang me in the morning to tell me she couldn't get out of the bank. I cracked up laughing (extremely supportive when she was panicking) and asked her if she was lost... Turns out one of the unions is on strike there and they have barricaded the building so you can't get in or out. She managed to get out (not sure how, I suggested a window but as you can imagine banks tend to have bars over their windows). But there are no more classes in the bank this week..... And I was speaking to one of the secretaries and she aid that all the employees were barricaded inside until 7.30pm because the protesters wouldn't let them leave. Pleased it wasn't me....
In the evening I went to a gallery opening, and coming out of the metro in the uptown area was a surreal experience. When I left my metro station there were rocks flying through the air, tear gas, water canons and people running in all directions coughing and choking on the putrid air. The streets were full of burning debris, rocks, glass and general rubbish. When I came out of the metro uptown there were people sitting on the sidewalk in t-shirts drinking coffee. I could fill my lungs with relatively clean air and didn't have to keep looking around to see where the next flying object might be coming from and the shops were open rather than boarded up as if preparing for a hurricane! The journey was 20min but it could have been from one decade to another the change was so dramatic. The strangeness didn't stop there. We went to the gallery opening on Alonso de Cordoba, a street I was not familiar with. We were driving along and there were people out walking their toy poodles. jogging in the park, and shopping. The most impressive moment was when I spied a fifty something woman about town walking out of a shop, followed by a small peruvian woman (clearly her helper) struggling to control 20 bags branded with high fashion designer names. The poor young women made it to the car, where she proceeded to start loading the bags in the car, only to be interrupted by the need to open the door of the car for the lady about town, who was only holding her handbag.
The gallery was really interesting, great art, free alcohol, intimidatingly dressed people, and I felt that at any point I may make a mistake and knock something over or use a paper-towel that was actually part of a sculpture to wipe my hands. Arriving home in the taxi later, after being gassed again and having to take several detours around burning barricades, I couldn't help thinking that maybe the burning in the streets, has something to do with the lady and all her fashion branded bags.
At least I didn't spend the evening in London....