a divided country

I apologize for the delay between blogs, I am going to try to write a bit more frequently. Lately have certainly fallen into a better routine, I feel quite at home here. Today, instead of writing about past events, I want to share some thoughts, observations that have been consuming me in the past few weeks regarding social issues here in Chile.

This mental process began the day I arrived. My very first exposure to Chile occured in an extremely wealthy neighborhood of Santiago called Providencia. Walking down the streets of Santiago these first few days gave me the sensation that I could be in any major city in the United States, I was surrounded by consumerism, high rise apartment buildings and men wearing business suits talking on their cell phones. Of course, simply driving down the highway outside the city one easilty spots evidence of poverty, of disequality that is so characteristic of Latin America. Also, a few days after arriving in Viña, Paloma took me on a drive up into the hills of Valpo and Viña to again put things in perspective. I only have to walk 4 blocks up the hill from my house to find houses pieced together with scraps of metal, wood and cardboard.

Yet, Chile has become a bit of a puzzle for me. I understand how economic liberalism of the past few decades has both aided in economic growth, new technology etc.. in Latin America while simultaneously fosted a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Chile, like all countries, has it's own story, and the story of Chile's recent history is considered both tragic or miraculous depending on who you talk you. Pinochet killed thousands and thousands of people. He used torture, he broke up families, and inflicted major pshycological trauma on the country. At the same time, his incredibly strong policies of economic liberalism brought development to Chile today unrivaled by any other country in Latin America. Chile has by far the strongest economy in Latin America. There is all the technology, medical resourses, and all luxury of the modern world. And instead of only a tiny percentage of the population having access, there is a decent sized middle class.

Today, a scary 40% of the population still pledges allegiance to Pinochet. The allegiance seems to fall more or less along class lines, but not entirely (my liberal rich Chilean family is a perfect example.) But yeah, there are people who really believe that Pinochet's methods were the cost Chile had to pay to develop and restore order after the presidency of Allende (I will give my thoughts on this story in another blog). I personally will never be able to accept that murder of youth, just like me, is justified to bring economic development to a country. At the same time, I am aware that I am personally benefiting every day from this development. I have internet in my house, I attend a good university, I live in a beautiful big house and a comfortable, relatively safe neighborhood.

Then there is the other side of issues that is so glaringly obvious to me, Chile might have a middle class, but I see little class mobility. I think Chile is as divided as other Latin American countries, there just happens to be a bigger middle class in Chile than in say Peru. Pinochet privitized EVERYTHING and the country still runs pretty much like that. The government does not invest in education, health care, transportation. If you have the money you can get the best health care, the best education, but if not....well bummer.

Okay, so that no one gets to bored, I will pick up on this thought in another entry! Oh yeah and the camera is not working properly...not sure why, I will work on that to get you all more pics!