Nov 20, 2019
On episode 104 of Punk Rock Pariah, Greg and Grendel return to the
topic of Chile and interview Geronimo Ruiz about what's happening
on the ground in the country. They hit on the history of Chile,
what sparked the current unrest, protesters being gravely injured
and disappeared, and so much. This is an important listen for every
American to get a better understanding of the develpoments in
Chile.
Along with this episode, Geronimo wrote an essay for our
listeners to better explain the ongoings there. We present it to
you in it's entirety here:
Beforehand, I think is important to generate a political context
of Chile in order to understand a little what is happening here.
Chile is a South American country, the longest in the world, and
with very varied climates, its capital is Santiago de Chile, it is
in a valley in the central area of the country, basically it is the
city where 80 percent of the population lives. Is country with an
economy based on raw materials, mining, agriculture, services but
industry destroyed over the past 30 years. A country where
immigrants from different sides are conjugated, mostly descendants
of Spanish and native people, with some important migratory waves,
English, German, Italian and Croatian and new ones coming from the
same American countries as Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti and
Venezuela, who escaping from the their contingencies or looking for
better life opportunities. Believing this is a kind of
social-economic paradise but founding many problems and dichotomies
of a neoliberal system where the basic needs of people are not
met.
Historically, had a dictatorship imposed in 1973 with the help of
the administration of the United States shift and ended in 1990
through vote. This regime consisted of the overthrow of a
legitimately elected socialist government imposing the foundations
of what we know today as a neoliberal model. I have the impression
of Chile; it was and potentially until today a field of
experimentation and social laboratory for neoliberalism. So, from
1990 to date, we have had several governments with different
political prisms that have only perpetuated the social differences
between a political-economic class and the base and middle
classes.
While it is true throughout these years there have been concrete
experiences of social improvements that can meet the basic demands
of the people. Simultaneously and in parallel, the perpetuation of
the benefit of a few over many is present, where we have
millionaires to the German standard and poor to the Mongolian
standard.
Where the middle class lives to solve their problems through the
capacity of indebtedness for life We have the worst statistics
related to mental health, the highest rates of suicide in adults
older people in the world, because they cannot pay their cost of
living with the current pension system
In summary, we have a constitution established in dictatorship in
1980 and the perpetuation of benefits to a privileged class
supported by a benefactor state that does not make relevant
investment in socially relevant sources of concern.
Currently, as a result of a popular uprising that began with the
demonstrations of secondary students who massively began to evade
the payment of the subway ticket, It began a spark of a general
social uprising, full of demonstrations that has spread by almost
four weeks and that has a percentage of the population manifesting
in the streets for different demands, but with a common denominator
a system that for 30 years has failed to meet or meet the basic
demands of the people: Quality Health, Decent Wages, corruption
cases of the political class have real sanctions, the
usurpation of natural resources, among others.
---
For more amazing photos from Chile like the one above,
visit GaryGo on Instagram at @garygophoto or click this link
here