More than an earthquake, more than a tsunami: a social rupture

Just when the summer ended and the celebrations of the bicentennial of the Republic put an emphasis on the development achieved by the economic model, on the verge of change of government, the landing of Harvard, Chicago and MIT in the conduct of the State. Just when we took a step forward in the improvement offered by the new managers under the discourse of efficiency, effectiveness and modernity. When the science of economics recognized more signs in the data than in the faces of the people, the whole country was rocked by an earthquake grade 8.8 and a tsunami that hit the coast several times in three regions located in south central Chile.

I'm tempted to say that more than one decision or “no decision” was taken under the protection of the image of the Chilean state policy, of protecting the image of the outgoing government and not to give pleasure to the incoming government and during all those interactions, a lot of minutes were spent to give the alert, activate protective systems and to safe lives now we regret. Surely history would have been otherwise, but we will never know and might not suspect of small or large ambitions which caused so many sorrows. It's time to start and walk, it will not be the first or the last time.

All this can not make us forget that the earthquake and the tsunami opened the floodgates of the other Chile, the one that is at the threshold of marginalization, poverty, frustration and anger. The exclusion of thousands of people was the final catalyst that turned Concepcion, Talca, Talcahuano and other cities in areas ravaged by hordes of people who not only went to pharmacies, supermarkets, robbed gas stations, warehouses and stores for staple food for subsistence, but they brought televisions, stereos, washing machines, plasma, medicines and all that could be dragged away from the premises. After that the places were burned as a corollary of such a colossal social force.

Armed with sticks, machetes, knives, closing the streets, organized to defend the houses and buildings we discovered an us and you. Some patrolled the streets armed with pistols and shotguns. It was not only slum that claimed revenge by type of society we have created, among the robbers there were university professionals, technicians, respectable fathers and mothers, men and women educated within chilean society under the sign of individualism, the early success, the appearance, driven by consumption and by the representation of what I can´t have but I want no matter the price.

The rupture of Chile is not from the earthquake and tsunami, it comes from a development model that forgot the human face of life and was replaced by consumption aided by the powerful propaganda machine exclusively serving the advertising market. Finally, curiosities of history, the same military that one day stormed the state, now became a guarantor of peace, gradually imposed order in the midst of the disaster and once again, alongside the official story, Armed Forces were awarded for a liar social order, result of force rather than citizens' capacity to recognize the unity of a country beaten by the crisis.

The benevolent sense of emotion, the commotion, the sense of mercy organized a telethon in which gathered 30 billion dollars in 27 hours of solidarity. Great!, The money needed, essential for the reconstruction of regions and peoples, but not enough to silence the other fractured Chile that is already beginning to be forgotten.

The market model inevitably ignores what can not be reduced to the purchase and sale, because everything that is not in that category, is disposable. Thus, education beyond the skills is not useful as the formation in citizens values, solidarity is replaced by competition and competition for individualism and then we want to wash our faces with the millions we earn.

Educating for citizenship, respect for diversity, tolerance, but also in responsibility, in the depth of reasoned and conscious discipline, are part of the social transformation that will accompany new homes, new buildings, new villages in the Chilean coast. In that task universities have much to say. Much more than counting how much help, money or people were mobilized to the affected areas.
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Concepción (Chile), March 10, 2010.