Indeed what happened in Chile is terrible, and continuously shocking. Every day that passes we are more able to realize what really occurred, as communications are improving and water returns to the sea. Like always, those who had little are the ones who lost all

Heusser, Felipe I.

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7/5/2017 A quake to Chile’s social reallity | International Affairs at LSEhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ideas/2010/03/a-quake-to-chiles-social-reallity/ 1/1Mar 1 2010A quake to Chile’s social reallityLSE IdeasBy Felipe I. HeusserIndeed what happened in Chile is terrible, and continuously shocking. Every day that passes we are more able to realize whatreally occurred, as communications are improving and water returns to the sea. Like always, those who had little are the oneswho lost all. The Chilean quake is also a big slap on the face to a society that had become increasingly conformist. A society that ironicallywas just a few months ago celebrating its status of new OECD member, but now crashes with its pure reality; a country with asocial inequality deeper than the great cannon, which splits the nation in two raw groups: those still in the OECD, and thosewho cannot survive a natural disaster. Chile’s social policy for years has had a strong focus in reducing poverty. In fact, we congratulated ourselves as chileans forreducing poverty from 40% in early 1990s to 15% in mid 2000s. These numbers freezed our senses and we increasinglybegan to believe that the poverty problem was on a right road for being solved, without paying attention to the large populationwhich, literally lived slightly above the line in a place invisible to poverty-line numbers and OECD standards. It is no surprise that after the quake poverty and inequallity will rise in Chile. Recovery is not a task of 5 days, nor 5 weeks, noteven 5 months. This may take perhaps 5 years!, time enough to rebuild houses, create jobs, and re-design our social policywith a broader focus that is comprehensive with poverty and inequality as roots of the same problem (the notion of “socialexclusion” as distinguished from “poverty” might be a good idea). Poverty lines and standards give us a good idea of aredevelopment speed, but in no case they should be considered as ends themselves. There is now a lot to be done. I have no doubt that the chilean people will stand up again such as we have from previousquakes (1962,1985). I just hope that in the long run we do not forget a large part of the population that live in vulnerablecondition. They not only need today’s assistantce, but also long term social policies that re-focus on the grounds of their socialexclusion from the promised prosperity.Felipe I. HeusserThis entry was posted in Horizonte, Latin America. Bookmark the permalink.

A quake to Chile’s social reallity

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