Mac Margolis
By Mac Margolis
Nothing like the whiff of cordite to set a society on a forensic soul-searching mission: Two explosions in Chile last week — one near a Santiago metro station, the other in a supermarket in Vina del Mar — have shaken this mostly peaceable nation like an Andean temblor and left much of Latin America perplexed.
Violence is hardly new in Chile, and almost routine this time of year, when Chileans remember the coup d’etat of September 11, 1973. Though it’s been 41 years, the wounds are still fresh from the military dictatorship that lasted until 1990, took more than 40,000 lives, and “disappeared” many more.
But unlike the odd petard in the night set off by vandals or millenarian misfits, the latest attacks were more deadly — the one in Santiago injured 14 people, some of them seriously.
For the first time since the fall of General Augusto Pinochet, talk of “terrorism” headlines the news, prompting some Chileans to argue that the authorities should weigh reactivating the junta’s intelligence police. Police investigators are still scouring the rubble for clues and suspects.
Few nations have done as much to disarm the social and political ordnance that lies strewn across Latin America.
This land of 17.4 million boasts one of the highest incomes in the region, and also the best performance by school children, a minuscule illiteracy rate, plunging poverty and a culture of political civility that has kept the country stable, democratic and prosperous even as government toggles from the staunch right to socialist left.
Look closely, however, and the Andean idyll seems like a dream deferred. Chile’s achievements are enviable for Latin America, but Chileans no longer want to be merely the best among the least. Many are dogged by their status as the last among best.
Chile has the worst income inequality in the high-income nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Its 15-year-olds scored below average on OECD standardised problem solving tests, placing 36th of 44 among these elite nations.
Chile is right to be proud of its hybrid education system, which turned over public schools to private initiative and saw universities multiply and the number of students rise 10-fold since the 1980s. But the market-friendly solution also forced students into taking exorbitant loans. Maybe so, but Chile’s corporate elite has its own problems. For starters, it’s less clear just how the FUT has kicked in to the Chilean economy.
The larger problem may be one of complacency. Despite Chile’s reputation as the most open economy in Latin America and its 150 years of plumbing the Andes for copper, it is still not a global player. “If Chile were so good at extracting minerals, there would be Chileans mining abroad,” an official said. Protesters don’t get juiced over innovation and no one sets off a bomb because of lackluster productivity. But the seething in September is an unsettling reminder for Latin America’s model country that there is much left to be done. WP-BLOOMBERG
By Mac Margolis
Nothing like the whiff of cordite to set a society on a forensic soul-searching mission: Two explosions in Chile last week — one near a Santiago metro station, the other in a supermarket in Vina del Mar — have shaken this mostly peaceable nation like an Andean temblor and left much of Latin America perplexed.
Violence is hardly new in Chile, and almost routine this time of year, when Chileans remember the coup d’etat of September 11, 1973. Though it’s been 41 years, the wounds are still fresh from the military dictatorship that lasted until 1990, took more than 40,000 lives, and “disappeared” many more.
But unlike the odd petard in the night set off by vandals or millenarian misfits, the latest attacks were more deadly — the one in Santiago injured 14 people, some of them seriously.
For the first time since the fall of General Augusto Pinochet, talk of “terrorism” headlines the news, prompting some Chileans to argue that the authorities should weigh reactivating the junta’s intelligence police. Police investigators are still scouring the rubble for clues and suspects.
Few nations have done as much to disarm the social and political ordnance that lies strewn across Latin America.
This land of 17.4 million boasts one of the highest incomes in the region, and also the best performance by school children, a minuscule illiteracy rate, plunging poverty and a culture of political civility that has kept the country stable, democratic and prosperous even as government toggles from the staunch right to socialist left.
Look closely, however, and the Andean idyll seems like a dream deferred. Chile’s achievements are enviable for Latin America, but Chileans no longer want to be merely the best among the least. Many are dogged by their status as the last among best.
Chile has the worst income inequality in the high-income nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Its 15-year-olds scored below average on OECD standardised problem solving tests, placing 36th of 44 among these elite nations.
Chile is right to be proud of its hybrid education system, which turned over public schools to private initiative and saw universities multiply and the number of students rise 10-fold since the 1980s. But the market-friendly solution also forced students into taking exorbitant loans. Maybe so, but Chile’s corporate elite has its own problems. For starters, it’s less clear just how the FUT has kicked in to the Chilean economy.
The larger problem may be one of complacency. Despite Chile’s reputation as the most open economy in Latin America and its 150 years of plumbing the Andes for copper, it is still not a global player. “If Chile were so good at extracting minerals, there would be Chileans mining abroad,” an official said. Protesters don’t get juiced over innovation and no one sets off a bomb because of lackluster productivity. But the seething in September is an unsettling reminder for Latin America’s model country that there is much left to be done. WP-BLOOMBERG
