That is an overly simplistic and mostly wrong point of view the likes of which the Guardian spouts from time to time in an attempt to appear knowledgable.
As concisely as I can; (which isn't very, so if you don't care much you're probably better just to skip this post).
The fundamental issue is the massive inequality in Chile. The rich are very rich, the poor are very poor.
e.g.
Company Director; perhaps £100,000 p.a.
Shop Assistant / Office worker; perhaps £6,000 p.a.
Manual worker; perhaps £3,000 p.a.
And the black economy is huge; there are street sellers, street performers and beggars everywhere, surviving on a pittance.
The poor will tend to buy their food from markets whereas the rich will buy from Supermarkets. The difference in stock in supermarkets depending on whereabouts in the city they are is phenomenal.
At the top end of town, around Lo Barnechea & La Dehesa it is a high quality living environment. Sort of like a pseudo Dallas or Chicago.
Downtown it is an area where you would probably not be comfortable to go. It's dirty, nothing works very well, buildings are often in a sad state of repair and life is just generally more difficult. As it happens, I go down there often, but most don't.
Inhabitants of Lo Barnechea may never go down there in their lives. And this city isn't *that* big.
No sector of society has any clue how any other sector lives. It is not simply rich vs. poor. Everybody resents anybody with more than them and looks down upon anybody with less.
But the differences in every part of quality of life and standard of living are monumental.
Now of course a large sector of society is happy with how things are. They're comfortable, lead a good life, have maids (called 'nanas' here) and gardeners, kids go to a private school (which is not the same as a UK private school, it's about the equivalent of a UK comprehensive but far better than a Chilean state school), drive nice cars, many have second residences and they are treated better by Chilean society.
However, by far the majority is not in that position. Low quality education in badly equipped schools, everything they see on television is out of their reach, don't live in good areas and are often looked down upon.
There is little social mobility. Not only is it almost impossible for a poor person to become rich, it is also almost impossible that a rich person will become poor, however lazy, useless or dishonest they are.
So, the problem is that a major part of Chilean society is fundamentally, deeply and thoroughly angry and pssed-off about many, many things.
These riots are not really about anyone thing, they are about angry disenfranchised people lashing out, feeling power and relevance with people paying attention.
One of the issues, and the one most often latched on by foreign press, is the one of the constitution. The population isn't really clear about what's wrong with the Constitution, it's just become the whipping boy. I watched one guy being interviewed on the streets over the weekend and he wanted the constitution changed because he felt his health carte wasn't good enough. Quite how the constitution was going to address health care quality he wasn't clear about.
Others think it will fix health care, others think it will depose their democratically elected President. It is worth mentioning that voting was compulsory until recent times. In the last election only 48% turned out to vote, giving you an idea of how much effort Chileans put into stuff. Of those that turned out 55% voted for the current president, Pinera, and 45% for the centre left "Nueva Mayoría". [That was the second round, in the first it was Pinera 36%, NM 22% and Broad Front (Left Wing) 20% but the turnout was even lower].
So they are voting against a democratically elected President from 18 months ago, you'd think it would have been easier to vote against him.
However, there are also violent pro-constitution riots going on, which most newspapers seem to miss or ignore, though to be fair they are mostly smaller.
They're also further up the town since the further up you go the more acceptable people find the status quo.
And in amongst that we also have a substantial group of anarchist trouble makers who simply want to stir it all up and wreck everything.
In amongst all that there is a major stumbling block.
For reasons far too complicated to go into here, Chileans have a complex psyche. And one of the manifestations of that is that they believe they should be given what they want (which is usually just more). They do not see that they should change, put effort in, or work for it. That they should make any sacrifice or alter their approach.
And if they do get more, they don't really care about those around them who did not get more. Chileans do not look after each other. or, indeed, respect each other.
Nobody lets anybody through a door first, or lets them pull out in traffic, or moves out he way of others on the pavement.
I have worked all over the world. In my opinion the people of Chile are totally unique. Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil are quite different.
Consequently it is difficult to see how this can ever be resolved.
I do hope that the people who want to change the constitution win the vote on Sunday but right now it is by no means certain that they will do so.
But if they don't, Santiago will catch fire as they announce the result. It will be bad.
I could go on and on. In summary, Chile is broken and the BBC & the British media simply don't understand. Even though some of them have correspondents here. But hey live in the wealthy bubble.
I think it will be 5 - 10 years before Santiago, and thus Chile, sorts itself out.
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