Santiago, Chile is in a phase of rapid growth and is drastically affecting the lives of its inhabitants. Construction is everywhere; in the form of new metro lines, apartment building climbing twenty stories high, and giant corporate temples dotting the Santiago skyline. Productivity is high but who are the products for?
Malls are stuffed with items from around the world and massive supermarkets compete for clientele by offering the cheapest cans of corn, frequent-user membership cards, and plenty of free parking. It’s about consuming the most for the least amount of money. Fear permeates society as competitiveness floods the homes, workplaces, and all-encompassing shopping center paradises.
The remedy for many comes in a strong dosage of isolation. Family ties are weakened and friendships are based more on mutual benefits than on trust. Isolation leads to excessive privatization of time and consumption of material substitutes for love.
Elegant organized tour buses swing around the beautiful areas of town while new Mapuches migrate in search for work and struggle to survive.
Since the coup on Sept. 11, 1973, Chile has been focused on privatizing the basic fundamental rights and resources of its citizens, such as education and water.
Santiago is surrounded by the tall, jagged Andes mountains and has a population of around six million. The dictatorship of Pinochet lasted for 16 years. Nearly every Chilean has a family member who was tortured, killed, or is still missing. Therefore, there is a certain level of seriousness, awareness and widespread hedonism in the form of drinking pisco sours and smoking thousands of cigarettes a day.
In the bourgeois areas, families own new cars and shop in malls and giant supermarket fantasylands. Others must sacrifice themselves to their work so that they can stay above water. The neoliberal path that Chile is on seems to be unsustainable, providing a facade of wealth and a dependency on foreign consumption.
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