Lessons from a divided Chile 2019
Chile 2019 lessons learned from this trip go far beyond the time spent in full expedition status, relationships gained and lost, cultural understanding, governmental constraints, generational apathy, to the fervor of youth taking action and becoming the catalyst to ignite change. Guise
Chile once the bastion in South America for democracy and a true capitalistic society has through governmental lack of control and rampant corruption stripped most of the people the very things they had been praised for creating through a free market. If you are watching this on the news in North America you are only getting a portion of the story. The situation is multi faceted and there are many issues Chileans are fighting for so complex that the very constitution of this young democratic country may very well be re-written soon.
Imagine a fence around a city in the United States. No public parks for families or children unless you paid. Want to leave the city and go to the mountains? You’ll need to pass by mining companies and get a permit from the government and the mining conglomerate. Don’t think this could happen here? It already is with areas like Bears Ears National Monument.
The expedition to Tupungato was to create awareness of not only the privatization of public lands but the egregious sale of it to major European and North American companies who profit immensely off low wages and pulling natural resources out of Chile. This is colonizer tactics through the help of a complicit government. The effort of the film was to reveal some of this and create a new National Park, for the people to use and enjoy. This post is not about ranting and raving or lashing out against governments it is about taking action, having a voice in the process. If we as a people in the U.S. and the world continue to be apathetic about our public lands that creates an easy pathway for any government under the disguise of capitalism or best use principles to privatize what is ours to use and enjoy not a multi national corporations.