KVELLER Posted October 23, 2019 Where do I start... ok, first of all, this is going to be a rant. This is a goddamn mess, and I'm still hearing gunshots outside, so don't expect me to write something with a good structure. So, about a week ago, the price for a subway ticket in the capital was raised by 30 CLP (about 0.04 USD). It's a pretty small amount for sure, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. People are VERY fucking pissed off, to the point where riots and protests started to occur all over the country, not because of a low rise on a stupid subway ticket, but because of the bullshit we, as citizens, have been enduring for decades. Chile went through a military dictatorship from 1973 to 1989. After it stopped, we supposedly entered democracy, but that was bullshit. It seems like every time there's a problem and people go to the streets and speak up, politicians either ignore everyone altogether, or make changes that, while seemingly good on first glance, end up being worse than what we already had. The minimum legal salary is so low that it's just barely enough for someone to scrap by (maybe not even that), and the average salary isn't much higher. Old people's pensions are often about a third of the miminum salary, literally not enough to survive. Public health care is shit. Pretty much all of the country has been sold to international companies, I mean, they even started to export fucking water. You know, that resource that's incredibly valuable and we should probably save for later? All of this while politicians with absurdly high salaries sell everything that isn't nailed down while avoiding taxes (and jail, like it's the case with our president). This is why people are really angry. So angry in fact, that many people started burning down buildings from big corporations (McDonalds, Coca Cola, a bunch of banks, etc). "Oh, people are so violent! They should protest in a pacific manner!" the news reporters say. Yeah, just like people have been doing for three fucking decades to no avail. For fuck's sake, just open a history book and check whether or not you can get good results without resorting to violence. When you have a bunch of soulless assholes as your opponents, good faith ain't gonna cut it. With that said, some of the fires were not, in fact, caused by citizens, but by either the police or the military in an attempt to justify their presence (I'm assuming). Hey actually, let's talk about the police and the military, the meat and potatos of this whole situation (and the reason I'm writing this in the first place). A few days ago, our great, very smart and beloved president (jk he's a fucking idiot) had the wonderful idea of literally saying "WE ARE AT WAR" and releasing the goddamn military onto the streets - something we hadn't seen since the 1973 dictatorship - with the excuse of "protecting the citizens and their freedom". Bullshit. They're on the streets to protect the goverment and their interests, nothing more. There's also another problem. They're fucking psychopaths, just like the cops. In the best case scenario, people are pummeled, captured and, in some cases, tortured by the police, and in the worst case scenario they're just straight up gunned down by the military. Of course, this doesn't happen to everyone, not by a long shot, but the body count isn't low and I'm sure we can't trust the official numbers. There are videos on social media where you can see those guys just shooting at people without a care in the world, and in at least one you can see them piling up bodies like they're nothing of value. This still feels like a dream. It's surreal. I know it's happening, but... somehow... It doesn't feel real. It's just absurd. The only thing I can do is hope. Hope that the guys in charge give in once and for all, and we can move on with a better country. But in the meantime, the more foreign eyes on us, the better. We need international pressure. I doubt a post on a forum about some videogame will make a big impact, but it's all I can do. 55 Share this post Link to post
Nevander Posted October 23, 2019 Damn dude. That sounds really rough, I'm sorry you guys have to go through those kind of things over there. Sometimes I think I have things bad but forget shit like this is going on. Hope it can get better in time. 4 Share this post Link to post
Chezza Posted October 23, 2019 I'm sorry to hear about this, I was unaware of Chile's situation. When the government, cops and military are corrupt and feel like the enemy, there is inevitably going to be violence. I hope things turn around for you guys. 2 Share this post Link to post
Doomkid Posted October 23, 2019 (edited) Quote The minimum legal salary is so low that it's just barely enough for someone to scrap by (maybe not even that), and the average salary isn't much higher. Old people's pensions are often about a third of the miminum salary, literally not enough to survive. Public health care is shit. Pretty much all of the country has been sold to international companies, I mean, they even started to export fucking water. You know, that resource that's incredibly valuable and we should probably save for later? All of this while politicians with absurdly high salaries sell everything that isn't nailed down while avoiding taxes (and jail, like it's the case with our president). This is what happens when the people are stomped on for too long. Used and abused, treated inhumanely, like nothing more than resources whose time and life force can be extracted to make the ultra-rich even richer. They need their second yacht after all, nevermind the commoners need for basic healthcare and housing. If you tax the rich guy on his second yacht you're "punishing success". I know it's true because Ben Shaprio says so. Treat the commonfolk right - give them a living wage that they can live on and don't make getting fucking sick a reason to send someone into crippling debt - or they get angry and start destroying shit (understandably). What else can they do and at that point and what have they got to lose? Their lives I suppose, but what is life under the boot of tyranny.. Shit, as your post makes crystal clear! Good luck to you my friend! Stay safe above all else and I really hope things get better for your country and your people. All I have the power to do is express to you my support. 16 Share this post Link to post
ReaperAA Posted October 23, 2019 I feel for u man. I hope ur country gets to see better times. My country (Pakistan) is also in a not so good situation. Here, the existence of a government greatly depends on how good their relations are with the military/ armed forces. The last government was no saint, but they were much better than current ones. But sadly their relations with armed forces were not so good. Thus the military conspired to take them down by making pressurizing the judges of the Supreme court to make fake judicial cases against them to tarnish their popularity and making sure that they won't win the next election. Ever since the new government took over, things have become much much worse. The purchasing power of an average citizen has fallen a lot due to severe currency devaluation. Unemployment has risen and there is an increasingly lack of trust between the government and the industrialists. The current government is so incompetent that they can't even control dengue and atleast 50 people have died in the last 3-ish months because of it. But all is well due to the current government being on good terms with the military 😒. In short, democracy in my country exists only in name. Although what u said about Chile (forces gunning down citizens) hasn't happened here yet, but I am afraid that it may happen one day due to where things are going right now. 9 Share this post Link to post
incel Posted October 23, 2019 (edited) Well, nothing new. I don't want to display my country, but we here eat shit all our goddamn history and when you try to reduce the ammount of shit eaten, your shit-eating comrades will force-feed you an extra-share. We're famous for our indulgence and conformity. There was a joke lately that our transportation fare rises each year by far more than 30 CLP, but you can't buy our mutiny this cheap. All I can say is that violence is the only solution and that's why each and every country needs a 2nd amendment. 2 Share this post Link to post
seed Posted October 23, 2019 (edited) Hole pile of dy- Wow. That fucking sucks, I hope these tough times are going to end sometime soon and finally take a turn for the better. Surprisingly, reading through your post, there seem to be quite a few common points (problems) we have here as well, albeit less extreme and we're not literally at war now. But our public care system is also dogshit, if you end up into a public hospital it's, you know, better to have your last will written because you're either going to die in there, or come out in a much worse state than you entered, we import everything because we've sold the country to others, we have abysmal minimum sallaries and pensions, the majority of the current political class is corrupt, uncultured (yes, literally), and only cares for themselves and their businesses, we live in an illusory democracy, we've been beaten out in the streets by cops for protesting for over 3 years to overthrow the current government (which finally happened last week but after that, for a period of time NO ONE wanted to take action and correct what the morons in the previous government did), the education system is trash, full of imbelices and people who have nothing to do with the profession, our forests are getting smaller and smaller cause... wood is being illegally exported non stop at least since 1989, the previous government managed to successfully turn us into a joke and ruin our reputation, companies no longer want to make deals with us because we don't inspire trust, the economy is on its knees, and so and so on. We've got no one to rely on but ourselves. So, I can understand how living in such conditions feels like, albeit slightly less extreme. Hang in there. 4 Share this post Link to post
HLRaven Posted October 23, 2019 Fucking hell that sounds horrible! I hope you stay safe, it's gonna get better. That's really all i can say sadly, I was completly unaware of this. 3 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted October 23, 2019 I was watching the situation in Chile for the past days via the news, here also the attack of Turkey on the Kurds and the violent demonstrations in Barcelona are a topic. Stay save out there... 2 Share this post Link to post
FractalBeast Posted October 23, 2019 Stay safe mate. It's moments like this that I'm glad that the Dutch public news broadcasts are pretty good, because they've been reporting on and explaining the situation very well. In a perfect scenario, everything will work out fine, and you guys get to drag the cops and military and politicians all the way to the Netherlands. Let them sit in a Den Hague jail for crimes against humanity. 2 Share this post Link to post
Linguica Posted October 23, 2019 The modern international world order has been teetering on the brink of collapse since 2016 and America is clearly no longer able to do anything about it. If a global realignment is bound to happen, it would be nice if it happened *before* climate change and continued carbon extraction destroys advanced civilization, rather than coterminous with it. 18 Share this post Link to post
MrGlide Posted October 23, 2019 stay safe stay inside kveller. my hopes are with you. 1 Share this post Link to post
Loud Silence Posted October 23, 2019 Be careful, Kveller. Let's hope for bright future after this hell ends. 1 Share this post Link to post
leodoom85 Posted October 23, 2019 (edited) As a chilean myself, living in Santiago, we are in one of the hardest situations since the dictatorship....even worse than the stronger earthquake from 2010. Now that we know that all of this shit was planned from the beginning to make chaos and to fight against each other, trying to provoke a civil war, we won't stay still and keep fighting but.....the recovery will take months, even years. In fact, I just arrived at home at 11 am because there's no work to do deliveries to the retail (I work with logistics and delivery stuff which it goes mostly to the warehouses related to retail). First of all, our safety is priority and second, it's pointless to load and unload supplies because it only will be another attempt for those motherfuckers to sack markets and stores. Public transport is shit already and now, it's even worse and neighborhoods have an uneasy, daily feeling of houses being sacked. We CANNOT live like this. If we have stress already, with this, more people will be sick. An example is that one of my uncles had a heart attack because of the heavy stress and being extremely nervous thanks to the recent situation. We just want to live in peace but, as long as our shitty government is in place, we'll never be quiet. I'd like to rant more but I don't wanna take a whole page from here to just put an opinion. PS: official statistics about the deaths of people can be a lie. I suspect that can be more, along with other things. PS2: Ministry of Interior should be the first to be taken out of that charge along with the others. Edited October 23, 2019 by leodoom85 21 Share this post Link to post
Barry Burton Posted October 23, 2019 Quote It seems like every time there's a problem and people go to the streets and speak up, politicians either ignore everyone altogether, or make changes that, while seemingly good on first glance, end up being worse than what we already had. The minimum legal salary is so low that it's just barely enough for someone to scrap by (maybe not even that), and the average salary isn't much higher. Old people's pensions are often about a third of the miminum salary, literally not enough to survive. Public health care is shit. Pretty much all of the country has been sold to international companies, I mean, they even started to export fucking water. You know, that resource that's incredibly valuable and we should probably save for later? Sounds like America! All jokes aside, keep safe. Sounds pretty dangerous... 3 Share this post Link to post
leodoom85 Posted October 23, 2019 @KVELLERRemember that military in '73 had orders to shoot on sight. Still, it's unacceptable that military AND the police shoots people for whatever reason in these times. Heck, even they are stealing electronic things.....like, cmon.... 1 Share this post Link to post
BBQgiraffe Posted October 23, 2019 Damn bro, having your own government turn against you is honestly the most horrifying situation I can imagine 0 Share this post Link to post
Gez Posted October 23, 2019 1 hour ago, Linguica said: The modern international world order has been teetering on the brink of collapse since 2016. The Soviet Union fell in 1991, Yugoslavia soon after, the UN was made irrelevant in 2003, 2011 saw the Arab Spring, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 broke the post-war taboo on landgrabs (by countries other than Israel)... Meanwhile, there are also ongoing massive demonstration in Lebanon, Algeria, Hong Kong... 2 Share this post Link to post
YukiHerz Posted October 23, 2019 I'm in one of the calmer cities, the worst that has happened is sacking of retail stores and calls to burn both the city hall and the concrete factory, in both cases the army sent units to protect the perimeter and (as far as i know at least) they haven't shot anyone yet. The big advantage we have in Chile over places like Hong Kong is that we aren't disconnected from global internet, dozens of videos are recorded and uploaded on social media, and even though they are trying to censor them (Twitter has been found to remove hashtags related to this from global tendencies even though they have more tweets than literally everything else, and tweets are being deleted left and right) people still compile them into torrents and file hosting folders. One such example: Google Drive link, Viewer discretion is advised, content includes police/military brutality. To my fellow Chileans, stay safe, to the rest of the world, please don't let these files die. 12 Share this post Link to post
nicolas monti Posted October 23, 2019 Man, I'm from Argentina and the economic reality is the same, the fact is that every 4 years people vote for the same political parties since the big bang so I think we deserve this shit. 1 Share this post Link to post
KVELLER Posted October 24, 2019 10 hours ago, BBQgiraffe said: Damn bro, having your own government turn against you is honestly the most horrifying situation I can imagine I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of countries where the authorities don't give a damn about the commonfolk. The difference is how obvious it is at first glance. There's no need to use lethal force if the cattle are calm. 4 hours ago, nicolas monti said: Man, I'm from Argentina and the economic reality is the same, the fact is that every 4 years people vote for the same political parties since the big bang so I think we deserve this shit. That sucks :/ I don't understand how some people can be so damn stupid when voting. It's the same with us. Our president is a moron, but everyone knew that well before the elections (he had already been the president once), yet he still got elected a second time. "If we don't vote for him, we'll be like in Venezuela!" some said, because of course, we're in paradise right now. 5 Share this post Link to post
nicolas monti Posted October 24, 2019 7 minutes ago, KVELLER said: I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of countries where the authorities don't give a damn about the commonfolk. The difference is how obvious it is at first glance. There's no need to use lethal force if the cattle are calm. That sucks :/ I don't understand how some people can be so damn stupid when voting. It's the same with us. Our president is a moron, but everyone knew that well before the elections (he had already been the president once), yet he still got elected a second time. "If we don't vote for him, we'll be like in Venezuela!" some said, because of course, we're in paradise right now. Second time? Damn... we have elections next sunday and the two main candidates are a ticket to hell, one of the two will win so I don't expect any good for the next years, the problem with our region is a cultural one. 1 Share this post Link to post
leodoom85 Posted October 24, 2019 (edited) 56 minutes ago, KVELLER said: That sucks :/ I don't understand how some people can be so damn stupid when voting. It's the same with us. Our president is a moron, but everyone knew that well before the elections (he had already been the president once), yet he still got elected a second time. "If we don't vote for him, we'll be like in Venezuela!" some said, because of course, we're in paradise right now. So stupid that we voted (I don't vote btw) twice for an incompetent woman and twice for a clown that's leading our country. Looks like we won't learn... And also......who's available to be more competent than the shit that we have anyway??? All are the fucking same!!! 1 Share this post Link to post
Impie Posted October 24, 2019 They should change Chile's name to Pinochet with how things have been going there. Hope things take a turn for the better, dude. 0 Share this post Link to post
ketmar Posted October 24, 2019 dunno what to say (and i feel somewhat stupid for putting "like" to your OP, because i absolutely don't like such things, but there is no "hold on, dude!" icon). i am from ukraine, we had two revolts here recently (one quite peaceful, and one... isn't), so i should have something to say, but i haven't. just... hold on, and don't give up. 1 Share this post Link to post
david_a Posted October 24, 2019 Really horrible, stay safe Chilean doomers! Even supposedly civilized countries like Sweden are getting weird. The far-right Sweden Democrats are nearly the largest political party now :( 1 Share this post Link to post
Eurisko Posted October 24, 2019 I saw some of what you’re talking about online. Can’t imagine trying to live through that. I hope it ends soon for you and you can back to some sort of normality. Stay Safe my friend. 0 Share this post Link to post
DSC Posted October 24, 2019 On 10/23/2019 at 12:15 PM, incel said: All I can say is that violence is the only solution and that's why each and every country needs a 2nd amendment. I know that the current situation is very political and so can't use the "try to not be so political" excuse, but man, you could have been much more subtle and less in-your-face about using the current state of affairs as propaganda of your beliefs and ideals. 0 Share this post Link to post