Chile.Donned spontaneously by thousands of young women streaming into downtown Santiago to celebrate the electoral victory of Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (born September 29 1951) is a center-left politician and the current President of Chile—the first woman to hold this position in the country's history. on 15 January 2006, Chile's tri-coloured presidential sash A presidential sash is a cloth sash worn by the presidents of many nations in the world. The sash is an important symbol of the continuity of the presidency, and is only worn by the president. suddenly became the fashion statement of a generation. Bachelet, a 54-year-old former health and defence minister, handily hand·i·ly adv. 1. In an easy manner. 2. In a convenient manner. Adv. 1. handily - in a convenient manner; "the switch was conveniently located" conveniently 2. beat her opponent to become the first woman elected to govern Chile. And while their platforms were barely distinguishable--jobs, social welfare, market-oriented economic growth and global integration--the contenders starkly epitomize two contrasting faces of contemporary Chile. On the one hand there was the Harvard-trained billionaire entrepreneur from the political right, espousing his Catholic faith and traditional family values. On the other there was the public health paediatrician and socialist militant, professed agnostic and single mother of three, who had once been detained in a torture centre and later exiled. Bachelet belongs to the centre-left Concertacion coalition that has governed Chile for 16 years, since the end of military rule in 1990. The recent elections also swept its candidates into a Congressional majority, allowing the new President a running start on her pledge to increase spending on social welfare. Pension reform is high on her agenda, as are improvements to public education and health services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract . During his six-year term, outgoing President Ricardo Lagos kept the business elites happy, signing no less than half a dozen free trade agreements. Concessions for roadways, utilities and other public infrastructure not already privatized by his predecessors were sold to the highest bidder HIGHEST BIDDER, contracts. He who, at an auction, offers the greatest price for the property sold. 2. The highest bidder is entitled to have the article sold at his bid, provided there has been no unfairness on his part. . In one of his farewell appearances, Lagos reaped almost as much applause as Bono in a U2 concert in Chile's infamous National Stadium, site of deaths and detentions following General Augusto Pinochet's 1973 military coup. Pinochet, now 90, bequeathed to Chile what may be his final ignominy IGNOMINY. Public disgrace, infamy, reproach, dishonor. Ignominy is the opposite of esteem. Wolff, Sec. 145. See Infamy. when US banking authorities uncovered his personal fortune of at least $27 million stashed in secret accounts. Indicted INDICTED, practice. When a man is accused by a bill of indictment preferred by a grand jury, he is said to be indicted. on charges of tax evasion The process whereby a person, through commission of Fraud, unlawfully pays less tax than the law mandates. Tax evasion is a criminal offense under federal and state statutes. A person who is convicted is subject to a prison sentence, a fine, or both. and false passports, he's been in and out of house arrest for ongoing murder and torture investigations and is more likely to die than be sentenced. Far from the political turmoil and brutal repression of the 1970s and 1980s, today's Chile is peaceful, democratic and prosperous--for the privileged. But this narrow strip of land between the Pacific and the Andes, spanning deserts and icebergs, has social and economic inequalities as extreme as its geography. In Santiago's ubiquitous skyscrapers and shopping malls, modernity and wealth are everywhere to be seen. An estimated seven million mobile phones out-chirp the birds; car alarms are the new national anthem. It's easy to be blinded by the glitter and the glass into seeing the sheen of success reflected across the social spectrum. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] But behind Chile's reputation as a Latin American economic tiger is an income distribution so skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data that it ranks among the worst in world, in the same league as Namibia, Brazil and South Africa. Around a million Chileans earn the minimum wage of $225 a month. Not that a full-time job guarantees an exit from poverty: in this nation of runaway consumer credit, personal indebtedness is more widespread than malnutrition, and even the pizza parlours offer slices by instalment. Popular movements are more quiescent than restive these days, product, some believe, of the consumer culture: the 'haves' are consumed by consuming and the 'have-nots' are consumed by survival. The revolutionary transformations that inspired so many to fight for freedom and democracy in the past are being carried out by new and re-emerging social actors, including environmentalists, urban cyclists, women, university students, indigenous rights activists and the indomitable in·dom·i·ta·ble adj. Incapable of being overcome, subdued, or vanquished; unconquerable. [Late Latin indomit poor. RELATED ARTICLE Leader: President Michelle Bachelet, who took office on 11 March 2006. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Economy: GNI GNI Gross National Income GNI Global Nomads International GNI Guyana News and Information GNI Gay Naturists International GNI Global Netoptex Inc. GNI Great Northern Iron GNI Gebäude Netzwerk Institut (German) per capita [Latin, By the heads or polls.] A term used in the Descent and Distribution of the estate of one who dies without a will. It means to share and share alike according to the number of individuals. : US$4,910 (Argentina $3,720, United States $41,400). Monetary unit: Chilean peso. Main exports: Copper accounts for almost half of all exports, and current record-high prices have brought a windfall. Also fresh fruit, fishmeal fish·meal n. A nutritive mealy substance produced from fish or fish parts and used as animal feed and fertilizer. fishmeal Noun ground dried fish used as feed for farm animals or as a fertilizer , paper and wine. Chile has signed bilateral free trade agreements with all comers (including the EU, the US, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and China). Foreign investment abounds, especially in privatized utilities, many of which were swallowed up by financial conglomerates both transnational and domestic. People: 16.1 million. Some 90% live in urban areas. People per square kilometre 21 (UK 245). Health: Infant mortality (hardware) infant mortality - It is common lore among hackers (and in the electronics industry at large) that the chances of sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a machine's time since first use (that is, until the relatively distant time at which enough mechanical 8 per 1,000 live births (Argentina 16, US 7). 95% of Chileans have access to clean water and 92% to adequate sanitation. Environment: Natural resources are under threat from deforestation deforestation Process of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. and mining. A multinational manoeuvre to 'relocate' two glaciers in order to get at the gold beneath was scaled back after nationwide protests. In Santiago, air pollution from vehicles is so noxious it can obscure the city's Andean backdrop for weeks at a stretch. Culture: 9 out of 10 Chileans are mestizo mestizo (māstē`sō) [Span.,=mixture], person of mixed race; particularly, in Mexico and Central and South America, a person of European (Spanish or Portuguese) and indigenous descent. (mixed Spanish and indigenous descent). The Mapuche (some 10% of population) in the south are the main indigenous group, with Aymara communities in the northern desert and the Rapa Nui on Easter Island. Religion: Catholics predominate, but Mormonism and evangelical Protestantism are growing. Languages: Spanish. Mapudungun is spoken by Mapuche elders and Aymara can be heard along the border with Bolivia, but most native languages have disappeared. Sources: World Guide, State of the World's Children 2006, UNDP UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNDP Unión Nacional para la Democracia y el Progreso (National Union for Democracy and Progress) Last profiled August 1995 RELATED ARTICLE: Star ratings INCOME DISTRIBUTION APPALLING [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Scandalously top-heavy concentration of wealth, with the poorest 10% receiving under 2% of income and consumption, while the richest 10% account for 47%. 1995 POOR LITERACY EXCELLENT [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Some 96% of adults can read but understanding the fine print of Chilean legalese legalese - Dense, pedantic verbiage in a language description, product specification, or interface standard; text that seems designed to obfuscate and requires a language lawyer to parse it. is another story. An estimated 3.5 million people use the internet. 1995 EXCELLENT LIFE EXPECTANCY Life Expectancy 1. The age until which a person is expected to live. 2. The remaining number of years an individual is expected to live, based on IRS issued life expectancy tables. EXCELLENT [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 78 years (Argentina 75, US 78). A package of reforms guaranteeing universal free access to treatment for major diseases was enacted in 2005. 1995 EXCELLENT POSITION OF WOMEN GOOD [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Incoming President Bachelet has appointed ministras to half her Cabinet posts, but women still earn 30-40% less than men, and the more educated the woman, the bigger the gap. 1995 FAIR FREEDOM GOOD [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Court-ordered gag rulings on media criticism of authorities have been eased. The criminal code is being overhauled and public trials and juries are being introduced. 1995 FAIR SEXUAL MINORITIES FAIR [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Homosexuality is legal but you'd have to look hard to find openly gay men and women in public life. But in Santiago at least, gay culture is coming out of the closet. The age of consent is higher for gays. RELATED ARTICLE: NI assessment POLITICS GOOD President Bachelet's campaign slogan was 'I Am Continuity and Change', which begged a few questions. While no one expects Bachelet to veer off the free-market speedway that has set the country's economic course over the past three decades, there are faint hopes that this driver, with her platform to strengthen the social welfare safety net, will leave fewer casualties along the roadside. |
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