Quote:
Originally Posted by MalaMan
Exactly.
It's easier to achieve a slightly higher level of development than Brazil when the entire population of your country is just about the same size as the number of Brazilians with a higher education degree.
Less population makes things weasier. No wonder Norway is more "developed" than the USA...
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No it's not developed at all, the contrast between ultra wealthy and ultra poor is still quite high in Chile. High er education is "
extremely expensive" and becoming less and less obtainable all the time. Alot of Chileans are coming to Arg to try and take advantage of studying in the universities here. Life is VERY expensive in Chile and the middle class is smaller and becoming increasingly smaller and squeezed.
Chile still seems to have the old-world spanish style "
caudillo" mentality and it's a VERY VERY strict "
class oriented" society, VERY diff for the average Chilean to advance. Women are regularly treated as subordinates,
( never have I seen men that were more insecure, yet overtly "macho" than in Chile and Chilean men ) as is sexual harassment, a big issue there in the workplace. If you were born in a certain class, you stay in it. I was also told by MANY Chileans when I lived there that their is a sort of societal undertone of discrimination of people who have surnames or physical features that are amer-indian or for example "
Mapuche"...it's weird. I found this odd, because in general, the average chileans are fairly mestizo...it's very strange and I don't understand it.
I was told that one friend knew a girl who was from the south of Chile who paid to have her indigenous surname removed and legally changed as well as have plastic surgery to later change her appearance somewhat to make her look less ameri-indian and mestizo so she could appeal to a potential mate in a higher class so and marry out of her lower status. I know it sounds very odd ( it is ) but it's what I've been told. This is a VERY big deal in Chile. Many Chilean women go to the Univ to study ONLY to have the opportunity of meeting a man from a more prestigious or wealthy family and "
marry up" I was told that in Chile in the poorer classes, young women are trained in this from very young. Status is a BIG deal in Chile, for most, if your lower, it's the ONLY way up.
You need to read some books if you can get them, I read one before I went to Chile written by "
Isabell Ayende" years ago where she chronicles life as not only a woman in Chile but also the "
idiosyncracies" and strangeness of the "
two-faces" of Chilean society. Chile is a very complicated country, in my opinion, the most beautiful and actually my favorite to live in, I liked it better than Argentina, but it's complicated.
Chile was my first south-american experience and I lived there for a while and traveled the length and breadth of the country....it's the most beautiful country in the world, besides my own of course but Arg is a close 3rd. I experienced 2 strong tremors while living in Santiago
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