notes on my political observations of Chile.

I have to say that traveling as a United States citizen in another country has brought about a lot of thought on what it means to be an "american". i want to preface this with three things:
1. I may generalize. But, I know that many of these issues are complex and are found more in shades of grey than I may portray them.
2. These perceptions have not colored my trip in a negative way, in fact part of the reason I wanted to travel was to gain a bigger perspective about these issues.
3. I have not been here that long, and so I have much to learn. But, I wanted to record my early thoughts to see how they develop throughout my trip.

Entonces...
Santiago, Chile is unlike any other city in Latin America (this is what I am told, by tourists and Chileans), it enjoys a great deal of wealth and relative peace amongst its people (although the political divisions make ours look like childs play). First I want to point out the benefits of this wealth. A large percentage of Chileans enjoy a higher standard of living; although FAR from perfect or even decent they have a health care system that is somewhat capable to treat most of its people; they share our passion for innovative new technologies and many are fortunate enough to enjoy them; they have a somewhat stable middle class (although much smaller than other developed countries); and they enjoy many of the other benefits of wealth, which are not to be discounted. However, there is much they have lost as a result. primarily the loss of culture and identity. Who do many chileans look to as models for their cultural lives? The same false idols of media that we look to. However, I think that our image abroad has a far more damaging affect than it does in our country, because the chileans (not all!) look to our culture as a model for their own, as if the one that they had was inferior.
These are the methods of an empire. To instill in the native (new native, not indigenous) people a subtle yet powerful feeling of inferiority which then allows the dominating culutre to take control and extract the resources. I know that our methods are far less pronounced than the conquistadores who came before us, but the effects are no less damaging. We do not plant flags, instead we plant our brands in stores and advertisements and tv screens. we do not force the religion of a deity (except mormonism), instead we subtly entice the people with the religion of greed and money. we do not tear down any man made temples and yet we destroy the greatest, most sacred, oldest temple of them all: the natural world. All the while acting as though their country was a blank slate with no history or culture of its own.
The flase name which we have given our country is emblematic of our empiric nature. When asked what country I am from it is hard not to say the name which I have been taught since birth: America. The power that this name alone has is far more potent than we realize.
Our methods are not always so subtle at times we have down right forced our policies on Chile. The coup of 1973 in Chile brought about a 17 year long Pinochet dictatoriship in Chile, which some could say has not ended. Yes, there is a democratic system in place and people enjoy similar freedoms to our country, however, the current president is a descendent of the Pinochet´s administration. Pinochet and his followers have brought about the opening of Chile´s market and the invasion of our culture.
What were our motives? did we sincerely want to help the people avoid the tragedy of soviety style communism or were we puting in place a president whom we knew would open the doors of commerce for our country to proffit from.

I must say that it is not just the U.S. which is profitting from the natural wealth of Chile, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark share huge profits from the mining in the north. But the children here are not watching Danish TV wishing they could someday be in Denmark.
The alternative to Chile´s open economic policies may resemble something like other Latin American countries: extreme poverty. I can´t say what is worse, but it is my hope that there is some middle ground, in which countries can have a healthy economy without giving themselves away to the US and other "developed" countires. But maybe we have gone so far down the path of globalization that it is better for countries to simply give in, than resist and face poverty.
At this point in history Empire´s are not gone, they seem to be so pervasive and extensive that we simply do not see them.

That being said I am having an amazing time in Chile. I am contiuing to open myself up, to loose pre-conceptions, to meet Chileans and people form all around the world. I am also finding one of my most important missions is to learn the language. Apart from being seen as pretentious to other cultures, being monolingual is downright embarassing. I am here to learn, I am here to honor another culture, and without apoligizing, represent my own in a humble and positive light.