Massive Earthquake in CHILE

0730 at Manchester…. I just waked up and checked my twitter. Yes, it is a sort of addiction but when you live far away from your country and networks you want to keep connected all the time. At this moment, the timeline was unusually quiet but some friends had written messages about an earthquake. I did not understand it , so I tried to enter in the chilean information websites. I could not.  After that fact I decided to visit the BBC website and I founded this terrible holder: “MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE STRIKES CHILE”

As all of you might know, an enormous earthquake has striked Chile in its central zone at Saturday 27th 0330 (GMT -3). Chile is a country with a huge history of earthquakes, an it has the highest earthquake on the history of earth (ever recorded) in Valdivia 1960. Now, this earthquake had a power of 8.8 degree in Richter Scale, that mean more destructive than the earthquake of Haiti.

The earthquake has shown once again what we are. Actually, after a very succesful decade defeating poverty, building speedways, growing our economy and thinking we are the best country of Latin-America, now we are seeing the dark side of all this “development”. Lack of communications, sensation of no-organization, crisis, dramatic looting situations and the most important thing…how the most deprived people are suffering specially in rural zones.

The inequality in my country is an important problem. This kind of event show us how fragile and how unequal is our development as a country. The most impacted areas are located in the south of Chile. Of course this areas were located close to the center of the earthquake, but also is true they do not have enough resources to resist an event of this magnitude.

But Chile will  stand up. We need stand up. Yesterday in the news in middle of the disaster I have heard a working woman saying “I  lost everything, but thanks god I am not dead, and its all I need to stand up and to start working again“. We have a “disaster culture-like” that I really do not understand, but works. Always works.

This man in the picture represent part of it. After the tsunami in Pelluhue, Region of Maule, with the spirit of his nation in this flag, he is trying to stand up and face the disaster with proud and hope.  This is the spirit of my nation, this is the spirit of Chile.  FUERZA CHILE!

Pictures:  http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/earthquake_in_chile.html