I’m worried. The Government began the decon confinement of this terrible pandemic, with a very good plan, which they called “Step by Step”. So far so well, because the plan is well done, there is no doubt about that. But it assumes one thing that is wrong that the whole plan is going to take down: that Chilean citizens have the cultural-educational level of those of Norway, and this is a long way from reality. But why go so far, we don’t have the level of Spain either.
Go for a while to review Gini’s index. This coefficient represents a country’s level of income distribution and merely gives an image of how wealth is distributed in a society, no matter whether it is a feudal, capitalist or socialist society, whether it is a rich or poor society; what it measures is how equitablely or inequitivaly wealth is distributed.
Unfortunately, this index is not measured every year and that makes the information not perfect, but well, tell me where there is perfect information, because I would run to live there, where the free market would work, but we do not stray! In the measurements that exist, the world No.1 is Consistently Slovenia, with a percapita of US$38,462 per purchasing parity, at 36th place in the world according to the indices, that is, it is not the richest, but if where that wealth is distributed more equally among its citizens. Norway is in 9th place and in general the Nordic countries are in that neighborhood. Spain is 60 and the UK is 61. America, which is so fascinated by many Chileans, is 112 in rankings, lousy! And China, if China, 90, better than the admired reference. While the ranking is not perfect, if you give us an idea of how we are going and so, you will see that we are 131 out of 166 measured countries, what do you think? At least to me, paupérrimo, if we were the jaguar of Latin America. We are better off than Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and also Venezuela – in the paradise of the PC and the Broad Front things are much worse than in the terrible Chilean democracy, so that they are located a little – we are also better off than Colombia and Brazil, of the Sudaca neighborhood, but obviously this is no consolation.
What am I going to do with all this inconsequendent disintegration? Simply because the inequity in the distribution of wealth generates inequities in many areas of the economy: Health and Education, Pensions, some of the most important, although we must recognize the enormous effort that this Government and all the health staff has made, to give an equivalent treatment to all patients who have had the fearsome Covid-19. At least in critical patients, this has been achieved and there has been no Chilean, without access to high-standard intensive treatment. Chapeau for everyone involved.
But let’s go to Education. In my modest judgment, Education is in the foundations of the Society, those foundations where the building is supported and we have already seen for the last great earthquake, in Concepción, which happens when the foundations are poorly made. Some will tell me it’s family, okay, okay, but for the sustainable development of a country, it’s education and there should be little discussion about it. In an educated society, there is better health, people understand better, therefore, behave better, and add up and follow, a virtuous circle. That’s our big difference with Norway… Spain.
This is where the model fails; about 45% or more of Chileans is functional illiterate, i.e. it can read, but does not understand what it reads. People who read but do not understand what they read suffer significantly in their minimum capacities to function in life; they lose the ability to communicate with others and are excluded from social debate. They do not develop their abstraction skills, they lose their memory and are likely to be older adults with mental health problems.
88% of 8th Basic (14-year-old) children have learning achievements equivalent to 1st Basic (6 years) in language and 92% in Mathematics, despite spending 1,200 hrs. in the classroom, double the OECD average.
This is where the problem is and why the well-prepared plan has a great chance of failing. People will not meet the three basic measures required of them, hand washing, masking and social estrangement. The last one, it will be the hardest to achieve. In a poorly educated society, but where rights are infinite and almost non-existent duties – thank you political class – everyone believes that they can get in line first and try to do so. The mics and the Metro and hereGini reappears, they will remain overstepped. We saw this week, at the beginning of phase 2 in the commune of Santiago, that there have been pockets of high agglomerations in the Chinese Mall – where the chaos was so brutal, that it had to be closed – in the Meiggs sector, outside in the AFP, in the Civil Registry, in some bank branches; Mayor Felipe Alessandri spoke of the “perfect storm,” and even dared to say, “Here clearly human stupidity has been superior,” the Mayor’s brave, it’s not going to happen that some parliamentarian is alluded to and splits with a complaint for insults and slander.
Solution? Because they’re going to tell me, why do I write this can without proposing anything. The plan must be more leisurely, the control much tighter, the real fines, without the ultra-garist judges of this country, send all the poor people who break the law, back to line up, with a tantan. The demands on the companies that receive customers can not only be from the door to the inside, the Malls that open, should do it with a maximum capacity, agreed with the Municipalities and also, all these companies, have to take care of the line of those who want to enter, that is, the responsibility must be complete. Because the Chilean does not understand and they will climb on top of each other to get there first, so are hyper-competitive societies and when he obeys, he does so because there is a firm hand and clear rules, explained with pears and apples, of those for functional illiterate.
And by the way, starting with the government, let’s think more about the education of our children and less about the new plasma that we can buy, so maybe in 30 years we will achieve it.
The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
