Huevonado: three things that are F%$·ed

In Chile the word "huevon" and its derivatives are similar to the word fuck in english, mainly for its various possible uses. The "h" is always silent in spanish but in Chilean spanish here and there, other letters are silent too, or pronounced distinctly from other countries. It has been very difficult adjusting to these differences, as words do not sound like they "should". For example "huevon" is pronounced "hue-on" and "huevonado" which would be equivalent to "fucked" is pronounced "hueonao". Indeed there are some other notable exeptions in Chilean spanish, such as the dropping of "s´" and the pronunciation of "r" after a "t". "Nosotros trabajamos" means "we work" and would be pronounced in most countries basically how it is written, the j"r" slightly rolled. But in Chile this is pronounced "no-otro trabahamo" - the "r" after the "t" is not rolled but pronounced more or less like an english "r" - but this only occurs after a "t". The deeper you penetrate into the country side the more letter, syllables and words are dropped and changed, to the point where I was camping in an old woman´s backyard on the island of Quinchao which is off of the island of Chiloe, and I did not understand anything that the old woman´s 40 year old son said - barely a word! This...is hueonao!

If you come 701st in a race its not that good, usually. But if there are more than 6 billion people participating in the race... you are right up there. Yesterday the final elections for president were held here in Chile. The two candidates were Eduardo Frei and Sebastian Piñera. Frei had been president about 8 years ago. He was from the "Christian Democrat Party" an aparently left leaning party. However, what Pinochet had not privatized Frei finished off, by selling water rights and rivers to private corporations and allowing Canadian mining companies to blast away a massive glacier to get at a gold and silver mine in Northern Chile. Piñera is, if it can be believed, far far more rightwing than Frei. While we can never say that brothers are equal, it should be a sign at least that Piñera´s brother was one of Pinochet´s ministers. Piñera also has something else going for him...he is the richest man in Chile and the 701st richest human being on the planet earth!!! He owns a large part of the island of Chiloe, he owns mining companies and the national/international airline LAN Chile. He has a private helicopter that he flies to "relieve stress" and also a private jet to avoid using the Boeings and Airbuses of LAN.
Yesterday, after 20 years of "left" rule, the right, the ultra right finally won. Piñera got more votes than Frei. But there is a problem... anybody who is marginally left of centre-right simply doesn´t vote as they are so pissed off and fed up with politicians who rob their compatriots. Most of the chileans that I have met simply don´t vote.
The Lie: For some reason, as in many countries, the poor people of the countryside, the families that drive around, 6 of them crammed in the cab of a 1991 rusty nissan pickup, the families that eat bread, potatoes, and sometimes milk, the families that can only afford the $2 return bus trip into town once a week...the families on the edge of pure poverty, vote for, and celebrate rambunctiously the victory of one of the most conservative, elitest, richest, militaristic politicians if not in the world, certainly in the Americas. They believe that the man who promises and smiles will give them a better life, will lower their taxes (when he charges nothing to the massive mining companies that export daily and by the kiloton, copper and other natural resoures that belong the the people of Chile). Indeed, Piñera is rich at precisely their expense, it is a direct correlation. Chilean military is the strongest in the continent at their expense both monetarily and by cost of life; Chile is one of the richest countries in natural resourses and, like Canada, its government hardly charges extraction or export taxes for the multinationals that take from the ground - all at the expense of the poor; while it may be the richest country with the strongest economy in Latin America, Chile belongs to a top ten that nobody should belong to - it is number 8 in the poorest income distribution in the world! All this because of people like Piñera. Yet the poor farmers vote for him... this... is hueonao!!!

Commerce in many countries, at least the few that I´ve been to and more generally western countries, is founded on organization and official partnerships, deals, forms, permission etc. In Chile, from the people who I have talked to , it seems that this is not the case for the most part. If you have no money in Chiloe you go down to the port and unload fish: you simply go and say I will unload fish, how much will you pay me? - we will pay you 10pesos (about 20c) per kilo. You unload an enormous amount and you keep doing this day after day after day. You stop smoking and drinking and you save up enough to buy a small van or pickup. Now you go down to the same port, to the same massive fishing boat and you either make an agreement to drive cartons of fish to the plant from the boat, or you simply buy fish at firesale prices and sell it on the street at competetive prices. Or you spend all of your money on clothes and sell those on the street. If you can save up enough for a small bus, you can begin to run one of the municipal or local routes, the buses that fill up every 15 minutes - here in Chiloe, bus drivers have a nice status... a house, maybe a restaurant... Commerce and the socal ladder are hard and apparently random - indeed it seems there are no rules and instead it is just a big huea!!