Chile Forum

earthwalker wrote:A LOCAL TRAGEDY BRINGS LIFE INTO PERSPECTIVE
The first we heard of the massive earthquake that hit Chile two days ago was through messages of concern from friends in Japan. People in La Junta did not feel anything, yet the quake was felt as far away as Sao Paolo, Brazil - I guess we must be on a different fault line. The impact of the quake has been huge as can be expected with one of the worst in the last hundred years, but down here in Patagonia it all seems surreal - the sun is shining as its not done for six months - a week and more of full on clear beautiful blue skies and apparently another week more to come - everywhere seems even more peaceful than normal - and yet our friends tell us of sensational disaster stories from the rest of Chile. Two million people impacted by the quake - 12.5% of the population of Chile! Yet miraculously the death toll has not neared that of Haiti or Szechuan.


Our thoughts go out to all those impacted by this quake.


When I first went onto the internet to find out exactly what had happened I came across more than one or two comments obviously posted by Chileans with a very Macho attitude. "Just 48 dead" one man wrote before going to explain how the world should not be concerned for Chileans as "we are used to these things and our buildings are built very strong". At the time I commented to Konomi "Just 48 dead! Obviously no one in this guys family was one of them otherwise he`d be whistling a different tune"

It`s the way of the world to count disaster in numbers, but people are not numbers and people who have died have family and　friends and so even if its one, the disaster is huge if that one is close to you. This came home bigstyle just yesterday, for La Junta witnessed it`s own tragedy...


The sirens at the fire station sounded around lunch time for the first time since the bringing in of the New Year. We searched for smoke on the horizon but none could be found, then we made our way to the land to begin laying the foundation (finally) and at the bridge over the Rio Rosselot we encountered lots of La Juntans and tourists and police and firemen and a woman crying. The woman, known as `Tai Maria` for her role in helping raise the children of La Junta at the village nursery had lost her 18 year old son, her only child, who had just drowned while trying to swim across the river. Apparently there is no father to grieve with her and so her pain is all the more. As the toll rises across Chile it is important to remember that it is not the numbers that are important, its the story attached to all of those lives, that`s important.