madgefan

Chile’s crisis was decades in the making Pinochet’s reforms created a class of citizens with precarious access to public services JENNIFER PRIBBLE The chaotic protests unfolding across Chile are a crisis that has been waiting to happen since the end of General Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship in 1990. The story may have surprised outsiders, who know only of the country’s reputation for economic success. But for Chileans, it was years in the making. It is a tale of rapid but unequal economic growth; of a state that has withdrawn from its regulatory and social policy roles; and of a political class that has been unwilling to transform the country’s economic and social model. Chile’s experience is an object lesson in the dangers of ignoring inequality and the importance of building inclusive political institutions. On October 18, following a day of protests that turned violent, President Sebastián Piñera declared a state of emergency. Mr Piñera’s militarised response, which later involved imposing a curfew and declaring that Chile was at “war”, served only to escalate tensions. It also hearkened back to the 1970s, when political parties of the centre and right responded to demands for increased social and economic inclusion with repression, partnering with the military to overthrow the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende. The dictatorship dismantled Chile’s social safety net, privatising the pension system and partially privatising health provision. These reforms created a growing class of citizens with precarious access to public services and benefits. After the return to democracy in 1990, demands for redistribution slowly re-emerged, but Chile’s political parties focused their energies elsewhere, extending the neoliberal model. Following the “pink tide” election of socialist presidents Ricardo Lagos in 2000 and Michelle Bachelet in 2006, the centre-left coalition of parties — the Concertación — carried out reforms to the country’s education, health and pension systems, expanding access to benefits, but maintaining the privatised framework. The limited scope of the Concertación’s reforms was particularly acute for education and pension policy. The early centre-left governments consolidated the voucher scheme subsidising private education introduced in the Pinochet era. Ms Bachelet’s first administration created a minimum pension for the bottom 60 per cent of income earners. Prior to that, many Chileans made do without any income support in old age. The reform made a crucial step forward, but the size of the benefit remained extremely small. Between 2006 and 2011, inequality became increasingly politicised. A growing student movement pointed to the excessive cost of university education and the dismal quality of public schools. Student protests ushered in a new era of mobilisation, though the traditional parties sought to continue with politics as usual. The fragility of the political system came to a head during the 2017 presidential election. The electorate fractured between the new left parties, the traditional centre-left, and the right. Mr Piñera won, but his victory owed as much to the divisions on the left as it did to his appeal to voters. The results revealed an increasingly polarised electorate with a strong left wing and profound frustrations over inequality. It also pointed to a citizenry that had lost faith in political parties and elites. The combination of a delegitimised political system and a frustrated electorate has made the current government vulnerable. It lacks the tools needed to engage with protesters and build a more inclusive regime. Any attempt to resolve the conflict will require deep structural reforms to the welfare state, but also to political institutions and parties. If Chile is to find a way forward, it will have to leave the legacy of dictatorship behind. https://www.ft.com/content/81801886-f650-11e9-bbe1-4db3476c5ff0

The parties (center-right/extreme right) behind the current government in Chile were strong supporters of Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship. They are stubborn on the idea that if they commit the same atrocities Pinochet did in the 70s and 80s they're gonna frighten Chileans. The same politicians who were given ministries have a looooooong history of corruption/collusion with the stinking rich families. And guess who is one of the richest men among them? The current President ffs! Unfortunately they have SO MUCH power that the police and military forces are nothing but their defendants and are willing to do anything to repress demonstrators. That's why you can see so much violence in the streets. Policemen are shooting kids too! The first few days of this revolution were covered by the press putting the emphasis on supermaket loots and destruction of the private property (the metro, banks, retail stores, etc.) becasue the so called official media in this country are bought as well. You can find legit information on Facebook and videos in both Twitter/Instagram. Around 20 people have been reported murdered!! International news outlets have been reporting the chaos happening now https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50151323?SThisFB&fbclid=IwAR2H_J7UEhjMRxBdhbeLYNYDmt32hJWnW_0BVW-bOxi2Nitpcf4BsarQK4I https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/child-latest-victim-of-chile-violence-as-strike-begins-12028704?fbclid=IwAR35pJizOOzPNQruLmkOqT9Phi0Vbtk4-gulzphabryTwSHVhKY_5081fdo https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-23/chile-protests-transport-fares-explainer/11630278?fbclid=IwAR3WWKkPbFHmGxMv3wWqyZnCHSNJWHB4Bk79Wg3SsWJzIAytr4jrtZ20kYg

Violence and looting continued to rock Chile on Sunday, resulting in at least eight deaths as stores and other establishments were set alight despite the imposition of a state of emergency in at least six cities. The demonstrations started over a subway fare increase two weeks ago, which President Sebastián Piñera canceled on Saturday night. But his move failed to quell the wave of demonstrations that continued to convulse the country into Sunday, and calls were circulating for a national strike on Monday. Three people were killed in fires at supermarkets that were looted on Sunday, and another five people were found dead in a warehouse that had been burned, officials told The Associated Press. Soldiers in camouflage were seen patrolling the capital, as riot police clashed with protesters, set fire to buses and vandalized subway stops. The unrest was some of the worst to hit the country in decades, and the sight of military tanks on the streets was jarring for Chileans who are still reeling from a former 17-year military dictatorship, during which the armed forces committed rampant abuses. The interior minister, Andrés Chadwick, said on Sunday that 62 police officers and 11 civilians were injured in the latest violence and that nearly 1,500 people had been arrested. As of Sunday night, a state of emergency had been declared in the capital, Santiago, and five other cities that had been affected by protests, looting and arson: Valparaíso, Concepción, Rancagua, Coquimbo and Antofagasta. President Piñera said on Sunday night that the state of emergency would be extended to more cities in the country’s north and south. “We are at war against a powerful enemy, who is willing to use violence without any limits,” he said in a televised address from the Chilean Army’s headquarters in Santiago, according to Reuters. The actions are the first time since Chile’s return to democracy in 1990 that the government has declared a state of emergency because of public disorder in the capital. In Santiago on Sunday, there were violent skirmishes between demonstrators and the police all afternoon in Plaza Baquedano, a central landmark. Thousands of other demonstrators gathered for hours in Ñuñoa, a middle-class neighborhood, cutting off a major thoroughfare in a peaceful protest. There were no police officers in sight. The disturbances led at least two airlines to cancel or reschedule flights into Santiago. About 5,000 people were forced to stay overnight in the airport on Sunday because of canceled flights or suspensions of public transit into the city. The government imposed a curfew in Santiago from Sunday night to Monday morning, and said that 10,500 soldiers and police officers were patrolling the city. Long lines were forming at gas stations before the start of the workweek. The chief of the subway system, Louis de Grange, said he hoped to restore service to one line by Monday, but that four other lines might not be back in service for weeks or months. “Tomorrow we will have a difficult day,” President Piñera said on Sunday night, referring to partial suspensions of service at hospitals, schools, crèches and across Santiago’s public transit network. He added that the perpetrators of the unrest had “a degree of organization, logistics, typical of a criminal organization.” Mr. Piñera’s comments came hours after he met with leaders of the legislature and judiciary system and pledged “to reduce excessive inequalities, inequities abuses, that persist in our society.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/world/americas/chile-protests-riots.html FUCK CLOWN PIÑERA AND HIS CRAPPY GOVERNMENT!!!!

They seriously look unhealthy lol

True OCD fans will buy anything that's been labeled MADONNA on it so it doesn't matter which versions she chooses to include

She should have kept the album version on tour

VOTED

Thanks for the wav file. Hope it's the real deal

I love Madonna but she's so stubborn sometimes

The greatest thing about this demo is how good every verse sounds, how the words rhyme and how Madonna sings them. Love everything about the feeling this songs creates. The demo definitely needed rework as it sounded it was going nowhere. Sad she doesn't perform this on tour though

I get the feeling Hold Tight sounds louder on the CD than on the iTunes version

It seems like the media in general is trying to give her some recognition, after all her tour is aiming to be one of the biggest things once again

Wish she was still playing the album version with those sounds effects from the Grammys and the Brits on tour!!

Another reason to go out on a Sunday night to avoid all those shitty and overhyped performances

And the best thing after all is that Madonna has never lectured the world about how big of an artist she is, leave that to the basics