Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion it is said, but not the whole story. Sometimes the narrative unfolds less lyrically, in prose. On Friday, Chile announced a referendum to ditch its dictatorship-era constitution, which prioritised the free market for nearly 40 years and ensured steady growth, little public debt, a large sovereign wealth fund and low inflation.
To many this was portentous, possibly even dismaying news.
Chile is considered Latin America’s biggest economic success story and the very embodiment of the free market policies promoted by the US and exported around the world for more than 70 years.
But in fact the concession by the right-wing government of Chilean president Sebastian Pinera was a prosaic recognition of the reality on the ground. Chile has been beset for nearly a month by mass protests, the country’s biggest in living memory. The unrest was ostensibly triggered by a relatively small increase – 30 Chilean pesos (about 15 fils) – in the subway fare in the capital, Santiago. High school and then university students began a limited civil disobedience programme of coordinated fare-dodging but soon enough the protests took on a new and ominous dimension that was disproportionate to the original provocation. Even after the government had reversed the fare hike, the protests continued, having morphed into an expression of popular anger at pervasive and growing inequality over decades. It didn’t help that Mr Pinera called out the army to help restore order, an act that revived memories of all the years Chile had spent under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Television footage showed the whole world the various ways in which the narrative of anger and distress found form on Chile's streets. There was the sight – and sound – of some of the country's best-known artistes and ordinary people defiantly singing a nearly 50-year-old anthem of protest, El Derecho de Vivi ren Paz (The Right to Live in Peace). The song is by the late Victor Jara, sometimes described as the Bob Dylan of South America, who was killed by the Chilean military in the early days of the dictatorship. It is seen as significant that Jara's face has been on T-shirts in recent days, his name on people's lips, and fragments of his songs on protesters' placards.
Then there was the slogan often used by protesters on Chile’s streets: “It’s not 30 pesos: it’s 30 years.” The reference is to the arc of a long story – the fateful effects of decades of accumulated neoliberal policies. And therein lies the significance of the constitutional changes being contemplated by Chile. The constitution, which enshrines the market-driven policies that have been extolled by free marketeers around the world, is in the dock and it is the Chilean people who have put it there.
One does not have to be an economist to understand the problems for which the Chilean system is being blamed. They can be summed up in two words: unequal and unhelpful.
Chile is one of Latin America's wealthiest countries but also one of its most unequal. In fact, it has the worst income equality of the 36 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a club of mostly rich countries. Interestingly, when the OECD accepted Chile as the first Latin American member in 2010, the organisation hailed its economic policies, especially the “groundbreaking pension reforms”. The OECD said at the time that those reforms of “the early 1980s have served as a model for many other countries”.
Chile is considered Latin America's biggest economic success story and the very embodiment of the free market policies promoted by the US and exported around the world for more than 70 years
That was true enough – some 40 other countries have been influenced by Chile’s radical privatisation of the public pension system. And in 2005, former US president George W Bush proposed the partial privatisation of America’s social security programme even as he praised the virtues of the Chilean model.
But that’s where the problem of the unhelpful state comes in. Chile’s privatised pension system has meant poverty – literally, payouts that are below the poverty line – for the first generation of workers who participated in the reformed scheme system of private individual accounts and have recently begun to retire. Unsurprisingly then, Chilean pensioners joined the protests. So did others struggling with the high cost of living because public services, such as the water supply, are privatised and healthcare and education are almost totally privatised too.
The people's rebuke is significant for the country hailed as a "miracle" by the late Milton Friedman, guru of the free market revolution. Friedman served as a respected adviser to both former US president Ronald Reagan and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who were heavily influenced by his theories. However, Chile went further with the free market than both the US and the UK, which respectively retain a state-run social security programme and a National Health Service.
There is a reason it feels as if capitalism itself is on trial in the court of the people – and not just in Chile. In the US, which prides itself on self-reliance, a poll by Axios on HBO earlier this year found 40 per cent support for socialism. And even critics of Evo Morales, former president of Bolivia, have grudgingly admitted that in the past 13 years, his redistributive policies have taken his poor but resource-rich country further and faster in terms of poverty eradication than any other South American nation. And prominent economists, including Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, have been chronicling the rise in wealth inequality in capitalist countries.
Around the world, there is a growing sense that unrestrained capitalism is not working too well, that the market cannot be allowed to have its head without state regulation, and that some social protections are essential for people to feel – and to be – safe.
How to report a beggar
Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)
Dubai – Call 800243
Sharjah – Call 065632222
Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372
Ajman – Call 067401616
Umm Al Quwain – Call 999
Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411
HAEMOGLOBIN DISORDERS EXPLAINED
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
THE SPECS
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 275hp at 6,600rpm
Torque: 353Nm from 1,450-4,700rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Top speed: 250kph
Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: Dh146,999
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Asia Cup Qualifier
Venue: Kuala Lumpur
Result: Winners play at Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in September
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29: Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30: UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6: Final
Asia Cup
Venue: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Schedule: Sep 15-28
Teams: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, plus the winner of the Qualifier
The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: now
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers Henderson, Johnstone, Pickford, Ramsdale
Defenders Alexander-Arnold, Chilwell, Coady, Godfrey, James, Maguire, Mings, Shaw, Stones, Trippier, Walker, White
Midfielders Bellingham, Henderson, Lingard, Mount, Phillips, Rice, Ward-Prowse
Forwards Calvert-Lewin, Foden, Grealish, Greenwood, Kane, Rashford, Saka, Sancho, Sterling, Watkins
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The five pillars of Islam
How to help
Call the hotline on 0502955999 or send "thenational" to the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
2252 - Dh50
6025 - Dh20
6027 - Dh100
6026 - Dh200
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Profile of VoucherSkout
Date of launch: November 2016
Founder: David Tobias
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers
Sector: Technology
Size: 18 employees
Stage: Embarking on a Series A round to raise $5 million in the first quarter of 2019 with a 20 per cent stake
Investors: Seed round was self-funded with “millions of dollars”
FIXTURES
December 28
Stan Wawrinka v Pablo Carreno Busta, 5pm
Milos Raonic v Dominic Thiem, no earlier then 7pm
December 29 - semi-finals
Rafael Nadal v Stan Wawrinka / Pablo Carreno Busta, 5pm
Novak Djokovic v Milos Raonic / Dominic Thiem, no earlier then 7pm
December 30
3rd/4th place play-off, 5pm
Final, 7pm
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Read more about the coronavirus
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets