Jejune BBC Article on Chilean Inequality
Only because Pato asked, Word of the Day, baby. Fuck Isabelle Allende if you wanna learn about Chile read George Eliot, it's Dickens for girls, any book'll do and you'll see that Victorian England is just like Chile 2007. At least, both have gypsies. You might also learn new vocabulary, perhaps too strong a word to describe the BBC's revelation of Chile's Inequality.
I really wanna root for the article but first of all they screwed up the Chilean minimum wage saying it's US $208 when in reality it's about $275. Doesn't mean Chilean minimum wage isn't still really bad, but why didn't they mention that 7 out of every 10 Chilean workers are working in precarious conditions, such as unpaid overtime, or without contracts. That's according to Marcel Claude, why didn't they interview Claude? Better not though, they would have made him sound as insipid as this Claudio Fuentes they quote. And I coulda found them pretty much anyone more diabolical than the Pablo Halpern character, who comes down off the slopes (in Chile, skiing is elitist like polo) to give BBC an interview.
I share the BBC's bias and lack of attention to detail, and I do both better, but then again it's just the BBC. Unless their rates have gone up since 2003 when I talked to a middle east correspondent who sold them articles, that cost them $200, which will also get you a latte in London. I do like this translation though:
I really wanna root for the article but first of all they screwed up the Chilean minimum wage saying it's US $208 when in reality it's about $275. Doesn't mean Chilean minimum wage isn't still really bad, but why didn't they mention that 7 out of every 10 Chilean workers are working in precarious conditions, such as unpaid overtime, or without contracts. That's according to Marcel Claude, why didn't they interview Claude? Better not though, they would have made him sound as insipid as this Claudio Fuentes they quote. And I coulda found them pretty much anyone more diabolical than the Pablo Halpern character, who comes down off the slopes (in Chile, skiing is elitist like polo) to give BBC an interview.
I share the BBC's bias and lack of attention to detail, and I do both better, but then again it's just the BBC. Unless their rates have gone up since 2003 when I talked to a middle east correspondent who sold them articles, that cost them $200, which will also get you a latte in London. I do like this translation though:
"The transport system is crap and expensive. It takes me one and a half hours to get to work - with three changes - and that's without the queues.What's that guy complaining about I bought a couple onions for almost a buck a piece, and the fucking bell peppers are the same. Of course, I'm shopping at Santa Isabel (not to be confused with Santa Isabel, lest the workers legally organize), but last summer I could score a bell pepper for 30 cents at the Dick, which is the English translation of what is locally referred to as la Verga, a big open air market in Santiago Centro.
"The supermarkets, the hospitals, it's all going up. We used to pay 30 to 40 pesos for an onion - and now it's 150 or 160 - just for one."
posted by Chileno @ 1:49 AM
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7 Comments:
Regarding the minimum wage, I think the article was referring to the sueldo líquido, which is what the worker finally receives after discounting 19.5% (7% for health insurance and 12.5% to your favorite pension administrator) from his monthly salary.
With the minimum wage currently at 144 000 pesos, a worker would receive about 116 000 pesos*, that is $227 (as of Sept. 23, the date the article was published), still more than what the article claimed. A likely explanation is that the reporter was using the previous minimum wage of 135 000 and the exchange rate of Sept. 11, which gives $208.
* Although it may be less actually, since the discount can be applied to a lesser amount; more info here.
Acutally, it is "La Vega", meaning fertile plain, not Dick. It even says so at the entrance in big letters. And you should know that since chileans say pico, not verga.
Besides that, your blog is awesome.
Nick, at the risk of being labeled a Doom and Gloom Democrat or something, I'd say that's great, for the purposes of arguing that Chileans' are mistreated by a negligent gov't and anti-worker public policy. It's even worse than I thought. Of course, though, it woulda been better if the BBC had qualified that to avoid the confusion. I mean, even if shit's taken out the minimum wage still *is* 144,000 pesos, what wage doesn't have anything taken out? How many words would it have taken for the kings of concision to qualify that?
Lindsay, every time I make that joke about "la Verga" for "la Vega" the Chilean I'm annoying at the time gets it, but it is surprising because you're right they never use the word. I learned it from a Venezuelan who had a Belgian friend who was pretty serious so he called her "Belga Seria" (a spin-off on Verga Seria -> Serious Dick).
A funny word in Spanish is envergadura which literally means "wingspan," but is more often used as "scope," "breath," and "expanse."
Now if you divide the word into three other words, what you get is pretty vulgar. Thankfully verga isn't used in Chile.
hehehe. Good one.
Lindsay kicked your ass.
Whatever dude talk to Freddy, Gabriela or Pati -- all of them have had to hear my Verga joke from early on when I got to Chile. You and Lindsay are Vergas Serias because you didn't get the joke.
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