21-25 Chile Facts
Image credit: en.wikipedia.org
21. Chile fought a civil war in which its navy beat its army. – Source
22. There are living rocks in the ocean of Chile. They reproduce by “selfing”. – Source
23. Chile’s firefighters are all volunteers who work without any government allocations and therefore have to finance all equipment and training themselves. – Source
24. There was a group of Native Americans in southern Chile who successfully resisted European domination until almost 1900. – Source
25. Pinochet’s government in Chile (1973-1990) had a secret detention center named Discothèque to conduct political oppression. In addition to physical abuse, many of the prisoners suffered sexual punishments; prisoners testified that spiders and live rats were often implanted on their genitals. – Source
26-29 Chile Facts
Image credit: en.m.wikipedia.org
26. Over 99% of the presently cultivated potatoes worldwide descended from varieties that originated in Chile. – Source
27. There is a place in Chile called Lolol. – Source
28. There is a statue of Jesus Christ in the Andes, on the border of Chile and Argentina which is only accessible by road in the summer as snow and winter temperatures as low as -30 degrees C prevent access. – Source
29. The housing program in Chile reduced the number of people that were homeless or living in slums from 1.2 million in 1990 to 180,000 in 2007. – Source
Really? Out of 30 intersting facts, 4 are about events that took place 40 years ago during Pinochet’s government? Sure, it was a dark period, but come on, can’t you find anything else of interest? 33 miners were rescued after months underground with methods and technology developed mostly in Chile, and there is no mention of it! The fact that we have vast amounts of natural gas that is frozen in huge chunks underneath the ocean floor -therefore not exploitable- is of no interest! That we extend from the driest desert in the world to Antartica, nobody cares, it’s all Pinochet, Pinochet, Pinochet, and things that happened 40 years ago! We are trying to get over a painful period in our history and “blam!!!”, we constantly get pulled back into it because people in other places of the world that haven’t got a clue about our history rub that period in our face ever-single-f***ing-day. Just for your knowledge, compared to the military dictatorships of Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Ethiopia a so so many others that were much, much worse, Pinochet’s government was far less bloody, and he peacefully -although grudingly and rather partially- gave power back to civilian government. Why don’t you let us forget, forgive, heal and move on? Everybody else seems to get that chance, why not us.
this is grea