Starting the New Year in my usual style by inventing a pathetic headline, let me first of all apologize for a breakdown here at D&N today in which all my telephone and internet connections vanished under the biggest rainstorm since Noah! And, pur-lease, if you live in some God-forsaken hell-hole like 'Uddersfield where the average rainfall is 10" a day, 364 days a year, don't tell me! I live in nice, that's "nice" as in 'naice', Wessex country where everything is proportionate including the weather, well, except for the last few days, that is, in which non-stop rain of a tropical variety has nearly drowned us all ! Where was I? Oh yes . . .
I always enjoy the sardonic 'Dr. Dalrymple' and he is in top form over at Taki's Mag on the subject of the latest winner of the game of presidential musical chairs in Chile. I gather that since the days of the late, lamented Gen. Pinochet, Chile has progressed on the back of a thriving economy to fairly high levels of prosperity. However, that is likely to come to a crunching halt given the nature of the lady who has won the presidential election by a hefty 62.16% against 37.83%. The lady concerned, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, is determined to change (dread word!) Chile from its capitalist leanings back into a 'fair' (even more dread word!) society. It need only be said of Ms. Bachelet that decades ago, back in the post-Allende days she was booted out of the country and sent to Australia, a fate worse than death, you might think, er, unless you're Australian, of course! Anyway, Comrade Bachelet appeared not to care for Australian mores and instead opted for political asylum in . . . wait for it! . . . East Germany!
According to 'Dalrymple', this lady is definitely for turning, that is, turning Chile into a 'fair' and 'equal' society because she has, so she implies, the will of the people behind her. Well, I suppose, 62.16% against 37.83% is a rather impressive win but it is only when you consider the total vote that the 'red gold' peels off because:
58.21% of the eligible electorate did not vote, which means that she
received only 26% of the electorate’s votes. To believe that this represents
unity or unanimity, a mandate for “fundamental change,” is to repeat the error
of Salvador Allende, who believed the same in 1970 after receiving only 36.2% of
all votes cast.
Somehow, 'Don't cry for me, Chile' fails to scan in quite the way that famous song did for Argentina.
