Chilean bloggers have summed up the good and bad of 2006.
El observatorio politico [ES] described six of the main general issues that are still not going the right way: corruption in the leftist party, the failure in the fight against delinquency, a deep crisis in our education system, low economic growth even with the best conditions, a slow justice system, and the deterioration of the institutions regulating Codelco Copper.
The “deep crisis” refers to the student protests held in Santiago last May and June and organized using online tools.
Regarding the lifestyle of Chileans, Manuel Rodriguez (ES) wrote of the “other summary of the 2006” in which he explains that one of every four working class Chileans are “suffering” because they got into debt.
La angustia que provoca una deuda pendiente es relevante si se toma en cuenta que el 80% de los trabajadores realizan compras a crédito y, según la Superintendencia de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras (SBIF), cada chileno debe en promedio 7,5 meses de sueldo sólo en créditos de consumo.”
Senator Fernando Flores linked to a BBC article looking back at the strong economic growth of all of Latin America and the Caribbean. Tech blog FayerWayer looked to Google for the most-searched-for keywords of 2006, concluding that it truly was a year of social networking and online collaboration. And for those of you looking for a more personal farewell to 2006, Marcelo Aliaga has put together a useful collection of links to summaries, audits, and predictions from fellow Chilean bloggers.
