My feelings about Chilean society summed up in this dismal town

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My feelings which have been growing day by day since I arrived, could be summed up by this dismal town. My feelings and my perception of Chilean society, not altogether backed up by facts, is sprayed in the graffiti of every wall of every street here, haunting the delapidated buildings and conveyed by the isolation of the Cerros. In Chile there seems to be very little focus on society and community, people seem distrustful of their neighbours like described in the days of Pinochet, trusting the local policemen on every street rather than trusting their neighbours, there are still buildings where only the rich can go and the poor can’t, and money is all important here, if you have a lot of money you can go to university, if you don’t there seem to be no provisions. If you are from a wealthy family your remains get a better place in the graveyard, if your family can’t pay off the loan for the space, the authorities go through your remains and put them into a smaller grave with somebody elses remains. The constitution written by Pinochet still stands today, and hasn’t yet been changed, illiteracy rates are very high because books here are scarce after all of them were burnt during the dictatorship and the divide between politics is still apparently 50/50 – 50% Pinochet supporters and 50 %Allende supporters. Politics doesn’t seem to be talked about much in Chile and there are very few protests. To me, people don’t seem to care enough about equality to fight for it, and every Chilean I’ve met is very keen to point out Chile's excellent economy, its excellent employment rates and lower levels of corruption than in other South American countries. But whilst I can believe this, I ask myself how can any of this be more important than equality? And if gaps in equality are still so big, how can a nation not be working towards better equality in 2015??

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