I wish to send all my respect and admiration to Chile , to its people and to its recent governments.
I think it merits some thought , they embraced fully the free market philosophy, and since then they have gone up in their standards of living and their economic wealth.
Facing this tremendous calamity they are able to stand in their own feet, they have resources, and they have the power to come back . They should be proud of themselves. Of course they need some international help but most of the resources are their own.
For the last decades they haave not gone for a take over of the country by the government while the opposite has been done by its neighborgh Argentina and we all know where Argentina stands now , to put it in a mild way they are in an all time low. Argentina a country that has much more potential than Chile regarding its natural resources has plunged.The Government is all over the place in Argentina. Regulates and rules, intrudes and favors all kind of entitlements.
Look at Venezuela with all its enormous oil wealth, look at any other country that lets its national debt grow without control and Chile 's achievements will stand even taller.
My hat goes to Chile, I pray for their prompt recovery trusting that they will emerge even better. T

Well said, Graziella!

This is so true. Chile has met this tragedy heroically. We visited Santiago for the first time in January and loved what we saw of this beautiful city. I e-mailed our hotel yesterday as we were concerned about the staff, who treated us so well during our stay. Thankfully they are all safe and the hotel received no damage. We live in earthquake country so perhaps are even more sympathetic to the people of Chile. We wish them a rapid return to normalcy.

I´m in Punta Arenas now. Here there was not any earthquake except the the people movement to help their brothers from the Center of Chile.

Totally agree with Graziella5b!!!

Salute to the Chilean!

I agree too. I was also there in January and was treated so well, and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. My heart went out to them when I learned of the earthquake.