Friday, March 26, 2010

Earthquake and Tsunami in Chile: The Militarization of Natural Disasters

from Americas Program Report. I got a warning from Norton about this site being unsafe. Well, it is not true. But, if you are still worried about a message like this, you may also access this article here
At times of catastrophe, government institutions, public services, and private enterprise often fail. It seems as if there's a general collapse, to a great extent because the spread of the market economy has eaten away at the fabric of social ties. Relationships of trust and proximity—the relationships in small neighborhood shops where workers took food and paid for it at the end of the month—fell apart when big supermarket chains moved in. Communal spaces, plazas, taverns, and neighborhood festivals have been lost to urban speculation and the privatization of everyday life.