Regardless of the socio-economic progression Chile has experienced in the last fifteen years, this blow comes at a difficult time for the country. Most of the economy depends on foreign trade in the global market, mainly exporting copper and agricultural products, and damage to the country’s infrastructure is sure to hamper output in the near term. Indeed, the will of the Chilean people is once again being tested by this event, as it has been before, through strife both natural and manmade. But as Fredrich Nietzsche once wrote, “I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures — and knows how to turn to its advantage.” Chileans know much of this.
     Oxfam America, an international relief organization we recommended for their efforts in Haiti, has already dispatched teams to Chile to help the people there. If you’d like to find out more about that effort and donate directly to the Chilean effort, you can do so here.