Kyle Hepp

September 17, 2008

“Disaster is inevitable, the sky is falling and our whole world is going to crumble!!!”

Ok, so the newscasters don’t say those exact words. But, each year I’m reminded that the 18th of September (celebrated as if it were the 4th of July, although it’s not actually Chile’s independence day) is around the corner by Reportajes Especiales or Special Reports on local TV forecasting doom and gloom based off of the rising price of the empanada.

Literally, every year since I have been here (3 years), around this time of year, nightly on the news there will be at least one program dedicated to talking about inflation and how much the asado (obligatory celebration barbeque for this holiday) is going to cost compared to last year.

Inflation totally sucks, and I know it can be a sign of disaster for some economies. Alarmist newscasts, year after year, continue to make it sound like next year empanadas will probably cost a million dollars each and the Chilean economy will crumble. But, it never happens.

Like always, the Chilean people continue on their merry little way, buying their meaty delights, asado’ing to their hearts content and consuming pisco like no other time of year. To give you an example of just how much people actually drink, on September 18th last year as I was walking home to my house in Estacion Central, I saw at least 5 people passed out cold in a drunken stupor on my way home. And I lived 2 blocks from the metro. One guy’s legs were actually up on the curb and into the sidewalk (because there is none of that grassy space in poor people’s neighborhoods) while the other half of his body was in the street.

Moral of the story: Dieciocho is craaaaaaaazy. And the way Chileans don’t let empanada inflation get them down reminds me of the way U.S.A’ians consume, consume, consume as the economy goes down the tubes. They just know that shopping is the patriotic thing to do.

That being said I’m off for a mini vacation at the beach. I won’t be online for the next couple of days and I can’t wait!!!!!!!

So for those of you who are in Chile, drink, be merry, don’t drink and drive or I’ll hate you forever, and have fun! And for those of you who aren’t in Chile…have a great Thursday.