Amy And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Smog

It refuses to rain in Chile. It has rained 0.0001mm this year in Santiago (seriously). There is a very serious drought north of Santiago in the area of La Serena, and Santiago is not doing much better.

Maybe some of you have thought about visiting Chile. Maybe you talked to a tour operator or travel agent or Google (obviously) about it, and maybe you saw photos of Santiago looking something incredible like this:

So beautiful, so clean, so unrealistic.

Well folks, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but expectations are never quite reality:

That’s more like it.

The above photo was taken this week. Santiago does have a beautiful backdrop…100 years ago before OVERPOPULATION AND TONS OF URBANIZATION TOOK OVER. So, your nice and beautiful ‘expectation’ photo was either taken 100 years ago or immediately after it rained and cleared the smog…probably the latter (even though it seems like they started building the Costanera Tower 1,000 years ago).

On Tuesday, the government declared a smog emergency for the first time since 1999. “You’re breathing dirt into your lungs, please don’t exercise outside” kind of emergency.

Even as I type, two of my coworkers are talking to each other (there seems to be an extended lunch break I’m unaware of on Fridays) about whose fault it is: El Niño or us humans. They’re like, 50/50 and I’m thinking, no losers, 5/95 is probably more accurate. Don’t blame the weather for overpopulation and poor choice of location for the largest city in Chile.  If you shrunk Santiago down, it would look like a Lego city trapped in a cereal bowl. The rain only clears out the crap temporarily, and then smog returns like an unwanted veneral disease within 8 hours and we’re back to where we started.

This week as one of my boredom projects at work, I went to the hardware store and bought an extra trash bin to dispose of recyclable products. After a few days, I honestly don’t think the general Chilean population really understands what is a “recyclable product,” because this is what I have found in the regular trash bin: empty bottles, milk cartons, paper plates and glass jars. This is what I have found my recycling trash bin: coffee grounds. Organic, yes. Recyclable, gross no. I guess my email should have been a little more specific. Andrés also informs me that Chileans don’t get recycling, it’s a new concept for them. After the coffee ground incident (twice), I’ll agree.

Smog is always worse in winter here (June-August). There is more factory activity, less vacations being taken, more cars being driven, and in this month’s case, a crap-ton of barbeques when there are soccer games for Copa America. I am assuming that this will be our last winter in Santiago for the time being, so we’ll just hold our breaths until September. Totally doable.

Sorry Sampaoli, But You Don’t Deserve Any Wins

Last night, one of Chile’s best players was in a car wreck on his way back to the team’s headquarters. He was fine and no one died, thank goodness. However, it was quickly confirmed that he was inebriated, and he was coming from a casino with his wife as his nice little “activity” for his afternoon off from team activities during the Copa America.

This is not the first time that a Chilean football player has had issues with drinking and driving. A few years ago, goalie Johnny Herrera hit and killed a pedestrian while he was driving under the influence. Is he in jail? Nope. He’s sitting on the bench representing the Chilean National Team as their substitute goalie, and was only required to pay the family a settlement of about $30,000. I have major issues with this. Why is a 3^rd degree murderer representing the country? Why was he let go with no jail time? Why, after it all happened, was he found driving drunk for a second time, and then later brought up to play with the National Team? It’s disgusting.

So now to not too much of my surprise, teary-eyed Arturo Vidal appeared in a press conference alongside Head Coach Jorge Sampaoli, apologized profusely and according to Sampaoli, is OK to play. His coach says he is a player “that has given us everything.” “What we need to do is include him.” So that makes everything alright, let’s just move on, nothing to see here. We have the Copa America to win, a mere drunk driving accident is just another day in the life of a multi-million dollar football player. You have money, you have talent, you have immunity.

Press conference Vidal had a much different attitude than drunk-driver Vidal. Red in the face, he said, “I am sorry, I have failed everyone.” And to think, less than 24 hours ago, Vidal was recorded saying to the arresting officer, “fine, cuff me, but you’re gonna f**k over all of Chile.” And, just a short period of time after that, he recorded a video posted to Twitter saying, “I’m fine, my family is fine, it was not my fault. Thanks for your thoughts.”

I’m all about forgiveness. I follow Christ. However, I think he (and Herrera) do not deserve the merit of representing their country. They have not proven it.

Still, I can read between the lines.

Sampaoli: we will let him play = winning games = job security = money.

Vidal: I am sorry = don’t take away my paycheck = money.

How embarrassing. If this is what the Chilean National Team is about, which after today, I think it is…sorry, but your organization does not deserve to raise the Copa America. What a complete shame for Chile.