Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

Or should I say, the General is celebrating his first day in hell today. May it be eternal and provide for the justice not found while you were alive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6167237.stm

[Hector_Lector]

Hurrah!

[sickbag]

What a shame.

This amused me from that BBC article: 'He went on to become one of South America's best-known military rulers of the 1970s and 80s.' Almost reads as if it's something to be proud of.

[Justin Trullinger]

Hard to know what to say. It would be crass to celebrate an old man's death, and insensitive to his family, many of whom may have done nothing wrong.

And yet, how many deaths did he celebrate, in the years that he stomped upon the democratic will of his country...

Difficult to know what to say.

Justin

[Guy Courchesne]

[MELEE]

Like Justin, I'm not sure what to say, but not because of an old man dying or his family or anything like that.
There are so many thoughts running through my heart and mind.
Way too many things actually, ranging from
GOOD RIDDENCE
To What a Shame, that he didn't get what was coming to him on this earth, that is.
Why did this happen now? what to make of it? unfinished business? What's next for Chile and my Chilean friends?

I believe that we will find out if there is life after death when we die, and not before, so I don't know if he is in "hell" or not. But I do know that Chile, at least the Chile I know and I was last there in 1993 so maybe it's changed, is a country in need or reconciliation. A country that needs closure and needs to come to terms with the past, it does not need the past to be simply swept under the rug as so many people seemed to want to do.
I was a student there in 1993. The focus of my studies was how were Chileans moving on. It was the end of the transitional president's term, and I observed the first regular post-Pinchet election and I talked to many many people about their lives in the 70s and 80s. I was extrodinarily lucky to get to meet people from all political spectra, from people who bare the phsyical and emotional scares of torture and loss of loved ones, to people who think the left "made up all that stuff" about disappeared people and think Pinochet saved Chile from the Commies. I talked to very old people and students as young as 17 ( born under the dictatorship). I made a good friend, who was my age, and had just returned to Chile with his mother, they had escaped to Canada after his father disappeared in 1973 when he was 18 months old. We explored the country together, only it was his and he was meeting it for the first time. I was from a country that played an important part in why he had grown up in exile. It was an amazing educational experience that changed me forever. It was actually a little too much for 20-year-old-me and my mother would probably say myself am scared by it.
I would love to hear from people on the ground in Chile. What are you observing now, what are people saying, anything. I never imagined that 13 years would have passed without me returning to that enchanting place, but I guess I'm easily enchanted and in the end I gave my heart to Oaxaca. But I do long to return to Chile some day, if only for a short visit.

[pirateinpanama]

Regards to Hitler, Stalin, Capone, and all the other human trash sent straight through the gates of hell !

[Justin Trullinger]

And save a (very hot) seat for your old buddy, Kissinger.

[Aramas]

At least they'll have a fair selection of heads-of-state, CEO's, missionaries, clergy, saints and popes for company. I wonder if they'll be touting an after-afterlife-life?

I'm sure Reagan has been keeping a spot warm for him - and Maggie